ASB clearly invokes the literal meaning of WNG - two straight guys wind up in a relationship with each other - and turns it on its head by the way they wind up together, not in spite of their bodies but because of them. I read the story as a fusion of the fuckbuddies and WNG trope - the "against our normal orientation" part of WNG with the "coming together through sex" part of the fuckbuddies trope. But I don't think the shared experience is all there is; it highlights and changes the existing relationship between and makes it sexual, yes, but their messed-upness isn't their main point of connection to me.
The way I read it, neither of them desired the other specifically at the start - they start out as fuckbuddies because of their fucked-up situation. And during the story their sexual identity goes through the wringer, is twisted and turned around, but not their orientation, if that makes sense. The way I read it it was about transferring what they learned about sexual identity to sexual orientation - they're learning to transcend their orientation because they've learned that their own identity is fluid.
Maybe I'm misreading this due to my OTP goggles, but the way I read it was neither that they are together because no one else is like them, nor that they discovered love; it's that they did love each other, but platonically, and that their experiences have messed with their identities to the point where sexual orientation becomes fluid as well.
thingswithwings suggests that the reason he couldn't enjoy it was that he tried to replicate the penetration and enjoyment of his *female* body
Yes, that is how I read it - as John trying to replicate the sensations of a female body with his male body, which (naturally) was doomed to failure.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-04-09 01:42 pm (UTC)ASB clearly invokes the literal meaning of WNG - two straight guys wind up in a relationship with each other - and turns it on its head by the way they wind up together, not in spite of their bodies but because of them. I read the story as a fusion of the fuckbuddies and WNG trope - the "against our normal orientation" part of WNG with the "coming together through sex" part of the fuckbuddies trope. But I don't think the shared experience is all there is; it highlights and changes the existing relationship between and makes it sexual, yes, but their messed-upness isn't their main point of connection to me.
The way I read it, neither of them desired the other specifically at the start - they start out as fuckbuddies because of their fucked-up situation. And during the story their sexual identity goes through the wringer, is twisted and turned around, but not their orientation, if that makes sense. The way I read it it was about transferring what they learned about sexual identity to sexual orientation - they're learning to transcend their orientation because they've learned that their own identity is fluid.
Maybe I'm misreading this due to my OTP goggles, but the way I read it was neither that they are together because no one else is like them, nor that they discovered love; it's that they did love each other, but platonically, and that their experiences have messed with their identities to the point where sexual orientation becomes fluid as well.
Yes, that is how I read it - as John trying to replicate the sensations of a female body with his male body, which (naturally) was doomed to failure.