I need to come up for a more concise name for what I'm doing that "Queer Fantasy History Project."
"Tales of Neveryon" is a book by Samuel R. Delany that consists of five tales and an appendix (it's one of those books where the appendix is part of the story). The tales all take place in the same fictional kingdom of Neveryon, a proto-civilization, pseudo-Mesopotamian sword-and-soceryland. The tales share a few characters and in the last tale pulls all the plots together in complicated and interesting ways.
The story behind the story: Neveryon was on my list for vintage queer fantasy I needed to read, and I finally tracked it down at a used bookstore. On that same trip I bought "Nocturne," partly because I have been trying to finish the Indigo books, and partly because I did not want to buy only that book with that cover.
I. The Tale of Gorgik
Gorgik is a slave, who finds favor with a noblewoman (yes, I do mean sex) and ends up not only freed but becomes very successful in the military. Right away you can tell this is not your typical post-Tolkien sword-and-sorcery. There is a lot of class commentary and power relations. Oh, and Delany is African-American. Matters of race and slavery come up a lot in his books. Just saying.
He's also gay, and I heard that there is quite a bit of queer content in the Neveryon books (which is why I tracked it down for the history project). All that I could find from Gorgik was mention of male prostitutes in the scenery, implication that the eunuch servant has sex with men, and implication that Gorgik has sex with a guy, or at least that a guy approached him for sexual favors.
II. The Tale of Old Venn
This is the tale which blew my mind a little. I mean, to all appearances (namely, the scantily clad people on the cover) it's a tpyical 70's sword-and-sorcery book. Then it starts to ask quesions about gender roles and the origin of prejudice and Freudian theory and the effect money has on society. Somehow, it does not come off as didactic, even though the format is mostly an old woman giving lessons to a group of children.
This story is not queer in the sense of homosexuality, but Old Venn does have some stories of her time as a wife in a not-your-typical-polygamist-society. Instead of the women being property of the men, the man is the property of the women; until that sociey was introduced to money, which skewed things into a patriarchy, by ways that really do make sense but are a bit complicated for a blog post.
III. The Tale of Small Sarg
Now it gets gay. Sarg is a barbarian prince, "which meant that his mother's brother wore women's jewelry and was consulted about animals and sickness." Sarg himself also has the opportunity to assume such an office (the barbarians seem to be some sort of matriarchy), but prefers not to.
Then Sarg is captured and sold as a slave to Gorgik. After the sale, Sarg says to his new master "You should have take [sic] the woman. You get her work in the day, her body at night." To which Gorgik replies "You think I'll get any less from you?"
Yep.
Apparently the reason Gorgik bought a slave is because he physically cannot have sex unless one partner is wearing a slave collar. This toes the line between implying that gay sex is really messed up, and bringing up issues of the psychology of power relations.
That's all I have to say on that, except that people who claim that speculative fiction is more homophobic than other genres obviously are not reading the right books. This was not a bromance, or homoerotic undertones. There was very unambiguously sex.
IV. The Tale of Dragons and Potters
I have to bring up an interesting coincidence on this for people who have read The Wheel of Time. There is a character named Bayle who has "an inch of yellow beard, mostly beneath his chin - no real mustache." Granted, he's eighteen. No he does not have a funny accent. Still.
There is also a character named Raven who is...you know your friend whose a rabid man-hating feminist? That's her. She's from an oppressive matriarchy, and at one point tells her people's creation story, which parallels Christianity in odd ways, except that Adam and Eve are both women, and Adam's punishment for original sin is to be turned into " 'man, which means broken woman."
Interestingly, not only are the male characters uncomfortable with this story, but the female as well. A sign of feminism gone too far? Or internalized oppression? Though this is the girl (now grown-up) who listened to Old Venn's stories.
This is also the story where it is revealed that there is no birth-control herb (Tamora Pierce won't be part of the scene for a while).
V. The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers
Most of these issues are brought up in Sarg, but there's not too much to say about this one, so I'm going to talk about the dragons. Dragons in Neveryon are vicious, impractical creatures, tamed only because some lord way back when decided they were pretty. Their riders (yes, they have riders, this is post-McCaffery) are girls - young girls - because they are smaller and therefor lighter. It is also a very high-risk and undesireable job, so the riders are also the delinquent "bad girls" who don't have a choice.
The last tale has Gorgik and Sarg on a violent campaign to end slavery. There is an interesting debate between Sarg and a slave, who explains that their methods are actually counterproductive. Sarg kills him. The slave had a point. But Sarg's rage, his desire to make a change now - that also is understandable.
Also, upon their meeting with Norema and Raven, Gorgik introduces himself and Sarg as lovers. No one really bats an eye at the gender relations.
Appendix: Some Informal Remarks Toward the Modular Calculus, Part Three
The title of this scared me too. In fact, it details the discovery of an ancient text telling the oldest story known to mankind, and the difficulties in translating this. I'm pretty sure it's all made up, but it's very plausible sounding. But when you google "Culhar text," the only links that show up are related to Delany.
Essentially, the point of the appendix is that Delany took inspiration from this story for Neveryon. Or that someone did; I think it might be a story-within-a-story, and that the appendix relates to one of his other books. It's so brilliant, though, because some of the passages from the alleged text have translations that run thus:
Either
1) "the love of the small barbarian slave for the tall man from Culhare."
Or
2) "the love of the tall slave from Culhare for the small barbarian."
Or even
3) "the small love of the barbarian and the tall man for slavery."
Or...all three at once.
So by this point I am quite determined to become a Delany fangirl, because that man is brilliant. He asks so many questions, and doesn't answer a single one, instead forcing you to think about it. In a 1970's sword-and-sorcery novel. This is pre-Brooks/Eddings fantasy at its finest, before the Star-Wars-with-dragons plot became standard and everyone had to invent their own world, and the world you invented explored possibilities and questions that could not be explored in our own world.
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