MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

Gay Young Adult Novels as Formulaic Fiction: Three Examples from American Literature

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2016

Supervisor: Author:

Mgr. Roman Trušník Ph.D. Bc. Michal Kadlec, DiS

Declaration

I declare that I worked independently on this thesis and used only the sources stated in references.

27th March 2016 ………………………………

Michal Kadlec

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mgr. Roman Trušník, Ph.D. for his great help, endless patience and valuable advice during my work. Anotace

Práce se zaměřuje na žánrové vzorce v amerických gay románech pro náctileté. Přestože literatura pro náctileté je obecně považována za schématickou, ucelený přehled konkrétních žánrových vzorců v odborných zdrojích zatím schází. Cílem této práce je prozkoumat jaké žánrové vzorce a stereotypy se nacházejí ve třech třech sériích gay románů pro náctileté, popsat zkoumané jevy a ilustrovat je příklady z těchto románů. Primárními zdroji, které byly analyzovány, interpretovány a hodnoceny, jsou Rainbow trilogie Alexe Sancheze, trilogie Sam Dorsey and Gay Popcorn Perie Wolforda a tetralogie Something like… Jay Bella. První kapitoly této práce poskytují čtenáři stručný přehled o zvoleném tématu a dále představují vybrané romány. Teoretický kontext, který je spojen s rozličnými zkoumanými aspekty gay románů pro náctileté, je rozpracován podrobněji v průběhu práce. Hlavní část práce je věnována analýze vybraných románů. Závěr nabízí přehled žánrových vzorců nalezených v analyzovaných sériích. Vzhledem k omezenému počtu románů autor práce navrhuje další výzkum, který by potvrdil obecnou platnost vzorců nalezených v této práci.

Abstract

The thesis focuses on formulas in American gay young adult novels. While young adult literature is generally considered formulaic fiction, a comprehensive overview of the actual formulas is missing in scholarly sources. The aim of the thesis is to examine what formulas, patterns and stereotypes are present in three series of gay young adult novels, describe the examined phenomena and provide them with examples extracted from the novels. The primary texts which are analysed, interpreted and evaluated are Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow trilogy, Perie Wolford’s Sam Dorsey and Gay Popcorn trilogy and Jay Bell’s Something like... tetralogy. The first chapters of the thesis give the reader a brief overview of the topic and introduce the selected series of novels. A theoretical background which concerns with various examined aspects of gay young adult novels is then developed further. The key part of the thesis is devoted to the analysis of the selected series. The conclusion offers an overview of formulas found in the analysed series. Due to a limited corpus of novels, further research should be conducted to confirm the general validity of the formulas identified by the thesis.

Klíčová slova literatura pro náctileté, gay romány, americká literatura, série, žánrové vzorce, Alex Sanchez, Jay Bell, Perie Wolford

Keywords young adult literature, gay novels, American literature, series, formulas, Alex Sanchez, Jay Bell, Perie Wolford

Contents: 1 Introduction ...... 6

2 Gay Young Adult Literature ...... 7

3 Specific Representatives of Gay Young Adult Novels Chosen as the Subject of Study .. 10

3.1 Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High and Rainbow Road ...... 12

3.2 Jay Bell’s Something like... (Seasons tetralogy) ...... 13

3.3 Perie Wolford’s Sam Dorsey and Gay Popcorn...... 15

4 Identification and Analysis of Formulas and Stereotypes in Gay Young Adult Novels and Their Evaluation ...... 17

4.1 Formal Features ...... 19

4.2 Narrative Technique ...... 22

4.3 Genre Formulas ...... 25

4.3.1 The Setting of the Novel ...... 25

4.3.2 Themes and Topics in Various Stages of Gay Teenage Life ...... 27

4.3.3 Happy Endings ...... 34

4.4 Characterisation...... 36

4.5 Language ...... 39

4.6 Intertextuality ...... 44

4.6.1 Defining the Setting...... 45

4.6.2 Characterising the Protagonists ...... 48

4.6.3 Endorsing and Fighting Texts ...... 50

4.6.4 Edification of Readers ...... 53

4.7 Use of Didactic Elements ...... 56

4.8 Gender Stereotypes...... 61

4.9 Sexuality and Relationships ...... 62

4.10 Diversity ...... 65

5 Conclusion ...... 67

6 Works Cited ...... 70 1 Introduction

The thesis focuses on a specific group of young adult literature – gay young adult novels. The topic was chosen for a specific reason. Gay young adult novels were in my focus since the time I was working as a librarian eleven years ago. At those times there were a very few young adult novels touching the topic of different sexual orientation on the Czech market, only the books in English were able to fill the gap so I aimed my attention in that direction. After reading a few of these novels, I started to discover repeating patterns and formulas used in these novels which initiated the need to learn more about this specific type of YA literature. Although there are secondary sources dealing with the topic of gay YA literature, no comprehensive work concerning the issue of formulas and stereotypes in gay young adult literature was found. To my knowledge in this aspect the thesis is the first of its kind. The aim of the thesis is to analyse and evaluate the selected gay YA novels in order to find out whether they are based on formulas and stereotypes. Throughout the work specific features typical for gay young adult novels will be pinpointed. When exploring these novels, the emphasis will be given on identification of formulas, patterns and stereotypes present in this type of literature and provided with examples extracted from the selected novels. The theoretical background of the thesis will be based on secondary sources connected with the topic. The second chapter will offer theoretical insight into the issues of young adult literature with gay content. The third chapter will introduce the selected novels which will be the subject of the research. The fourth chapter will focus on the criteria for evaluation of gay YA novels and mainly on specific aspects of gay young adult novels (including technical, narratological, literary, gender and ideological aspect) where the stereotypes and formulas will be depicted. The main part of the work will be devoted to the interpretation and analysis of the selected series of gay young adult novels: Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow trilogy (2001, 2003, 2005), Perie Wolford’s Sam Dorsey and Gay Popcorn trilogy (2014, 2014, 2015) and Jay Bell’s Something like... tetralogy (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014). The goal of the thesis is to identify the formulaic patterns and stereotypes in this specific type of literature.

6

2 Gay Young Adult Literature

Janet Alsup defines young adult literature (YAL) as “literature written for readers between the ages of 12 and 20” and mentions the period of the late 1960s as the beginning of this specific genre mainly due to the fact that there were several widely read young adult novels published for the first time and also since the beginning of seventies YAL has been taught in American schools (1). Cart and Jenkins offer broader definition of YAL which includes also the literary, narratological and technical aspect of the genre: “books that are published for readers aged twelve to eighteen, have a young adult protagonist, are told from a young adult perspective, and feature coming-of-age or other issues and concerns to young adults” (1). The term gay young adult fiction denominates young adult literature with a gay content, where gay characters deal with the problems of their age and their sexual identity. Cart and Jenkins quote T.S. Eliot’s “Notes Towards the Definition of Culture” where he states three reasons why do people read: 1) the acquisition of wisdom, 2) the enjoyment of art and 3) the pleasure of entertainment (1). In addition to these three reasons, there is at least one specific motive that is always present in every GLBTQ1 young-adult novel and it is the sense of belonging. Cart and Jenkins define this motive as a “lifesaving necessity of seeing one’s own face reflected in the pages of a good book and the corollary comfort that derives from the knowledge that one is not alone” (1). The sense of belonging and the confirming of one’s own identity are the basic paraphernalia in a world where the majority of people are different and the one who is unique is considered outsider. Thus the principal functions of gay young adult fictions are: 1) to entertain YA, 2) to educate them and 3) to help them with their self- acceptance. The key concept of every gay young adult novel is the problem of coming out as the specific variation of coming-of-age in young adult novels. This key concept seems to be present in every young adult book with gay content. Gregory Woods in his work A History of Gay Novel: The Male Tradition depicts coming out novels as follows: The coming-out novel. in particular, whether lesbian or gay, soon came to rely on stock characters whose individuality was secondary to their social role. A prominent example in gay men’s fiction is the unsympathetic, macho elder brother who eventually marries and has kids. Fathers were often similarly simplistic caricatures: they beat their wives, they drank, they talked about ball games and they despised their pansy sons. The son himself, the central character, was almost invariably good looking.

1 GLBTQ is an abbreviation (acronym) which means: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer

7 One began to think that gay fiction’s only purpose was to serve adolescent readers, gently guiding them towards uncomplicated bliss in the arms of their first boyfriend. Far more novels were substantively set in schools and colleges than in the adult workplace. Some writers like David Rees in Britain wrote as much ‘teenage’ as ‘adult’ fiction, and it was generally difficult to tell the difference between the two. Indeed, I am inclined to suggest that the coming-out novel was always teenage fiction, in terms of its ideal readership as well as its central theme. (342)

Although the definition nicely anticipates, what we are going to discuss later in the thesis - the limits, stereotypes and genre clichés of gay young adult novels - it must be mentioned that Woods does not draw a distinction between adult and young adult novels which can lead to incorrect evaluation of both gay adult and gay young adult novels because each of these sub- genres has different history, development, function and qualities (Trušník, Podoby 122-3). Trušník aptly summarizes the key features which delineate gay young adult novels in the following way: keeping linear narrative line, high school (or college) setting of the novel, use of didactic elements within the story, depictions of first relationships and first sexual experience (but not explicit), usual length of the novel is from 150 to 250 pages and the primary readership is the group of teenagers (young adults) (“Young Adult Novel” 170-171). He also points out that Cart’s statement that the first person narrator is “one of the most enduring characteristics of the young adult novel” does not have to be valid in more recent novels (qtd. in Trušník, “Young Adult Novel” 170). There is one more method how to distinguish a young adult novel from the adult one - we can rely on the paratextual aspects of the text provided by the publishers. Publishers usually choose the main audience and aim the product at a particular target group as children, young adults or adults. Nevertheless, the reliability of the publishers and their judgement can be disputable, especially in the case of crossover fiction. Crossover fiction blurs the borderline between two traditionally separate readerships: children and adults. In fact, crossover literature addresses a diverse, cross-generational audience that can include readers of all ages: children, adolescents and adults (Beckett, 3). These novels are hard to define because of their diversity. Some of them were written for children or young adult audience and later they started to appeal to adults, some of them were written for adults and subsequently were popular among children, and the last group was intended for all age groups from the beginning. It is clear that there are no defining key features as it was in the case of gay young adult novels, and the only common denominator is the multiple age attractiveness.

8 Young adult literature is often considered a formulaic literature or a formulaic genre. The definition of a literary formula as presented by Cawelti is “a structure of narrative or dramatic conventions employed in a great number of individual works” (Cawelti 5). A formulaic pattern is the realization of the formula. The term stereotype is used interchangeably with the term formulaic pattern throughout the thesis and the individual instances are called elements. It is not the aim of the thesis to present a historical overview of gay young adult novels, but the basic three-part distinction which describes the evolution of the genre will be mentioned and provided with a few examples since it will be referred to it in the thesis. The three categories are: Homosexual visibility, Gay assimilation and Queer consciousness/community. Novels belonging to the category homosexual visibility depict stories “in which a character who has not previously been considered gay/lesbian comes out either voluntarily or involuntarily. This revelation may occur at any point in the story with much of its dramatic tension arising from what might happen when the invisible is made visible” (Cart, Jenkins xx). Example of the young adult novel from this category is I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip (1969) by John Donovan, which is taken as the first young adult novel dealing with homosexuality. Gay assimilation is a category where the homosexual character is taken as a normal human being, a person whose sexual orientation is only one of the aspects of his personality and who belongs to world where being queer is not a dangerous issue. Marilyn Singer’s The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth (1983) is a salient example of a young adult novel set in a high school environment where the main characters (Becky and Nemi) discover love for each other. Queer consciousness/community novels “show GLBTQ characters in the context of their communities of GLBTQ and their families of choice (and in recent years, often their families of origin as well)” (Cart, Jenkins xx). The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson published in 2004 is a story about a “community” of three girls living together and dealing with their relationship problems.

9 3 Specific Representatives of Gay Young Adult Novels Chosen as the Subject of Study

With the expansion of the young adult novels in the 1990s more and more gay young adult novels were being published. In the new century the trend continued and culminated with the appearance of Kindle and other electronic reading devices. Suddenly the books do not have to be printed and the comfortable and fast purchase of a specific title on Amazon.com and other websites suit a lot of the teenagers more than going to the bookshop and purchasing a book. When we add the significantly lower prices of the digital versions of the books of new and relatively unknown authors and the possibility to give a chance to a plenty of new writers, since there is almost none economic pressure when releasing books digitally, it is clear that the conditions for expansion of gay young adult novels are very auspicious. The other side of the coin is the quality of the novels since there is no such a strict control when it comes to digital publishing, but we will deal with this topic later in the thesis. One of the objectives when selecting the specific representatives of gay YA novels as the subject of the exploration was to make it as up-to-date as possible. The other one was that the study should concern series of gay YA novels in order to get as much material and examples of the studied phenomena as possible and the last objective was to include at least one series that is well documented, reviewed and analysed by other scholars in order to have solid background and access to secondary literature. The first objective became difficult to meet in one aspect. It was problematic to find a recent series which was published by some renowned publishing house. Most of the up-to- date series are published by Amazon’s Create Space Independent and in their printed versions (which are preferable for research) are very expensive. Cart mentions that traditional market for books is sidelined in favour of the retail market such as Barnes & Noble, Amazon and big stores like Wal-Mart and Kmart and that these markets “will continue to homogenize output and, in pursuit of sales, turn children’s books (including YA) into what we earlier called event publishing” (127). As a result, only potential bestsellers and “big” books will be published and new writers (particularly those who focus on different ethnic and gender minorities) will have difficulties to be published and printed! (127). It seems inevitable that these authors turn to Create Space Independent, Amazon and small independent publishers to release their books.

10 The second objective was easy to follow because there are a lot of gay YA series to be found. The trick with ongoing series is also one of the tools of the market. Once the reader familiarizes with the characters of the novel, he wants to know what happened afterwards and it is quite easy and safe for the author to write a sequel of some of their popular works, which assures them a riskless profit. It is not surprising that since 2015 the first novel of the explored Bell’s series is free to download on Amazon in order to make the reader purchase the following novels, while at the time of the publishing it was being sold for $ 2.99. The author of the thesis decided to select Perie Wolford’s Sam Dorsey and Gay Popcorn trilogy and have it printed on demand, and Jay Bell’s Something like... (Seasons) tetralogy in its digital form. The last objective was accomplished by selecting the widely discussed and analysed Rainbow trilogy by Alex Sanchez (in printed form). The references to

Bell’s novels are thus related to the digital version of the book and the page numbers refer to the pages on Kindle Cloud Reader. A very brief overview of the authors of the series is included here to give the reader insight into the literary work of the selected authors and the most important achievements will be mentioned for the sake of completeness. Alex Sanchez is an author of many gay young adult novels out of which a few has been awarded by various organizations. His first novel was Rainbow Boys (Best Book for Young Adults in 2002 awarded by the American Library Association) and the other two instalments were the finalists of the Lambda Literary Award (Rainbow High, Rainbow Road). His novel So Hard to Say won the Lambda Literary Award in 2004 (“Alex Sanchez”). Jay Bell is a proficient author of gay romances who has won several awards for his novels. The most important is the Lambda Literary Award for his gay romance – Kamikaze Boys (2013), while the explored novel Something like Summer was selected as the finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards 2012 (“Books by Jay”). Perie Wolford is a young screenwriter and author of several sci-fi novels such as: Presence, Encounters and Lights. He likes to pay homage to his favourite directors and writers and so he often writes tributes like in the case of Sam Dorsey trilogy. A short summary of the plot of each of the novels will be provided in order to inform the reader about the stories, since later in the thesis the emphasis will be given on specific features and aspects in the novels and the missing context would be limiting.

11 3.1 Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High and Rainbow Road

Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow trilogy was published during years 2001–2005 and since then it has been reprinted many times. The first novel tells the story of three boys from the same school (Walt Whitman High School) who begin to discover their sexuality. Jason Carillo is a jock with an impressive physique, star of school basketball team, popular among students and in relationship with his beautiful girlfriend Debra. Kyle is a shy and intelligent nerd, good at swimming, who has got a crush on Jason. Nelson is an independent and flamboyant boy, who is “out and proud” and in love with Kyle who unfortunately sees him only as a friend. Jason’s doubts about his sexuality lead him to the Rainbow Youth meeting where he meets Nelson and Kyle, but he is so afraid of possible consequences, that he leaves the meeting earlier and wants to keep it secret. Kyle, motivated by Jason’s appearance at the meeting, tries to get in touch with him and he succeeds. Nelson is frustrated by Kyle’s refusal and tries online dating which ends in unprotected sex with a stranger and subsequent doubts about possible HIV infection. Kyle comes out to his parents and together with Nelson they want to organise the Gay-Straight Alliance at school. Later even Jason comes out during the fight with his drunk father. At the end of the novel Kyle and Jason make love for the first time. The story continues in the second novel. Nelson, who still does not know the results of his HIV tests, is dating HIV positive Jeremy. Jason’s biggest problem is coming out to his basketball team, but with the guidance of his coach Cameron it works out well. Kyle’s problems with homophobic teammates at the swimming competition result in a huge argument with coach Sweeney. After several weeks, Nelson finally gets to know that he is HIV negative and cannot decide if the relationship with Jeremy is a wise idea or not. Jason’s successful coming out to his team and the following interview with TV Channel 7 make a role model out of Jason and he receives many letters from closeted gays who were inspired by him to come out. Jeremy leaves Nelson but the boys decide to stay friends and the novel ends at the prom where all the three characters enjoy each other’s company. The last part of the trilogy starts with Jason’s invitation to give a speech at the Harry Hay High School in Los Angeles (based on his recent popularity in media) and so the boys decide to travel 2700 miles from Washington D.C. by car. While driving across the United States they meet a transgender girl BJ, visit several places which are important for the gay community or other places of historical relevance and primarily get to know each other by going through many crisis situation (Nelson’s food poisoning, Jason’s flirt with a girl, Kyle’s

12 controlling attitude and an attempt of two homophobic guys to kill them). No matter how serious the disputes among the boys are, they end up in Los Angeles cementing their friendship. Jason presents his speech and Nelson finally finds the love of his life Manny, so he decides to stay in Los Angeles.

3.2 Jay Bell’s Something like... (Seasons tetralogy)

Bell’s tetralogy was published from 2011–2014 and consists of these volumes: Something like Summer, Something like Winter, Something like Autumn and Something like Spring. The first novel, seen from Ben’s perspective, tells the story of Ben and Tim. The beginning of the story is set in a high school environment in Houston where Tim has just moved in. Ben is infatuated by him and stalks him. One day he knocks Tim down when he is skating. Tim has got a class-three sprain of his ankle and his parents are abroad so Ben offers to take care of him and he does. The boys become closer and begin to sleep with each other, but Tim wants to keep it as a secret, because among his classmates he is an admired jock with a herd of followers and a gorgeously looking girlfriend. He is not willing to come out even though Ben, who came out two years back, pushes him to do so. After an incident with the police Tim rather quits the relationship with Ben scared of the consequences of possible coming out. Several years later Ben finishes his college and on the way home he meets his future boyfriend Jace on the plane. It is love at first sight and the boys decide to live together. They have a contented relationship until Ben meets Tim once again and the old emotions blaze. After a small hiccup from Ben’s side everything goes back to normal and Ben stays with Jace until he unexpectedly passes away (aneurysm). Two years after Jace’s death Tim and Ben meet again for the third time and now they are both ready to start again. The second novel depicts almost the same events, but this time it is seen from the perspective of Tim and there are some things added. We get to know that Tim is so afraid of his coming out because of his parents with strong catholic morals. Tim comes out after his meeting with an elderly man – Eric who becomes his friend for life and Tim looks after him when he is on his deathbed. Then we are told about Tim’s relationship with immature and vicious boy Ryan (who is partying, using drugs and abusing Tim). Tim quits this relationship with the help from Ben who is, unfortunately for Tim, happily married to Jace. A few years later (exactly two years after Jace’s passing) Tim and Ben meet again at the exhibition of Tim’s paintings and start a new relationship by spending some time at Mexico and considering moving together.

13 The third novel is seen from the perspective of Jace. At the beginning of the story young Jace attempts to commit a suicide but he is saved by a fisherman - Bernard. They become friends and Jace starts to work some hours at his gas station where he meets Victor who wants to rob him. They become closer and soon even intimate, but Victor does not believe in relationships and hates the society he is living in. Jace comes out to his sister Michelle and later to his family. The strange but loving relationship with Victor ends with Jace’s leaving Missouri for Texas when he attends college. One day he comes back home to find out that Victor has shot himself. He could not bear the bounds of society and his mother’s illness (Alzheimer). After several years Jace meets Ben on the plane and after some time they decide to move together. The rest of the story is very similar to the middle part of the first novel except that we can see it through Jace’s eyes. The last part of the series is seen from the perspective of Jason – a relatively new character in the series. Michelle (who is his caseworker at the residential home – orphanage) is the only connection to the previous novels. Jason is a 15-year old orphan who changes foster homes quite often but when he meets seventeen-year-old Caesar Hubbard (the son of Jason’s current foster parents) he is decided to stay as long as possible. The boys get closer and go through their personal ups and downs until they are caught in flagranti by one of the family members. Jason has to go back to the residential home and the relationship between him and Caesar ends. Almost three years later, Jason is living on his own trying to earn enough money to pay rent for his flat and other necessary things, which is not easy. At the time when he is really down and broke, he recalls a meeting with Jace (Michelle’s brother and Ben’s partner) who gave him his and Ben’s phone number in case of emergency. After the phone call Jason meets Ben who offers him to move to Austin and start a new life there. Jason accepts and gets to know about Jace’s passing and Ben’s new partner – Tim. Living with Tim and Ben is finally the family life he has been longing for. Austin is also the place where Jason meets his second big love – William who is unfortunately at the relationship with handsome Kelly. Jason must go through a lot of things until he rests in William’s arms. The series ends with the marriage of Tim and Ben and also the adoption of Jason during one ceremony.

14 3.3 Perie Wolford’s Sam Dorsey and Gay Popcorn

The trilogy about Sam Dorsey, which was published 2014–2015, consists of these three novels: Sam Dorsey and His Sixteen Candles, Sam Dorsey and His Dirty Dancing and Sam Dorsey and His First Days in College. The whole trilogy is based on three cult films of the 1980s: Sixteen Candles, Dirty Dancing and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The first novel describes Sam’s infatuation with Jake, the star of the Arcadia High football team. Sam fantasises about Jake day and night and hopes that one day they will end up together. Jake has everything he needs (a beautiful girlfriend, a herd of followers, a shiny new car), but still he is not satisfied. One day he gives Sam a kiss in the locker rooms of his team and Sam falls in love with him. Unfortunately for Sam, Jake is not willing to tell anyone about the kiss or to change his lifestyle. The situation complicates when Mitch starts to fight with Jake to win Sam’s heart and Sam (blinded by his love to Jake) does not see that Mitch is the one who really loves and cares for him. After the party at Jake’s house where Sam sees (through a keyhole) Jake having sex with his girlfriend he comes to realize that Jake is not the right choice and at that moment he is suddenly aware of Mitch’s endeavours. The novel ends with Sam breaking his birthday curse in the arms of Mitch. In the second novel Sam finds out that Mitch is not the one he wants to be with. He still dreams about Jake and in addition he meets a handsome daredevil Eric who works with him at the recreational resort Crest Hollows every weekend. Eric introduces Sam to things like drinking, smoking and having sex (he did not try it with Mitch!). To complicate things a little bit more, Jake appears at the resort and offers a helping hand with Sam’s dance number. Sam and Jake are getting closer during the rehearsals for the dance contest and although they do not win, they gain appreciation of the whole hall. Jake finally comes out during the process and Mitch seeing that there is no place for him by Sam’s side quits the relationship. The third novel is divided into two independent parts. The first part describes the state Sam is in after the unexpected break up with Jake. Sam is haunted by nightmares where Freddy Kruger (symbolising Sam’s clinging to the past relationship with Jake) chases after Sam in order to hunt him down. In reality his first days at college are almost as dark as Sam’s nightmares. He is at the same college as Mitch who he is not willing to speak to him after the break up and what is worse, it seems that Mitch is becoming quite popular at the college. After a few days Sam tries to reconcile with Mitch and gets rid of the nightmares by realising that clinging to past leads nowhere and so he puts Jake out of his mind. Since Sam and Mitch begin to share a room at the dormitory it leads to inevitable and from two friends who once

15 were lovers become friends with benefits and finally boyfriends. The second part (entitled Christmas with Mitch) describes the troubles of Jake and Mitch whose mother is resolved to find them the right girls. Mitch is still a closeted case so the coming out is unavoidable. The question is how and when to do it. Meanwhile Jake’s mother visits the place where Sam works and tells him, that she made Jake quit the relationship with him and now she asks him to give him another chance because he is devastated. Sam is desperate and during one double date at Mitch’s parents’ house he cannot stand the pressure and tells all of them that he is gay, which is followed by Mitch’s coming out a while later. Jake appears at Mitch’s parents’ house on the Christmas morning and tries his luck, but Sam does not want to do the same mistake again and stays with Mitch.

16 4 Identification and Analysis of Formulas and Stereotypes in Gay Young Adult Novels and Their Evaluation

After familiarization with particular examples of gay YA novels, which will be the subject of the analysis, it is necessary to set the criteria for evaluating and analysing them. It is also advisable to present the basic terminology which will be used throughout the assessing of the selected novels within each sub-chapter of the thesis. The most comprehensive source about gay young adult novels can be considered Cart and Jenkins’s The Heart Has Its Reasons (2006). The authors claim that in the book they “also hope to establish some useful criteria for evaluating books with GLBTQ content” (Cart, Jenkins xviii). Throughout the whole book the authors successfully managed to specify all the topics used in gay YA novels within the historical context and to classify the novels according to the attitude of the society towards homosexuals and their status in it. The three aforementioned categories (homosexual visibility, gay assimilation and queer consciousness) that they established represent the evolution of the genre and aptly depict not only the literary but also the film outlook on homosexuality. However, the concise criteria or guidelines for evaluating gay young adult books are nowhere to be found in the text. Also Trušník points out that: Only brief comments on narratological aspects of YA fiction are scattered throughout Carter’s and Jenkins’s text; a large part of their discussion is more devoted to identifying changes in attitudes to homosexuality, and to identifying cases of defamiliarization on the thematic level by pinpointing new themes. (“Young Adult” 170) The most comprehensive guidelines were suggested by Frances Day in her work Lesbian and Gay Voices (2000). Day’s suggestions are offered “as a starting point for examining individual titles and entire collections [of gay YA novels in libraries]” (xxiii). Although the author determines a set of criteria to help with the evaluation of individual lesbian and gay- themed books, the guidelines give the impression of the set of criteria designed especially for building the entire collections of GLBTQ-themed young adult novels in libraries. The original guidelines as suggested by Day are outlined below to show the reader the whole scope of her evaluating criteria: a) General selection criteria – Do the books promote or fight against racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, size oppression and looksism? b) Self-esteem – Will the books bolster or diminish self-esteem?

17 c) Homofobia and heterosexim – Do the books contain subtle or blatant homophobic or heterosexist messages? d) Omission – Does the collection in library contain any of the books with gay and lesbian themes or are they omitted or excluded? e) Characterisation – Are lesbian and gay characters in the novels portrayed as complex and multidimensional individuals? f) Language – Do the books use language that is respectful of lesbian and gay people? g) Relationships – Is the same-sex attraction depicted as the bedroom issue only? Are there any characters whose sexual identities are secondary to the main plot? h) Diversity – Does the collection as a whole reflect the diversity of our society? i) Stereotypes – Do the books promote or debunk the stereotypes of lesbian and gay people? j) Erasure – Are biographers honest about the sexual identity of their subjects? (Day, xxiii- xxv) Some of the aforementioned criteria are clearly referring to the entire collections in libraries and thus the guidelines can easily serve as a manual for selecting the appropriate books for YA section in libraries. Items such as “omission”, “diversity” and “general selection criteria” are clear examples of this standpoint, while items such as “characterisation”, “language”, “relationships” and “stereotypes” can be used both for evaluation of quality of individual novels or for selecting novels for libraries. However, it is not the aim of this thesis to make a selection of quality books for YA section in library. The aim of the thesis is to analyse and evaluate the selected representatives of gay YA novels in order to find out how formulaic and stereotypical they are. That is why a new set of criteria was made to measure to fit the requirements of the thesis. The items clearly referring to entire collections were omitted as well as the items which were not relevant to the analysis of the formulas and stereotypes in selected gay YA novels. Some of the items suggested by Day such as “characterisation”, “language”, “relationships” and “stereotypes” were kept and expanded and a few more were added in order to cover the whole range of aspects needed for evaluation and analysis of gay YA novels with focus on stereotypes and formulas in them. Although some of the categories may overlap, the intention was to arrange them into a logical set proceeding from the technical categories to the ideological ones. A new set of criteria for evaluation of gay YA novels can be found below in its concise form for clarity and later each of them will be dealt with separately.

18 a) Formal features b) Narrative technique c) Genre formulas d) Characterisation e) Language f) Intertextuality g) Use of didactic elements h) Gender stereotypes i) Relationships and sexuality j) Diversity

4.1 Formal Features

This section of the thesis deals with general information about the novel, including the length of the novel, different editions of the book, information about the publisher and paratextual information. By the term paratext or paratextual information is meant every text that accompanies (precedes or follows) the text of the novel in order to “present it, in the usual sense of this verb, but also in its strongest meaning: to make it present, to assure its presence in the world, its ʻreceptionʼ and its consumption, in the form, nowadays at least, of a book” (Genette, Maclean 261). Paratext can be anything including the title of the work and the name of the author, a blurb or other text on the cover, author’s note or acknowledgment and website links to different organisations and support groups, which can or cannot be mentioned in the text itself. This last item is especially important, because many of the young adult authors use this paratextual information when educating their readers. The Rainbow series written by Alex Sanchez contains three novels: Rainbow Boys (Simon & Schuster 2001), Rainbow High (Simon & Schuster 2003), Rainbow Road (Simon & Schuster 2005). All of the books were reprinted several times and they are available even digitally. The first novel has 266 pages (including a lot of paratextual information about various gay-related organisations and a short preview of the second novel), so the text itself has only 233 pages. The second novel has 270 pages (247 the text iself) and the last one 265 pages (243 the text itself). All of the novels respect the average length of the young adult novels (from 150 to 250) and each of them is accompanied by a lot of paratextual information including praise for previous novels of the series or other Sanchez novels, acknowledgements, a few words about the author, previews of the upcoming releases and mainly the set of useful information about gay-related organisations mentioned in the novel or connected with it.

19 These short texts explain the function of particular organisations and state all the contact information including the websites. Trušník states all of them in a concise way: the organizations that will help the reader deal with organizing a peer group (referring them to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network); violence and hate crimes against gays and lesbians (New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects); human rights campaigns (Human Rights Campaign); issues with parents (PFLAG: Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays); HIV and AIDS (Centers for Disease Control); teen sexuality (Advocates for Youth); gay and lesbian teen suicides (The Trevor Helpline); and gay and lesbian teen services on the Internet (Youth Guardian Services). (“Tool for Survival” 260)

It is gratifying that all of the links of these organisations are still functional as of February 2016, with the exception of the link to Centers for Disease Control (which was functional for the last time in 2006). This appendix of useful organisations completes the educational efforts of the author and in a way the books become a manual how to live through the rite of passage when you are gay or – which is more suitable denomination: “a tool for survival” (“Tool for Survival” 255). Jay Bell’s Something like... (Seasons tetralogy) was not originally conceived as a series, but after a huge success of the first book, when the author was asked by many readers on the goodreads.com forum to write a sequel, he conceived the concept of the series. The first novel was published in January 2011 and the rest followed in October 2012, May 2013 and January 2014. All of the books are available both digitally and in paperback versions, but the printed versions are once again arranged by Create Space Independent and the price for paperback version is four times higher ($ 17.99). It has to be said that the Seasons tetralogy is now officially closed, but Bell has opened a new one, called Something like Lightning and Something like Thunder where he develops life stories of two minor characters from the last novel of the original series and during the process of writing of the thesis one more book with the title Something like Stories has been published. After a brief exploration of this last title it was found out that it is a collection of short stories involving the four characters of the original series and it depicts some events which were not mentioned in the original books. The length of the books considerably exceeds the average number of pages typical for young adult novels. The first one has 290 pages in its printed form and 281 in the digital form (taken from the Kindle Cloud Reader – a web application, where the customer can read the purchased books online), the second one 374 /364 pages, the third one 418/411 pages and the last one 458/452 pages. The length of the novels is the first indicator that Bell’s novels should be classified as crossover novels and there will be more of them later in the thesis.

20 The paratextual information contains the usual acknowledgments and the advertisement for the following parts of the series. In addition, the second novel contains the author’s note explaining the conception of the idea of the series and the preview of Jay Bell’s Lambda Award winning novel Kamikaze Boys. The third novel contains one more author’s note touching the issue of his own attempt to commit suicide, when he was younger. Since the theme of the suicide appears twice in the book, he adds several useful hypertext links and hotlines for the organisations dealing with this issue: (National Hopeline Network, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, The Trevor Project, Samaritans UK & ROI, PAPYRUS and Lifeline). In the last novel there is additional author’s afterword explaining the conception of the new series and short excerpts from two other Bell’s novels: Kamikaze Boys and Hell’s Pawn. As for the paratextual information, the educational efforts are manifested only in the third novel, the other paratexts have only promotional character. Sam Dorsey and Gay Popcorn series written by Perie Wolford was published in April 2015 as the omnibus volume (all the three novels in one huge volume), but the first edition of the first novel was in February 2014, the second novel in July 2014 and the last novel in April 2015. The book was published both in the paperback and the digital (Kindle) version with a significant difference of the price (Kindle version of the “triple edition” costs $ 7.56 and the paperback edition costs $ 21.95). The book was published by Create Space Independent which is a company connected with Amazon.com that enables print on demand. Print on demand is a digital printing technology where a book or other publication is printed only when needed. Print on demand is thus a cheaper and more convenient opposition of traditional printing, where large quantities of books are produced in initial print runs to reduce costs prior to distribution. This model has also allowed the authors to self-publish at very low costs. In reality it means that every author can use the service of Create Space Independent and has his book printed only when the customer pays for it. This way of publishing entails increase in price for the customer (in comparison with books from standard publishers) and sometimes even the insufficient control of the quality of the text (editing and graphics) may appear. Since the author of thesis worked with the paperback printed on demand, the aforementioned problem has appeared. Nine spelling or grammatical mistakes were found on pages 3, 22, 85, 134, 193, 251, 274, 281 and 287. Michelle Doering & 3PEDITING were stated as the editors of the book, which denotes, that the control of the text was not provided by the publisher, but arranged by the author.

21 The first part covers 153 pages, the second 130 pages and the last one 110 pages. It is the shortest series of the three chosen. The first part fits in the average length of young adult novels, the other two parts are slightly shorter. In the paratextual information we find only the introduction where the author mentions his aim – the tribute to classic movies of the eighties and nineties, a short paragraph about the author and a blurb on the back cover.

4.2 Narrative Technique

A narrator sometimes denominated as a narrative voice is someone who tells the story; the voice of the narrative discourse. Jahn expands this simple definition in order to include several functions of the narrator: “He or she is the agent who establishes communicative contact with an addressee (the 'narratee'), who manages the exposition, who decides what is to be told, how it is to be told (especially, from what point of view, and in what sequence), and what is to be left out” (N3.1.1). As there are many different narrative theories and terms suggested by several authors, it was decided to base the theoretical background on Franz K. Stanzel’s concept of “narrative situation” and stick to his terminology. Stanzel’s concept of “narrative situation” is a convenient means for depicting and analysing the narrative voices of the selected gay young adult novels in the thesis. A narrative situation describes the nature of the mediation of the narrative, i.e. “where the narrator is located, how overtly or covertly the narrator makes his or her presence felt, and what relationship the narrator has to the characters, in one or more of whom perspective may be invested” (Keen 30). Stanzel distinguishes three prototypical narrative situations: the first person narrative situation, the authorial narrative situation and the figural narrative situation. What follows are Jahn’s clear and simple definitions of each of the situations: A first-person narrative is told by a narrator who is present as a character in his/her story; it is a story of events s/he has experienced him- or herself, a story of personal experience. The individual who acts as a narrator (narrating I) is also a character (experiencing I) on the level of action.

An authorial narrative is told by a narrator who is absent from the story, i.e., does not appear as a character in the story. The authorial narrator tells a story involving other people. An authorial narrator sees the story from an outsider's position, often a position of absolute authority that allows her/him to know everything about the story's world and its characters, including their conscious thoughts and unconscious motives.

A figural narrative presents a story as if seeing it through the eyes of a character. (N3.3.1)

22 Authors of the YA novels under analysis do not experiment with the narration in terms of its opaqueness, anonymity and fragmentation. Rather, they stick to one of the basic narrative situations, even though with some variation. Alex Sanchez in his Rainbow trilogy uses a multiple narration, where the three main characters rotate as reflectors-characters in the figural narrative situation. This rotation of reflectors enables the reader to see the sequence of events from three different perspectives and in that way the reader gets to know more about the situation, because the reflectors- characters make it possible to see the story from three different perspectives. Each chapter is introduced by the highlighted name of the reflector-character of the story in this particular chapter and the order of the alternations is regular in each of the three novels. Sanchez does not experiment with the narrative and varies it only once in the prologue of the second novel where all the three characters write essays about their lives and previous year at school (which is Sanchez’s quite obvious way how to recapitulate the plot of the first novel) in first person. A clever move was to alternate the reflector-characters which partially helped to keep the readers in suspense and at the same time to make the presentation of events more objective. The narration is strictly linear and chronological with no flashbacks and no place for opaqueness. This type of narration is easy to follow for teenage readers but it can become boring after several chapters. Perie Wolford’s narrative situation in Gay Popcorn trilogy is typical for many YA novels – the first person narrative, where the worlds of the character and the narrator are identical. The reader can get to know everything about the main character, his feelings, his hopes and even the content of his dreams. The narrative in the first book of the trilogy is strictly linear and chronological with no flashback. The only thing that makes the narrative interesting is the content of the main character’s dreams which are included in every chapter and sometimes even affect the life of the main character and thus the plot. In the second novel the timeline is mostly chronological with very few flashbacks explaining what happened before the narrator started to tell the story and some memories of things from the past. It is in the third volume of the trilogy where the author starts to experiment although very innocuously. In the first part of the third book Wolford works with scary dreams so frequently used in horror films and with the help of this he pushes the plot forward because the dreams have a symbolic meaning for the main character. If the character is not dreaming (sometimes he even dreams within a dream), he is contemplating the history of his previous relationship with Jake or deals with the usual problems of first days in college in linear narration. This pattern is

23 repeated until the end when the main character realises that he will not get rid of the haunting dreams if he does not tear himself away from the emotional bond with his ex boyfriend. The inclusion of the clichéd horror device is what makes the story more interesting although the result and the denouement are predictable. The second part of the third volume repeats all the tricks from the previous volumes: dreams affecting actions when the character is awake, flashbacks of the past events before the point of attack. What is new here is that there are emerging fragments of a repressed memory of a dialogue from the past hidden in the mind of the main character which influence his behaviour and in that way they also shift the story. The most obvious it is in the family dinner scene where the main character is being introduced to a girl who is meant to be his date and the repressed fragments of a dialogue with the mother of his previous boyfriend (who came to apologise for the fact that she was responsible for their breakup) start to emerge slowly and painfully. The following excerpt has the same formatting as in the novel. “I think Margarete could play us something after dinner. Oh, don’t be shy Margarete. I’m sure Sam would love to hear you play.” Okay, I think I’m having a panic attack now. It’s hard to breathe... I can’t breathe! “Won’t you Sam?” Mrs. Blake asks and suddenly it feels like everyone is looking at me. The room stars spinning, the faces twist... I need air... I need air! This is horrible! Sam, please don’t blame him. He loves you... He loves you so much! I can’t take this anymore! I can’t! “I’m gay!” I shout out suddenly and then there’s silence. (Wolford, First Days 376)

Wolford unlike Sanchez is not afraid to use free direct speech from time to time as it is identifiable from the excerpt and apart from these minor experiments his novels remain the typical representatives of the genre as for the narrative situation. The last of the three authors - Jay Bell - chose a similar technique as Sanchez did. Although he introduces the first novel of the series in the first person (in fact it is only the first paragraph, where the main character attempts to write about his life), all of the novels are narrated in the figural narrative situation. The fact that differentiates this particular series from Sanchez’s trilogy and other gay young adult novels is the use of different reflector-character for each book of the series. Sanchez rotates the reflectors with each chapter, while Bell alternates his reflectors with each book of the tetralogy. The writer revisits the same plot and goes through almost identical set of events again and again each time with a different focalization, which makes the reading more interesting. The reader can fill the missing information which the reflector-character from the previous book could not see because the

24 narrator was not omniscient and thus the reader can make his judgment of the situation more objective, because he perceives it from different perspectives. The above mentioned collocation “almost identical set of events” was used intentionally. Apart from the situations that were omitted because the reflector-character was not part of them there are some events added at the beginning and the end of the novels in order to bring something new into the series and some episodes from the past are recollected in the form of flashbacks. The fact that the author manages to write about the same set of events at least three times and it is still interesting speaks about his craftsmanship. The chosen form of narrative technique along with the sophisticated plot once again indicates that Bell’s series could be taken as a crossover title.

4.3 Genre Formulas

After reading a dozen or maybe even more gay young adult novels even an inexperienced reader must notice similarities and repeated patterns in them. These frequently used and proven literary patterns and procedures can be called formulas. By consistent adherence to these formulas a moderately skilful writer is able to construct his own version of a gay young adult novel. The primary element is the high school or college setting of the novel. Then there are several essential stages (based on the stages of life of teenagers) such as: the issue of coming out, looking for the right partner, hostile reactions of the surroundings to their “otherness,” first kiss, safe sex lectures, first encounters with alcohol and other addictive substances and finally first making love. The last stage and also a fundamental element is a happy ending when the main hero rests in the arms of someone he loves. It is not the aim of the thesis to list all the occurrences or examples of the particular stage in each novel. The aim is to point out that these stages are present in all the selected novels and provide some interesting topic related examples. Thus the list of the occurrences is not exhaustive. The subsequent division follows the patterns and stages as they were given above.

4.3.1 The Setting of the Novel

Typical setting of almost all gay YA novels is the high school environment and later the first years of college. Trušník sees it as one of the defining features for young adult literature and mentions that novels with a young adult protagonist which are not set in this environment are extremely rare (“Young Adult” 171). From the chosen sample of three series all of them take place at high schools (from considerable part) and some of them later on colleges or during summer holidays.

25 Sanchez sets the story of three friends into the senior year of Walt Whitman High School. The first two novels deal with the problems of boys during this senior year and the third part of the series takes place during the summer holidays, when Jason is asked to give a speech at the Harry Hay High School in Los Angeles and so the whole novel is on the road. Wolford uses a very similar pattern. The first two novels are set in the senior year of high school and the last novel takes place at the college and deals with the main character’s first days at Film Academy in Boston. A considerable part of the second novel takes place at the recreational resort called Crest Hollows, where the main character has his weekend job, though. The most complicated setting is the Bell’s one. Since Bell’s novels are bordering on crossover novels and the reader can follow the main characters for more than two or three years, the setting changes a lot. Nevertheless, the first halves of the first two novels take place at the Woodlands High School. Both Ben and Tim are 16 at the time when the story begins (1996) which means that they are in their junior year. Then the setting changes to Chicago and later Austin where Ben studies at the University of Texas and meets Tim for the second time. After the final year of their college (2003) both Ben and Tim continue living their separate adult lives in Austin until 2008 when they meet for the final time and stay together. The series ends with their marriage in 2014, so Ben and Tim’s story spans over more than 17 years. The third novel is about Jace’s life story and it starts in the senior year at Warrensburg High School (1990), then it covers a part of his college years at the University of Houston and the rest of his life with Ben in Austin when he suddenly passes away in 2006. The last novel depicts the life of Jason (an orphan who changes foster families and schools quite often) from the year 2006, when Jason tries another family and high school in Houston. After finishing school he works in Houston and then moves to Austin where he finds a new job – so there is no further study at college. The end of his storyline is in Austin 2014 at the wedding of Ben and Tim. So there is no doubt that each of these novels at least starts at the typical high-school setting and even the crossover novels have the high school or college environment in the first halves or thirds of the books. If these first halves (or thirds) were extracted out of the original texts, they would be typical representatives of gay YA novels (with the exception of the explicit sex scenes, which will be dealt with later in the thesis).

26 4.3.2 Themes and Topics in Various Stages of Gay Teenage Life

Almost every gay young adult novel starts with the stage of dealing with coming to terms with one’s own sexuality. Usually the characters are preparing themselves for coming out but on rare occasions some of the characters are already out and they can deal with further issues connected with their sexuality. Coming out is a lifelong process and there are always new people coming to one’s life that must be apprised of it, but the first attempt is always the hardest. Sanchez’s characters cover all the three areas of coming to terms with one’s own sexuality. Nelson is “out and proud”, he is not afraid to talk about his sexuality from the very beginning of the first novel and his mother is also a proud vice-president of the PFLAG group in his hometown. Kyle is preparing to come out to his family and his friends already know about him, he even visits the regular Rainbow Youth Group meetings. He comes out to his mother when she finds Honcho (gay magazine with a pornographic content) at his bed and later that day he comes out to his dad. Both parents cope with his different sexual orientation and accept it. Jason is still “a closet case” – not ready to come out. He is dating his girlfriend but has some doubts about his sexuality. Later (after meeting with Kyle) he is ready to acknowledge that he may be bisexual and at the end of the first novel he comes out during the fight with his drunk father. Kyle’s father cannot accept his son’s sexual preference and that is why he leaves his wife and son. Kyle’s mother accepts it. Sanchez uses all three possibilities of coming to terms with sexuality on purpose; he can describe the feelings of the character at almost every point on the scale from “a closet case” to being “out and proud,” which has the coveted educational effect. Sam Dorsey in Wolford’s trilogy is still in the closet. Even his best friend Melissa does not know about his different sexual orientation, she only suspects it. Then, in a friendly talk with his father, he is ready to come out: “Sam, it’s okay,” he says. “I’m not angry with you. I’m just a little concerned.” I don’t dare look at him. “Come on, look at me,” he urges gently. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s me who should feel ashamed. I should have talked to you about that a long time ago. I just didn’t want to make assumptions.” I look up at him, feeling scared and vulnerable; a little boy seeking his father’s approval. “You’re ok with me being gay?” I ask as tendrils of hope start pooling in my heart. I didn’t think people would accept me for who I am, but I guess I was wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things. My dad looks at me reassuringly. “Yes. You’re my son,” he says simply. (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 129)

27

In an ideal world all the conversations with parents about sexual orientation would look like this one. Unfortunately, it is only a literary text and the reality is different. Bell’s characters are also in various stages of coming out. Ben – the reflector of the first novel – begins the story with this exclamation: “This is not a coming-out story. I put all that behind me two years ago, at the tender young age of fourteen” (Bell, Summer 1). So Ben is out when the storyline begins, but we get to know some memories of it mainly during talks with Tim. There is no remark about how Ben’s parents deal with his sexuality, but considering their mutual behaviour they probably did not accept it badly. That does not mean that the readers will be deprived of the coming out experience. The second main character in this novel is Tim and his coming to terms with his sexuality is very difficult and painful. Tim describes himself as straight but after the meeting with Ben he is slowly changing his attitude to this issue. However, he is afraid to come out because of his parents’ religious orientation. It takes a long time until he comes out to them. His coming to terms with his sexuality at college happens involuntarily after the brothers from the fraternity discover the photo of Tim on the cover of the magazine Gay Austin. In the final year of his college studies he tells it to his parents who renounce him. Jace – the reflector of the third instalment – comes out not long after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide, encouraged by his sister who knew about his different sexual orientation before. His parents accept him without any problem. The last of the main characters – Jason – is caught in flagranti with his foster brother and so the whole foster family knows and sends him back to the orphanage. Different stages of coming out are once more depicted to cover the whole scale of the process and this time it does not feel literal. Bell’s writing seems based on noticed situations from reality, at least it looks like that. Looking for the right person who could be our partner or boyfriend may be a long process, but at this specific age it is the most essential issue of every teenager. Not all teenagers are searching for partners to live with, some of them try to find someone to “get laid,” because the urge to discover sexuality is crucial at this age. So the process of searching is different in each case with each person, but the need to find someone to be with if only for a while is almost omnipresent. Kyle from Sanchez’s trilogy is aiming at Jason from the very beginning, but it takes a lot of effort to form an emotional attachment to Jason because of his sexual and emotional insecurity. Jason is ready to admit that he has a boyfriend only at the end of the second novel after scoring two deciders at the football championship. Then, in the aftermath of his huge success, he hugs his boyfriend and kisses him in “front of hundreds of stadium viewers and the TV camera” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 193). Nelson was practically searching for the right

28 guy since he came out, but he is not lucky. At one point he decides to have a blind date with a guy from the internet with a nickname “HotLove69” to lose his virginity. A moment of uncontrollable passion leads to Nelson’s failure to practise safe sex, which provides Sanchez a plenty of opportunities to be didactic and to raise the awareness of safe sex. Nelson has to wait until the very end of the third novel to find someone who could be the right partner for him. Sam Dorsey from Wolford’s trilogy strives for Jake from the beginning of the first novel. Jake is the man dominating his dreams. Although they flirt with each other at the end of the first novel, Mitch is the one who becomes Sam’s boyfriend. For the purpose of the next novel Mitch is put aside and Jake’s character is rebuilt in order to fit the author’s intention and the boys can try their luck once more. However, the author’s manipulation with characters and the plot makes the whole story unbelievable and the relationships implausible. That cannot be said about the sophisticated and complex structure of Bell’s characters and their relationships. Ben and Tim’s relationship which intertwines throughout all of the four novels is credible and on several spots even touching. They go through their personal up and downs, leave each other and reunite for three times, but still it feels more plausible than Wolford’s attempt to do something similar with Jake and Sam. What follows is fitting metaphor of the first stage of their relationship before Tim’s withdrawal, extracted from Tim’s wedding speech: “...but first I asked you to teach me how to fly. And you tried. You tugged on me and you pulled, trying to get me off the ground, and maybe for a moment we flew together, but it was only your strength carrying me. When I ruined everything, when you grew tired and flew away, I knew I had missed my chance. But I never forgot you...” (Bell, Spring 441)

Along with the quest for love the hostile reactions of surroundings to people who are different permeate all of the series on many places. The examples of hatred and ignorance towards gays and lesbians are countless throughout the novels. In fact, it is usually the main thing that has the dramatic effect in the series and without it the novels would lack suspense. The extracts or scenes that were chosen and included here illustrate the width of this aspect presented in the series. The first to mention are the least dangerous and offensive reactions of people who only want to express their disapproval and disdain for two boys having a relationship or even dancing together. These tokens of disapprobation are nicely depicted in Wolford’s second novel, where the two main characters want to dance together at the Dance-off, but the judge does not want to permit it: “You can’t dance together!” he exclaims. “You’re [sic] both are boys!”

29 “Who says that two boys can’t dance together?” Jake asks firmly. “The rules clearly state...” the judge begins. “Do you think that we can’t dance just because we are two boys?” Jake shouts, addressing the crowd. “Do you want to see us dance or not?” “Dance! Let them dance!” the crowd starts cheering... “I don’t care about what they say. The rules are the rules! And you two can’t dance!” the judge squawks in response. (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 275)

A typical situation which appears both in Bell and Sanchez’s trilogy depicts local homophobes, being twice as strong as the victims, mocking the gay characters and calling them names. When the victims reply, the fight is unavoidable. In both cases there is a character, who is still ashamed of his different sexual orientation, but who is not afraid to step in, when the bullies start a fight. Bell describes the attack on Ben who is saved by closeted Tim and Sanchez depicts the assaulting of Kyle and Nelson saved by closeted Jason. A better description of this phenomenon is offered by Sanchez: “Leave him alone!” He [Jason] pushed Jack away, grabbing his shoulder. Jack shook him off. “Stay out of this!” Kyle scrambled up off the ground, his chest rising and falling as he breathed. Jason’s heart pounded. “I said leave him alone.” “What are you,” Jack scoffed, “a fag lover?” Jason hit Jack in the face. Jack stumbled backward, falling with a stunned expression. Kyle shouted, “Nelson!” Jason spun around to see José pinning Nelson to the ground, beating the crap out of him. Kyle ran toward them and Jack yelled, “Watch out!” José jumped up, fists raised. Jason ran over and José swung. But Jason moved back in time to avoid the blow. He jabbed José in the stomach, causing him to double up. Jack staggered over and grabbed José by the shoulder. “Let’s go.” He gave Jason a scornful look as he led José to the truck. Once they were safely inside, he leaned out the window and yelled, “Faggots!” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 190)

This last situation is the most dangerous, not in terms of using violence, but in terms of indifference of those who should educate and cultivate teenagers. If they do nothing against discrimination and homophobia among their charges or what is worse, if they took the side of the bullies, it is a serious misconduct. Following excerpt from Sanchez’s second novel depicts the situation where three members of the school swimming team do not want to share the room with Kyle on competition because of his sexual orientation. They call him “faggot” in front of the coach and the quarrel starts. This is the final part of it: “I’ve had enough, Kyle. You brought this on yourself. If you hadn’t started this whole coming out business, none of this would have happened.” True enough. When he’d been the quiet, shy kid, no one had picked on him. But why should he have to go through school invisible? ...“No,” he said. “You’re the one who brought this on. None of this would have happened if you’d stopped them in the first place. You’re the coach, aren’t you?” “That’s enough!” Coach Sweeney snapped. “You are barred from swimming tomorrow.” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 178-9)

30 The first kiss is another big stage of life at least when it comes from the object of one’s desire. There are also many ways of describing something as intimate as kiss is. It can be fun, it can be embarrassing, it can be gentle, it can be passionate or it can come unexpectedly. And all of these are to be found in the selected series. Here is Sanchez’s humorous description of Kyle and Jason’s first kiss: Jason’s head cocked to the right, and Kyle felt himself flung toward him like a sled down a calamitous hill. Except their mouths didn’t fit right. Even though they were the same height, Kyle’s nose collided with Jason’s left upper lip, and he wanted to die from embarrassment. His nose! What was he supposed to do with his nose? There was no convenient place for it. (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 137)

Nelson’s first kiss with Blake was brought to an end with a question: “You smoke, don’t you?” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 116) so it cannot be counted. The real first kiss of Nelson was the passionate one: “Then Brick’s face was in front of him – his cheek warm, his lips pressing against Nelson’s neck, bestowing wet kisses. It felt different from Blake – passionate” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 146). Unfortunately for Nelson, what followed this passionate kiss caused his period of uncertainty, because Brick alias “HotLove69” was the internet date who did not use condom. Wolford’s description of Sam and Jake’s first kiss is gentle and soft: “Jake’s lips are soft and tight at the same time. His kiss is warm and nice and chock full of all the pent up tension that has been simmering between us for the last few weeks” (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 85). Jason’s longing for Caesar (son of the Hubbards – the family that wanted to foster Jason) was not answered for a long time until one day during a ride to school in Caesar’s car something unexpected happened: Caesar grabbed Jason’s head with both his hands and, stared hard to make sure his intent was known. Doubt ceased to exist. Jason felt like crying for joy, almost did as he closed his eyes and felt those lips touch his own. He wasn’t passive. He didn’t let this moment pass with any uncertainty or hesitation. His fingers sought Caesar’s hair, kept him close as his lips tried to make up for their complete lack of experience. At least Caesar seemed to know what to do, constantly adjusting for Jason’s clumsiness, air huffing from his nostrils, as his tongue slipped inside Jason’s mouth. (Bell, Spring 71-72)

Another important moment in lives of young adults is first making love. There are significant differences in the way the authors deal with this issue. The differences cover the choice of stylistic means and lexical items, the width of the described event and the explicitness of the content. Regarding the circumstances of the depicted events, all of the selected novels describe first making love as a voluntary act of love or at least lust, so in terms of content they do not differ very much. Both Sanchez and Wolford’s trilogies are very chaste and lack sexual details. Trušník observes that: “the references to sex never go beyond “making out,” “petting,” or “necking,” for obvious reasons. Anything else would disqualify

31 the novel as YA fiction and would certainly warrant exclusion from YA collections in school and public libraries” (“Young Adult” 171). It is easily detectable from the following excerpt. It depicts the first making love of Sam and Jake which can be found only almost at the end of the second novel: ...the next thing I know his lips are touching mine and we are kissing, passionately, vigorously, unrestricted in any way, senseless, crazy. And that is when my wild side overthrows the tyranny of my brain. Our hands twine around each other’s bodies, touching, groping. One moment his hands are behind my back supporting me, my hands are in his hair touching it, the next moment it’s vise [sic] -versa. There is no stopping us now. We belong together. There is no force in the universe strong enough to keep us apart, because there is nothing stronger than love. We are the one, one body, one soul...together. (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 251)

The complete quotation of the first sexual intercourse between the main characters is quite innocent to fit the demands of the YA genre. There is no sexually explicit term, nothing dirty or wild, just plain description of kissing, touching each other and at the end a few transcendental metaphors. To be sexually correct in order to label the novel as young adult is understandable, but it is my opinion that nowadays readers can expect more daring culmination of the couple’s life than this chaste description. Wolford omits every activity beyond kissing in his description, which feels strange if we consider that nowadays teenagers are surrounded by provocative and often sexually related videos on various music channels and the internet. Sanchez’s approach to depicting of first making love (not first sexual activity) is almost the same. The subtle difference is that Jason and Kyle, apart from kissing and touching each other, are “exploring every muscle” of their bodies and verbalize their declaration of love. When the encounter comes to the climax, their movements hasten as they “grope” and “bump” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 211). The following sentence assures the readers that this was really making love (in case someone would not be able to identify it): “Kyle studied him, marvelling in silence at the boy with whom he’d made love” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 212). Once again there is no sexually explicit word, no sexual activity mentioned, nothing further than touching and kissing. The only enlivening of this description is the using of direct speech in the process, which is a satisfaction both for the main characters and the readers, since this is the first time that both of the boys tell “I love you” to each other. The description of Nelson’s first sexual intercourse with Brick alias “HotLove69” is a little bit more daring: But before he could say anything, Brick was on top of him, pressed against him, touching every part of him, as though needing more, looking for Nelson’s very core. A voice screamed inside Nelson: Stop! Tell him. He needs to use a condom. But if he did say something, Brick might reject him, the same as Blake, the same as Kyle. A wave of despair swept over Nelson, until it seemed he was totally lost to himself. He no longer knew where he was or what was

32 happening, only that he wanted Brick. He clutched at him, soaked with sweat. His heart thundered faster and harder, till it seemed to burst. Then, just as quickly, it was over. (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 148)

Sanchez’s description of petting is enriched by the depictions of Nelson’s inner state, sensations and feelings. The metaphorical core could be anything from heart to anus, but considering the panic about condom, the latter mentioned seems more appropriate. The sense of guilt that they did not use a condom makes this description a didactic scarecrow which was definitely the intention of the author. Bell’s approach to depicting sexual activities is significantly different. He oversteps the boundary of young adult literature and as for the explicitness he is on the edge of crossover and adult literature. The author himself is aware of this aspect of his novels and when he is asked about some recommendations of GLBTQ literature for high school library on a forum, he acknowledges it: “Are these books for younger readers? In other words, are you concerned about explicit content? Most of the stuff I read and write doesn’t hold back when it comes to sex... If explicit content isn't an issue, you can find some of my favourite books here...” (“Ask the Author”). The difference is in the explicit language – which will be dealt with later in the thesis in the “Language” section. Next, in the attention to detail while describing, in the length and structure of the description and finally in the absence (or very low occurrence) of figurative language during these descriptions. That being said, the description of the intercourse is not vulgar, nasty or sleazy. The next excerpt is the scene where Tim and Ben make love for the first time (not counting mutual masturbation and oral sex) from the first third of the first novel in the series (quite early in the comparison with Wolford and Sanchez). The preceding scene, which will be also quoted later in the thesis, involved searching for something to use instead of a lubricant. They began kissing each other while trying to undress, twisting into odd positions in order to remove clothes without their lips breaking contact. Ben went to work on pleasing Tim, part of him hoping to satisfy him before things escalated to the next level, but he only succeeded in bringing the moment closer. Once worked up there was no stopping Tim, who rolled over on top of Ben while fumbling with the lotion in one hand. Tim broke away from kissing Ben to ask, “You ready?” “Yeah,” he replied, although he was anything but. The first attempt resulted in pain like Ben had never known, as if someone was twisting a knife deep within his gut. Tim apologized, but didn’t hesitate to try again. This time he managed to get it all the way in, but Ben forbade him to move in slightest as he tried to grow accustomed to the feeling. He knew that Tim was hung, but now it felt three times as big as it looked. Eventually Tim started to move slowly. Just a tiny fraction of an inch at first, and then more as the physical sensations overtook him. Ben gritted his teeth and wondered how he would survive the experience as Tim’s thrusting intensified. He had no choice. Ben would have to ask him to stop. He opened his eyes to do so, and saw his lover above him, body bathed in the eerie blue light of the tree. Tim’s face was lost in passion and more handsome

33 than ever. Ben was so taken by this ethereal vision that he forgot his discomfort and relaxed. The pain disappeared, replaced by something akin to pleasure. Ben reached down to touch himself and the pleasure multiplied. Soon the chorus of Tim’s moans was joined by his own. He reached up with his free hand to pull Tim in for a kiss, bringing their bodies closer together in the process. Their movements became one, increasing in need and intensity until they exploded together. (Bell, Summer 113-114)

This extract was not shortened deliberately in order to illustrate the difference in the length of the depictions. It is my opinion that contemporary readers of young adult literature would prefer descriptions similar to the last one, but it would mean to lead a further survey on this topic, which is not possible within the frame of this work.

4.3.3 Happy Endings

A typical feature of most of the gay young adult novels is a happy ending. Out of the ten selected novels for the thesis there is only one with a tragic ending, the others remain typical representatives with happy endings. Considering the main themes of all gay young adult novels which are coming to terms with one’s own sexuality and subsequent quest for someone to love, it is clear that the happy ending lies in accepting one’s own sexuality and more importantly finding someone to be with and to love. The acceptance of sexual identity is crucial. I am not aware of any of the gay young adult novels in the 21 century where the main hero would not accept his own sexual identity and even Cart and Jenkins do not state any example of such a novel in their book The Heart Has Its Reasons. In fact, it would be against the rules of the genre and it would definitely deny the didactic aspect of these novels. Thus, it is not surprising that the main character finally rests in the arms of his object of desire. As there are many possible variations how to approach the theme of finding the right partner, there are also variations in conclusions of the novels. As it was already mentioned, the majority of explored novels has its happy endings, but there are slight alternatives of them. Sam Dorsey, from Wolford’s series comes out in the first novel and realises that not Jake but Mitch is the person he can be with which he seals “with a kiss. And another. And another” (Wolford, Sixteen Candles153). But the heart has its reasons and so at the end of the second novel Jake is the one who embraces Sam: “I let everything fall out of my mind except for the feel of Jake’s lips on mine. This is a moment of our lifetimes. This is a memory that I will cherish forever... This is true love!” (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 282). However, at the end of the last novel, Sam is back in the arms of Mitch who finally came out and now they share precious loving moments together once again. On the last page there is a quote which tellingly summarises this artificially constructed love charade and which serves as the author’s cynical

34 testimony of his helplessness: “So, it all worked out in the end. I guess it always does one way or another” (Wolford, First Days 391). The summary is that Wolford sticks to the stereotypical happy endings in the most typical way and he is willing to do almost everything (including changing character’s traits) to built a grand finale with a true love by the side of the main character. This deliberate changing of characters leads to a loss of credibility among readers and the result is that the novels cannot be taken seriously. The series with several main characters usually have several endings (each of the characters has his own conclusion of the story), but sometimes they can intertwine and sometimes even merge. Sanchez’s Rainbow trilogy is a typical example of this. Nelson who is out since the very beginning of the first novel is desperately trying to find someone to lean on. He succeeds at the very end of the last novel when he meets Manny (practically a copy of Nelson), but he must go through a period of anxiety because of the unprotected sex at the end of the first novel, and the acceptance that HIV positive Jeremy is not the right solution of his solitude at the end of the second novel. None of these endings is not really happy, but as always with the character of Nelson, they represent the author’s educational intention. Jason and Kyle’s fates are entwined and so are the endings of the novels. In the first volume both boys come out to their families and fall in love with each other and make love for the first time. Volume number two finishes with Jason’s coming out in front of all the school (and even TV cameras) and thus he becomes a role model for many closeted gays. Kyle is satisfied with the situation because now he can openly date him. The last volume ends with the reassurance of the boys’ mutual love (after some obstacles and traps along the way) and cementing the friendship with Nelson. There is nothing extraordinary and innovative in the way Sanchez concludes his novels, but at least these endings are bearable unlike his novels in their totality. The life stories of Bell’s characters are even more entwined than those of the boys from the Rainbow trilogy. The four main characters – reflectors see the same situations from their point of view, so the endings should be the same, but Bell manages to prolong the story or include an introduction to enrich the stories. So basically, Ben and Tim finally and for the third time join their ways after Jace passes away and both are ready to give it a chance once again (novel 1). A few weeks later and after the “trial trip to Mexico” they are ready to move together (novel 2). The third novel whose main character-reflector is Jace (a long-time partner of Ben) ends with his sudden death (aneurysm). The fourth novel is a story of Jason, who lost his parents when he was six. His story culminates several years after the ending of the second novel, when Ben and Tim get married and offer him to be his guardians which he accepts. Of

35 all of the stereotypical endings this last one seems to be the most blatant. A wedding and an adoption during one ceremony is really a hard act to follow, but in reality it does not feel so kitschy. The difference is in the gradual dosage of all the information and events within the confines of almost 1500 pages of the whole series (in comparison with only 400 pages of Wolford’s trilogy). Bell’s humorous and not-so-didactic approach is also a reason why the formulas and patterns of the genre (which is often transgressed) are more tolerable. That said, it does not mean that his endings are original or unique, they are just more acceptable. The most daring ending (and the only ending which cannot be considered happy by any means) is definitely in the third novel when the main hero dies and the others have to deal with it. In reality it is quite a common thing, but it is not so frequent in gay young adult novels, that the reflector-character of the novel dies and the story ends leaving the reader in a state of shock.

4.4 Characterisation

Frances Day in her “Suggested guidelines” highlights the portrayal of gay and lesbian characters as complex and multidimensional beings (Day xxiv). The answer to Day’s question whether the characters are portrayed as believable and realistic personalities who develop throughout the course of the story or whether they are just stereotypical “stock characters” is disconcerting. There are lots of character stereotypes in all the series and lots of “stock characters” as well. Stock characters are “character types that occur repeatedly in a particular literary genre, and so are recognizable as part of the conventions of the form” (Abrams 297). Gregory Woods in his definition of the coming-out novel states that the individuality of stock characters is secondary to their social role and presents some examples of stock characters in gay fiction as it has been shown in chapter two. Sanchez offers three main characters who are so varied that they cover the most basic types of gay men. As Trušník remarks: “the choice is perceptibly kowtowing to the readers as almost any gay or bisexual reader can easily identify with one of the protagonists” (“Tool for Survival” 259). Jason Carrillo is a handsome jock, who has almost everything a teenager needs: a gorgeous girlfriend, admiration of friends and success in sport. His only problem is his sexuality. Deep inside, he knows that he is not heterosexual, later he even admits that he could be bisexual, but the truth is, that he is gay, but he is afraid to acknowledge it. That means he is a closet case, as one of the other characters remarks. Kyle Meeks is an average looking guy who wears glasses and braces. He is a reflective type and the most intelligent of

36 all the three boys. His kind-hearted and gentle personality does not attract many friends because he is shy. He is also good at sports, particularly swimming. Nelson Glassman is the only character who is openly gay from the beginning of the novel. He is frank, proud, opinionated and sometimes even impertinent. He is also the “walking encyclopedia” of all the gay knowledge and he starves for a boyfriend in order to satisfy his lust. His flamboyant appearance and manner makes him an easy target of homophobes (especially when his sauciness is added). These three types are almost “archetypal” stock characters, who appear in almost all the novels selected for the thesis. Tim Wyman from Bell’s tetralogy is the carbon copy of Jason Carrillo. He is also a tremendously looking and muscular jock with sport inclinations who has his girlfriend, a herd of followers, and still he is not satisfied with his life. The journey towards his coming out is painful and long and it includes the bisexual stage, closet homosexual stage and finally the acceptance of his homosexuality. (The only difference between him and Jason are Tim’s secret artistic inclinations.) Even Perie Wolford has almost the same character in his series and Wolford’s own depiction of the character speaks volumes: “Jake [Timbers] is a jock, the permanent unrivaled king of Arcadia High. He has an expensive and totally drool-worthy car, a gigantic horde of friends and followers who warship [sic] him, and a majorly sexy girlfriend” (Sixteen Candles 3). Jake also goes through bisexual, latent homosexual and openly homosexual stage in his life and has both sport and artistic inclinations (this time football and dance). The obsession with cars is common both for Jake and Tim, which only emphasizes the intention of the authors to make the characters as much manly and masculine as possible. (That is why the artistic inclinations remain hidden for the other characters until much later in the novel.) So it seems that in all the series the most muscular and manly looking characters are also the most insecure about their sexuality and all of them are in the closet at the beginning of the novel. While Jason, Tim and Jake were almost exactly the same, the second type who could be easily described as an “understanding boy from the next door” offers slight variations. Sanchez’s Kyle, Wolford’s Sam and Bell’s Ben are all average looking boys with pleasant character traits, usually smart and reasonable. No matter if they are in the closet or not, they do not have any problems with their sexual orientation. All of them are willing to risk to win the favour of the most handsome boys in the town and all of them succeed despite their average appearance. The minimal differences are in their hobbies (Kyle is a swimmer and both Sam and Ben are into art – Sam dances and wants to study at Boston Film Academy and Ben loves music and singing almost as much as his boyfriends). They always do what is right

37 and so they become slightly predictable unless the author wants them to make a mistake (because to err is human) and so they stumble very rarely. A “flamboyant type” is not so frequent in the series, maybe because after a time his behaviour becomes annoying even for the characters in the series. Nelson has been already mentioned above. The only equivalent of him can be seen in Bell’s series. Aaron is a minor character who helps Tim to get back to Ben. His slightly feminine appearance and proud manners together with his opinionated character makes him easy to remember although his role in the story is quite marginal. Another stock character that appears in two of the three series could be called “the serpent.” A boy of attractive appearance who knows his way about sex and does not hesitate to try his luck. A character, who has tried almost all sort of soft drugs, such as cigarettes, alcohol or THC and who does not spurn even hard drugs from time to time. These characters use their looks to get what they want and are very skilful in it. Bell presents Ryan and Wolford Erik. (The only difference between them is that Ryan tends to be self-destructive and aggressive when he is rejected while Erik remains passive in this way.) A “proper guy” is another item in the itinerary and it is also present in two series. Mitch from Sam Dorsey trilogy and Jace from Bell’s tetralogy show identical features. They are both quite handsome and in addition they always behave correctly. They are responsible and honest, always trying to offer a helping hand. When somebody else makes a mistake, they are ready to forgive him and let it be. In other words, they are the ideal partners for life, but a little bit boring for the purpose of a dramatic story. However, their presence in the novel once again has educational effect because they can represent the role models in relationships. Shifting focus on the minor characters several other representatives of stock characters can be spotted as well. Woods’s depiction of coming out novels where he mentions the caricatures of fathers: “they beat their wives, they drank, they talked about ball games and they despised their pansy sons” (342) was already mentioned in the second chapter. Jason’s father in Sanchez’s series is precisely like that. But he is not alone. The other representatives of fathers are only slightly varied. Nelson’s father from the same series does not live with Nelson and his mother anymore. His only communication with his former family is via phone and he fails when it comes to parenting or upbringing his offspring. That is also the case of Tim’s father from Bell’s series. The readers learn that Tim was an unwanted child and that both of his parents (so not only the father) acted like he was a bad coincidence on their life journey. So they do not limit themselves concerning the travelling and other interests. When they got to know about their son’s sexual orientation, they turned their back on him

38 completely and mainly due to father’s decision to do so. Kyle’s father from Sanchez’s series is not that bad but even he fails in his parenting. He rarely looks up from his Sports Illustrated and remains passive until his son gets beaten because of his being gay. That is the moment when he awakens and starts to care (in his own very manlike way). That goes hand in hand with the image of mother as a strong woman who must take care of all the family and who is the emotional centre of it. All the mothers depicted in the series with the exception of Tim’s mother are like that. The most extreme example is Nelson’s mother who is a vice-president of a local PFLAG group and her love to her son is so big that she is willing to make queer visibility buttons for all the local community in her free time. The last representative of the minor stock characters is “the best female buddy.” Two or three (if we count Jace’s sister Michelle as well) characters from the series have a female friend as their “best buddy” – Ben from Bell’s series and Sam from Wolford’s series. These girls have sympathetic ears, are willing to help when it is needed and always have the right piece of advice if the character is lost (not to mention the shared circle of hobbies). Unfortunately for the reader, they can be a bit foreseeable (especially Wolford’s Melissa). Bell’s Allison has a life of her own in the series so her character is more varied. To summarise the facts, the majority of the main characters and some of the minor characters in selected series are basically stock characters. Wolford’s and Sanchez’s characters are typical representatives of the stock characters and do not develop outside the pattern. Bell’s characters, who are based on stock characters at the beginning of the series, have a chance to develop, because the events and situations in the novels shape them and so they end up more colourful and believable than their colleagues from the other two series. The plot sophistication and the length of the Bell’s series are the main reasons for better portrayal of the characters.

4.5 Language

Frances Day focuses on language of the novels from the aspect of offensiveness when evaluating books with gay and lesbian content. She asks a question whether the language is respectful of lesbian and gay people (Day, xxiv). The reader would suppose that in gay YA novels there will not be any offensive terms or collocations towards GLBTQ minority and if they appear they are usually uttered by minor characters who attempt to bully the main heroes. This supposition is right and it is the opinion of the author of this thesis that the offensive language in current gay YA novels is really only adding an emotional air to the story. However, Day’s opinion is different. In her “Suggested guidelines” she regards words

39 such as “lifestyle,” “preference,” “choice,” and “mannish” as offensive (Day xxiv). Adopting her point of view, a lot of terms in the series would be offensive, including even words such as “dyke” and “queer”. This seems a little bit far-fetched and the only solution of her problem would be to hold control over the text, which is of course unacceptable. It must be said, that the political correctness towards gays and lesbians is a rather new issue and it was not like that in the past, when the attitude of society and the language used towards homosexuals were offensive and gay people were often described as deviants or guilt-ridden loners destroyed by themselves or society (Cart, Jenkins 27). To look at the issues of language at gay young adult novels only from this perspective would be too restricted, so it was established to look at the language of selected novels in terms of authorial style and the author’s choice of language used throughout the series. I propose following aspects should be studied: a) using slang or “teenage language”, b) explicit and offensive language, c) author’s language idiosyncrasies (including using other languages than English). After consideration it was decided to omit figurative language from the analysis because of the specific nature of gay young adult novels and not so frequent occurrence of tropes in them. Sanchez attempts to establish a friendly relationship between him and his teenage readers by using teenage slang (a characteristic language of teenagers used partly to hide the meaning of the utterance and partly to establish social belonging). He does not choose the frequently used teen phrases of that era such as “What’s up?” and “Oh my God!” like Wolford and Bell do, he goes one step further and uses “Wha’s up?” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 42) and “Omigod” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 43) on many occasions in the series. He deliberately chooses to use the most “up-to-date” and “hip” terms to appeal to his readers. “Nah” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 207) is often preferred instead of plain “no” and other popular words such as “cool” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 156) and “chillax” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 238) are to be found as well. Sanchez also uses abbreviations and acronyms such as “P.O.” (Rainbow High 110) and “E.M.” (Rainbow High 143) instead of regular words (Pissed Off and E-Mailed) in order to approach the teenage audience. Offensive language and sexually explicit words are present in every explored gay YA novel. The difference is in the degree and the intensity of the chosen words. Sanchez is the most daring of the three authors in terms of his choice of offensive names, dirty words and swearing. Words like “shit” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 144) and “fuck” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 91) are used mainly by the most pert of the three boys – Nelson. Nelson, being the most emotional character, deals with his fate by swearing and moaning. “Was this Shit-on-Nelson

40 Week or something?” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 173) and “Like he gives a crap” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 141) are two examples of his profanities. Offensive names aimed to people form GLBTQ minority such as “faggot,” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 163) “homo,” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 129) or “pansy” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 94) are meant either scornfully (usually by bad characters in the story) or amusingly (usually by queer people when talking about themselves). While Sanchez is the most daring of the explored authors in terms of offensive names and vulgarisms, he is enormously tame as for the sexually explicit language. When he describes sexual encounters of the main characters he avoids terms that would be even slightly sexual or erotic. Although he mentions a masturbation, depicts making love or even passionate sex with an unknown stranger, the reader will not find words like “cock” and not even “penis” in all three books which is something very strange and sterile when we realise that he writes for young adult readers who are just discovering their sex life. In this aspect, his series is very innocent and Sanchez’s choice of language is very careful, which only confirms one of the features of YA literature – no sexually explicit language. Authorial idiosyncrasies is a term that I suggested to cover specific features of the language of the particular author (peculiarities and stereotypes of his writing) and deliberate using of other language than English in the text. Sanchez’s style is not so extraordinary; only the abundance of didactic elements (explored later in the thesis) can be mentioned as well as his fondness for the word “funky” which he uses on several occasions in different collocations such as “funky mood,” “funky metal jewellery” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 139) and others. On many pages of the series he uses foreign languages, mainly Spanish and French but also Yiddish and Latin. In each occasion the word is highlighted or put in italics. The only character who is of Hispanic origin is Jason and in the first volume he uses English only. The character who uses French and Spanish the most is certainly Nelson. He uses these words: “mucho” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 134), “petite opera de soap” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 2), “sans” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 196), “au naturelle” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 152), “no problema” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 85), “quelle surprise” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 246) and others. And even in this aspect Sanchez proves to be inconsistent because in the second volume clusters of foreign language are uttered by Kyle and Jason as well and this time in Spanish – “maricón” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 5), “machismo” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 5), Latin – “alma mater” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 22), “ad nauseum” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 42) and even Yiddish – “Oy vey!” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 2), which is quite surprising. The question whether the words in Latin are taken as foreign words or loan words is answered in

41 favour of foreign words by the author’s habit to use different font for foreign words (and all of the aforementioned words were emphasized). A possible reason for frequent usage of foreign words by the author could be his educational intention, but there is no way to prove this from the text itself. There is not much to be said about Wolford’s series in terms of using teenage slang. He uses common teenage phrases in order to be credible for his audience and he succeeds in it. Sentences like: “I’m such a mess” (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 260) and “What’s up” (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 55) are an integral part of the way current young adults talk to each other. Wolford also reflects the latter-day attempts to overuse the suffix -ish in combination with almost everything: “The students are buzzing about, stopping to chat in large clique-ish chunks that create major roadblocks for the rest of us all across the way” (Sixteen Candles16). As for the offensive language Wolford is moderate, he occasionally uses “fuck” (Sixteen Candles 124) and “shit” (Sixteen Candles 138) and rarely expands to “shit happens” (Dirty Dancing 260). Words like “homo” (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 89) and “faggot” (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 89) are included as well similarly as in Sanchez’s case. Wolford is a bit more daring when it comes to depicting sexual encounters. He is not vulgar at all but he is not afraid to use the common denominations for certain things, organs and actions unlike Sanchez. There is nothing erotic in the first volume but in the second volume he mentions “erect penis” (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 240) and the third volume is the most explicit with terms like “dick” (Wolford, First Days 350), “jerking off” (Wolford, First Days 351), “masturbation” (Wolford, First Days 355) and “orgasm” (Wolford, First Days 352). He is still quite tame but not as innocent as the above mentioned author. The biggest problem with Wolford’s series are the spelling and sometimes even grammar (syntax) mistakes. Nine different spelling errors or other mistakes were spotted in the text, which is alarming. Since this series was printed on demand, it is certain that it was caused by an insufficient control of the text by the publisher. Jay Bell’s language goes towards the teenage audience but does not pander to them. Bell uses teenage slang in the direct speeches of the characters and it feels plausible when he does it. He does not want to create new words and collocations to be adopted and used by the teenagers, he only uses the most frequent items that are often seen and heard among young adults nowadays. “No” is quite often replaced by “naw” (Bell, Summer 39) or “nope” (Bell, Summer 16), “yes” by “yeah” (Bell, Summer 6) or “yup” (Bell, Summer 30) and “I dunno” (Bell, Summer 10) substitutes for “I don’t know”. Also the extensive vocabulary is something that favours Bell over Wolford and Sanchez. Words like “coyly” (Bell, Summer 64),

42 “acquiescence” (Bell, Summer 143), “moot” (Bell, Summer 115), and “looming” (Bell, Summer 265) are just a small sample of Bell’s rich vocabulary, which is not frequently seen in young adult novels. The choice of profanities and vulgar language seems natural in terms of the chosen topics and situations depicted in the books. In comparison with Wolford, Bell is a little bit cruder; probably at the same level as Sanchez. The obligatory items such as “fuck” (Bell, Winter 31), and “shit” (Bell, Winter 104), are sometimes extended into phrases like “not fucking kidding” (Bell, Winter 293), and “holy shit” (Bell, Winter 127), and annoying things quite often “suck” (Bell, Winter 12), which is nothing extraordinary. The choice of offensive names is limited; “faggot” (Bell, Winter 26) being the most represented of them (once again used by the enemies or bullies of the main characters). A surprising fact is that the word “queer” was used in an offensive way only once in the first volume (Bell, Summer 14) and once in the second volume (Bell, Winter 128). There is no other occurrence of this word in the following two books. Other quite common offensive name like “homo” is missing entirely. Members of GLBTQ community are simply called “gays” (Bell, Spring 73) or “lesbians” (Bell, Spring 192). While Bell is restrained in using offensive language, he is not holding back as for the sexually explicit language. He is definitely the most daring of the three examined authors both in the descriptions of sexual acts (as it has been shown in chapter 4.3.2) and in the denomination of sexual organs and activities. Penis is usually “dick” (Bell, Spring 310) or “cock” (Bell, Spring 94), erection is either a “hard-on” (Bell, Summer 1) or a “boner” (Bell, Summer 219), masturbation is “jacking off” (Bell, Winter 49), “jerking off” (Bell, Summer 72) or “pumping” (Bell, Summer 77) and oral sex is a “blow job” (Bell, Summer 22). When the characters reach the climax, they usually “come” (Bell, Winter 256) or “explode” (Bell, Summer 115). This is something that did not appear in the course of the whole Sanchez trilogy and Wolford is definitely not so open and colourful in the descriptions of the sexual activities. Once again it shows that in this aspect Bell’s series should be classified as a crossover title. Authorial idiosyncrasies are in the case of Jay Bell very interesting. It seems that he has come to like certain phrases which he uses repeatedly in the process of writing of the whole series. It may seem strange when the characters are “clenching” (Bell, Winter 110) and “dropping” (Bell, Autumn 132) their jaws seven times during the first novel. It is certainly noticeable, because the frequency is quite high. In the following novels the figures of the occurrence of these two phrases even increase (10 occurrences in the second volume, 22 occurrences in the third and 27 in the last volume). It must be said that the author is not

43 incompetent to use the language or to handle the excessive repetition since there are no other phrases repeated like these two. Nevertheless, it is an interesting markedness that co-creates author’s style. Bell often quotes words, phrases or even lines from poems in Spanish. Whenever such a word or phrase appears, it is in italic and it is told by Tim or some of his relatives, because they are of Hispanic origin. Unlike Sanchez in his trilogy, Bell is strictly consistent in this aspect and it never seems unnatural. The reader gets to know some offensive names such as “mariposa” (Bell, Summer 21) which means a butterfly or a faggot according to the context and at the times when Tim and Ben are getting closer, Tim does not hesitate to whisper sweet Spanish words like “hermosa” (Bell, Winter 354) (beautiful) and “gordito” (Bell, Winter 95) (cute little fat boy).

4.6 Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the “name often given to the manner in which texts of all sorts (oral, visual, literary, virtual) contain reference to other texts that have, in some way, contributed to their production and signification” (Childs 121). Referring to other texts can flatter the reader, if he manages to decode them. That is why the interplay between the reader and the author depends upon the reader’s previous encountering of the intertexts that are invoked (Childs 121). Trušník claims that “the extraordinarily high presence of intertextual references in gay young adult novels is not a random occurrence but an important strategy in the authors’construction of their books” (“The Uses” 256). After a thorough exploration of all the three series of selected gay young adult novels his view must be confirmed. There is a significant amount of intertextual references in each one of them and they are used intentionally to support the ambience of the novels. Trušník states these three main uses of intertextual references: a) defining the setting (including an atmosphere), b) characterising the protagonists and c) fighting or endorsing the texts (“The Uses” 251). After analysis of the series one more use was added in order to represent the occurrences of intertextual references of the explored samples in the more comprehensive way – d) edification of readers. There are some intertextual references that can be categorised into more than one group of use so the same reference can be found in several groups. It must be said that not all of the aforementioned uses are present in every selected novel, so the analysis is laid out based on the division above and not necessarily as a sequence of series by one author as it was done before.

44 4.6.1 Defining the Setting

Defining the setting is surely the most frequent use of intertextual references. This specific use is to be found in every series of the selected sample of gay YA novels. References and allusions to other texts or to media, social or cultural stories are often used to help with the description of the setting and to support the atmosphere of the novel. The right chosen allusion to a text or song which is commonly known can help the reader with creating image of the scene more powerfully than a long and tedious description and that is one of the reasons why the authors use this literary device so often. Reader’s successful identification of the allusion contributes to his enjoyment of the text. Sanchez often refers to music and particular bands to define the time setting of the novel as well as other cultural phenomena of the given era. Britney Spears and her plain pop products are mentioned one several pages of the third volume (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 107, 117) when Nelson attempts to lip-synch and dance on local dance contest. The problem with Sanchez is that he always tries to educate his teenage audience, so when some of the characters listen to some music, it is almost always a band or an artist from the GLBTQ community. For the common reader they are practically unknown because they are often alternative or not so famous (Britney Spears and Norah Jones mentioned in the third volume are the only exceptions). The list of “recommended” GLBTQ bands is thus to be found in the section 4.6.4 Edification of Readers. To introduce some characters into the world of gay issues Sanchez mentions two popular gay magazines of that era: Blueboy (Rainbow Boys 88) and Honcho (Rainbow Boys 52), both with pornographic content, which is paradoxical, because Sanchez does not write about sex very much. Both magazines are no longer available on the market. (Honcho is also the cause of Kyle’s involuntary coming out, since Kyle’s mother finds it at the bed while Kyle is asleep.) It would not be the right gay novel if there was no mention of the Village People hit record “YMCA”. The main characters dance and go wild on this tune during their prom night (Sanchez, Rainbow High 245). The dark chord of gay issues is represented in the series by hostile homophobes trying to run the main characters down and before the situation starts to be really serious Kyle asks the question: “Does the name Matthew Sheppard mean anything to you?” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 174) referring to the killing of Matthew Shepard in Colorado 1998. Another example of hatred towards homosexuals was depicted at the scene where Kyle and Nelson are trying to organise Gay-Straight Alliance at their school and the local citizens come to protest against it

45 holding the placard “Dick and Jane not Dick and Wayne!” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 179) referring to the book written by William S. Gray, May Hill Arbuthnot and John Anthony O’Brien called Fun with Dick and Jane (1940). The book was used as the basic reader in America until the seventies. The placard expressed the opinion of the protesters that only the heterosexual couples are natural. References to films and books are also numerous in the text. When the three main characters set out on the journey through United States, Kyle is reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957). The transsexual character BJ lives in a house that looks like those from the Margaret Mitchell’s book Gone with the Wind (1936): “tall white columns, green-shuttered windows, a gaslight over the front door” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 110). The most telling allusion is uttered by Nelson after the meeting with faeries at the Radical Faerie sanctuary: “It’s like The Wizard of Oz when you suddenly go from black-and-white to Technicolor. I haven’t felt this excited since Madonna kissed Britney” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 73). The astonishing force of the meeting with faeries that struck Nelson is easily recognisable. Wolford’s work with references and allusions help the readers to identify the time setting of the novels. The reader knows that the beginning of the first novel is on the birthday of Sam Dorsey, which is some day in April, 1985. But there are no other specific dates throughout the other parts of the series. As it was already mentioned the whole Wolford’s trilogy is constructed as a tribute to three cult films from the eighties: Sixteen Candles (dir. John Hughes, 1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street (dir. Wes Craven, 1984) and Dirty Dancing (dir. Emile Ardolino, 1987). It is clear that the time frame of the series is the second half of the eighties. Other references that clarify the time setting are these. The main hero – Sam – is wearing three different T-shirts during the first novel: the first one is with a picture of the RUN DMC band, the second one shows the PAC MAN (popular computer game of the eighties) and the third one is with the writing ATARI on it. All the three t-shirts portray the phenomena of the second half of the eighties. At the end of the last novel Sam is given a Christmas present: some props from the new Back to the Future film, which must be the second or the third part of the series (released 1989 and 1990). So the time frame of the series is from 1985 to 1989. The music and referring to songs is also Wolford’s important source for creation of the atmosphere of his series. He mentions the group Descendents as the common ground for Sam and Mitch in the first volume of the series and then he quotes the lyrics of the song “Poppies in the Field” by the band Teardrop Explodes, both slightly alternative punk and new wave projects. In the second volume based on Dirty Dancing the choice of related songs that are

46 mentioned is different, more in the vein of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. The first being quoted is the Solomon Burke’s song “Cry to Me” (a huge soul hit from the sixties) whose lyrics depict the feelings of Sam: When your baby leaves you all alone And nobody calls you on the phone Ah, don’t you feel like crying? Don’t you feel like crying? Well here I am my honey Oh, come on you cry to me (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 181)

Other songs used in the quoted films and endorsed in Wolford’s text will be mentioned in the section 4.6.3 Fighting and Endorsing the Texts. Similarly to Sanchez and Wolford, Bell does not refer to many books and literary texts; he puts emphasis on music and songs as one of the main sources for creating atmosphere, which is not surprising, since two of his main characters are strongly devoted to music. The allusions to songs are thus the most frequent ones. Ben (the main character in the first volume) loves to sing and does not hesitate to show off whenever he can. The first song he is singing along with his best friend Allison is “Take on Me” by A-HA. Ben’s would be boyfriend Tim is captured by the sheer brilliance of Ben’s rendition of Fugees’ “Killing Me Softly.” Later Ben and Allison consider singing “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie on a talent show until they find a better option. Ben’s musical taste is quite mainstream which can be seen from the list of the mentioned songs. Tim’s alternative musical taste is manifested when Beck’s voice “explodes out of the stereo system” in his car (Bell, Winter 29) and a while later he asks Ben to sing the Beastie Boys song for him. Ben introduces Tim into the world of Roberta Flack and sings her original version of “Killing Me Softly” to Tim’s great delight. Another main character who is keen on music is Jason (the main character of the fourth volume) who likes strumming the guitar when he needs to escape from the problems of life. His favourite song is “Something Is Always Wrong” by Toad the Wet Sprocket and the lyrics aptly describe the sadness in his soul. “Every breath you take” by the Police strummed for Caesar was quite ironic choice considering the fact that Jason was stalking Caesar and watching him in his sleep. Bell’s allusions to songs often express the feelings of the characters and deepen the atmosphere in the novel. Moments of happiness are accompanied by happy and cheerful songs such as “La Bamba,” provocative moments are underscored by “50 ways to leave your lover” by Paul Simon and the great finale of the series is finished with the subversive use of The Cure’s “Love Song”. Jason tackled him, flattening William with an “oof!” and kissing him before he could catch his breath. “I love you too,” he said. “I always will.” Then, in terrible imitation of Robert Smith’s

47 voice, he started crooning The Cure’s Love Song. “Stop,” William pleaded, pretending to cover his ears. “I’m done with feeling sad. From now on it’s just you, me, and a whole bunch of happy days.”(Bell, Spring 435)

Among other intertextual references that define the setting belong the allusions to films: Before Ben knew what was happening, Jace had slid his arm under his back and another under his legs. He scooped Ben up effortlessly and carried him toward the ladder leading up to the bed. .... “Put me down!” Ben said, but Jace had already begun to climb. “This is like a hot, gay version of King Kong.” (Bell, Summer 169)

This particular one was the most humorous. In the second volume Tim and Ben are watching the Toy Story (dir. John Lasseter, 1995) together while Ben is crooning along the tune from the film “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, implying that he likes the film and he has seen it before. There are also a few references to social stories and events; the allusion to September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks being the most important of them. Jace works as the air steward and he perceives the situation really emotionally, because he is in the air at the particular moment. Quite a substantial part of the 26th chapter in the third book is dedicated to the tragedy and it is written with a deep respect to all the people who died during the attacks.

4.6.2 Characterising the Protagonists

Relating the characters to phenomena of the given time or to cultural or social context of that era is a way how to characterize them. All the three authors use references to various cultural or social phenomena to define the characters. Nelson from Sanchez’s series is the fine example. He is the proudest and the most conscious of the three characters in the Rainbow series. He is the generator of the gay awareness in the series. Via Nelson’s character the readers get to know the majority of information concerning gay issues. Sometimes it is self- evident and many times it seems even too educational. Readers will find the list of gay bands that he is referring to at the section 4.6.4 Edification of Readers. Other gay issues he is referring to are the social groups and gay associations he is attending, namely Rainbow Youth Group, which he attends regularly every Saturday (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 82) and PFLAG, which he does not hesitate to explain to a newcomer in the group – Jason: “That’s Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. My mom is vice president” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 7). He is also the first to know about all the venereal diseases and the latest treatment of AIDS, but one thing is to be the propagandist and the other thing is to act accordingly. During his first sexual contact he fails in using condom and forgets even about the “morning-after”

48 medication which must be used shortly after the “accident” to avoid the HIV infection (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 177). Sometimes even the magazines that the characters read can characterise their personality as it was in the case of Kyle’s most of the time unconcerned and a bit shallow father who regularly reads Sports Illustrated (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 202). Wolford also mentions magazines to describe the character, but this time it is his appearance: “he [Jake] has these beautiful ocean-y blue eyes that belong on the cover of GQ or something” (Dirty Dancing 166). (GQ is an international monthly men’s magazine with a long history and still available on the market.) Creating some of the minor characters based on the well-known film characters is the easiest way how to make the readers adopt the right attitude towards them without using too many words. Sam sees Jake’s mother as: “Cruella De Vil, a rich bitch from 101 Dalmatins” (Wolford, First Days 309). Beauty is subjective. Whereas one day Jake is described as the cover boy, the other day (after the break up) things can seem different. In the third volume Sam sees Jake as Freddy Krueger, who haunts him in his dreams and who is said to be the reason of Sam’s bad life period (Wolford, First Days 297). Bell also uses allusions to sketch the appearance of his characters. One of the minor characters is described as an attractive guy, “who looked vaguely like Zack Morris” (Summer 15). (Zack Morris was a fictional character who appeared in several sitcoms during the nineties and who was portrayed by Mark-Paul Gosselaar – handsome brown-eyed blond boy.) Tim, one of the main characters, is perceived by Jace as “Abercrombie and Fitch” (Bell, Summer 217), when seen for the first time. Bell surely did not refer to the famous fashion brand, but to the exclusive and extremely attractive models which they use for promotion of their clothes. Changes in the appearance of some established characters can be perceived both in a positive and a negative way. It depends on the taste: “Does he still have the mustache?” “Oh my god!” Michelle looked exasperated. “Not only does he still have it, but he’s gone full handlebar. He’s been into cop movies lately. He looks like one of The Village People.” Jace grinned. “Hot!” “It’s so not,” his sister replied. “If you want to give me one thing for Christmas, talk him into shaving it off!” (Bell, Autumn 265)

Even pets in this series can have their own referents as it was in the case of Wilford (Ben’s dog). It was named Wilford based on the similarities of the face with the real Wilford Brimley, who was an elderly man from the oatmeal commercials, which were broadcasted during the eighties and nineties in the USA.

49 Person’s possessions can also co-define the perception of a personality or a character in the novel. At the beginning of the first novel Ben captures the attention of his future boyfriend Tim by wearing an old Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt. Tim, who is fond of alternative music, nods affirmatively. Later, when Ben comes to Tim’s bedroom for the first time, his conclusion about Tim’s musical taste is confirmed by the presence of a collection of CDs of popular alternative music (B’ sides collection by Nirvana and some Smashing Pumpkins were mentioned particularly) (Bell, Summer 46, 77). Posters on the wall tell something about the owner of the room as well. Jace remarks in the third novel that Michelle’s room has not changed since she was fourteen and that the posters should be up-dated. He is referring to the posters of “The Cure, Sixteen Candles, Depeche Mode and one of Corey Haim looking said and vulnerable” (Bell, Autumn 26). As outdated as it seems in 1990 when this part of the story takes place, it still has an information value about the teenage years of his sister.

4.6.3 Endorsing and Fighting Texts

This is definitely the use of intertextual references which has the lowest occurrence in all the three series. The reason is that none of these series is situated into “literary” setting. Characters from the Rainbow series are concerned mainly about themselves and sometimes sport. Bell’s characters are dealing with relationship difficulties and the topic of music occasionally appears. The only series that includes intertextual references which are endorsing other “texts” is Wolford’s Sam Dorsey trilogy. However, the allusions used in this series will not refer to other literary texts, but to films, songs and characters from the films as the whole series is constructed as a tribute to them. Sam Dorsey and His Sixteen Candles does not share the same plot as the film but some of the scenes are inspired by the film and some details are adopted. The main character in the novel is a sixteen-year-old boy Sam Dorsey while in the film there is sixteen-year-old girl Sam(antha) Baker as the main protagonist. Both Sam and Samantha fall in love with Jake (Timbers in the novel, Ryan in the film). The general description of Jake from the book fits even for the film character: Jake is a jock, the permanent and unrivalled king of Arcadia High. He has an expensive and totally drool-worthy car, a gigantic horde of friends and followers who warship [sic] him, and a majorly sexy girlfriend. (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 3)

As both of them think that they are too ordinary to be noticed by Jake, they do not attempt to talk to him. At this point the similarities between the novel and the film cease. The extraordinary situation in the family varies (unexpected stay of uncle’s family at the Dorseys

50 and the wedding at the Bakers), but still it is a similar ground from which the twists of the plot develop each into different directions with very different endings (Samantha is in the arms of Jake, while Sam gives his heart to Mitch – Jake’s rival). Although the events in the novel and the film differ extensively, there is one particular scene in the middle of both works, where the trajectories of the events cross once again. It is the scene where the main characters are depressed because of the train of events with Jake and their father comes to the bedroom to talk with them. The words uttered are different, but the meaning is the same. Both Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Baker want to know what is bothering their children. Both Sam and Samantha reply: “I’m okay” (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 128) at first but later they reveal their troubles which ends in reconciliation on Samantha’s side and coming out on the side of Sam. Both of these scenes are crucial because they touch the issues of the teen-world: coming-of-age and coming out. To support the feeling that this novel is really a tribute to Sixteen Candles film Wolford quotes lyrics of the songs present in the movies and the main character even comments on it once: “Yes, it’s that one song from the movie, Happy Birthday by the Altered Images” (Wolford, Sixteen Candles 19). He knows the film very well, because he was watching it on VHS (and not for the first time) last night, but he does not make any other reference to it in the course of the novel. In Sam Dorsey and his Dirty Dancing Wolford uses the remote recreational resort as the setting similarly as Ardolino in his film. The exotic and luxurious place provides an interesting platform for developing different story lines. But there are some things common for both stories – mainly the dance contest and the rehearsals of the dance and then some surprising character similarities. Sam’s character has not changed much since the previous volume. He is still funny, gentle, and insecure boy with doubts in his heart. What is new, is the fact that he is willing to experiment a bit, because he explores the new territory with the help of a new character Erik (symbol of all of the forbidden things like cigarettes, sex and alcohol) and in that way Sam is the male equivalent of Baby – the main female character from the film. Wolford uses Erik to variegate the story and to bring more excitement to it, but the real cause of Sam’s inner fights is Jake. However, Jake’s character has gone through numerous changes to fit the intention of the author and from the unrivalled jock, whose main interests were football and sex, suddenly (for the purpose of the plot) there is a new “updated” version of Jake quite different from the one stated above: Jake, however, is more of an artist than a football player. Not that he’s not a great player,

51 he’s exceptional! but where Mitch truly and wholeheartedly loves the sport, Jake is pretty indifferent. He would much rather become a photographer, but his father would never agree to that. (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 164)

Even more interesting is the fact that Jake is an excellent dancer which no one knew until the moment he appears at the Crest Hollows (the recreational centre). At that moment he begins to train Sam who is not able to lift and hold his dance partner Melissa. This creates an interesting intertextual tension. Jake in this volume stands for Johnny Castle – the fearless dance instructor from the film, but in a way he finds himself in the same situation as Baby who is not able to oppose her father. Jake’s father sees art as a “low class” activity and he would not let him do something that “shallow”. So the characters in the novel are amalgams of fragments of characters that appeared in the film and sometimes their behaviour is slightly irrational thanks to this fact. The question, whether the author creates this tension on purpose and rely on the erudition of the readers and their comparative and analytic thinking, can be dismissed on the basis of authors incompetence to keep the elemental character qualities unchanged. Another similarity is the reason why the characters are involved in dancing – money. Sam wants to win the prize of the annual Dance-Off which would cover his tuition at the Film Academy where he wants to go, but his parents are not willing to pay for it, whereas Johnny needs to dance at the Sheldrake hotel, where he is hired, otherwise he would lose all the season’s pay and went bankrupt. The most difficult and also the key element of the dance is the lift-jump and both the characters in the novel and the film struggle to learn it right until they find a pond nearby, where they manage to do it. These scenes are almost identical and they contribute to deepening of the relationship of Sam and Jake in the novel and Johnny and Baby in the film. The list of similarities and variations ends with allusion to one specific song – The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”, which was used during the opening credits in the film and Wolford quotes part of the text at the very end of the second novel to make the atmosphere more romantic. The only real literary allusion which is to be found in the whole series is the quotation of Robert Frost: “Dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire” (Wolford, Dirty Dancing 183). Jake is the one who refers to this famous quote when he wants Sam to express what he feels inside and stop controlling himself. One has to wonder where the football jock learnt about Frost and dancing.

52 Sam Dorsey and His First Days in College is divided into two parts and only the first part is a tribute to A Nightmare on Elm Street. This time there is no other resemblance to the film than the clichéd horror device when the main hero has nightmare in which he is haunted by Freddy Kruger – the maniacal murderer in red and green striped sweater, wearing special gloves with knife blades for fingers. The content of dreams does not overlap with the reality and so the main hero is not wounded or suffering when he awakes from his sleep. It is as flat as it sounds. And the fact, that the Freddy Kruger persona is a symbol for Jake who left Sam the previous summer, does not improve the story at all. Bad dreams based on an unexpected breakup and the repetitive formula of alternation of dreams (sometimes a dream within a dream – to make it more interesting) and reality make a whole, which is tedious and stereotypical. Reconciliation with the past relationship and starting a new one with Mitch (for the second time) makes the nightmares disappear. The setting of the dream sequences can occasionally resemble the film setting such as this one: I find myself in a dark corridor with black painted walls and a very high ceiling. Huge industrial pipes twining around me erupt in steam outbursts every now and again. The only light that I see is coming from the boiler room not far ahead of me, unnerving pulsating light of an open fire. (Wolford, First Days 287)

The exact quotation of Freddy Kruger’s theme song: “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, grab a crucifix. Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. Nine, ten, never sleep again,” (which was based on children’s nursery rhyme “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” [“One, Two”]) is divided into separate lines and used throughout the novel. Along with the setting this rhyme enables Wolford to build a dark atmosphere, but the whole concept makes a stereotypical impression.

4.6.4 Edification of Readers

There is a significant amount of allusions that refer to basic facts, personalities and events connected with GLBTQ minority to be found in Sanchez’s Rainbow series. His aim was to educate the readers about the gay issues, culture and history and raise the awareness of the community. Sanchez did it on purpose and included as many references to these issues as it started to be overloaded with it and in a way annoying. This section will thus deal mainly with his series because the other mentioned authors remained sober in this aspect and the occurrence of this particular use of intertextual reference is very low.

53 As it was mentioned before, Nelson is the agent who raises the gay awareness in the series while the other two main characters are usually his receptive audience. It begins early in the first novel, when he refers to some gay personalities of the past, historical events connected with LGBTQ community, slang terms used among queer community and mentions even two gay-oriented bands: And Nelson seemed to know everything about being gay. He told Kyle about Alexander the Great, Oscar Wilde, and Michelangelo. He explained the Stonewall Riots and defined words like cruising and drag. He told Kyle about gay youth websites and introduced him to out music groups like Size Queen and Indigo Girls. (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 14)

The references to music are the most frequent ones in the series. Practically all the music the boys are listening to or that is mentioned in the series is produced by gay bands or gay-related bands (with the exception of Britney Spears and Norah Jones mentioned in the third novel.) Sanchez promotes these bands and artists in order to give the boys role models of famous people who are not afraid to talk openly about their sexuality. Not only that many of the bands that he refers to are formed by gays or lesbians; they often write songs and lyrics about the life and problems of gay people and in that way the characters in the novel get to know that they are not alone in the world and feel the sense of belonging to the community. Throughout the first novel Sanchez mentions these gay-related bands: Pansy Division (Rainbow Boys 16), The Butthole Surfers (Rainbow Boys 65), Nancy Boy (Rainbow Boys 107) and continues in the second book by mentioning The Pet Shop Boys (Rainbow High 106). It must be said that there was not found any key that would justify the choice of the bands mentioned. There is no genre kinship to be found (Size Queen, Pansy Division and The Butthole Surfers are punk bands while The Indigo Girls are folk-rock-country duo, The Pet Shop Boys mainstream pop and Nancy Boy alternative pop-rock) and some of the bands are even only related to gay community because of their provocative behaviour, outfits and stylization such as: The Butthole Surfers and Nancy Boy (where no member was openly gay). The criterion of quality and popularity cannot be used as well because the excellent American duo The Indigo Girls, which produce beautiful records full of distinctive folk songs with poetic lyrics is mentioned together with Size Queen, which is an obscure punk band of mediocre quality. The most famous is the British pop-dance duo The Pet Shop Boys, known all over the world while Nancy Boy was barely recognised in America in the mid-nineties, so it can be said, that his only aim was to make a list of gay-friendly bands. One of the very few occasions when one of the other characters alludes to some aspect of gay issues is the scene when Jason explains Alfred Kinsey’s scale also known as the Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale to Kyle:

54 “You never wanted to, like, do it with girl?” “No, I guess I’m a Kinsey six.” “A what?” “A Kinsey six. In the fifties, Dr. Kinsey found that most people aren’t exclusively gay or straight. He came up with a scale, zero to six, from totally heterosexual to completely homosexual. I’m pretty sure I’m at the end of the scale.” (Sanchez, Rainbow Boys 95)

Chapters 14–16 of the third novel are devoted to Radical Faeries movement and Harry Hay – the American gay rights activist who started the first “spiritual conferences” of Radical Faeries at the turn of seventies. The radfae.org (the fundamental website of the community) offers this definition of the word faerie in gay context: “Generally, we tend to be gay men who look for a spiritual dimension to our sexuality; many of us are healers of one kind or another” (“About”). Another important website concerning Radical Faeries defines its “members” as: queers of all ages, genders, shapes and sizes of all races, nationalities, and faiths who connect to life and to each other through the blessings of nature, the power of the heart, through listening and sharing our stories through our bodies and spirits and through humor, drag, song, good food, drumming, trance, massage, ritual, play, sensuality, spirituality and sexuality. (“About Radical Faeries”)

This definition is more apt as it captures the spirit of the community. It is not surprising that Nelson (the propagandist of all the gay things) has arranged a sleepover at the Radical Faerie sanctuary. (“Sanctuary is a place for gatherings, events and the community life” [“Sanctuaries”].) Sanchez does not specify which one and we can only guess from the plan of the trip that it is situated in Tennessee where there is only one sanctuary called Short Mountain Sanctuary to be found. Sanchez depicts life at the sanctuary mostly from Nelson’s perspective who is fascinated by the community. Other educational references are aimed to important places of American history and culture which are along their way. The first allusion is to the building of Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the legendary country stage where artist such as Patsy Cline, Minnie Pearl and Bruce Springsteen performed (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 82). Then the boys stop in Memphis and visit Graceland – Elvis Presley’s mansion – now a museum devoted to the King of Rock’n’roll (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 91). The last important historical stop on their journey is the National Civil Rights Museum situated in Memphis. The museum, located in the two- story Lorraine Motel, is the place where Martin Luther King was shot in 1968. Sanchez explains the importance of the Civil Rights Movement and compares the situation of black kids being beaten at white schools to the situation of gay outed kids being bullied by heterosexual classmates (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 98). These educational attempts will be discussed further in the following section.

55 4.7 Use of Didactic Elements

By didactic elements is meant every author’s attempt to educate or cultivate the reader with the exception of the direct allusions and references to other texts which has been already mentioned in the previous section. These elements are present in all of the selected novels but in Sanchez’s case the overloading is so huge that it has an annoying effect on the reader. Sanchez’s sermonizing about practically all of the gay issues is cleverly summarised by Trušník: Not only the questions of safer sex are addressed (Nelson, a self-conscious gay, fails to use a condom in sex with a random man he met on the Internet), but the novel also attends to the issues of smoking, racial issues, the role of support groups, marginalization of gays, the herd behavior in American high schools, the influence of media and of political declarations, ghettoization, suicides of young gays, and other “queer” issues. (“Young Adult” 171)

During the following paragraphs these issues will be expanded and provided with examples from the novels mainly by Sanchez but occasional examples from Wolford and Bell’s series appear as well. It is certain that the theme of coming out is present in every gay young adult novel. Sanchez is the only one of the selected authors who has the need to explain the term itself. The term is clear even for straight people but still Sanchez does not hesitate to open the topic of coming out at the regular Saturday meeting of the Rainbow Youth Group at the beginning of the first novel: “Okay, everyone,” Archie said. “Today we’re going to talk about ‘coming out’. What do we mean by that?” Caitlin’s hand went up. “It’s when you stop hiding that you’re queer - or bisexual, or whatever.” (Rainbow Boys 7)

At the same meeting Sanchez explains the meaning of PFLAG organisation and mentors the readers about individual pace and age of coming to terms with their sexual orientation. The issues of safe sex are mentioned both in Sanchez and Bell’s series. When Bell tries to cultivate the readers, he does it in a humorous way, he is not preaching. A shining example is the situation when Ben tells his mom about his boyfriend Tim and she replies from the kitchen: “I just want you to be safe,” she said as she slid the dice onion off the cutting board and into a frying pan sizzling with ground beef. “If you need something, like condoms or lube, you just have to ask.” (Bell, Summer 54-5)

But when the time comes and the first sex happens, we realise that he is not informed enough: Their heat was broken momentarily by a puzzled conversation on what they were supposed to use for lubrication. They knew there was supposed to be something, but their knowledge on the subject stemmed mostly from gay jokes. Tim shot down Tim’s suggestion of Crisco and a

56 a raid on Mrs. Wyman’s bathroom failed to manifest any Vaseline. In the end they found some fancy facial crème and decided to make do with it. (Bell, Summer 113)

Sanchez’s way how to deal with the issue of safe sex is very scholastic. The regular meetings of Rainbow Youth Group are the place where these topics are discussed, parents are referring to it whenever possible and although Nelson is the person “who knows everything about being gay” he fails to use a condom with an “internet date” and then Nelson deals with the possibility of being infected by HIV virus. This situation spans over one third of his storyline in the first novel and another third of the second. Nelson is waiting for the test results while getting scolded by his mother, his divorced father and his best friend Ben. Since he thinks that the results will be positive, he starts dating an HIV positive guy – Jeremy. When his family and friends get to know about it - the scolding continues and the HIV issue and the risks of getting infected are mentioned several times, either by Jeremy or by the doctors. The doctor’s lecture could not have been more educational: “Never let yourself be pressured into doing something unsafe. It’s OK to say no. If Dude can’t understand that, he’s not worth it.”... “First of all, abstinence is always a choice.”.... “But...” The doctor sighed. “Since you are already sexually active, you need to remember: Before anything gets started, tell the dude you only have sex using condoms. Okay? Will you do that? Nelson?” (Sanchez, Rainbow High 46)

Sanchez describes and makes use of three gay support groups in his series. Two of them were already mentioned in this text: PFLAG and Rainbow Youth Group. Sanchez frequently uses the second of them when he needs to attend to some burning issues such as the question of coming out, safe sex, AIDS, lovers versus friends etc. Thus the primary function of inclusion of these gay youth group meetings in the novel is to have some platform where the lectures about given problems could be performed and discussed and in that way the young adult readers would be enlightened. The secondary function is that it serves as a meeting place for the characters where new relationships can emerge. PFLAG is mentioned on several occasions in his series but usually it is only an informative remark without further significance. We have already mentioned that Nelson’s mother is vice president of the local group and Sanchez uses her as a glowing example of involvement of family members into community life. The third support group is the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) which is founded by Nelson and Kyle at their school. The readers will get to know all the information about difficulties when founding this group, but they will not be told anything about the content, organization and meetings of this club, so the inclusion of this support group was done on purpose to show the marginalization of gays, bullying and mocking gay people in American

57 high schools. Other groups and organizations are mentioned in the paratextual information of the book. This aspect has been described in the section 4.1 Formal Features. Wolford does not mention any of the support groups in his series but Bell does so in the fourth part of his series. Jason attends the Gay youth meeting at the All Souls Unitarian Church. The inclusion of this support group in the novel has the same functions as in Sanchez’s case but the difference is that the secondary function is accentuated. Jason’s new relationships originated from here and he learned some new things about relationships along the way. Quite interesting fact is that both Sanchez and Bell came to almost identical conclusion regarding the secret of long lasting relationships. Sanchez uses and elderly couple to pass his message, which is summarised in three words: “Trust. Communication. And commitment” (Rainbow Road 242). The attendants of the gay youth meeting at the All Souls Unitarian Church from Bell’s series agreed on appreciation, trust, commitment and humility (Spring 225-6). Several examples of marginalization of gay minority can be found in Sanchez’s trilogy. The bullying and mocking gays which is often present in the series cannot be counted as an example of marginalization, but the unwillingness of the headmaster to support the GSA, her advice for Jason to come out after the important school football match and the unwillingness of some teachers to solve problems connected with bullying gay students (defaced locker, “advice” not to shower with straight members of the swimming team) must be. The last mentioned thing could be classified even as a ghettoization. Sanchez sketches these situations in order to show that there are solutions to these or similar situations and creates characters easily described as role models who always know what to do or what is right (e.g. Mr. Cameron – the coach of Jason’s football team or Miss MacTraugh – the supervisor of the GSA). Bell’s examples of marginalization of gays are not so numerous. The most important seems to be the scene where Mrs. Jones censored and adjusted Ben’s gay-themed poem without his permission and published it in a school magazine. The new version was, of course, heterosexual (Bell, Summer 119). The homophobic attitude of the school fraternities like Alpha Theta Sigma towards homosexuals and the expulsion of gay members from the group also borders on marginalization. The herd behaviour in American high schools is touched in all three of the series. Usually this herd is concentrated around the most popular jocks at school, so in Wolford’s series it is Jake who has his admirers, in Bell’s series it is Tim, and in Sanchez’s series it is Jason. All the key features associated with “herd behaviour” are introduced and explored

58 within the novels. Wild partying, drinking, driving fancy cars, dating cute blond girlfriends and doing sports belong among them. The formula is basically the same in every series and the sketchy way the authors treat the subject is quite stereotypical. The educational effect is especially transparent in Sanchez’s Rainbow series when Jason comes out and becomes a role model for all the gays in his surroundings (and later even on a national level after the interview for Channel Seven). Dozens of thankful letters that he receives referring to him as a role model are meant to be the evidence of his “brave” behaviour. Jake’s situation in Wolford series is a little bit different, because he is not “brave enough” to face his own surrounding and family so he does not come out and thus the educational effect is diminished. Tim also fights with his inner demons and after the experience at the previous school (accusation that he raped his former girlfriend) he is also afraid to come out, but at least he is willing to stand up for his gay friends, when they are attacked by a few members of his herd, which shuts him out of the group. The influence of media is the most blatant in Rainbow series during the “Channel Seven” episode when Jason becomes a celebrity due to the interview about his coming out and later, thanks to his popularity, he is invited to present a speech at the Harry Hay School in Los Angeles, 2700 miles far from his hometown Washington D.C., which is quite exaggerated. Once again, the intended educational effect is evident here. An attempt to commit suicide and committing suicide is present in the third instalment of Bell’s series. The whole novel starts with unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide and the main character (Jace) is saved by an old man (Bernard) fishing on his boat. The reason for the attempt was Jace’s inability to come to terms with his homosexual orientation and since it is based on the previous experience of the author (which is mentioned in the paratextual information), it does not feel forced. (In the paratext the reader can also find some links related to suicide prevention websites which has been already mentioned in the section 4.1 Formal Features.) The approach of Bernard and his managing of the situation around Jace is an illustration of how it should be and although it can seem educational in its core, it feels credibly and sincerely. Only later it is revealed that Bernard had also lost his son to suicide. When the reader gets to know that Victor shot himself to death in the middle of the novel, it is not so surprising considering Victor’s previous mental state and his emotionally unstable character. There is an unexpected climax in the middle of the novel where Bernard and Jace share the pain of Victor’s sudden passing and the question of blame appears. Bernard’s touching personal theory enables the readers to experience catharsis: “How can life ever make sense again after something like this?”

59 “Learn from it.” “What’s the lesson?” Jace Asked. Bernard exhaled. “The lesson is you can’t always save someone, even if you love them. As strange as it sounds, it gives me some relief. I always thought if I’d been a better father, that my son wouldn’t have taken his own life. I’ll never know, but I tried to do right by Victor, and it wasn’t enough. Some people are too haunted by their own demons. Maybe my son would have been the same way. I can’t say, but I’m done blaming myself.” “You saved me,” Jace said. “You know that?” “How could I forget?” Bernard’s face twitched with something close to a smile. “Thank you for saying so, but the truth is I helped you save yourself. At the end of the day, decisions like these are up to the individual. You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. But that doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop trying.” (Bell, Autumn 249)

Inclination to alcohol, cigarettes and soft drugs like marihuana are discussed in each of the chosen series. Wolford uses a minor character Eric, a little daredevil, who incites Sam to try almost all the substances mentioned above, and because he is “devastatingly” handsome he succeeds in it. However, it is only an inconsiderable part of Sam’s life and his temporary stupefaction is ended with the vanishing of Eric’s character from the story. Sanchez uses the character of Nelson to mediate first encounter with tobacco, alcohol and even THC. Nelson smokes since day one, because he sees it as the only way how to calm himself down. He drinks beer in the situations when he is insecure (e.g. the first sex), but these episodes are rare. Nevertheless, during the trip across America in the third novel he starts to be annoying even for his friends. At first he takes a bottle of rum for the ride and gets himself drunk, then he tries smoking marihuana at the Radical Faerie sanctuary and yells at his friends that they are both “so controlling” (Sanchez, Rainbow Road 76). The reconciliation among them comes right after Nelson resolves his main problem – his loneliness, which was the main reason for his insecurity. Bell’s characters who use soft drugs are always unbalanced personalities. Victor, who is struggling to live in society and whose mental state is unstable, is a regular smoker and occasional drinker. Another character form Seasons series is Ryan who lives with Tim for a period of time. Ryan is a wild and self-destructive person, who drinks, attends parties every night and tries all the available drugs (marihuana, ecstasy, crack and other things). He has an adverse effect on Tim who wants to spend all his time in his company. It does not take long and Ryan overdose himself which makes Tim come to his senses and leaves Ryan. The episode with Ryan is written as a deterrent example of using drugs and how badly they can change the life of a person. The story has a moralistic character, but once again it is written plausibly and with gusto so the reader will not be discouraged to absorb it.

60 4.8 Gender Stereotypes

After the thorough exploration of the technical, narratological and literary aspect of gay young adult novels the emphasis will be on the characters and their gender. According to the American Psychological Association gender refers to “the attitudes, feelings, and behaviours that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex” (“Guidelines”). The expectations of the society differ from nation to nation and that is why it is impossible to set internationally applicable depiction of each gender. However, it is possible to sketch the expectations of the society based on the masculinity index from Geert Hofstede’s Cultural dimensions model. But the situation gets complicated when the reader takes into consideration that there are not only heterosexual men and women. The sexual preferences, roles and gender identity make it even more diverse. Gender identity refers to “one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or transgender. When one’s gender identity and biological sex are not congruent, the individual may identify as transsexual or as another transgender category” (“Guidelines”). The distinguishing of sex and gender identity is many times not enough because a person of male sex who considers himself male as for the gender identity can be perceived as female by the others because of his female gender expression which refers to “the way in which a person acts to communicate gender within a given culture; for example, in terms of clothing, communication patterns and interests. A person’s gender expression may or may not be consistent with socially prescribed gender roles, and may or may not reflect his or her gender identity” (“Guidelines”). In order to simplify the situation and make it more convenient various gender stereotypes emerged in various cultures. United Nations Human Rights define a gender stereotype as “a generalised view or preconception about attributes or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by, or the roles that are or should be performed by women and men” (“Gender stereotypes”). Frances Day asks a question in her “Suggested guidelines for evaluating books with lesbian and gay content” whether the book promotes or debunk the stereotypes of lesbian and gay people (Day xxv). The question can be answered from two different points of view. Day’s intention was to find out whether there are any harmful stereotypes about GLBTQ people in the text such as: gay and lesbian people are usually seducers of children or paedophiles or gays and lesbians are unable to maintain a long-lasting relationship and thus they are interested in sexual affairs only (Day xxv). All of the selected novels do not contain any of these strong and harmful stereotypes, but there are some characters such as Nelson in

61 Rainbow trilogy or Ryan in Bell’s tetralogy which are on the edge of the phenomenon described by Day due to their strong sexual urge. There is also no dangerous myth or stereotype denigrating homosexuals or depicting them as inferior social group. Frances Day mentions that especially dangerous can be a sexual relationship between a teacher or coach and his student or charge. Even this aspect in the selected series is crystal clear. None of the teachers tries to seduce his student and some of them even represent role models or mentors who show the way to their wards.

4.9 Sexuality and Relationships

Sexuality and emotional attachment to one’s partner are the key constituents which form the identity of a person. That is why these two issues are given prominence also in gay young adult novels. Sexuality, sexual orientation and coming to terms with it are the crucial themes of each of the series. Human sexuality is depicted as “the feelings and activities connected with a person’s sexual desires” (“Sexuality”) and the sexual orientation is an integral part of it. Sexual orientation refers to “the sex of those to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted. Categories of sexual orientation typically have included attraction to members of one’s own sex (gay men or lesbians), attraction to members of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members of both sexes (bisexuals)” (“Guidelines”). The overview of GLBTQ literature in Cart and Jenkins clearly shows that the majority of GLBTQ young adult novels is about gay characters, followed by several titles about lesbians and only a few about bisexual characters (The Heart 177-184). This finding contradicts Mosher (2005), Egan (2007) and Herbenick’s surveys (2010) stating that bisexuals are ”the largest single population within the LGBT community in the United States” (qtd. in Kneen 362). Bonnie Kneen sees bisexuality as a “gender-plural desire, rather than an imposed essential identity” (Kneen, 361). Kneen also points out that this disproportion between the incidence of bisexual people in the population and their invisibility in scholarly and popular discourse is inauspicious because it can reinforce two common stereotypes about bisexuality: a) “bisexuality does not exist” and b) “bisexuals are really closeted homosexuals” (Kneen 365). Bisexuality obviously exist; however, the analysed novels really present bisexuals as closeted homosexuals. It needs to be understood, that the term stereotypes as used by Kneen equals to prejudice. The main characters of all the three series are either gays or closeted gays. Apart from the clear gay characters Sanchez includes the character of Jason Carillo who claims to be bisexual throughout the whole first novel and at the beginning of it he is sexually active with

62 his girlfriend. Jason could be depicted as bisexual. However, during the process of coming to terms with his sexuality he identifies himself as a homosexual and so his alleged bisexuality is only a transitory phase during his searching for identity. Jay Bell presents almost identical situation in his series. All the main characters are gay with the exception of Tim who labels himself straight at the beginning of the first series. After a plenty of sexual encounters with Ben he admits that he is bisexual, but he says it only once to end the argument with Ben (Bell, Summer 112). It is only much later in the series, after meeting with Eric, when he is ready to come out and acknowledge his real sexual identity – it means being gay. Once again, the character identifies himself as a homosexual, and the bisexual behaviour was only a transitory phase. Nevertheless, the analysed novels are all gay young adult novels and not bisexual novels, so the presentation of bisexuality in them is corresponding. The gay characters are more or less reconciled to their sexual orientation and in various stages of coming out. Those who already came to terms with their sexuality deal with the intimacy issues and emotional attachment to their possible partners which will be discussed in a while. The least mentioned group in the series are lesbians. Sanchez offers Shea (a minor character from the first novel), who was Nelson’s good friend and hairdresser. (A reader knows only couple of things about Shea. She had a girlfriend Caitlin and they were arguing a lot. The friendship between Shea and Nelson ended at the same time when Shea broke up with Caitlin and Nelson had unprotected sex. The depression and the unwillingness to communicate on both sides were the main causes of the end of their friendship.) Her character is so insignificant in the novel that she could be easily replaced by any other character. It seems that the only reason for inclusion of this character was to have the scale of sexual orientation covered as a whole. Bell’s representative of lesbians is fifteen-year-old Emma (daughter of Michelle, who is Jace’s sister). Emma is entering her coming of age and she is eager to explore her sexuality and to make acquaintances. It looks like it is the only aim of her teenage life; all the other things seem not so important. Considering her age, it is understandable. Given the brief appearance of this character in the last volume of Bell’s series the reader will not get to know much more about Emma. Although she is depicted in more vivid way than Sanchez’s Shea, she is still a flat character as well as Shea. There are no remarks about her sexual life, only her attempts to get in touch with several lesbians are mentioned. Wolford offers no lesbians at all. Emotional attachment and forming early relationships as the second major theme is also present in every single novel of the selected series. The reasons to find a boyfriend or a

63 partner are clear – it is a fundamental human need, a consequence of sexual instinct. Having an emotional bond with a person of one’s desire is one of the constituents when forming an identity of a person. Raley, Crissey and Muller state that the adolescent romantic relationships can “serve as a tool for understanding the developmental and social influences that contribute to diversity in union formation during early adulthood” (Raley, Crissey, Muller). That is why Day suggests that the portrayed relationships should not be based on sex only, but they should depict healthy and loving unions (Day xxiv). In the selected novels all the depicted relationships arise from physical attraction and later infatuation with the object of desire. It is biologically determined at this stage of life. So the forming aspect of all the relationships is sex and sexual attraction. However, some relationships (mainly the ones described in Bell’s series) develop into solid and fulfilling relationships based on respect, mutual understanding and trust, which is something Frances Day strives for in her guidelines. Bell’s couples (Tim & Ben, Jace & Ben) have enough opportunities to get to know each other during the course of the story which spans over 15 years and so their initial sexual infatuation begins to transform. The transforming moments can differ. For someone it can be the lesson from previous relationship (Ben’s need to leave Tim because of his non-acceptance of his own sexuality, Jace’s need to make a bond with someone mature and balanced), for someone it is the moral of the relationship of other people (Tim’s meeting with elderly Eric and his life story), and someone is affected by the encounter with death of a beloved person (Jace’s determination to go on after Victor’s suicide, Ben’s long mourning after Jace’s unexpected passing). All of these factors (along with some others) can cause the gradual transformation of the originally shallow relationships into long-lasting relationships based on mutual commitment, care and benevolence to others mistakes. It is clear, that this development is possible only when the characters have the opportunity to evolve. I believe that the limits and the length of the genre lead the authors (Sanchez, Wolford) to rely on stock characters and formulaic plots, where the characters do not go through anything worse than coming out, threats and parental collisions and thus they have a little experience to transform and deepen their relationship into a solid union. In Wolford’s case it is even worse than that. Wolford’s characters are so flexible (in terms of author’s constant re-adjustment) that even an inexperienced reader can see that there are no functional relationships at all, because the emotional attachment between Sam and Jake and later Sam and Mitch comes and goes without warning and further development and the trick lies in author’s imagination and distraction. In other words: Wolford is not a good writer.

64 Day’s requirement to have healthy and loving relationships based on realistic foundations is not easy to meet within the limits of the genre and the only positive example can be Bell’s series which transcends the genre and can be considered crossover. Day also asks the question whether the books portray “young lesbian and gay people whose sexual identities are secondary to the main plot” (Day xxv). The answer is expected – no. And once again it is the genre of gay young adult novels (or coming out novels) that narrows the focus on the major themes which are deeply connected with sexuality, sexual identities and relationships.

4.10 Diversity

Frances Day highlights the need for diversity in novels and collections and asks whether all of the gay and lesbian characters in the novel are young, white, middle-classed, and able-bodied (Day xxv). In case the answer is yes, the aspect of diversity is not fulfilled. Day points to the ethnic diversity, age diversity, social class diversity and includes also the issue of differently abled people. The most diverse is Bell’s series, which covers all the mentioned aspects of diversity. One of the main characters – Tim – is of Hispanic origin and he has relatives who he visits from time to time in Mexico. In that way the reader gets to know some interesting facts and information about the culture and the country itself. Tim does not have problems with his ethnicity at all, on the contrary, his appearance is something that makes him more wanted and his ability to speak Spanish is appealing as well. Allison – Ben’s best friend – is Afro- American. Bell does not emphasize the ethnical origin of his characters (especially Allison’s). The readers get to know about it in passing and it is just one of the aspects that create their individuality. Bell also mentions same-sex relationships and couples of an elderly age. The touching story of Eric and Gabriel (from the third volume of his series) who were together for 17 years until Gabriel found someone younger is a well-known reality of everyday life. Eric is 50 years old at the time of his break up with Gabriel and Tim hears the story of their relationship 5 years later. The friendly bond between Tim and Eric lasts until the time when Eric passes away. Eric and Marcello (friend of both Tim and Eric) are also the representatives of higher social class in the series, they have huge properties and both are willing to fund different charities and support organizations. The only representative of lower social class is Victor (from the third novel) who lives only with his mother on the outskirts of town and who struggles to earn money for living, especially later in the novel when his mother gets ill and

65 he needs to pay for the nursing home. The condition of his mother, his mental instability and his financial situation impelled him to commit suicide. All the other characters in his series are middle class. There are also a few representatives of differently abled people, primarily in Bell’s tetralogy. Physically disabled Kelly, who lost his leg during the car crash, is a minor character form the fourth instalment. Kelly’s story is an important part of the second half of the last novel and it attends to the problems of differently abled people in terms of psychic trauma after the injury in a sensitive way. Another representative from the same series is Victor who is emotionally disturbed as a result of violent and strict upbringing in a boot camp where he was taken after committing some minor offences and crimes. His emotional disturbance results in suicide after his mother gets seriously ill. There are no examples of differently abled people in Sanchez’s trilogy unless we count HIV positive characters such as Jeremy and his friends from the second novel of the series. Sanchez’s trilogy has also one of the main characters of Hispanic origin – Jason Carillo. His ethnicity is not an issue and once again it is mentioned only to make the characters more diverse because the character does not relate to his origin at all. The readers are informed about his ethnicity when his appearance is being described and there is no other situation connected with it. Concerning the age diversity, Sanchez contrives the meeting of his three main characters with an elderly couple living together for twenty years. The boys meet the couple at the café on their way to Los Angeles and spend an hour with them talking about long-term relationships. The couple presents a didactic example of the existence of long-lasting relationships for the boys and it fulfils Sanchez’s educational intentions. Wolford offers no diversity at all. All of his characters do not deviate from the supply of flat characters who are young, middle-classed, Caucasian and able-bodied and whose only function is to come to terms with their sexuality and find at least a temporary partner.

66 5 Conclusion

The aim of the thesis was to analyse and evaluate the selected gay YA novels in order to find what formulas and stereotypes are present in them. The findings are clear: there is a significant occurrence of formulaic patterns and stereotypes in each of the selected novels as it has been described and illustrated in the key part of the thesis. The analysis of the novels revealed a large number of the examined phenomena which was subsequently arranged into a logical set based on specific aspects of the novel and the criteria which were created by the author. After thorough examination of the selected novels these formulaic patterns were identified. Typical setting of gay YA novels is the high school environment and later the first years of college. From the chosen sample of three series all of them took place at high schools (from considerable part) and some of them later on colleges or during summer holidays. The starting point of each of the novel was either a junior or a senior year of high school which corresponds with the average age of the readers of YA novels which is 16–18. Next, each of the gay young adult novels starts with the stage of dealing with coming to terms with one’s own sexuality. Usually the characters are preparing themselves for coming out but on rare occasions some of the characters are already out and they can deal with further issues connected with their sexuality and forming emotional bonds. All of the examined authors presented characters in different stages of coming out from the closeted ones to the ones who are out. This representation of all of the stages can help the gay teenage reader to easily identify with one of the depicted groups. The search for love – or the need to find the right partner – is also a part of the formulaic pattern present in each of the examined novels. In the selected novels all the depicted relationships arise from physical attraction and later infatuation with the object of desire, which can be expected, because it is biologically determined. So the forming aspect of all the relationships is sex and sexual attraction. However, some relationships (mainly the ones described in Bell’s series) develop into solid and fulfilling relationships based on respect, mutual understanding and trust. The first kiss and later the first making love are other two patterns which are present in each of the novels and which are related to the search for love. The analysis has revealed significant differences in the way the authors deal with these issues. The differences cover the attention to detail, the width of the described event and the explicitness of the content. While

67 Sanchez and Wolford tend to be sexually correct to fit the demands of the young adult novel, Bell’s depictions are more explicit. Frequent situations identified in each of the selected novels were the encounters with hatred and ignorance towards gays and lesbians. Their occurrence is countless throughout the novels. In fact, it is usually the main thing that has the dramatic effect in the series. Depictions of disapproval, disapprobation and bullying of the gay characters by other homophobe characters are repeatedly used throughout the novels to build suspense. Typical element used in the majority of the examined series is a happy ending, which lies in accepting one’s own sexuality and more importantly finding someone to be with and to love. The acceptance of sexual identity is crucial in these novels. In fact, it would be against the rules of the genre, if one of the characters could not cope with his sexuality. In this aspect, each of the novels fits in the pattern. Regarding the search for love, there is only one unhappy ending portrayed in the examined novels, where the main character dies unexpectedly, however, with the love of his life by his side. A large number of stock characters was identified in the series and a plenty of flat characters as well. The majority of the main characters and some of the minor characters in selected series are basically stock characters. Wolford’s and Sanchez’s characters are typical representatives of the stock characters and do not develop outside the pattern. Typical characters found in all of the examined series include: “admired jock,” “understanding boy from the next door,” “flamboyant type” and “proper guy.” A lot of minor characters in the examined series are either representatives of stock characters or they are very flat (e.g. caricatures of fathers, strong mothers, “best female buddies,” “the serpents”). Only some of the Bell’s characters develop into mature human beings which is caused by going through some transforming moments over the years and thus they can strengthen their personality and deepen their relationship. In other words, when characters who do not experience anything worse than coming out, homophobe threats and parental collisions inhabit a formulaic plot, the results are shallow and unbearable. Apart from these formulaic patterns and stereotypes, some typical features of gay young adult novels were pinpointed. Regarding the narrative technique, there is no formulaic pattern which would be used in each of the examined novels, but all of the used techniques stay clear from the experiments and they stick to one of the basic narrative situations, even though with some variation. Considering the language of the examined novels, the only pattern that was observed was the appeal to the teenage audience by using their slang. Quite frequent was also deliberate

68 using of words from other languages than English in the text. Both Sanchez and Bell used Spanish on many occasions and several occurrences of French and Latin has been found as well. The large number of intertextual references could be considered a part of the formula or the strategy of the authors when constructing their texts. The discovered intertextual references were arranged into categories according to their use in the novels out of which the first category (defining the setting) and the fourth category (edification of readers) were the most frequent. The attempts to educate or cultivate readers (called didactic elements) by “lecturing” them about various topics and raising awareness of the community life were present in all of the selected novels, but in Sanchez’s case the overloading is so huge that it has an annoying effect on the reader. These educational efforts are integral part of the gay young adult novels and thus a part of the formula as well. The similarities among the examined gay young adult novels confirm that the gay young adult novel as a genre is highly formulaic. In some of the examined aspects Bell’s tetralogy was different from Wolford’s and Sanchez’s series, because it is a crossover. Based on the analysis of the examined novels the thesis identifies and depicts most elements of the formula of the contemporary gay young adult novels. However, considering the extent of this master’s thesis, the corpus of examined gay young adult novels is very limited and so further research is necessary to confirm the general validity of my findings.

69 6 Works Cited

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