catamites and narrators

Alice K. Turner · 17 Sep 2002, 03:35 · from urth-v0209.mbox · original

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From: "Alice K. Turner" <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) catamites and narrators
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 23:35:40 -0400
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From: "Jerry Friedman"
reponding to Blatttid:

> > On the other hand, Severian commits almost every other
> > sexual sin available to him in the circumstances of his
> > travels -- incest, fornication, a kind of adultery,
> > rape ... though not, as near as I can recall, bestiality
> > -- so the lack of homosex actually kind of stands out as
> > a blatant absence, donnit?
>
> Simply because all Severian's sexual acts require the same
> preference--grown women--whereas homosexuality, pedophilia,
> bestiality, latex, etc. require other preferences?  Regardless
> of which ones you consider sinful and which you don't.
>
> Incidentally, if by incest and "a kind of adultery" you mean
> his relationship with Dorcas, I really think those are Not
> His Fault.

I agree. It is certainly an original situation, and one that could only
occur in SF. Both were unaware of it. Wolfe surely meant it to be
provocative: more power--and I think he intended intellectual power to
consider it--to him. It is the sort of thing SF seems to me to be meant to
explore. If "a kind of adultery" refers to Cyriaca, well, I can't get too
exercised about that, either. Nor rape if that refers to Jolenta, good
grief! And fornication--since when do we start bleating about that? Yikes.
Pederasty would be entirely different and entirely more reprehensible than
any of the above as they are presented. Baldanders does seem to be guilty,
but he also commits a lot of crimes and tortures. Which, it seems to me,
would indicate that pederasty is Not Permissible to a Hero, i.e. sinful.

>> Blood and Musk aren't evil because they are homosexual.  Not
>> even in Wolfe.

> No, though it might be argued that they're homosexual because they're
evil.

> While Wolfe may be clearly anti-feminist at times, I don't
> pick up this hostility to the very idea of homosexuality.

Nor I, though it's a genre trope that occasionally crops up. So no, I don't
think a lack of homosex for Sev stands out at all.

-alga

--=20

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