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So one of my favorite books of all time is The Grounding of group 6 by Julian F. Thompson. It was one of the first books i'd read that acknowledged certain "progressive" parents could value being seen that way more than their children. It's a bitter, extremely weird satire that probably shouldn't be as funny as it is and i probably one of my favorite "found family" stories ever.
BUT
Somebody mention "gay panic" in reference to this book and i'll be honest! I never read it that way. And it makes me feel really weird and an uncomfortable that I never noticed that take even though the character involved, Coke, pretty blatantly uses a homophobic slur when recounting the event to his mother. Which I had somehow completely forgotten anout. YIKES!
Now, was McCorker gay or "just" a child predator and there's no homophobic agenda in this book? Lik' Fox Mulder I WANT to believe but that slur is pretty damning. I very much want to invoke Death of the Author in this and say that Coke was just trying to shock his mother by being as vile as possible. But at the same time, it's right there in the text.
Thank you, M, for inspiring this reflection
Froods, what do you think?
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