Figured it out...I hope
Dec. 17th, 2002 01:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lincolnkwHere we go!
The Boston Blade December 18, 2002
Could They Be Gay
by Web Behrens
It began with a shy caress on the hand. From there, it grew into sleeping side by side. By the time the tale wound to its dramatic end there would be sacrifices, kisses and open declarations of love. Indeed, the couple's relationship might have been hailed as a great romance of 20th-century literature-but for the tyranny of gender.
The characters in question are Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, the two hobbits at the heart of "The Lord of the Rings." And though they grow preciously close to each other during their quest to destroy the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fact that they are both male has supressed a thorough discussion of their love - a sort of Middle-Earth "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
But with a blockbuster film series renewing interest in J.R.R. Tolkein's thousand-plus-page epic, some people are now asking a question no one seemed to think about when the trilogy was first published in the mid 1950s: What exactly is the nature of Frodo and Sam's relationship? While some see a close bond between master and servant (Sam is Frodo's gardener), others find a deep fraternal love between comrades in wartime - and still others discover clear evidence of romantic love. Could it be that the heroes of this spectacular tale, beloved by millions across the world, are gay?
Certainly tolkein had a number of themes he advanced in his massive masterpiece. In the course of the cataclysm that engulfs Middle-Earth, he pits the forces of nature against destructive technology, clearly depicting those who rape the planet as evil. to halt those nefarious forces, the different races (human, hobbit, dwarf, elf) must set aside their differences and work together. A devout Catholic, the author also makes a strong case against murder, even revenge killing during war or any form of deliberate capital punishment. So could Tolkein, a renowned linguist who ultilized language with precision, additionally have been crafting a subtle statement about homosexual love?
The very notion that the hobbits had a sexual interest in each other is enough to send some people into apoplexy. The much-acclaimed first film, "The Fellowship of the Ring," earned an astonishing $860 million; among the legions of fans eagelry awaiting the second installment, "The Two Towers" (opening Dec. 18), are many who were shocked to learn that actor Ian McKellen, the redoubtable personification of the wizard Gandalf, is proudly out and has a boyfriend. (For a time,the official "Lord of the Rings" Fan Club message boards even censored the word "gay," until McKellen found out and helped put a stop tothe nonsense.) So one can imagine the homophobe's hostitlity to any suggestion that Sam and Frodo, making their way towwards the fires of Mount Doom, were also heating things up with a fire of their own.
To be sure, no reference to any sexual passion between the pair exists. Then again, there's nary a spark in the source material between the tale's human protagonist, the displaced heir Aragorn, and his immortal lover, the elf princess Arwen. (The films, clearly, have played up that star-crossed love affair.) McKellan himself, when asked by a fan who suspected romantic longing between the hobbits, replied (in a statement posted on his official site): "Frodo and Sam would not be the first young gentleman and his servant to be a little in love with each other, but Tolkein doesn't make ther affection explicit sexually, nor does every reader agree that he has dropped any real hints about it. Theirs is certainly a close interdependent relationship." He went on to note that all of Tolkein's characters "seem indifferent to sex." It's not a specifically homoerotic relationship, but it is a homoromantic one," asserts Shawna Walls, a Tolkein historian who runs a GLBT-friendly site, BagEndInn.com, and moderates a Yahho group for queer "Rings" fans. "The thing is, Tolkein didn't talk about sex at all, so using sex as a litmus test to decide wether or not Sam and Frodo are a gay couple doesn't really apply. You have to use different criteria. ... On a non-sexual level, the definitely compare to the other romantic relationships that Tolkein illustrates." "It would be OK ifthey were gay - but they're not," counters Clifford Broadway,a writer and 20-plu-year Tolkein fan who pens a regular column (under the name Quickbeam) for TheOneRing.net, the biggest of many websites devoted to covering all things Tolkein.
In his niche in cyberspace, Broadway had actually weighed in on this topic three years ago, well before pop culture reawakend Tolkeinmania. "I had observed a lot of people yammering on othersites, speculating, 'Oh my god, we're going to have homo hobbits holding hands and kissing each other," Broadway recalls. These often-bigoted comments came, in part, from people reacting to memories of a 1980 made-for-TV adaptation of "The Return of the King" (the trilogy's final chapter). In that often-reviled animated version, the production team of Rankin-Bass got many details wrong - but they remained surprisingly true to one element, depicting a chaste kiss between Frodo and Sam.
"I always hear, 'Oh, they're so gay together," Broadway says. "My response is: 'No, they're just affectionate. You need to deal with your own issues.' American men are so particularly ugly about [same-sex affection]. The ycannot deal with two literary characters supporting and loving each other in a time of dire need, so it becomes a gay issue when it never really was." As for the intense closeness they share Broadway believes that "Tolkein's purpose was to very very carefully show how Frodo could not have survived without his counterpart. ... Their relationship has such a complicated emotional quality, I'm not the least surprised that they have many tactile moments of affection." Regardless of one's interpretation of the physicality in the books, the release of the second movie makes one thing increasingly certain: Hobbits holding hands are a no-no at New Line Cinema. The films might have chosento leavethings ambiguos (like Xena's relationship to Gabrielle in the fantasy series), but that doesn't seem to be where they're headed. "I don't think we're going tosee the two of them cuddled up, sleeping close together, using each other's bodies for warmth, as Tolkein expressly states," Broadway predicts.
He's right. In the second book, for example, Sam watches Frodo sleeping and remarks, "I love him"; the screen version of "The Two Towers" excises that moment. And there was an early indication that the films would back away from any gay interpretation: in the books, the minor character of Rosie, Sam's wife-to-be, suddenly materializes for the first time in the final pages of "The Return of the King," and Sam expresses that he feels "torn in two" between Frodo and Rosie. In the film "Fellowship," however, Rosie makes an early appearance, clearly establishing Sam's awkward - albeit heterosexual - love interest.
Nevertheless, for fans of the book, the compelling question "are they or aren't they?" remains. "You can interpret it either way, and I think either interpretation is valid," Walls says. A definitive answer will surely remain elusive - and actually, the question itself is limiting. Other possibilties exist: perhaps Fordo, who never marries, is gay, while Sam, after dallying with those yearnings, chooses to a female hobbit instead. (sexual fluidity is certainly not a rare phenomenon in the human world.)
"You just have to look at it from different perspectives," adds Walls. "I think Tolkein tells us they are a couple. It's beyond friendship, that's for sure."
whew, remind me next time to see if I can find a link to the actual article, that's a lot of typing.
In the same issue, the inimitable Billy Masters (he of filth2go.com) has bit to say on the subject.
You've really got to love Billy and his articles, especially his blind items. but only if you like gossip, cause that's what he's all about.
The Boston Blade December 18, 2002
Could They Be Gay
by Web Behrens
It began with a shy caress on the hand. From there, it grew into sleeping side by side. By the time the tale wound to its dramatic end there would be sacrifices, kisses and open declarations of love. Indeed, the couple's relationship might have been hailed as a great romance of 20th-century literature-but for the tyranny of gender.
The characters in question are Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, the two hobbits at the heart of "The Lord of the Rings." And though they grow preciously close to each other during their quest to destroy the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fact that they are both male has supressed a thorough discussion of their love - a sort of Middle-Earth "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
But with a blockbuster film series renewing interest in J.R.R. Tolkein's thousand-plus-page epic, some people are now asking a question no one seemed to think about when the trilogy was first published in the mid 1950s: What exactly is the nature of Frodo and Sam's relationship? While some see a close bond between master and servant (Sam is Frodo's gardener), others find a deep fraternal love between comrades in wartime - and still others discover clear evidence of romantic love. Could it be that the heroes of this spectacular tale, beloved by millions across the world, are gay?
Certainly tolkein had a number of themes he advanced in his massive masterpiece. In the course of the cataclysm that engulfs Middle-Earth, he pits the forces of nature against destructive technology, clearly depicting those who rape the planet as evil. to halt those nefarious forces, the different races (human, hobbit, dwarf, elf) must set aside their differences and work together. A devout Catholic, the author also makes a strong case against murder, even revenge killing during war or any form of deliberate capital punishment. So could Tolkein, a renowned linguist who ultilized language with precision, additionally have been crafting a subtle statement about homosexual love?
The very notion that the hobbits had a sexual interest in each other is enough to send some people into apoplexy. The much-acclaimed first film, "The Fellowship of the Ring," earned an astonishing $860 million; among the legions of fans eagelry awaiting the second installment, "The Two Towers" (opening Dec. 18), are many who were shocked to learn that actor Ian McKellen, the redoubtable personification of the wizard Gandalf, is proudly out and has a boyfriend. (For a time,the official "Lord of the Rings" Fan Club message boards even censored the word "gay," until McKellen found out and helped put a stop tothe nonsense.) So one can imagine the homophobe's hostitlity to any suggestion that Sam and Frodo, making their way towwards the fires of Mount Doom, were also heating things up with a fire of their own.
To be sure, no reference to any sexual passion between the pair exists. Then again, there's nary a spark in the source material between the tale's human protagonist, the displaced heir Aragorn, and his immortal lover, the elf princess Arwen. (The films, clearly, have played up that star-crossed love affair.) McKellan himself, when asked by a fan who suspected romantic longing between the hobbits, replied (in a statement posted on his official site): "Frodo and Sam would not be the first young gentleman and his servant to be a little in love with each other, but Tolkein doesn't make ther affection explicit sexually, nor does every reader agree that he has dropped any real hints about it. Theirs is certainly a close interdependent relationship." He went on to note that all of Tolkein's characters "seem indifferent to sex." It's not a specifically homoerotic relationship, but it is a homoromantic one," asserts Shawna Walls, a Tolkein historian who runs a GLBT-friendly site, BagEndInn.com, and moderates a Yahho group for queer "Rings" fans. "The thing is, Tolkein didn't talk about sex at all, so using sex as a litmus test to decide wether or not Sam and Frodo are a gay couple doesn't really apply. You have to use different criteria. ... On a non-sexual level, the definitely compare to the other romantic relationships that Tolkein illustrates." "It would be OK ifthey were gay - but they're not," counters Clifford Broadway,a writer and 20-plu-year Tolkein fan who pens a regular column (under the name Quickbeam) for TheOneRing.net, the biggest of many websites devoted to covering all things Tolkein.
In his niche in cyberspace, Broadway had actually weighed in on this topic three years ago, well before pop culture reawakend Tolkeinmania. "I had observed a lot of people yammering on othersites, speculating, 'Oh my god, we're going to have homo hobbits holding hands and kissing each other," Broadway recalls. These often-bigoted comments came, in part, from people reacting to memories of a 1980 made-for-TV adaptation of "The Return of the King" (the trilogy's final chapter). In that often-reviled animated version, the production team of Rankin-Bass got many details wrong - but they remained surprisingly true to one element, depicting a chaste kiss between Frodo and Sam.
"I always hear, 'Oh, they're so gay together," Broadway says. "My response is: 'No, they're just affectionate. You need to deal with your own issues.' American men are so particularly ugly about [same-sex affection]. The ycannot deal with two literary characters supporting and loving each other in a time of dire need, so it becomes a gay issue when it never really was." As for the intense closeness they share Broadway believes that "Tolkein's purpose was to very very carefully show how Frodo could not have survived without his counterpart. ... Their relationship has such a complicated emotional quality, I'm not the least surprised that they have many tactile moments of affection." Regardless of one's interpretation of the physicality in the books, the release of the second movie makes one thing increasingly certain: Hobbits holding hands are a no-no at New Line Cinema. The films might have chosento leavethings ambiguos (like Xena's relationship to Gabrielle in the fantasy series), but that doesn't seem to be where they're headed. "I don't think we're going tosee the two of them cuddled up, sleeping close together, using each other's bodies for warmth, as Tolkein expressly states," Broadway predicts.
He's right. In the second book, for example, Sam watches Frodo sleeping and remarks, "I love him"; the screen version of "The Two Towers" excises that moment. And there was an early indication that the films would back away from any gay interpretation: in the books, the minor character of Rosie, Sam's wife-to-be, suddenly materializes for the first time in the final pages of "The Return of the King," and Sam expresses that he feels "torn in two" between Frodo and Rosie. In the film "Fellowship," however, Rosie makes an early appearance, clearly establishing Sam's awkward - albeit heterosexual - love interest.
Nevertheless, for fans of the book, the compelling question "are they or aren't they?" remains. "You can interpret it either way, and I think either interpretation is valid," Walls says. A definitive answer will surely remain elusive - and actually, the question itself is limiting. Other possibilties exist: perhaps Fordo, who never marries, is gay, while Sam, after dallying with those yearnings, chooses to a female hobbit instead. (sexual fluidity is certainly not a rare phenomenon in the human world.)
"You just have to look at it from different perspectives," adds Walls. "I think Tolkein tells us they are a couple. It's beyond friendship, that's for sure."
whew, remind me next time to see if I can find a link to the actual article, that's a lot of typing.
In the same issue, the inimitable Billy Masters (he of filth2go.com) has bit to say on the subject.
Could it be that the Hobbits are gay? "Lord of the Rings" star Elijah Wood was recently asked if Frodo and Sam are lovers, and he said no (I assume that he's talking about on screen and not off). He feels that the characters have a close relationship that "sort of transcends friends. Those feelings are probably there, and they probably exist. I wouldn't say that it has anything to do with homosexuality, but it is certainly one possible interpretation. I don't think Frodo or Sam, in the way they are portrayed, either confirm or deny it. But I personally don't really see it from that perspective." Sounds like a Hobbit version of "Don't ask, don't tell."
You've really got to love Billy and his articles, especially his blind items. but only if you like gossip, cause that's what he's all about.
