First time reader? Start here.
Back to Part 24 - Forward to Part 26
So we’ve hit the home stretch. It’s weird knowing this serial has been running for over six months now, and now it’s on its last few chapters. What do I do with myself afterwards? Oh, right, make more stories.
This commentary is going to be about Farly.
My goal when I created Farly was to make a non-stereotypical gay character. This was years ago, after Ellen had come out, but before Neal Patrick Harris had come out. That is to say, things were a little different, though not by too much more, really.
Making Farly gay was an idea that just snuck into my head, and after it got it, it took hold and wouldn’t leave. It made sense for Farly, and so that’s what he became. But just like Ty, his context has so much to do with TJ: so much of who he is became that way because TJ was there to steer him, consciously or not, in that direction. Farly’s also not one for the stereotypically gay things: pink, glam, being ‘fabulous,’ make up, and so on. These things are just foreign to him
He has no trouble flirting with straight guys, though. So there’s that.
Erin made the remark that there’s a little more sex talk in the story than she remembered (Erin being one of the few that’s seen the first draft of the story). It’s true, a little sex talk has made it in to the story. I chalk it up to Bourbon, really. It’s what he’s used to, it’s how he’s used to thinking. I want to say there’s more to it, but that’s it. I’m not going to go as far to throw a sex scene it. They’re teenagers, that’d be fucked up.
Anyways, as always, questions are totally welcome.
[g]
I’m caught up now
I will mark it on your permanent record. *scribbles notes, copies in triplicate*
I protest: I’ve seen more than just the first draft. Drafts.
Anyway. Farly being gay. Hrm. I was having this conversation with my cohort who loves Dick’s so much and we were discussing how the people who we know and really like that are gay are not “*insert name here* the gay one” Gay you can wear on your sleeve or you can just be a person who’s gay. Whatev. Farly is Farly and Farly happens to be gay. It’s like blackness, or yellowness, or halfiness (should those things’ve been capitalized?). Whatev. I have a friend who’s a trani, and I don’t think of her as a chick that used to be a dude, I think of her as *insert name here.* In fact, in all honesty, I think the only problem I’ve got with people is a problem with people who wear that sort of identity on their sleeve.
_Sometimes broccoli must dance_
This is very true. And I suppose that’s all I really wanted from him. I wanted a person, which was something queers couldn’t be when I created him. Not at the time, anyways.