Notes on Rohy's "On Fairy Stories"

Rohy argues that The Lord of the Rings and other "fairy" tales are not as sex- free as they appear-- this sexuality is instead queer and thus generally ignored.

Double meaning of the word "fairy"-- idea that "fairy" tales really are more rich in queer sexuality/romance.

Homoerotic tension between Merry and Pippin, Legolas and Gimli, Sam and Frodo, Frodo and Bilbo.

Heterosexual relationships as concluded but with no lead up, homosexual relationships as full of budding and building but no conclusion (930).

"And even after Hollywood's effort to straighten the tale, viewers of [Peter] Jackson's films have been only too willing to discuss homosexuality" (928).

"Sex seems absent to readers for whom the only real sexuality is hetero and in whose optic the homo consequently cannot register as sexuality at all" (929).

Desire for the ring versus desire for sex. (Sexually imagery of "thrusting" the finger into the ring, ring as symbol of genitalia (931)) (932). Image of stealing the ring similar to writing's on rape: "You can lay the blame on me, if you will. You can say that I was too strong and took it by force. For I am too strong for you" (402 qtd. 932)."

Thought-- the desire for the ring is felt by all who come in contact- similar to STD?

Lacan- look into further.

Only the ring makes full love (sex plus romance) impossible- thus all marriages take place at the end of the book?

Thought- Why is parenting always associated with heterosexuality- "straight love's consummation" (937)?

I first read The Lord of the Rings at the age of thirteen, in San Diego in the late 1970s. Lugging my father's paperbacks around the junior high school, I lost myself in Middle-earth during solitary lunches and, I suspect, in classes devoted to less interesting subjects. Among all the wonders of Tolkien's imagined world, I was most fascinated by the queer relations at the heart of the text, and in a strange adolescent way, I found in The Lord of the Rings an unexpected source of encouragement. Someone had given words to this love. Someone had shown it could be real. Though today I find the queer turns of the novel no less astonishing than I did at thirteen, I know now that Sam and Frodo could respresent, for me, the very possibility of homosexuality- as they have for countlesss readers- because I failed to see the way they also represent its impossibility. Or rather, I understood that impossibility only in the melancholy note of the Grey Havens pages, only in a vague regret that the love I loved was, it seemed, denied its proper story. (944)

fairy, n. and a.

c. A male homosexual. slang.

1895 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. VII. 216 This coincides with what is known of the peculiar societies of inverts. Coffee-clatches, where the members dress themselves with aprons, etc., and knit, gossip and crotchet; balls, where men adopt the ladies' evening dress, are well known in Europe. ‘The Fairies’ of New York are said to be a similar secret organization. 1923 [see FAG n.⁵]. 1925 F. LONSDALE Spring Cleaning II. 75 Mona. I say, what's the fairy's name? Richard. I have happily forgotten it for the moment! 1929 R. HUGHES High Wind in Jamaica iv, ‘Who are they?’ Emily asked the Captain... ‘Who are who?’ he murmured absently... ‘Oh, those? Fairies.’ ‘Hey! Yey! Yey!’ cried the mate. 1945 E. WAUGH Brideshead Revisited I. v. 102 Two girls stopped near our table and looked at us curiously. ‘Come on,’ said one to the other, ‘we're wasting our time. They're only fairies.’

Works Cited

"Fairy." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University. 1989. 7 Feb. 2010 .

Rohy, Valerie. "On Fairy Stories." MFS Modern Fiction Studies 50.4 (2004): 927-948.