- Culture
- 13 Apr 17
Though unknown in his homeland, Irish writer Ian Gibson is celebrated in his adopted Spain, particularly for his books about the poet Lorca – widely known for being Leonard Cohen’s chief literary inspiration – and Salvador Dali.
In a fascinating interview, Gibson discusses falling foul of the Franco regime, Dali’s wild hedonistic excesses, his role in getting corporal punishment banned in the UK, his interest in sadomasochism, Irish attitudes to sex – and why he both loves and despairs of Spain.
Noting his under-acknowledged role in ending corporal punishment with his bookThe English vice: beating, sex, and shame in Victorian England and after, Gibson says: "When I published it in 1978, the British were still beating away merrily. Soon afterwards there was a parliamentary debate and the practice was abolished, under pressure from Europe. And even when they abolished it, there was not a single person to my knowledge – even in the House of Commons – who acknowledged that my book played a role in the abolition, although I know that it did. Nobody had the courage to stand up and say, “One of the reasons we’re abolishing it is because beatings are a sexual turn-on, or can be.”
Under Fascist Dictator General Franco rule, Gibson's erotically liberating book The nationalistic repression of Granada in 1936 and the death of Federico García Lorca was banned. His response was to speculate about the General's own repressed sexuality, saying: "I don’t know that much about [the General] and his orgasms, or lack of them! What I do know is that he was the greatest assassin ever produced by Spain, and there must have been some very deep reason for that. Resentment, perhaps."
On his own sexuality, Ian notes: "I never had the slightest homosexual inclination. Sadomasochistic, yes. So, that was always something that excited me as a child, when I was seven or so: I was fascinated reading Knock-Out comics with those beatings and canings. I had no language to describe it. I didn’t even know what a turn-on was, nor what sex was. All I knew was that already at the age of seven those stories fascinated me."
On his relationship with Salvador Dali, Gibson claims: “Dali organised parties in his house in Cadaqués and used to sit masturbating in a corner while watching people screwing. He never took part. I don’t think he had much sex with anybody. He was terrified of physical contact.”
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And on growing practising safe sex before condoms were made legal in Ireland: "I was an expert at coitus interruptus!"
Read the full fascinating interview with Ian Gibson in the latest issue of Hot Press, out now.
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