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felis_ultharusI finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay yesterday. Wonderful book, right to the end. I loved this line:
Kavalier and Clay has a lot of fun with Dr. Frederic Wertham's famous claim that Batman and Robin represent "a wish dream of two homosexuals living together." Wertham is mostly forgotten now, but the idea that the Dynamic Duo are lovers has long outlived him. It's made it into pop culture in parodies like "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" on Saturday Night Live.
DC Comics' official word is that Batman is a 29-year-old virgin, that Bruce Wayne's playboy reputation is all an act, and that all his sexual energies are channelled into crime-fighting.
I read a great article today about Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns -- the graphic novel that updated and synthesized 47 years of Batman mythology -- that suggested that Miller was trying to transfer the homoeroticism from Batman/Robin to Batman/The Joker. That makes sense, given some of the weirdly sexual dialogue between the two of them.
(My favourite line: in the fairground's Tunnel of Love, when Batman stops himself from killing the Joker, the Joker says "I'm really very disappointed with you, my sweet. The moment was perfect and you just didn't have the nerve.")
In other news, I've already started my essay on politics and The Watchmen, a few days early. And happy belated Solstice/Litha to those of you celebrate it :)
"...they arranged him with the care of florists in front of a glass of bourbon and ice, as if according to some long-established set of protocols, known to any civilized person, to be followed in the event of a family member's being publicly identified as a lifelong homosexual, on television, by members of the United States Senate."
Kavalier and Clay has a lot of fun with Dr. Frederic Wertham's famous claim that Batman and Robin represent "a wish dream of two homosexuals living together." Wertham is mostly forgotten now, but the idea that the Dynamic Duo are lovers has long outlived him. It's made it into pop culture in parodies like "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" on Saturday Night Live.
DC Comics' official word is that Batman is a 29-year-old virgin, that Bruce Wayne's playboy reputation is all an act, and that all his sexual energies are channelled into crime-fighting.
I read a great article today about Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns -- the graphic novel that updated and synthesized 47 years of Batman mythology -- that suggested that Miller was trying to transfer the homoeroticism from Batman/Robin to Batman/The Joker. That makes sense, given some of the weirdly sexual dialogue between the two of them.
(My favourite line: in the fairground's Tunnel of Love, when Batman stops himself from killing the Joker, the Joker says "I'm really very disappointed with you, my sweet. The moment was perfect and you just didn't have the nerve.")
In other news, I've already started my essay on politics and The Watchmen, a few days early. And happy belated Solstice/Litha to those of you celebrate it :)
