Homosexuality and Fantasy

For some people, seeing those two words together in a title is either oil and water to them or else it raises the expectation of some sort of slash fiction. But probe a little deeper, and one is likely to turn up quite a bit of hesitation, stammering, and possibly even some anger over the implications of such a title. To introduce the very real and problematic issue of homosexuality is for some akin to being violated, of having their idealized world of elves, Quests, and so forth being invaded by a very troubling sociological issue from our everyday lives.

This topic has been wandering about in my mind for some days now. Reading Matt Cheney's excellent article on Brokeback Mountain, followed shortly by glancing over a discussion of the issue over at Frameshift, has only served to make me decide that here and now is a place to post my often incomplete and chaotic thoughts on the issue of homosexuality as it relates to the fantasies that I've read. No doubt, there will be those reading this who will disagree with my comments, either because I do not understand enough about what it means to be gay in a straight world or, conversely, because I may be a bit too sympathetic towards homosexuals. Then again, the very notion of this ambiguity on my part only serves to underscore the difficult nature of this topic, right?

As many others have noted in the past (and I recall a discussion of sorts in the past with Scott Bakker on this), the common understandings of homosexuality seem to be tied up with ideals of masculinity. Whether it deals with super-buff gay men striving for the Adonis ideal or the martial attitudes of an Achilles, there is an undercurrent of hypermasculinity that some people associate with homosexuality. Perhaps this is part of the unease that some feel when trying to grasp the issue of what it is to be gay: How can one be a manly man and love men instead of women?

This is one of the 'Trojan Horse' issues I perceived in reading Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy, especially in the just-released third volume, The Thousandfold Thought. One of the main characters, Cnaiür, is a very conflicted individual. Known as the Breaker of Horses and Men, he has a very violent temperment, so much so that he has come to the cusp of brutal insanity. He doesn't love his women, he fucks them, often brutally and with very little passion involved, save in regards to his first wife and to the captured courtesan, Serwë. But yet the depths of his passions seem to have been reserved for another, a man known as Moënghus by some, Mallahet by others. Throughout the trilogy, Cnaiür repeatedly expresses a murderous desire toward this Moënghus, even as the whisperers among the Scylvendi have labelled him as "faggot" and "weeper." But yet in the end, when Cnaiür does manage to confront Moënghus, he but both kisses him and then kills him before he literally fades into the darkness of the second swazond he marks on his throat. A truly tragic and ambiguous end to a tragic, conflicted character.

In the coming weeks and months, as more and more readers come to read this conclusion to Bakker's trilogy, there likely will be some reactions. Already at Bakker's official forum, the topic has been raised in pejorative terms, even going so far as having the original poster question whether or not the author himself were 'gay.' I suspect there will be many people disappointed to learn that Cnaiür 'was a faggot,' while others might debate whether or not being seduced by a Dûnyain would constitute being raped and dealing with that burden/shame rather than being gay. Still others might argue that the entire understanding of homosexuality/heterosexuality is an outdated concept that does not deal with a whole range of issues of personality/identity that exist outside the realm of sexuality. Regardless, it shall be interesting to see how much of a firestorm Bakker's story will produce, if it will indeed produce any at all, outside of an awkward, painful silence that often accompanies doubt and confusion on such serious matters.

Bakker's trilogy serves only as one very recent example of the intersection of real-world issues of sexual identity and fantasy. There are other authors of course who have treated this topic in depth. Ricardo Pinto's in-progress trilogy, begun with The Chosen, has two gay characters who fall in love with each other, yet the main impetus of the story does not deal with the homosexuality. Ursula Le Guin has written many tales in which characters are bisexual, homosexual, or pansexual in stories meant to explore issues of sexuality and self-identity. Doubtless, there are other authors writing today that are addressing these issues in a straightforward and thought-provoking fashion.

But how will the readers react? Are fantasy fans in general going to be very accepting of homosexual characters and situations that focus on the possible nature(s) of sexuality? Will there be a day in fantasy, similar to what Andrew Sullivan has outlined for real-life America, in which there might be such an acceptance of situations and characters that the division between gay and straight might dissolve? Or will there be more stammering, more hem-hawing about the topic, accompanied by a deafening silence?