ABSTRACT
This chapter devotes to Ahmed's work as houseboy at the house of a French expatriate named Francois. It exposes the abrupt decay, both physical and emotional, that can turn upside down the life of a homosexual if he or she does not have total control of his/her needs. Both the American Beat writers and their Moroccan counterparts, those they actually met and those they read, share affinities, especially those of life experienced at the margins. The underlying assumption that the chapter tries to emphasize is that previous Moroccan literature did not have the courage to defy the traditional conventions of Arab and Muslim society. This challenge to received standpoints about identity, sexuality, religion, and the role of the individual in contributing to the development of society found inspiration in the presence of the Beats most especially in the early post-independence decades. The upshot was a willingness to confront the themes of drug use, queerdom, alcohol, prostitution, and sexual abuse.
