In The Wrong End of Time by John Brunner, the title tells us that it is about time travel or alternate timelines. The back cover tells us that it is about trying to save the earth from alien attack. But this book is really about a near-future America that has gone off the deep end of decadence, racism, and Cold War paranoia. Those looking for time travel or aliens will be sorely disappointed.
But this book is ultimately, as I have been arguing, about the author's own internalized homophobia. For someone who portrays homosexuality so negatively, and thereby ostensibly doesn't like it...he portrays it a lot! This was published in 1973, and I am curious now to read the late author's later works, and see if he still has this obsession running through them.
I definitely think that the author was working through some personal stuff. And I hope he eventually resolved it, even if he died in the closet.
It is pretty obvious that the "bad," or decadent and racist, people, are the ones tolerant of or engaging in homosexuality. It's an open secret among both the elite, and the street thugs who try to kill a young woman in order to sell her expensive clothes. If we accept homosexuality (and to a lesser extent, straight promiscuity), the author warns, then the oceans and beaches will fill with garbage, gas station attendants will point guns at you every time you fill up, no one will be allowed to be artists or free spirits without hatred and harassment, and most of all, the aliens will blow us all up.
But there is a slight possibility that the author had better intentions than to just slam homosexuals and thereby feel more straight. As I said in previous posts, the homosexuality in this book has a distinctly dated flavor. Homosexuality here is, for a man, cheating on one's wife--not being faithful to one's husband. It is as homosexuality was portrayed often in the 1970s, not as it is portrayed and known today.
And that's the rub: In this terrible, materialistic society, homosexuality is a shameful or semi-shameful secret. It is embraced and accepted, but not very openly. I should say, it is tolerated rather than accepted. Two women at a party demand to sleep with the host because their husbands are making out with each other. And a Soviet spy has a "cover story" of sleeping with a man, in order to explain his occasional disappearances (to his wife, I believe, not his employer--it's unclear, however he does have a wife and has to at least pretend to hide occasional craving for a man).
In this world, as far as I know, there is no gay Pride, no gay marriage, no protections for LGBT people--and anti-sodomy laws are supposed to be enforced in some states.
And because it is so "tolerant" and yet so unaccepting, America has gone down the toilet. The oceans have filled with garbage and the aliens are going to blast us out of orbit, because of the way we treat our LGBT citizens. The white-collar ones have to keep secrets, and the racial minorities have to resort to a life of crime just to make ends meet. This form of tolerant homophobia goes hand in hand with racism and classism. Like certain others, LGBT people are tolerated, so long as they stay in "their place."
I don't think this was the author's intention, but this could also be a message that one could take away from this work. Either the author is telling us that tolerance of homosexuality is literally another sign that the end (via the wrath of aliens, and in a larger sense via the Cold War) is nigh, or he is actually more clever and subtle with his message than I thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment