Once I'd done the research there was no way I could avoid mentioning the dangers of Rodney and John having a relationship and it's good to know my research and pedantic brain paid off!
Exactly. There's nothing that irritates me more in historical slash than failing to acknowledge the enormous risks gay men and lesbians took to pursue their own desires. I liked that John found his own solution to the problem, and brought Rodney with him. It felt realistic to me, because I think a lot of them would have done just that - struck out for the colonies, where social strictures could be circumvented more easily.
I knew I'd be anachronistic places too, though. Oh well. When did people use uranian? Wherever I found the term suggested it was something from Plato I think.
It's definitely a reference to Plato, but it wasn't used in connection with homosexual rights until the 1860's in Germany. The term then spread through the English-speaking world, though you used it in exactly the correct context - it was considered a positive self-identification for (well-educated) homosexuals. The fact that you're using a term not one person out of a thousand would be familiar with made my history-loving dork self squee - the slight anachonism isn't a big deal.
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Date: 2007-03-11 03:00 am (UTC)Exactly. There's nothing that irritates me more in historical slash than failing to acknowledge the enormous risks gay men and lesbians took to pursue their own desires. I liked that John found his own solution to the problem, and brought Rodney with him. It felt realistic to me, because I think a lot of them would have done just that - struck out for the colonies, where social strictures could be circumvented more easily.
I knew I'd be anachronistic places too, though. Oh well. When did people use uranian? Wherever I found the term suggested it was something from Plato I think.
It's definitely a reference to Plato, but it wasn't used in connection with homosexual rights until the 1860's in Germany. The term then spread through the English-speaking world, though you used it in exactly the correct context - it was considered a positive self-identification for (well-educated) homosexuals. The fact that you're using a term not one person out of a thousand would be familiar with made my history-loving dork self squee - the slight anachonism isn't a big deal.