RARA-AVIS: Pelecanos: new one

From: ejmd ( ejmd@cwcom.net)
Date: 31 Aug 2000


"Peter Walker" < peterwalker@webtribe.net> writ:

[SNIP]

>Incidentally, Eddie Duggan, if you
>are still out there, Mr P was none too
>happy about your comments in CT re
>the sexuality ofthe bad guys!!

Hi Pete,

I 'm still here, although I have been a bit quiet of late, and I'm pleased to learn that George Pelecanos read my article in CT :-)

I'd be interested to know a bit more about his comments on my take on the representation of gay characters ... I'm not sure if anybody on the list will have read the article (in CT 3.2) so, just to clarify, in short, it was roughly this; 'for Pelecanos, homosexuality seems to be a way of coding characters as deviant' and I offered several examples, from King Suckerman, Down by the River, and The Sweet Forever.

I didn't (and don't) suggest GP is homophobic, but that there seems to be an equivalence in the instances above between a character's social deviancy and
'sexual deviancy': that is, gay male sexuality appears to be also a marker of a character's 'badness'.

The section of the article discussing this aspect of GP's books concludes something like: 'it would be refreshing if the version of masculinity GP constructs were broad enough to accept male homosexual behaviour as something other than deviant'.

So, Pete, if GP had any other comments, I'd be interested to hear 'em ... on list if you like, or maybe off list if it's anything you consider too damning for a public airing :-)

BTW I'm quite looking forward to hearing SkinMag's [sorry, real name escapes me] comments on Right as Rain (and hope I get a review copy soon--I'm still a bit put out that I never got the CT review copy of Shame the Devil).

Cheers,

ED

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