Rage

[anotherusedpage]

Ohgod I have out of proportion RAGE at the reactions to queer Shakespeare criticism I was reading this afternoon....



'Since Martius and Commius are characters in a play, not people with a real life beyond the stagem ut makes more sense to enquire what these [queer] metaphors have to do with war, military values and social conflict than to ask how these men spend their hypothetical private moments'.

Now, although as far as I'm concerned anyone who doesn't want to speculate about what the two pretty angsty men are doing together off stage is just plain wierd, the statement in itself might initially seem perfectly reasonable, no?

Except he then goes on to spend the NEXT THREE PAGES going NOT GAY NOT GAY LALALA I CAN PROVE THEY'RE NOT GAY SO NOT GAY BECAUSE IT'S REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT THAT THEY'RE NOT GAY! AND WHAT'S MORE NEITHER ARE LAUNCELOT NOR GAWAINE. NO ONE IN LITERATURE IS GAY! OF COURSE NOT! NOT GAY! LALALALA!

And then totally failing to go on and address the issues of 'war, military values and social conflict' that I bloody well do in my queer reading thankyou very much.

AND it's a totally circular argument. It goes. 'Launcelot? NOT GAY! NOT GAY! Just ignore the fact that he kisses men more often than he kisses women. That's just normal in romance literature and NOT AT ALL GAY! And Martius, right? Martius is based on Launcelot and other characters from chivelrous romances who are NOT GAY and therefore Martius is NOT GAY too.'

For someone who doesn't care what theses guys do in my head their hypothetical private time, methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.

And now I'm all irritated.

Comments

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

But I didn't say only, nor that there can never be anything more...

[vampire-kitten.livejournal.com]

Neither did Jessie say that every close male friendship has to be gay. Just that it was upsetting her that critic was refusing to consider the possibly of it, with no better a counterargument that "NENENENEN I'M NOT LISTENING", and had no other point to make but this.

I would point out that what you said wasn't particularly helpful, or relevent given what she was upset about.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

And I'd point out that there's no point having a go at me when I was just wondering out loud about something. Who'd you think I am, neonchameleon? I'm not just saying things with the sole purpose of pissing people off, I'd be quite interested in what anotherusedpage has to say about Homosocial bonds, actually.
I was not defending her critic, so there's no call to have a go at me, and I never said that Jessie said that every close male friendship has to be gay, k?

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

Please excuse vampire_kitten leaping to my defence. It's just that she knows that I've been really easy to set off recently. She didn't mean to accuse you of anything, your comment didn't bug me, and even if it had it would have been me being jumpy and not up to being disagreed with at the moment, not you. :)