very odd fanmail

[deborahjross]

Like many authors, I get mail from readers from time to time; they reach me through a link on my website. And probably like every author who has written in a shared world or as a junior author in someone else's universe, I get complaints. Usually, these involve my departure from the reader's conception of a character, or else that they simply didn't like some aspect of the story. Those are fine; you can't please them all.

This one is new for me, however. The reader refers to The Alton Gift (in which one of the viewpoint characters is Danilo Syrtis, grieving the death of Regis Hastur in the previous book, which I did not write):

"The characters ... have been twisted - for example, into blatent [sic] homosexuality that fits badly with both the Darkovian culture and the characters, and had barely been hinted at before, if that."

I am quite baffled as to how anyone could read The Heritage of Hastur or Sharra's Exile and not have understood that Regis and Danilo are lifelong lovers. Heritage came out in 1975, when it was daring to portray a sympathetic and heroic gay protagonist, but Marion did it quite deliberately -- both Marion and Betsy Wollheim, our editor, told me so. It is so odd to be accused of "twisting" Darkover into what Marion intended in the first place, especially on an issue that was so important to her -- and to so many of her readers.

Of course, my first impulse is to respond, informing the reader how just plain wrong this is. But I think it better to simply let it go, as the omens are not auspicious for a meeting of minds, and so I have vented my befuddlement here.

Comments

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Yes, I absolutely agree with you that a spectrum of sexuality is intrinsic to Darkovan culture. Marion shaded it a bit in Heritage and Sharra's Exile with, on the one hand, the notion that adolescent homosexual experimentation is not only accepted but preferable to visiting prostitutes, and on the other, that Comyn are expected to marry, so there's a flavor of "this is a passing fancy, grow up." Which causes problems not only for Regis (esp in Sharra's Exile) but is tragic for Dyan Ardais.