The Great Gatsby: now (and apparently always) with queer main text.
Um, how did I miss this? I've read "The Great Gatsby" at least three times. Almost wrote my term paper on it about the gay subtext between Nick and Gatsby. Had discussions in class about the said subtext. Yet, yet...how could I have ever missed this passage:
This is following Myrtle's party that Tom takes Nick to:
"Come to lunch some day," he suggested, as we groaned down in the elevator.
"Where?"
"Anywhere."
"Keep your hands off the lever," snapped the elevator boy.
"I beg your pardon," said Mr. McKee with dignity, "I didn't know I was touching it."
"All right," I agreed, "I'll be glad to."
. . . I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands.
"Beauty and the Beast . . . Loneliness . . . Old Grocery Horse . . . Brook'n Bridge . . . ."
Then I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning "Tribune" and waiting for the four o'clock train.
And what else can it mean if not that they totally had sex? But more importantly: how did I miss this? I mean, in high school, yes: I was clueless and probably skimming, but in college? Twice? I'm so ashamed.