Author: Rezzy

 

Boy Meets Boy and Luna share many discrete similarities with each other.  The biggest similarity between the two novels are the narrators. In each novel, the narrator is not the person going through the coming out story. In Boy Meets Boy, Paul was already out as the novel began. We soon find out it was Tony who was in the midst of his coming out story. In Luna, the narrator Regan is a heterosexual girl, it is her brother Liam who is undergoing his transition into Luna. Therefore, both novels present a coming out story through the perspective of an observer. Regan and Paul both do not fully understand what their loved one is going through. Even though Paul and Regan both admit they do not recognize their loved one’s struggle, we see that both narrators are protective and supportive towards them.

Parents are big influences in both stories as well. Both Tony and Luna’s parents are conservative. Thus, Regan and Paul must keep their loved one’s secrets. Paul kept Tony’s secret for years and helped Tony lie to his parents by pretending to be in his church group. Regan also helped Luna keep her secret. For instance, she let Luna hide in her room during the night. We can see that hiding is a big theme in both novels.

The obvious difference in the two stories would be that Tony has a gay coming out story and Luna has a transgendered coming out story. However, the societies in each story strike an even bigger difference for me. Boy Meets Boy takes place in a utopian society. The high school Paul attends is very accepting and we even see an openly transgendered football team captain. Luna’s high school is much more real. The school is a lot less accepting and we see students and teachers stick to gender norms. For instance, Regan’s chemistry teacher is constantly making sexist remarks. Therefore, for Luna, she must come out to not just her parents, but to her whole school. Luna is raw and chilling compared to Boy Meets Boy. Since Regan lives with Luna, readers get a much closer look on what Luna is going through. Paul is much more separate from Tony, so readers do not get to see Tony’s coming out story in the same detail we see Luna’s. This is important to note because the stage of a novel sets up how readers interpret it.

Initially reading the two novels, it is hard to see the similarities because of the big societal difference. However, once I stripped Boy Meets Boy of the fluff that surrounds it, I found it shares a lot in common with Luna. Luna and Tony both hide who they want to be and depend on their loved ones to help them work through it. Tony brings the realness to Boy Meets Boy that is very apparent in Luna.

 

 

Angle: “In Creating You, Our Father-Lover unleashed
Sleeping Creation’s Potential for change
In YOU the virus of TIME began!” (Kushner, 175)

Time plays an important role in Angles of America. The time period of the play is acknowledged through the Angle’s remark, “in YOU the virus of TIME began” (175). Angles of America takes place during the AIDs epidemic. During this times many closeted homosexuals came out. AIDs took away the power of choice for homosexuals. It took society by the reigns by presenting physical attributes (in this case illness) as an indication of sexuality. Thus, having AIDs also meant coming out. Therefore, we see that Prior’s virus is not just representing his own disease. It represents the start of a new era in society; the beginning of change.

Change is a common theme throughout the novel. We see the theme exploited more as the interaction between Prior and the Angel continues towards the topic of San Francisco. San Francisco is a big symbol in the novel. San Francisco was the gay “capital” of America, it was marked by as the Angle describes “forward motion” (176). Unfortunately, in 1906 San Francisco was hit by a severe earthquake or, in Prior’s words, “heaven quake” (176). In Angles of America, AIDs represents God’s “quake”. Though AIDs impacted many lives during the era, it’s a significant event that, like the earthquake, its impacts are remembered in history.

San Francisco is mentioned again in a conversion between Belize and Roy. On page 209 Roy asks, “What’s it like? After?” with the response, “like San Francisco… Big City, over gown with weeds, but flowering weeds on every corner”. This shows that, through wreckage, there can still be something beautiful. Blooming is symbolism for change, for the “forward motion” (176). Going back to the original passage, we see that the “virus of time” (175) in Prior can result in those “flowering weeds” (209). It gives the chance for society to begin to build up and change just like San Francisco after the quake.

Prior represents the only character that changes his personality according to his role. Prior takes on the role of an AIDs patient and prophet. We see this with his visions of other characters (for example, Louise being with Joe). We do not see this with Roy, therefore, he does not receive the warning from the Angel. I believe Prior is representative of the progressing gay community during the outbreak. Thus, the Angle is a warning to the whole gay community by telling them to stop moving, for she does not want the wrath of God. However, we know this will not happen. Time will continue progressing and the “virus of time” (175) will present itself in history. The change we see in Prior is therefore important for society to progress and continuing moving forward.

 

“Round and round he walked, and so learned a very valuable thing:
That no emotion is the final one” (Winterson, 52)

In the book of Exodus, the Israelites leave Egypt where they were enslaved and wander the desert to find the chosen land. In the last paragraphs of the Exodus Chapter, Jeanette’s story represents how she leaves her own mother’s expectations. Jeanette describes two shapes in her made up story: (1) a 3-dimensional tetrahedron and (2) a 1- dimensional isosceles triangle. The first represents herself, while the later represents her evil mother. A tetrahedron can be made with different materials. For instance, we read about Jeanette making a tetrahedron with rubber bands but I realized that someone can also make that shape by stacking oranges. Even though oranges may be the easiest to stack due to their symmetrical nature, apples, though more difficult, can also be stacked. This is consistent with the theme of the novel; oranges are not the limiting factor in building a tetrahedron, other factors can be manipulated to have the same result. The geometrical shapes allude to the characters that they represent. While Jeanette’s Mom only sees through her own perspective and stays in 1-dimension like an isosceles triangle, we see the many tetrahedron faces of Jeanette throughout her novel.

This three-dimensionality is illustrated through Jeanette’s curiosity and imagination. In her fairytale, the Tetrahedron received a gift of midgets. The midgets acted out different plays while the Tetrahedron walked around. As the Tetrahedron walked around he noticed “that no emotion is the final one” (Winterson, 52). The midgets represent the stories that Jeanette has been told her entire life. In her narrative, she speaks through biblical stories because all she knows are these stories, and therefore the bible parallels the script of her own upbringing. “No emotion” means that that script is up for interpretation. Ultimately, this shows that there is a piece is her life that is undetermined and blank which defies the boundaries that are written out for her by her mother and the church.

“The technology of silence

 

the rituals, etiquette

 

the blurring of terms

 

silence not absence” (Rich, 139-140)

 

Silence is often seen as an absence of sounds. In the poem “Cartographies of Silence” Adrienne Rich begins to break down that common word. Silence starts to become a process as Rich refers to silence as a “ritual and etiquette” (139). However, in other stanzas silence begins to become a way of communication. Rich constantly repeats, “silence not absence” (140).  One of the many interpretations of this could be that silence is just as loud as speaking. Rich also states silence is the “blueprint to life” (140). She evokes the thought that silence does in fact lay out life. Without silence, there would be no words. In order to create words, you must think about them. I believe that in this poem Rich is trying to change what we consider silence and make it a much more powerful word. She gives power and movement to silence. Even in the title, “Cartographies of Silence”, she shows how different unique maps of silence can be made. There’s an art to drawing maps just like there is an art to being silent. In the beginning of the poem Rich writes “a poem can begin with a lie. And be torn up” (139), while she goes on to say a conversation “cannot be torn” (139). This emphasizes how when you speak out loud, language can never be taken back but when you speak through silence, in this case poetry, you have to face what you wrote. However, like a map, silence is not the journey itself. Rich states “this is the silence I wanted to break in you” (141). Thus, silence creates a frame for life but it does not start the construction, therefore, there is a point where you must use silence to build and begin to speak.