Next up: George Michael is gay. And no he isn’t!
All authors are dead. HURRAH!
Still not as squicky as the subtext in the Batman animated series that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson both had relations with Barbara Gordon or what he does in the Batman Beyond episode “Out of the Past” (That one requires watching. It is too freaky to explain).
Authorial intent doesn’t mean much. Nobody is asking Dickens what he meant when wrote Bleak House.
Is this really subtext, then?
I will only note that subtext is an anagram of buttsex. You make the call.
Reading too much into it, hm?
I believe the answer is seventeen.
I believe subtext DOES require an author’s intent, or is there unintentionally but influenced by the author’s circumstances at that point in life (I’m looking at you, Stephen King.)
That said, I agree that just because the author didn’t intend something doesn’t mean it isn’t there or applicable. I just wouldn’t call it subtext.
Semantics.
I think all superheroes are pretty queer, in the old sense of the word queer meaning “weird”- they can fly, control magnetism, shoot gooey spider webs out of their palms, turn invisible, etc. Plus they all wear these skin tight unitards-- that’s all pretty weird as far as I’m concerned.
Of course “normal” superheroes who dont have powers aren’t all that fun. Like “Insurance Man”, who saves the family farm with his magic power of “property insurance”
Oncologist woman, with her specialized knowledge of cancer she battles the tyranny of out-of-control cell division with her trifecta of superpowers: surgery, radiation and chemo.
I am reminded of a recent slate article about how “PeeWee’s playhouse” had a gay subtext:
I rewatched the HBO special, Xmas special and the new film for reference and decided that the slate article is total crap. Born from the homophobic American tendency to overlay gay themes on stuff for lulz. (Or perhaps conflating PeeWee Herman with who Paul Reubens is presumed to be)
And her longtime nemesis. . . Marlboro Man!
This reads like an article parodying Slate articles.
Oh geeze, I can just imagine Marlboro Man being some kind of Sovereign Citizen nutjob trying to enforce the validity of Flavor Country by patrolling the borders of his property while rolling coal in a diesel Dodge Ram with stacks painted to look like cigarettes.
I thought they are as queer as you want them to be.
Next question.
If they trade in the Batmobile for a Subaru Outback then we’ll know for sure.
The hearings described in the article were an important point in the plot of the great book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
The key portion of the transcript of the proceedings reads as follows:
SENATOR HENDRICKSON: Mr. Clay, are you familiar with the comic book characters known as Batman and Robin?
MR. CLAY: Of course, Senator. They are very well known and successful characters.
HENDRICKSON: I wonder, could you attempt to characterize their relationship for us?
CLAY: Characterize? I’m sorry … I don’t …
HENDRICKSON: They live together, isn’t that right? In a big mansion. Alone.
CLAY: I believe there is a butler.
HENDRICKSON: But they are not, as I understand it, father and son, is that right? Or brothers, or an uncle and a nephew, or any relationship of that sort.
SENATOR HENNINGS: Perhaps they are just good friends.
CLAY: It has been some time since I read that strip, Senators, but as I recall, Dick Grayson, that is, Robin, is described as being Bruce Wayne’s, or Batman’s, ward.
HENDRICKSON: His ward. Yes. There are a number of such relation-ships in the superhero comics, aren’t there? Like Dick and Bruce.
CLAY: I don’t really know, sir. I—
HENDRICKSON: Batman and Robin. The Green Arrow and Speedy. The Human Torch and Toro. The Monitor and the Liberty Kid. Captain America and Bucky. Are you familiar with any of these?
