Tuesday 12 March 2002

Pic of the day: Probably out of print - my exemplar is from 1980. But do not despair! E-BOOK to the rescue! (Gotta love www.fictionwise.com.) You can even read the first chapter online, which I think will nicely prove my point.

Barely ecchi teenz II

I am not satisfied with the shounen-ai (boy love) I have seen so far on the Net. Admittedly I stopped reading pretty quickly, as it usually turned out to be way too carnal for my taste. When I think back to my own days as a young teen boy, I didn't know much about girls; and so, while I sure liked them, I did not have much to do with them. My friends, such as they were, tended to be male. Actually I did not have many friends; but I was quite loyal to the few who might possibly qualify for that label. Certainly it would be possible to expand on such affection without going over in crass homosexuality.

Actually there is western literature that do this. And I mean this in the double meaning of the word western. As in non-oriental, and as in wild west. As a rural Norwegian, I grew up with western books and western music. While I must admit that Morgan Kane was the staple food of western literature in my childhood, there were also many books of less solitary and neurotic heroes. Among them men who traveled together for years, relying on each other in so many ways. It never occurred to me though that they may have had those little things going on. Actually this may be due to the author taking great care to avoid such misunderstandings by supplying them with the occasional temporary romance. I don't remember in such detail anymore. I have not exactly tried to preserve my memories of that particular genre, if you can see what I mean.

I have mentioned before the book The Silver Sun by Nancy Springer. I won't say it is especially good, or I would have finished reading it after getting through more than 80% of it ... but in terms of boy love, it really stands out. The love between the two main characters is intense and deep - and utterly platonic. They admire each other in every way, but there is never any dirty thoughts. Nice. Recommended for the school library, I guess. (I would say for sure if I ever finished it, but I think it is pretty safe to say that they don't suddenly come out in the last chapter, since one of them is madly in love with this girl too.) I think Springer quite nicely catches and amplifies the deep affection between two young boys as they grow into their manhood.

***

Of course, things would be slightly different if two young boys shared such a bond and one of them was gay. Apart from the theological implications, I'm not sure it would change things so horribly out of all proportion. I admit that I don't know any gays in the flesh (yes, I tell this every few days it seems) but those I have learned to know online seem no worse than other unrepentant sinners. Actually I have found some of them delightfully friendly and tolerant with a good portion of self-irony. While a few have an irrational hate for Christianity, others do not. A couple of them I consider among my best online friends, and I would be happy to spend time with them if there were not enormous distances separating us. It is of course possible that actually seeing them would creep me out, that I would feel my skin crawl with disgust and the bile rise in my throat etc. But somehow I don't think so. They are just human. (Well, and slightly furry. Just kidding!)

I'm trying to distill some of the impressions from people I have met as well as books I have read, along with my own memories, to use in the story I am writing. I will not kid myself into believing that it will be good, or that I will ever finish it. It is never that good, and I never finish. Thus is life; the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, regardless of our wishes. Such it is also with my writing: It is what it is, and sadly that isn't so much. Still, I like it, and that should count for something. And personally, I am delighted to see that the two male characters seem to like each other. I don't plan to have any of them die within the stories I write, so I won't need to tackle the thorny issue of people going to hell or not (though it may be pretty close). I'll leave hell to the experts. I think I am better at barely ecchi friendship, personally. It seems to work well enough with the girls. ^_^* But time will show, if time I get.