Might Profane be gay? -- All the evidence

[Joseph Tracy]

I think this theory has strengths but it is somewhat undermined by  
Profane's desire for Rachel and his jealousy that others are having  
sex with her. Profane is somewhat aroused when he finds Fina in the  
Bathtub naked , also with the girl on the Pool table, but nothing  
culminated so we don't know.  Also he shows no desire for intimacy  
with men. The whole area of why guys hang out together is complex and  
there is a strong component of intimacy, but it doesn't necessarily  
translate to direct sexual interest.  It does seem that  that his  
sexual nature is unclear to Profane himself. He seems to be avoiding  
everything including sex.

I think he is real depressed.


On Jun 15, 2010, at 11:39 PM, Mitchell Nisonoff wrote:

> Well, I was sticking with the first chapter when I first raised the  
> question of Profane's gayness.
>
> But, yes, Alice, there is plenty of evidence in V. that Profane is  
> gay in self-denial, or, at the very least, TRP was looking for the  
> reader to seriously consider whether Profane is a "latent  
> homosexual," starting with the first chapter where Profane  
> objectifies and dehumanizes women and Rachel as being "inanimate."
>
> Profane's romance in V. is already and consistently diminished  
> without help of Profane being labelled as gay.  That Profane were  
> gay wouldn't detract from the romance (there isn't any) but  
> explains its absences.
>
> I suggest that this text is a purposeful early misdirection:
>
> "He'd awakened loving every woman in the city, wanting them all:  
> here was one who wanted to take him home. (p. 36)." And Profane  
> could not get it on with this woman, Fina, try as she might.   
> Perhaps Fina is the very woman who Profane should have had a  
> "romance" or, at the least, easy sex with.
>
> As V.'s text moves along, the better (or best) evidence weighs in  
> favor of the conclusion that Profane is gay in self-denial.
>
> Profane does "girl-watching" only in groups of other men, and not  
> by himself (see p. 39).  When's he's alone with a woman, he is  
> disconnected and anything but romantic.
>
> Note this interesting rather explicit text: "Women had always  
> happened to Profane the schlemihl like accidents:  broken  
> shoelaces, dropped dishes, pins in new shirts.  Fina was no  
> exception." (p. 141.)
>
>  Profane has a profound disconnect with women, including, without  
> exception, Rachel, Fina and Mafia, all to the eventual point that  
> Profane has to protest that he's not gay but nonetheless defines  
> himself, the schlemiel, as "somebody who lies back and takes it  
> from objects, like any passive woman"!  (The anti-feminist,  
> homophobic hierarchy of sexualities typical of the decades before  
> Stonewall was to place male homosexuals on the same lower rung as  
> women.)
>
> See p. 143:
>
> ... He was not about to ask Fina what had happened.  There grew a  
> mutual embarrassment between them, as if they'd been to bed after all.
>
> See p. 144:
>
> She [Josephine/Fina] withdrew after a while, sad and pouting.
>
> Why?  WHy did she have to behave like he was a human being.   
> [!}  ... She was a restless girl, this Josephin: warm and viscous- 
> moving, ready to come in a flying machine or anyplace else.
>
> Upon his inquiry with Angel, Angel suggests, but makes rather  
> clear, that Fina evidently Profane must be gay ("maricon") just  
> like all the men in the office she "doesn't like" (p. 144).
>
> (See pp. 312-313:
>
> .... [Mafia} and Profane were alone in her apartment. ....
> * * *
> [Mafia:] "Drink your beer and tell me about Heroic Love."  She was  
> making no move to get dressed.
>
> "A woman wants to feel like a woman," breathing hard, "is all.  She  
> wants to be taken, penetrated, ravished.  But more than that she  
> wants to enclose the man."
>
> With spiderwebs woven of yo-yo string: a net or trap.  Profane  
> could think of nothing but Rachel.
>
> "Nothing heroic about a schlemihl," Profane told here.  What was a  
> hero?  Randolph Scott, who could handle a six-gun, horse's reins,  
> lariat. Master of the inanimate.  But a schlemihl, that was hardly  
> a man:  somebody who lies back and takes it from objects, like any  
> passive woman.
>
> [Cf. pp. 143-144 (Randolph Scott references, at the very point of  
> the text showing Profane's disconnect with Fina).]
>
> "Why," he wondered, "does something like sex have to be so  
> confused.  Mafia, why do you have to have names for it."  Here was  
> arguing again.  Like with Fina in the bathtub.
>
> "What are you," she snarled, "a latent homosexual?  You afraid of  
> women?"
>
> "No, I'm not queer."  How could you say:  sometimes remind me of  
> inanimate objects.  Young Rachel, even half an MG."
>
> But TRP purposefully does not resolve the question to the very end  
> (i.e., before the epilogue) and leaves the ambiguity dangling. Is  
> Brenda and Profane holding hand-in-hand like brother and sister, or  
> is it (previous evidence to the contrary notwithstanding) indeed a  
> new day and a budding heterosexual romance:
>
> "Later, out in the street, near the sea steps she inexplicably took  
> his hand and began to run. ... Hand in hand with Brenda whom he' d  
> met yesterday, Profane ran down the street. ... Profane and Brenda  
> continued to run through the abruptly absolute night, momentum  
> alone carrying them toward the edge of Malta, and the Mediterranean  
> beyond." (p. 506.)
>
> I must note here that Profane does not initiate the hand-holding  
> and responds passively to Brenda's hand-holding impulse.  (Benny  
> the "bottom", once again!)  And momentum "alone" carries them, not  
> necessarily Profane's desire.
>
> A fine writer, this TRP, one that requires very close attention to  
> his actual text.  I don't think that the novel or TRP is
> "rather homophobic," as Alice indicates, even with V.'s use of  
> "maricon" put in the mouths of various characters (cf. GR, with its  
> polysexualities out on display).  Perhaps another posting (say, by  
> someone else in Pynchonia) will explore the homosocial  
> relationships in V. and elsewhere in TRP's literature.
>
> Much thanks to those who have sent encouraging comments to me -- a  
> newcomer to the group, a novice reader, really not such an awful  
> guy.  (I have nothing to say about Moby Dick or its influence on  
> TRP, as I haven't read it or M&D, but call me Ishmael if you'd like.)
>
> Mitch
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Tue, June 15, 2010 9:59:12 PM
> Subject: Re: Might Profane be gay?
>
>> Might Profane be gay?
>
> Benny Profane is not a homosexual. There is no evidence that he is
> gay. The novel, however, seems rather homophobic by today's standards.
> Much of the work under consideration is anxiously influenced by the
> young Pynchon's favorite books. Moby-Dick's influence is obvious here
> and even more so on GR and M&D. Is Ishmael Gay? No. In fact, if we
> read Ishmael as a homosexual, the romance is diminished. Leslie
> Fieldler might be of use here.
>
> The pipe smoking Freudian's in Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
> diagnose RPM: "Negative Oedipal."
>
>
>
>