M&D Saturday night in Delaware

[Michel Ryckx]

Dear Miss,

You  wrote: "So what's the point? I remember reading the scene with
Ishmael and Queequeg - such tenderness. Homoerotic? I guess. I'm not
sure if I know what that means anymore. If the scene must have a label,
then so be it.  Ishmael became immediately sympathetic to me , simply
for his trust and openess to the physical expressions of another. Does
that makes him "gay?" Gay-like? Maybe just gay-lite. Maybe we're just
ready for that trip."

I agree. I never had the idea of the M-D-relationship as sexually
coloured.  The concept of love we're used to must differ from theirs.
The not-so-well-liked Gore Vidal (at least on this list) has written a
lot of articles and essais on this question.  Those articles do not
contain the words 'plastic' nor 'fiction' in their title.

If someone will consider the Ishmael-Queeqeg night together as a
marriage-bed, then there was not too much fun in it.  But perhaps there
is not too much fun in marriage at all :(.

The Benjamin Britten opera of 'Billy Budd' is definitely homoerotic. I
read the story later, so my lecture was coloured by it.  A performance
of this opera I saw a few years ago even stressed the homoerotic tones.

So much talk about Mason & Dixon.  Does that mean that in October we'll
.... ?

Kind regards,
Michel.