(Note: The image heading is a copy of ‘A Separate Peace’ that my friend painted over in eighth grade.)
I did not receive assigned reading that featured a confirmed-to-be-queer character until I was fifteen years old. I had, however, spent years waiting for one. I searched for evidence in almost every single book in every single English class, with a fervor for interpretation that Susan Sontag would have utterly despised. I raised my hand too often and annoyed my teachers relentlessly, in hopes they would reveal some long-buried information, some truth to the hidden meanings that I believed were both more real and more gay. Eventually, queer characters began appearing in my high school’s English curriculum, but I noticed that although the subject matter had changed, the language had not— not much, at least.
For my original remix, I collected quotes from six pieces of writing I have read for a school assignment: A Separate Peace by John Knowles; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde; Angels in America by Tony Kushner; Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat; and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. In this project, I attempted to create a new work out of some of the most revealing quotes from each book (or play), in an effort to show that the ideas of queerness have always been present in some way, shape, or form, intentional or not, expressed or suppressed. The first half of the listed works are classics that all feature distinct tones of homoeroticism if looked at past the surface level; literary enthusiasts and more progressive classrooms have discussed potential interpretations of this particular content. The second half are newer pieces that explicitly center the ideas of queerness and sexual identity. My goal was to piece their quotes together in a way that sounded seamless, so instead of a collection of disjointed thoughts, the remix becomes a cohesive piece of writing about the too-common lack of LGBTQ+ representation. Especially when placed into a more textually queer context, the quotes from the classics seem to lose their subtext.
Although I would like to think that the current world is considerably more progressive than it was in any time period where “classics” were written, in terms of acceptance we still undoubtedly have a long way to go. Books are still being banned because of supposedly sexual content, when the content in question is very often surface-level queer representation. It has always been this way, even for books that do not explicitly cover queer content. A Separate Peace was notoriously banned in Verona, New York for being a “filthy, trashy, sex novel.” The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as incriminating evidence when Oscar Wilde was charged for sodomy and indecency. If there’s even a hint of subtext that suggests that a character is not heterosexual, there exists a person who has been angry about it. Additionally, since administrations and parents alike have problems with books that are subtextually queer, incorporating textually queer classic literature— with which there is not much to begin— into English curriculums does not happen very often. It took some time to come up with three examples I’ve actually been assigned.
Bans and controversy aside, it is extremely important to be able to give students stories that depict queer characters, or at the very least, give them the space to interpret preexisting or popular stories through a non-heterosexual lens. In eighth grade I dedicated genuine analytical thought to the homoerotic undertones of A Separate Peace because, alongside being passionate about interpreting literature, I was absolutely desperate to read a depiction of queer students, and this 1950s classic was the only outlet I had access to. Allowing students to read a diverse range of stories, instead of the same white-cisgender-heterosexual lens through which so much classic literature is written, allows for discussions about diversity and relevant social issues, as well as providing students with the opportunity to potentially find themselves in stories. Queer books show queer students that they are not alone. The more we read these books, the more open-minded we become.
I think that this project functions effectively as a remix because I was able to use already-written quotes to support the fact that, whether queer people are included in writing or not, whether they are interpreted or are not, whether or not we are given the space to express ourselves, we are still going to exist. I created this piece in a similar style to my first project of the semester, in which I dissected a lot of different phrases that already existed to create new meaning from them. However, in this project, I decided to only use entire sentences or completed thoughts and phrases so their meanings would remain intact, because I think preserving their integrity is important for maintaining their emotional value. It can be difficult to make a “modern” adaptation nowadays, because it’s very easy to lose the thread of the original work when trying to focus on updates, so I was careful to only use sentences that were already at my disposal. Even if some of these sentences weren’t technically written about queer people, they can become more meaningful if we understand that we always could have interpreted them that way. I’m definitely recontextualizing other people’s writing, but I don’t think it quite crosses the line into plagiarism because I chose the original works specifically to draw attention to their context.
If done correctly, remixing can be an extremely powerful form of critique. Adaptations are effective when they show appreciation and love for the original material, while also finding a way to make it relevant to modern audiences or shine light on an area where it might fall short. I don’t think that it’s the texts themselves that have these shortcomings, but rather the lack of freedom to interpret them. When lines from supposedly-heterosexual classic literature are placed next to lines from modern LGBTQ+ fiction, it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. By creating a sort of literature mashup, I did my best to prove what is undoubtedly true: queer people will always be here.