Armistead Maupin’s acclaimed serial-turned-novel-cycle Tales of the City is an acknowledged classic of LGBTQ literature; a saga that brilliantly melds social comedy and good old-fashioned melodrama against the colorful, chaotic backdrop of 1970s San Francisco.
But, according to the author, he has one major regret — namely, none of the characters were people of color; a decision he calls a “mistake” in a new documentary, The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin.
During a Q&A after the doc’s premiere on Friday at the Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival, Maupin acknowledged he’s “guilty” of whitewashing in response to a self-identified “black queer” in the audience, who noted the “distinct lack of representation” in the series:
“I was scared as a writer that I would look uncool if I tried to represent people who were not of my race and didn’t do it well. That’s just stupid. I took on lesbians, and I didn’t think I knew anything about them. As I said in the [documentary], it’s about the human heart, so that was a mistake on my part.”
Maupin mentions his conservative upbringing in North Carolina and having a father who regularly used the n word and descended from a Confederate general who supported slaveowner rights.
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Before coming out at 25, he also worked for antigay Senator Jesse Helms, served in the Vietnam War, and shook hands with President Nixon, according to The Advocate.
Since its debut as a serial column in the Pacific Sun and the San Francisco Chronicle, Tales of the City has been adapted into a series of excellent novels by the author, and later a miniseries on PBS, followed by sequels that aired on Showtime. The show has also been adapted into a musical, with a book written by Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears.
An upcoming 10-part Netflix revival is currently in the works, bringing back original stars Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis.
Asked if future stories will “encompass the totality of the queer community,” Maupin says yes:
“We are really remedying that in the new Tales of the City, the new [Netflix] television series. If I’m given credit for educating the rest of the world, I’ve also been educating myself in this whole process. But yeah, I agree with you, and we’re gonna do something about it.
Thank you for sharing that, because I know how I felt, just as a queer person, not seeing myself represented in culture. So I get it.”
You can watch the conversation below. (It starts at the 33:00 mark.)
MacAdvisor
I can remember sitting on the stoop of my apartment on 18th Street in San Francisco with my roommate Michael Martin waiting for The Chronicle to be delivered so we could read the next installment. Love the series.
Juanjo
Understood. I also remember looking forward in anticipation to the next installment not to mention the long discussions between my co-workers over who the various thinly disquised charecters were who cropped up in the episodes. I won a bet on the Rock Hudson one although it tood years before I could collect.
BigJune
Hi – I am England & I got the books when I was about 23 – they changed my life.
To have that feeling of waiting on the next installment while living in San Francisco & at the time has brought a tear to my eye.
I am 50 now, I have Tweeted about how much I loved the Tales & have been blessed to have had a reply from Armistead, I once went to a book signing in Manchester, England & had the pleasure to speak with both him & Terry, his partner at the time.
To read your words has connected me to my ‘village’ my people – I grew up in a homophobic family, town & basically everything – these books allowed me to breathe.
Hope you do not mind my comment, but I feel like I am sort of talking to a neighbour. I imagines coming out & moving to London, England – would be brilliant, I would be accepted by my gay brothers & sisters & questions of ‘how was it for you?’ would be something I had to get used to.
BS!!!!!
Thank you for the connection, thank you for your comment which has put a smile on my face.
Best wishes to you, your friends & those who are important who surround you.
David.
jpcflyer
This is a terrific doc and there should be fun extras on the DVD version.
(The Advocate video above had no sound…)
He BGB
I read the first book around 1980 and loved it. What a page turner! I can’t imagine waiting for the newspaper! I worked at PBS when it was shown and some stations (including my home town) refused to air it. I have enjoyed Laura Linney ever since. I have that book autographed by Maupin. He and his boyfriend came to San Mateo for a book signing and I was the only one who showed up! And I felt bad because I didn’t buy the new book but handed him my old paperback from the 80s.
mujerado
I really don’t think he’s feeling “PC guilt.” He’s known for his integrity. I take him at his word when he says he thought of it but was afraid of doing a poor job portraying someone not of his own race.
mujerado
Sorry, I meant that response for the next post down, as an answer to Wolfie. If there were an option to delete I would have moved it down, but there’s not.
He BGB
As far as character of color, I thought there was a character of color but that might have been later. Was D’orthea, black? It has been so long ago I read these books.
Wolfie
D’orothea Wilson is a successful model who came back to San Francisco to renew her love affair with Mona. She pretended she was black.
Honestly when the series was written i doubt Maupin ever really thought about a black mainstream character. It was the late 70’s hes feeling the PC guilt of today and projecting it on the past.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
D’or was trans racial before Rachel Dolezal — TOTC was ahead of the curve!
Charlie in Charge
I feel like I remember reading way back when or seeing in the PBS documentary that came out in the 90s that a fan told Maupin that D’orothea was not written well as a black woman and he made the change to her character… but if that had been true I think it might have come up in this discussion and it clearly didn’t.
Chris
“Write what you know about” is the most common advice given to aspiring writers. And let’s face it: most white gay men knew very little about black or Latino men back when Tales of the City was being written. When the TV show series was being created, the Tales could/should have become more inclusive of actors in the same way that Romeo and Juliet with DeCaprio included a black Mercutio or that another of Shakespeare’s play included Denzel Washington. Now that Netflix has been brought in for another run of Tales, I hope that they are updated (even if it means bringing in new writers) to include authentic stories of queer men across the spectrum of color and identity. That is how we evolve. But the bottom line remains, as Chimamanda Adichie points to in her own Ted Talk: Write what you know about.
Kangol
Maybe you don’t know much about people of other races and ethnicities, but Maupin grew up in the South, and lived in very diverse San Francisco. Yes, San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s was quite racially and ethnically diverse, and there were Black, Latinx, and Asian American men and women there, as well as mixed-race people. Also, what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie emphasizes in her highly acclaimed TED Talk is for people, especially writers and critics, to resist the “single story,” which happens far too often in these comments and this society.
barkomatic
While it would have been best if he had included some people of color in the original series, I think it’s unfair to judge the books and show which were made in the past with the social perspective of today. It sounds like he intends to include people of color in the future production so that should settle the issue.
Kangol
He was writing in the wake of gay liberation, the Civil Rights movement, women’s lib, etc. I mean, that was a more socially progressive time, especially among LGBT people, and especially in San Francisco!
FnameLname
This particular story was about people who were the color they were. The author would not be producing genuine material if he had to stop and consider who he must include to ensure “representation” in his piece of work. That is not authentic and those type of restrictions should never be imposed on an artist. If you feel moved and care to create art that includes a representation of society than create and empower your vision but don’t ask for art that has to include you…for that is not art. It’s getting to the point where Michaelangelo’s David is going to be critiqued for being so white washed.
Charlie in Charge
Maupin clearly does not feel as you do.
Prax07
If the books had included storylines about black or hispanic characters I probably wouldn’t have loved the books so much. Not everything, books, movies, tv, music, has to be all inclusive and multi-colored. Things today are too diversified just for the sake of being diversified. New book, well you better put in a black and a hispanic or it’s whitewashing whatever. New tv show? Better add a token black person or they’re gonna be up in arms about it. Want to make a new Superman movie? Better turn a character black so there’s diversity. All PC bullshit. God forbid you turn a minority character white though, there would be rioting in the streets.
Kangol
So the very presence of non-white people would have diminished your interest? You’re outright admitting you’re a racist? I mean, really? And please cut it with the “they.” You know, white supremacy may be your thing, but it’s not cute. Not at all!
Herman75
He was very honest in his answer, which is refreshing these days. Where he came from, his father, his North Carolina roots, etc. He didn’t know a lot about people of color. But yes, he admits that now he certainly would add more lesbians and people of color.
Side note, despite the success of his books, they did not make him a lot of money. So be sure to buy his books. He mentioned one is coming out in the Fall.
Kangol
I’m glad he recognized that like so many other white writers, he basically erased whole sections of US society, including people who would have been part of the world he was depicting. He wasn’t writing about rural Vermont or an tony all-white suburb in Minnesota in 1950, he was writing about a racially, ethnically and cultural diverse, increasingly queer metropolis, at a time when tremendous social upheaval and progress had begun to change the US. That said, the Tales of the City books are quite entertaining, as was the earlier series, and I look forward to watching the updated version.
Prax07
@kangol Yup, I freely and openly admit to my racism. I have zero interest in reading/watching/hearing about minorities of color. If he’d had various races featured I’d have skipped over those pages or chapters. Just because I’m gay doesn’t automatically overwrite all the bad experiences or negative perceptions (I see the many negatives daily in person) of these particular minorities. So yeah, cute or not don’t really give two shits.
DCguy
Wow, so NOM, although almost bankrupt is still sending the occasional troll in here to vomit out racist crap as a wedge issue. You weren’t even subtle about it. Sheesh, they need to get better staff.
Prax07
@dcguy lol why should I be subtle about it? I don’t hide my disdain irl, why hide it behind subtly here?
bols59
The last book was published what? 3 years ago? He wouldn’t be drumming up residual bizness for dea series, now would he? Enough has been written about the subject. But my bet is the series will continue. How can Maupin silence all dem characterz? I mean, Shauna’s gonna have da baby, Anna Madrigal’s gonna start appearing in visions to everybody, like “It” only a lot more fun…