Common Accusations Against the Novel (MDZS) with Refutations: A Masterlist
Someone shared with me a list of reasons a CQL-only compiled for why they hated the novel, and I thought…. you know what, it’s actually the perfect vehicule to create a masterlist of refutations to accusations made by people.
1. Nonconsensual phoenix mountain kiss:
This one is easy because I can just link this post. But let me just quote this part: The kiss is non-consensual because it was written to be non-consensual. mxtx is not trying to pull the wool over our eyes. The reason why we, as readers, can infer that, is because the non-consensual aspects of the kiss are important to the events of the plot, some of themes explored in the book, lwj and wwx’s relationship after wwx’s return, and lwj’s character arc. mxtx uses this moment and its aftermaths, amongst others, to make a point about consent and communication in relationships […] isolating events in the novel like the Phoenix kiss scene to mark them as Good or Bad without considering the context in which they happen and are explored within the novel is just bad literary analysis :/.
2. sex where lwj is drunk and thus cant consent
The narrative actually gives us signs that LWJ is actually no longer drunk by the time they have sex: however these need to be subtle and open to interpretation to both WWX (the POV character) and the reader to allow for the miscommunication that takes place next and for the reader to be more likely to buy into that conflict.
First, let’s remember that LWJ and WWX have sex late into night, the sun is almost up, and LWJ drank around 7pm. That’s a lot of time to sober up. But that’s not the clue. See, it’s been established in the novel that LWJ has a very high pain tolerance, and that he remains stoic when faced with pain (for example when he received a punishment alongside WWX during the CR arc). However, as WWX gets lost in his thoughts when he rubs LWJ’s back, he is taken out of them by LWJ’s sudden and loud exhale. WWX thinks that the reaction is due to him hurting LWJ, but we know that’s just not something that would happen from him rubbing his skin raw. Instead, it seems more of a signal that LWJ sobered up and realised the situation they were in and was shocked, perhaps even scared of what he might have done in his inebriated state to get there. Moreover, as bigbadredpanda points out, the way LWJ acts and speaks after this moment is different from how he spoke when he was drunk. This is audible in the audiodrama, which was produced with a lot of input from MXTX. So, in short, while it was meant to be subtle so that readers could, like WWX, misinterpret the situation and buy into the ensuing conflict, the novel does suggest that LWJ was no longer drunk when they had sex.
3. miscommunication after sex as a plot device
This feels like a Cinemasins critique where someone is just describing that a storytelling device was used. Miscommunication happened, creating conflicts and situations that advance the plot…. which is bad….. because……? Going back to the first post shared regarding the Phoenix Mountain kiss and the theme of consent, this miscommunication between wangxian after they have sex for the first time is a sort of thematic climax: it perfectly makes sense why it is there if one pays attention to themes and how they influence the conflicts that arise in the narrative.
You’re in luck because canon!wwx is actually not oblivious! It’s crazy what we can find hidden…. in the text of the novel 🙃!
5. the fact that it’s implied wwx is straight in his first life and gay in his second (him wondering if being gay is contagious bc he took mxy’s body)
It was a joke. Jesus Christ, people, do you really need a character to say “jk” to get it?
He was making light of something serious (ie, realising he was not as straight as he had thought and having to grapple with that realisation on top of his feelings towards LWJ), like he always does. In any case, even if you missed out on the tone, the novel establishes that WWX liked LWJ from the start, and himself says so in the Lotus extras. This is not even subtext.
6.going off of this…. the fact that mxy is gay and effeminate and sooo much smaller and shorter than lwj. oh and also he’s a lunatic :/
MXY is not incredibly shorter than LWJ (8 cm or 3 inches), and WWX before his death was 2 cm (not even an inch) shorter than LWJ. Fair reason to get our pitchforks out 🤷♂️.
We do not really know if MXY was actually effeminate (and in any case, MXY is not WWX), and he’s not a lunatic because he’s gay. The novel says it so textually, that it was the result of his mistreatment and being scared off by JGY before he was sent back home in disgrace. Moreover, WWX’s performance as MXY is not him acting like he thinks MXY acted, but him weaponising the rumours about MXY.
An aside, but I would like to challenge this fandom’s issues with the portrayal of feminine gay men that I see to be rooted in an understanding of heteronormativity that suggests that the possibility of a gay man being coded as feminine is inherently heteronormative (unless he dates another gay man who is also being coded as feminine, perhaps) as this goes against a lot of queer critiques of media which argue instead that having only depictions of gay characters that seem to fit within the heteronormative norms safe from whom they are attracted to (ie only presenting straight-passing, masc gay men) actually maintains heteronormative norms and a binary vision of gender.
7. the stupid epilogue where they do their weird roleplay shit in public which only serves to show how mxtx thinks gay men kissing is sinful and it will corrupt little girls
😬 Okay, so…. just a quick note, if you want to portray yourself as a person who stands up for queer men and against homophobia, demonising the act of having sex in public spaces is really, really not a good look. Just…. my advice, from me to you. (google cruising + homophobia or cruising + policing if it’s still not clicking).
Second of all, it’s kind of a bad faith representation of what takes place in that extra. Wangxian are in a public space, yes, but only insofar that they are in the woods by a burial site in the middle of the night: they believed themselves alone, for obvious reasons. Moreover, they do not imply that them kissing was sinful: when WWX say in the translation ‘we have sinned’, it is because their kissing was already moving into something a lot raunchier, let’s say, when an unsupervised kid (who they would have never expected would be in this place at this hour) happened upon them and rightfully ran away at the sight. It was not about them being men, just them doing adult things that were not meant for a child’s eyes. It is not a thinly-veiled “children must be protected from gay men” fearmongering thing since, in any case, Xiao Mianmian warms up to them by the end of their interaction.
