As time inexplicably continues to roll forward and we somehow find ourselves at the beginning of yet another new year, it’s worth considering the role of sex in the contemporary novel. While I guess it’s not a ‘requirement’ for literary writers to include graphic depictions of sex, there’s a perception that ‘serious’ ones should not be afraid to tackle the subject in ways that would have been inconceivable 100 years ago, at least in a mainstream context. This isn’t to say the writing should or needs to be ‘pornographic’ or ‘erotic’ but that if readers are to understand the emotional and psychological journeys of a book’s characters, then we should know more or less exactly what’s happening between the sheets (or elsewhere, as the case may be).
I happen to agree with this philosophy; after all, it’s basically impossible to turn on the television or go to the movie theater without seeing people ‘getting down to business’ in ways that are far more graphic than anything that could possibly be conveyed by the written word; at the same time, 99 percent of these images are nonhomosexual, which in the modern era has led to an unfortunate state of affairs in which many gay characters now appear in mainstream entertainment, but are almost never seen actually engaging in the kind of behavior that’s arguably what makes them gay; even a kiss between two boys or two girls — the sort of thing that we’ve all seen 10 million times between a boy and a girl — remains newsworthy and controversial if shown on the major networks, and anything ‘beyond’ a kiss (which is to say the very things that we can be sure gay teens and adults are doing with more than some regularity) is almost never depicted. This state of affairs is hardly news, of course, but is one of the reasons why in writing The Metropolis Case, I felt like it was important to include graphic sex scenes for each of the primary characters, whether they’re gay or straight or — as the case may be — something in between. On a related note, one of the reasons I wanted to use Tristan and Isolde as a backdrop or uniting motif is that the opera is exceedingly, overtly sexual; Wagner was clearly the opposite of a Victorian in his own life, and the opera is regularly described as five hours of foreplay followed by an orgasmic finale, in a manner that’s almost startlingly (and even hilariously) literal but that shouldn’t be surprising if you’ve heard Wagner depict other natural events (thunderstorms or flowing water); this talent was part of his genius as a composer.
The point being, The Metropolis Case does contain graphic sex scenes (both gay and straight), which I tried to write with the same degree of candor and taste as the rest of the book. And on the whole I’m very happy that many early reviewers — or at least the most important ones LOL — understand that it would be irresponsible for a modern literary novel of this kind to exclude sex. As Scott Timberg said, “Like ‘Tristan,’ it’s both tragic, at times, and full of sex, real and sublimated.” Not suprisingly, however, because the book has been marketed (and rightly so, as I see it) as a literary novel exploring universal themes of love, other readers have appeared surprised and more than displeased by the frank depictions; one has gone so far as to post two very critical reviews on two separate sites (which: jesus lady, relax) in which she expresses her displeasure with ‘less than traditional forays into’ the characters’ searches for love, which I think we can understand to be a homophobic discomfort with gay sex that goes beyond a ‘Will & Grace’ kind of two-dimensional, smiling eunuch. Perhaps even more odd and surprising, I’ve had gay readers write to me wanting to know if there’s anything ‘provocative’ in the book before they recommend it to their straight friends, a question to which I could only answer with a shrug; after all, good stories are rarely anything if not provocative.
All of which is to say that one hope I have for 2011 and beyond is that readers of all persuasions (who of course are a reflection of society at large) will increasingly accept and even embrace (although not literally, of course!) what goes on behind closed doors for characters, gay and straight alike (although the former is obviously more ‘controversial’); one of the great advantages of literature is that it offers us the opportunity to examine lives in a kind of detail that’s impossible in any other format, and leaving sex to the side isn’t really an option in 2011. It’s really no different than reading a novel about any culture or group of people whose customs or mores are different than our own, but for whom as a result of learning their stories we develop an appreciation of their humanity, and recognize that they are more similar to us than we might have ever imagined.
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I want to thank the many kind readers who have written to tell me about buying the book. For others who are interested, you can find links to buy online here, or just head out to your local bookstore, which should have it by now. Finally, for those of you who have enjoyed reading (or even if you didn’t!) I hope you’ll consider leaving a review on Amazon (whether you bought it there or not, such is their power). Other important sites for reader reviews are Goodreads and LibraryThing, so if you belong to either of those, please don’t hesitate to chime in — it will really help a lot in these early days of the book’s life! xoxo MG
