"artless, charmed happiness:" Brokeback Mountain

“What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.

…. Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity and, standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced until Ennis, dredging up a rusty but still useable phrase from the childhood time before his mother died, said “Time to hit the hay, cowboy. I got a go. Come on, you’re sleepin on your feet like a horse,” and gave Jack a shake, a push, and went off in the darkness. Jack heard his spurs tremble as he mounted, the words “see you tomorrow,” and the horse’s shuddering snort, grind of hoof on stone.

Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that is was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they’d never go much farther than that. Let be, let be. “(Proulx 278-279)

In Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, this passage portrays the last time lovers Jack and Ennis meet before Jack’s tragic death. It’s a really poignant and beautiful scene within the story, and ties a lot of things together. Jack longs for what once was, during his and Ennis’ summer up on Brokeback Mountain. This moment in time is put up against his present, which, even though it is irrevocably different, and Ennis can’t look him in the face as they embrace because he can’t accept his own sexuality, is similar in some ways, even if they are superficial. Jack views it “as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.” Despite how they’ve aged and grown apart, this is a happy moment for them, and one of the few that they’ve had since their summer on Brokeback Mountain. And he accepts that Ennis may not be able to do more than embrace him from behind, because that is all that he needs. That is how much he cares for Ennis, and I think that this is just a really beautiful passage for all of its simplicity.

"Adult Things:" Butler's Bloodchild

"This was going too fast. My sister Hoa had had almost as much to do with raising me as my mother. I was still too close to her-not like Qui. She could want T'Gatoi and still love me.

"Wait! Gatoi!"

She looked back, then raised nearly half her length off the floor and turned to face me. "These are adult things, Gan. This is my life, my family!"

"But she's...my sister."" (Butler 25)

 there are a lot of themes being explored in Octavia Butler's Bloodchild, including but not limited to gender roles, racism and imperialism. Gan, as a human  under Tlic authority, is given very little autonomy, and is often treated like a child by T'Gatoi. Despite being much younger than her, it is evident that Gan is coming of age, and these issues matter just as much to him as they do to her, if not moreso. T'Gatoi exclaims "These are adult things, Gan. This is my life, my family!" when really, these things are at stake for Gan. His life is threatened by the Tlic growing inside him, and his family is incredibly tangled up in the situation. Still, T'Gatoi insists on treating him like child, despite the very mature situation which they have entered.

 For me, this relationship has a lot of parallels to a marriage as concieved pre-feminism, with the gender roles reversed. Gan views T'Gatoi as something of a betrothed or husband-his attachment is evident from not wanting to let her go to his sister. This "husband", as many people and the law treated women in a time before they had legal rights, treats him like a child. His opinion has little weight within the marriage, and even less outside of it. He fears the consequences of this childbirth, as many women did before the advent of modern medicine, because it can lead to his death. Still, he pressed into it by the dominant figures need to produce heirs. Butler's analysis of these themes is veiled, but shrewd.

"Deflate:" Blorts, by Andrew Holleran

“Eventually Joshua stopped going to the baths; and we settled into a comfortable, even happy, routine, broken only by his trips to other cities-as if he could find there what he could not in New York. Only San Francisco merited more than one journey; but even there he went straight to a gym from the airport, as if he was afraid he would deflate while flying cross-country. In fact, that was the word he used once while lying on his futon, with one pump dangling from his foot, and the cat raised high in the air above his chest: “I’m looking for someone I can deflate with,” he said. But no such person materialized.” (Holleran 148)

In Blorts, by Andrew Holleran, when the character Joshua says that he is looking for someone who he can deflate with, I think that he means someone who he doesn’t have to impress- someone who will love him even he doesn’t go to the gym or keep up with the gay community and all of its intricacies. And for him, I think that this person is Red, the story’s narrator. It’s implied at the end of the story that Joshua is romantically interested in him, and we see time and again that though the narrator seems drawn to Joshua, he doesn’t really care how in shape he is, or about the gossip Joshua brings home from the gym. Joshua can be at ease around Red,  be himself, and vice versa. The two can “deflate” around each other, and have over the course of a decade. They have even settled into a domestic lifestyle, much like a married couple, complete with a cat to take care of.  They are each other’s partners, despite how long it takes Red, and perhaps Joshua, too, to realize it.

Mirror: Perpetuation of American Cultural Norms in Gay Subculture in Lorde's Zami

“There was constant competition among butches to have the most “gorgeous femme” on their arm. And “gorgeous” was defined by a white male world’s standards.

For me, going into the Bag alone was like entering an anomalous no-woman’s land. I wasn't cute or passive enough to be “femme,” and I wasn't mean or tough enough to be “butch.” I was given a wide berth. Non-conventional people can be dangerous, even in the gay community.” (Lorde 224)

This passage is very interesting to me because it highlights the ways in which the gay culture of 1950’s New York City mirrors that of the rest of contemporary society. However different lesbians may have been from mainstream straight society, and however much they may have identified themselves as “outcasts,” they had outcasts of their own that did not fit their particular mold. In a later passage, Lorde goes into more detail about this within groups of unconventional thinkers at large that existed during this time, writing “the bars and the coffee-shops and the streets of the Village in the 1950s were full of non-conformists who were deathly afraid of going against their hard-won group” (Lorde 226). In a time when mainstream American society shunned all that was different from itself, “non-conventional people [could] be dangerous, even in the gay community” (Lorde 224).

Here, we even see this subculture operating by the same standards of beauty as mainstream American culture, and this “femme” ideal being treated as more submissive than the masculine “butch”, further perpetuating the gender roles and sexism of this society with its condemnation of femininity.

"life on other stars:" Gennie's death in Zami

“I did not know why. Only that for my beloved Gennie, pain had become enough of a reason not to stay. And our friendship had not been able to alter that. I remembered Gennie’s favorite lines in one of my poems. I had found them doodled and scrawled along the margins of page after page of the notebooks which she had entrusted to my care in the movies that Friday afternoon.

and in the brief moment that is today

wild hope this dreamer jars

for I have heard in whispers talk

of life on other stars

 None of us had given her a good enough reason to stay here, not even me. I could not escape that. (Lorde 100)

Audre’s experience here is an incredibly interesting one to explore. Gennie seems to be the person whom she cares the most about out of anyone in this narrative so far, and her loss affects Audre deeply. There are many suggestions of a romantic attachment on Audre’s part (her “beloved Gennie”), which only seems to sharpen the pain. Here, we see that death is not about the dying. Even though Gennie is acting on her own part and it is she who is passing on, it is the people who she leaves behind who experience her death and are affected by it because their lives have to go on without her. Audre is left wondering why she wasn’t enough of a reason for her best friend to keep on living and this has a huge impact on her. Gennie’s death is a part of why she later leaves home.

Her poem also says a lot about Gennie. Gennie, like Audre, was a “dreamer,” and both of them dreamed of “life on other stars.” Both girls wanted an escape from their home lives, and Audre was reasonably satisfied with her jaunts with Gennie. But Gennie sought an escape that was far more permanent. In a way, it makes sense that these were her favorite lines by Audre.

In the Dark in Hwang's M. Butterfly

“Marc: Before you know it, every last one of them- they’re stripped and splashing in the pool. There’s no moon out, they can’t see what’s going on, their boobs are flapping, right? You close your eyes, reach out- it’s grab bag, get it? Doesn’t matter whose ass is between whose legs, whose teeth are sinking into who. You’re just in there, going at it, eyes closed, on and on for as long as you can stand. (Pause) Some fun, huh?”(Hwang 8)

I see this scene in David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly as very telling, a foreshadowing of things to come, and also indicative of the attitudes of the male characters toward women. The darkness and anonymity of the sexual encounters described here by Gallimard’s friend Marc mirrors that of the later encounters between Gallimard and Song. There is a lack of knowledge of one’s partner described here that Gallimard will mirror later in the play. His exposure to this concept now also makes him more accustomed to it later on, and less likely to question similar encounters with Song. This passage, as mentioned before, also is exemplary of the characters’ attitude toward women.

Here, as in much of the play, a very objectifying view of women is shown by Marc. This view is often echoed by Gallimard. Women are often seen as something that men can have, as little more than objects. To Gallimard, a woman is important, but for the wrong reasons- she is seen as a mark of manhood, of status. She is also valued for beauty and little else. This could be seen as a result of Gallimard’s background- it is evident that his peers shared this view, and from cultural exposure to things like Madame Butterfly, and his interpretation of them, he gleaned what he thought were the qualities of the ideal woman. This can be seen time and again throughout the play, and in this passage in particular.

"Home" in James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room

‘She looked at me steadily for awhile and then she said, “David. Don’t you think we ought to go home?”

“Go home? What for?”

“What are we staying here for? How long do you want to sit in this house, eating your heart out? And what do you think it’s doing to me?” She rose and came to me. “Please. I want to go home. I want to get married. I want to start having kids. I want us to live someplace, I want you. Please, David. What are we marking time over here for?”’(Baldwin 160-161)

This passage, which comes toward the end of Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, brings together several very important themes of the novel. One of these is the nuclear family structure, which is so essential to American life, that David seems to feel almost trapped into, as having no choice of whether he wants it or not. Regardless of his sexuality or true feelings on the matter (which are muddled at best), David feels that he will do these things because he has to, almost as a sign of manhood. Still, he is definitely hesitant to do this. Another, even more central theme, explored here is that of home.

Earlier in the novel, Giovanni says “you will go home and then you will find that home is not home anymore. Then you will really be in trouble. As long as you are here, you can always think: One day I will go home….You don’t have a home until you leave it, and then, when you have left it, you can never go back” (Baldwin 116).  This quote applies very heavily to the one above. David may be an American, but he has changed during his time in Europe, and America won’t be the same for him when he returns- it is no longer home for him. David, though confused and in deep denial, was able to be more open about his sexuality in France than he ever could have been in America, and this has changed him. When he goes back to America, if indeed he ever does, it will never be the same, be the home that it once was.