Kevin's Watch

This is a serious qustion and covers a lot of fantacy fiction, Im not gay but gayness in the real world is a part of the fabric of life, yet not in the land or fantacy, unless in a lewd way. im not talking about actual physical acts but love and attraction

Like the homo-erotic tension between Frodo and Sam?

See Im the only gay in the land.

Not a whole lot of gay characters in fiction as a whole before the 80s.

If I were doing a queer theory critical analysis of Covenant, though, I'd spend a lot of time talking about the Findail/Vain relationship.

I gues Mhorham could have been gay...in the same way the Dumbledore was gay in Harry Potter....you know; not actually gay, until the author decided at an interview that he was!!

The Elohim.

The Elohim aren't gay - they're just European.


dw

No gays in the land - Who cares. This is a fantasy story. It doesn't need to mirror real life - Hell, most of us read it because it doesn't.

though a gay character could be a great comedy relief. I could see a gay guy cheekily telling Lord Foul that he loves what he did with his decor in his fortress of doom.

It does give the frase ' fist and faith' a new meaning you would need both i think

What about Amok?

Syl wrote:If I were doing a queer theory critical analysis of Covenant, though, I'd spend a lot of time talking about the Findail/Vain relationship.

Love/hate bonding... fusion..

I'm guessing there could be gay characters in every work of fiction however a character's intimate personal preferences aren't always explored. You don't know every character's favorite color or favorite food or whether they are left handed or not or if they color their hair or if they have irritable bowel syndrome or a third nipple or had a nose job or suffered a broken leg as a kid or many other personal bits and bobs. Which may mean something like sexual preference is frequently unimportant in the context of the story.

That's odd, I could have swore that Hile Troy asked Covenant if he'd ever visited a Turkish prison.....and we all remember how Hile kept asking Covenant for his ring. Not to mention how Cail kept finishing Brinn's sentences; the secret glances between those two.....and, of course, who could forget the aptly named giant, Oakrod Bumthruster? Then there's all those times Birinair asked Lord Mhoram if he could "touch his staff". Also, though it's not well documented, most Lords agree that the sixth ward mainly consisted of Kevin's 8-track tape collection of Wham, Culture Club, Indigo Girls, and Milli Vanilli.

Didn't Baradakas invite Covenant back to his place to spend the night. He couldn't take his eyes off Covenant, and I seem to remember he sat on his bed and polished his rod with a soft cloth.

And what about that time Covenant rode Vain?


Giddyap!!

It depends... were there closets in The Land?

No gays in the Land? You are right. I had noticed that one myself. But really, Oakrod Bumthruster! Heaven forbid! I would rather catch Bannor and Korik in a passionate embrace.

Still, you make a good point that the subject does not occur in any fantasy. Yes, there are fools who claim such a relationship for Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings, but that is no different to those who claim such as the relationship between C-3PO and R2-D2 in Star Wars (yes! some people really do - it was reported in Time magazine, so it must be true).

But, there is precious little sex in the Lord of the Rings of any kind (would you really expect there to be in a book written by an unhappily married prudish old Catholic?). There is an awful lot of sex in Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile (rather too much for a book written by a woman, I would have thought) but it all strictly heterosexual.

George R. R. Martin gives us a leso scene between Queen Cersei and some other woman in the most recent volume of his Song of Ice and Fire.
But female homosexuality is the easy way out, it is male homosexuality that really upsets the punters.

Is there a gay fantasy? One in which the hero is a gay male?

You know what I wonder sometime? If a fantasy that is well-written with a homosexual male protaginist would be really dinstigiushable from other fantasy novels? I mean, how much of a relationship, hetero, homo, bi, or animal, is necesary for a story? Sure, we'd be swipping Ardan for Arwen, but other then that, has anything principally changed?

Is there a gay fantasy? One in which the hero is a gay male?

Mieville's Iron Council, IIRC.