of course one with deliberate and heavy homoerotic overtones
Is it? Or was platonic affection more socially acceptable at the time?
I don't have an answer, but I've seen solid arguments in lit crit circles for both.
Is it? Or was platonic affection more socially acceptable at the time?
I don't have an answer, but I've seen solid arguments in lit crit circles for both.
I would side on the platonic affection, and the creepiness of the passage seems to me to come more from the desire to communicate the madness of the situation rather than some sort of homoerotic play on words.
It's like, when Ishmael bunks with Queequeg and they are spooning, well why shouldn't a couple guys cuddle, sure, that emphasizes platonic intimacy between men in a way you didn't often see in the literature of the time.
But then you have this passage. Like of all the things to discuss closeness with the other men, it's a bunch of sperm they're gently squeezing and caressing and becoming close with one another, breaking down boundaries between the globules and each other... "let us all squeeze ourselves into each other" - yes it could be referring to platonic affection but my feeling is Melville knew exactly what he was doing here and it's massively and happily gay. As far as who might be "canonically" gay in the book that's all down to interpretation but I think it's hard to argue against the erotic tone of the sperm squeeze.