Homosexuals in fantasy literature?


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farewell2kings wrote:
I loved Turtledove's writing until he plagiarized battle scenes from the movie "Zulu" in that aforementioned series and now I won't read another book of his.

Zulu is one of my favorites. I've never read Turtledove, and you've just convinced me not to.


Kirth Gersen wrote:
farewell2kings wrote:
I loved Turtledove's writing until he plagiarized battle scenes from the movie "Zulu" in that aforementioned series and now I won't read another book of his.
Zulu is one of my favorites. I've never read Turtledove, and you've just convinced me not to.

At 100 yards, volley fire, PRESENT!!!! Do your tunic up man, where do you think you are?


I stand corrected--I got Turtledove and S.M. Stirling mixed up in my head. Turtledove didn't plagiarize the movie Zulu...S.M. Stirling did and I won't read any of HIS stuff any more....geez, what a f'ing brainfart. My apologies to Turtledove and his fans.


farewell2kings wrote:
Rambling Scribe wrote:


In Harry Tutledove's "Misplaced Legion" series, two of the characters are gay, and their relationship forces the main character to reconsider his views on homosexuality.
That's common in Turtledove's writing. I've found it in the "Island in the Sea of Time" series as well. I loved Turtledove's writing until he plagiarized battle scenes from the movie "Zulu" in that aforementioned series and now I won't read another book of his.

It was SM Stirling and NOT Turtledove. My sincere apologies for this serious error....

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farewell2kings wrote:
farewell2kings wrote:
Rambling Scribe wrote:


In Harry Tutledove's "Misplaced Legion" series, two of the characters are gay, and their relationship forces the main character to reconsider his views on homosexuality.
That's common in Turtledove's writing. I've found it in the "Island in the Sea of Time" series as well. I loved Turtledove's writing until he plagiarized battle scenes from the movie "Zulu" in that aforementioned series and now I won't read another book of his.
It was SM Stirling and NOT Turtledove. My sincere apologies for this serious error....

Mistaking Stirling for Turtledove is pretty easy, especially since Turtledove is essentially a character in Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time."

But yes, Stirling has a few homosexual characters in his books too.

Which of them plagiarized Zulu, and in whihc book? I've never seen it.

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In "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley Arthur has a rather "unhealthy" (in the eyes of the new Christian god) attraction to Lancelet, in fact there is talk of a three way, and a female druidic priest is quite likely in love with Morgaine. Good read BTW

As a DM I've included all NPCs of all sexual preffernces, although it's seldom come up, but as a player I've only had one PC (d20 modern) turn out to be a lesbian. This sort of thing doesn't really come up all that often to be honest . . . but in our STAP my PC (Tristan Lidu)might be in love with Lavinia. Time will tell how that plays out.

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Gilgamesh and Enkidu. While no slouches when it came to hetero-sex, the Epic repeatedly states that Gilgamesh loved Enkidu "like a woman".


farewell2kings wrote:
Rambling Scribe wrote:


In Harry Tutledove's "Misplaced Legion" series, two of the characters are gay, and their relationship forces the main character to reconsider his views on homosexuality.
That's common in Turtledove's writing. I've found it in the "Island in the Sea of Time" series as well. I loved Turtledove's writing until he plagiarized battle scenes from the movie "Zulu" in that aforementioned series and now I won't read another book of his.

The Islands in the Sea of Time series was SM Stirling, not Turtledove, wasn't it?

Edit. Nevermind. That'll teach me not to read to the end of the thread before posting.

Anyways, I'm a big fan of Stirling, but the Islands in the Sea of Time was some of his first work, and therefore weak compared to his later stuff. I got hooked on his stuff after reading Dies the Fire & Peshwar Lancers.


According to the Book of Exalted Deeds, Gwynharwyf, the Whirling Fury, is one of the consorts of Queen Morwel of the Court of Stars.


Rambling Scribe wrote:


Which of them plagiarized Zulu, and in whihc book? I've never seen it.

Stirling did it in the 2nd and 3rd books of the Island in the Sea of Time series (On the Oceans of Eternity was the third book). He even had a Private Hook, who was in the infirmary when an attack hit and redeemed himself in the battle. He even quotes entire lines of dialogue from the movie. I never finished the 3rd book--I was so disappointed and disgusted.


Guy Humual wrote:

In "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley Arthur has a rather "unhealthy" (in the eyes of the new Christian god) attraction to Lancelet, in fact there is talk of a three way, and a female druidic priest is quite likely in love with Morgaine. Good read BTW

...and in that book Lancelot is written as (mostly) gay, and his obsession about Gwenhwyfar comes partly from the fact that she is the only woman he has really felt attracted to...

Also MZB's Darkover series is full of glbt characters and worth mention even though it is a scifi series...but most of the action takes place on pseudo-medieval planet so it's worth a look.
Generally MZB and her circle (including eg. Mercedes Lackey) has been very pro-GLBT for a long time...

Samuel Delany's Neveryon series indeed has lots of gay characters and pays lots of discussion on gender roles...though it is arguable how normal "fantasy" it is (more like loads of thinly-veiled allegories).

And in comics, may I recommend Wendy & Richard Pini's Elfquest? Besides being great, it has loads of "anything goes" characters...

I have played some gay and lesbian and bi characters as have others in the games I have played...it doesn't always come up (couple of examples where one or two of the players never noticed it that my and one other character were sleeping together, we were discreet people), sometimes it is played bit more overtly...

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Steven Erikson has had some minor characters turn out to be gay or bi-sexual.

Julliet E. McKenna had a gay character in her novels.

EDIT: The Anita Blake or Black novels are full of gay characters


I believe its the thieves world books is it not that has a band of warriors made up of partnered pair bonds?


There's a gay character in Burnt Offerings? Either I've not come up on him yet or I've not noticed.

Also, it isn't really fantasy literature, but in Cell by Stephen King, one of the protagonists is gay.

As for gay PCs or NPCs, I've never really used them, but they're on my to-do list. If there is a gay character in Burnt Offerings, then I guess it'll be sooner rather than later.

(Oh, and yay for Paizo. I bet this same topic would be locked on the Wizards boards instead of being civilly discussed as it is now.)


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Don't forget Adamarchus!

Elaborate please. I missed something apparently.

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MaxSlasher26 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Don't forget Adamarchus!
Elaborate please. I missed something apparently.

I don't want to get too heavy into Shackled City spoilers... but Adimarchus's love/lust/obsesison for Graz'zt's son Athux got him into pretty deep trouble.


I couldn't find the Tanith Lee book I was thinking of. (Lost a bunch to a basement flood last year.) But it was Anackire or The White Serpent. The story followed half a dozen characters after the conquest of their city. One of them was gay. It was mentioned in passing while he was in a moral dilemma. (He does the right thing.) Otherwise he was a typical adventurer type. It did make a big impression on me way back then. First time I'd run into a non-villain homosexual in fiction.


BeneathTheEarth wrote:
I believe its the thieves world books is it not that has a band of warriors made up of partnered pair bonds?

Yes it is. Followers of the wargod Tempus I think.

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David Feintuch's "The Still" and "The King".

The main protagonist falls in love with his best friend. I found the depiction of the relationship and its consequences very thoughtful and definitely not over the edge a la "Producers".

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MaxSlasher26 wrote:

There's a gay character in Burnt Offerings? Either I've not come up on him yet or I've not noticed.

As for gay PCs or NPCs, I've never really used them, but they're on my to-do list. If there is a gay character in Burnt Offerings, then I guess it'll be sooner rather than later.

Warning: Burnt Offerings spoiler:

Spoiler:
The theatre onwer is having a not-so-secret homosexual affair with a local paladin. Just shows that Sandpoint is a pretty liberal place.

MaxSlasher26 wrote:
(Oh, and yay for Paizo. I bet this same topic would be locked on the Wizards boards instead of being civilly discussed as it is now.)

Got that right.

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Evil Genius wrote:
According to the Book of Exalted Deeds, Gwynharwyf, the Whirling Fury, is one of the consorts of Queen Morwel of the Court of Stars.

In Enemies of my Enemy is states that both Gwynharwyf and Faerinall are consorts of Queen Morwel.

Tam


I know it's not Literature, but since it's D&D...
In the Scarred Lands, Queen Tagani of Karria is in a relationship with the Sea Witch Barcelus.
The point isn't played up, though the Witch's chaotic behaviour is a source of some Diplomatic scrabbling.

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Matthew Morris wrote:
Pholtus wrote:
Bloody Root wrote:


Also I was wondering if any players out there have ever played a Homo/Bi sexual PC in a game. And if so how were you received by the other gamers?

Made the NPC Paladin in EtCR Lesbian, and my version of Graz'zt, likes the ladies, but if there is a really hot guy, WELL, he's pretty open minded.

I wonder how many people have 'tested the waters' with characters.

And I always just assumed that about Graz/zt.

Graz'zt seduces Kostochie (sp?) in the form of Malcanthet. In keeping with Malcanthet's reputation, he probably did more than just have tea with him.


In the Scarred Lands setting, the Shelzar: City of Sins supplement has a few paragraphs on the acceptance of homosexuality. The attitude is pretty interesting in that it's accepted, but many citizens are still expected to marry (though that means something different in the "City of Sins") and a gay citizen that marries and sires children is considered a pillar of the community because of his dedication to the city and its populace. Also of note is a gay brothel called "Love Calastian Style" that became an unlikely center of resistance against the fascistic Calastians in the setting.


Quite a bunch of semi-protagonist characters in David Gemmells oeuvre tend to be homo-sexual (although never the main character ), although they tend to both slightly stereotypical and usually elderly. Still, taken very much in stride.

Steven Erikson got mentioned, methinks. Liz Williams has some, usually lesbian or bi-sexual protagonists. Never impacts the stroyline all that much.

As for RPG, we had - over the years - several male homosexually oriented characters around, a few females too. Yielded astounding results and memorable scenes. Strangely enough, our RL homosexual player played "straight" characters most of the time... go figure for surprises.

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