Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I'll be weird with you, then. I especially like the Brigadoon comparison. On one level, I love Brigadoon; certainly my adolescent self did. But my adult self obsesses about things such as inbreeding and the changes wrought by millennia, which will happen very quickly. The "miracle" (and would a Scottish presbyter be likely to use that word which smacks a lot of bells and smells?) seemed very hard on poor Harry Beaton and others of his ilk, trapped forever, and if there was a way in for Tommy, why not a way out for the miserable? Doesn't do to think about it, really, or the show is ruined.
|
When Dick was repulsed by Vita putting on face cream, I immediately thought of Gene Kelly sitting in a Manhattan bar listening to vapid conversation just before he decides to return to Scotland. I don't like the ending, but I do love the music.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
What is it with the idea that a man having a gay friend must be a repressed gay himself? It's this, if anything, that speaks of some sort of phobia on the part of the author (as opposed to one of her characters) - if we assume this is what she intended the reader to infer when Dick tells us that he and Magnus had been watching a choir-boy. I was inclined to ignore that because Dick's heterosexual preferences seemed otherwise more prevalent through the text.
|
It wasn't the friendship per se that made Dick seem like a closeted gay man; it was the primacy of his relationship with Magnus and the disinterest in his wife. He and Vita are supposed to have been married only three years, and he's fine with a long separation, is mightily annoyed when she returns early, seems to prefer being alone to being with her and being part of a family unit. I forget if his age is given; I'm thinking forty-ish? Which means he married quite late in life, and I don't get that there's any grand passion involved; it seems more like he thought he should marry so as to conform to what society expects.
On the other hand, maybe he's mostly asexual. I think his fascination with Isolda indicates his passivity and his desire to remain uninvolved; he'd rather watch an unattainable, imaginary woman than have a meaningful life (vita!) with a real woman.