From: GREENJ@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: Re: Sex in BGC
Organization: Yale University
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 92 12:31:23 EDT

In article <1992Sep2.220454.7195@lmt.mn.org>
ciaran@county.lmt.mn.org (Ciaran Benson) writes:
 
>
>  I and 2,500 of my closest friends were sitting around at
>the last MiniCon watching some anime up in my suite, and we
>were (of course) working our way through the BubbleGumCrisis
>set.
>
>  I assumed that we were all fairly alternative kinds o'
>folks, or we wouldn't be sitting around in a hotel room at
>three in the morning drinking homebrew, wearing broadswords
>and robes, and watching subtitled Japanese cartoons.
>
>  Imagine, then, my suprise when some folks got up in the
>middle of BGC 5 (Red Eyes) and stormed out fussing about
>"blatent Lesbianism" and "flaunting behaviours".
>
>  Well, talk about flabergasterered (did I get enough "er"s
>in that?).
 
   Blatant lesbianism?  Flaunting behaviors?  In BGC?  BGC
strikes me as being one of the LEAST explicit shows.  Maybe
I'm just not hentai enough.
 
>
>  I'd always accepted that there was a fair amount of
>"alternative affection" in the BGC, especially with the
>blatent jokes between Leon and Dailey, and I thought that the
>"vampire love scene" in "Red Eyes" was just fab.
 
   That was tastefully done (no pun intended).  I got the impression
that one of them was just feeding the other.  Why Genom would design
vampire sexaroids is beyond me.
 
>
>  'Course, then, you've got Leon wearing a pink triangle in
>the beginning of BGC 8, and Dailey just waking up on the sofa
>behind him (typical -- you'd think Leon would buy a decent
>sized bed, at least).
>
>  #invoke "Short.Story"; So anyways, the continually intertwining
>love interests and affectional interests in BGC just seemed
>to me to be the understated background of a society in
>turmoil, attempting to come to grips with its inability to
>constrain its international corporations, dependant upon
>vigilantes, and uncertain of its relationship with its engineered
>offspring, the Boomers.
>
>  Any hot-sex/not-sex going on seems, at best, only hinted at by
>the examples I gave above, and expressed in terms of loyalty
>and honour (Priss's trama at having to kill Sylvia, as only
>one example of "walk-on" characters become parts of blood-
>feuds which span the entire series).
>
>  It seems that whether or not there was a physical attraction
>between Priss and Sylvia, their loyalty and affection for each
>other was justifyably strong enough WITHOUT sex that Priss's
>reaction to having to kill Sylvia was perfectly within character.
>Of course, if they did have a physical relationship, then
>that just amplifies the kind of continued shock which Priss
>wandered through in the first half of BGC 6, and the near
>mythical resurection of her convictions when facing Mason
>after the death of, the death of (damn ... don't cha hate it
>when that happens), the death of Sylvia's friend.
>
 
   Then there's the scene in the Genom tower where Silvia's friend
(whose name I can't recall, either) is trying to kill Priss.  Violent
and tender at the same time.
 
     [remainder of article deleted for brevity]
>  Whew -- I guess this has turned into more of a fan-boy rant
>than I'd ever have thought myself possible.
>
>  Maybe I /AM/ Otaku after all ...
>
>  Looking forward to whatever y'all can share, Ciaran.
>
>  $uslinit; include oblig.sig <<
>  "...And here, Queen Aphrodite, pour heavenly nectar into gold
>   cups, and fill them gracefully with sudden joy."  -- Sappho >>
 
John Greenwald
greenj@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu