Older characters
I am intrigued by a "Looking After Joey" review here and on Amazon, in which a reader gives the book five stars but finds the portrayals of older characters objectionable. His comments really made me think. My response, below, will make sense mostly to people who have read "Joey." And there may be spoilers.
The reviewer specifically dislikes those gay characters who are older than the protagonists. While I do not assign exact ages to any character in the text, there are three characters that are indeed older than the main protagonists: Fred Pflester, who in my mind is 55; Jurgen, who is 67; and Sir Desmond, 72.
I start with Desmond. I love him! I want to play him in the movie! He's hopelessly retro and snooty and a lech, but he says and does just what he wants. No hiding or slinking about. He gets the lads he talks about, and he gets them to do what he desires. He turns his longing for an old school chum into a book and gets it published and it sells. He invests in plays and knows movie stars (and cheese). He is quite self-centered, but at one time or another I critique most all the characters, young and old, for that.
Jurgen is the one really bad guy. He's a kidnapper and a hypocrite. But when Peachy gets him to reveal his childhood traumas, he weeps uncontrollably and elicits Calvin's sympathy and identification, in spite of his crimes.
Finally, Fred is the most interesting. He is a hard-ass businessman and a snob, and, at the height of the AIDS crisis, he marketed a line of condoms whose names suggested they outright prevented HIV transmission. But he tells the truth when he says he did it all to help his disabled nephew. It is not the case, though, that, years earlier, when Calvin worked for him, Fred had to humiliate Calvin. Calvin is ultimately able to confront Fred and let it go, but Fred never repents.
So those are my takes on the three older gay characters in "Looking after Joey." I think they all represent parts of my gay self with which I am or at some time in the past have been uncomfortable. Maybe in a future post I will discuss some problematic (but, to me, still understandable, even lovable) younger characters.
The reviewer specifically dislikes those gay characters who are older than the protagonists. While I do not assign exact ages to any character in the text, there are three characters that are indeed older than the main protagonists: Fred Pflester, who in my mind is 55; Jurgen, who is 67; and Sir Desmond, 72.
I start with Desmond. I love him! I want to play him in the movie! He's hopelessly retro and snooty and a lech, but he says and does just what he wants. No hiding or slinking about. He gets the lads he talks about, and he gets them to do what he desires. He turns his longing for an old school chum into a book and gets it published and it sells. He invests in plays and knows movie stars (and cheese). He is quite self-centered, but at one time or another I critique most all the characters, young and old, for that.
Jurgen is the one really bad guy. He's a kidnapper and a hypocrite. But when Peachy gets him to reveal his childhood traumas, he weeps uncontrollably and elicits Calvin's sympathy and identification, in spite of his crimes.
Finally, Fred is the most interesting. He is a hard-ass businessman and a snob, and, at the height of the AIDS crisis, he marketed a line of condoms whose names suggested they outright prevented HIV transmission. But he tells the truth when he says he did it all to help his disabled nephew. It is not the case, though, that, years earlier, when Calvin worked for him, Fred had to humiliate Calvin. Calvin is ultimately able to confront Fred and let it go, but Fred never repents.
So those are my takes on the three older gay characters in "Looking after Joey." I think they all represent parts of my gay self with which I am or at some time in the past have been uncomfortable. Maybe in a future post I will discuss some problematic (but, to me, still understandable, even lovable) younger characters.
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I smell a symposium here: Dietz and Pratt discuss ageing as gay men (I am just about your age). What shall be our venue? As for wanting to be these guys, no. Though I would hope that, given all their limitations, I would have some of the same responses.
(Smiley face). If I was in your book, everyone would want to be like me when they got older. Because I'm such a sweet guy. Or that's my personal fantasy. But, in all honesty, the way older men are treated (if not entirely absent) in the m/m world is appalling, something I've raised with other authors. But there is the market issue to consider! And don't get me started on the pseudonym thing...
Desmond (my own main character in my novels is also Desmond, by the way) is a type I knew as a young gay man. I knew men like him. But do you want to be him when you hit 70?
Fred is an interesting character indeed--as someone (Peachy? Joey?) say about him, even though he does good things for the right reasons, he's still a prick. I know people like that, too. I hope I do good things for the right reason, but I also hope I'm never a shallow, manipulating boss who's cruel to employees who aren't chic or pretty enough.
None of those guys is a role model, is he? Neither Peachy or Calvin hopes that when they hit that age, they'll be like them. I have known lots of older gay men who were role models for me; I try to be that kind of role model for young gay men I meet.
Look, getting older sucks. But it gives you history, something that even the most wonderful young man can't offer. I love your book and your characters (and your writing).