1. So I have some thoughts on Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Louisa May Alcott, the rise of gay culture in the 20th century, buddy comedies, Kirk/Spock slash fiction, Leslie Fiedler, Freudian homophobia, a few other things.
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7. Fiedler argued that American writers repeatedly told tales of interracial male couples (Hawk-eye/Chingachgook Ishmael/Queequeg, Huck/Jim) who bond over a shared disdain for the constrictions of civilization (as embodied by white women).
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8. Fiedler's essay and his subsequent working out of this idea suffers from a kind of Freudian homophobia. Fiedler thought the homoerotic element of American literature was proof of immaturity -- that a real literature would have stories of mature heterosexual relationships.
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9. But leaving aside Fiedler's normative judgement, the pattern he recognized does exist -- and in fact continues to show up in the long tradition of the buddy comedy and in many cop movies. Fiedler himself saw Captain Kirk & Mr. Spock as continuations of the theme.
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10. The function of fan fiction is often to take the latent homoeroticism of such stories and make it explicit -- Kirk/Spock slash fiction being the most obvious. But you hardly need to do Ishmael/Queequeg slash fiction -- it's all pretty much in the text.
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11. Anyways, if you want to hear me and the delightful
@chick_in_kiev develop these ideas at greater length, you can listen to this podcast.https://twitter.com/mobydickenergy/status/1237064313841618944 …Show this thread
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