The novella Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal is so fascinating to me for so many reasons. It's one of the most baffling reading experiences I've ever had. It jumps between some of the most beautiful and powerful romantic writing I've ever read, the most viscerally disgusting and uncomfortable erotica I've ever read, and a paper-thin plot about psychic soul-bonds. What an enlightening window into the sexual proclivities of upper-middle class Victorian gay men. I can't say I recommend it.
I’m writing my undergrad thesis on Teleny and god, it really is so weird. I really think a lot of things can be explained if you subscribe to the idea that it was written by “collective authorship”where it would be passed around the group chapter by chapter sort of like playing telephone. It’s hilarious how so many plot points that are clearly supposed to be important later just get dropped and never picked up again.
There is just so much going on. It’s a piece of erotica that is weirdly focused on suicide and death. It treats women like shit but uses them as the foundation to create a gay identity. It is graphic pornography but it frames homosexuality as an actual identity outside of sex. The lovers are sort of the same person, but also one of them is presumably not white. It’s full of orientalist tropes. It’s terrible and amazing at the same time. I will never stop thinking about it.
Also, the way that erections and dicks are described makes me laugh. RIP gay Victorians, y’all would have loved Wattpad.
