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IN IAN MCGUIRE’S SEND NOVEL THE NORTH WATER THERE’S A NEW KD OF GAY CHARACTER

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His last three films, all excellent, have been all over the place: a domtic drama wh an element of mystery about an agg Brish uple (“45 Years”); a eful gay-iendship tale set San Francis (“Lookg: The Movie”); and a heartbreakg, vlent g-of-age story about a boy and a horse the Amerin Wt (“Lean on Pete”) they have a mon theme, ’s about people beg tted, g up agast their lims. “The North Water” tak place an almost entirely male i, and Haigh, whose gay-themed work has clud “Lookg” (the movie and the HBO seri), the feature “Weekend” and the documentary “Greek Pete, ” giv the seri a distct but ambiguo sexual charge. Apart om the vlence of the rape story le, the life of the whalers — seen dancg after a succsful hunt or clownishly playg as the wav toss the ship — has an timacy that might be homoerotic or might be an elevated, emotnal mararie; don’t really matter which is, and the characters themselv might not know or re.

As is an all-male crew, the perpetrator has to be a man, which adds another dimensn to this hyper-realist pictn of 19th century Bra: homophobia.

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Throughout the novel, particularly after the events, Ian McGuire explor how the crew as a whole rpond to crime, but more specifilly to on mted by a gay person, which was also illegal at the time. I spoke wh Ian about how he handled the prentatn of gay men and how they are perceived, as a straight male wrer. As the victim is a young boy, I assumed that Drax is eher a closeted gay or bisexual man.

“When I was wrg I didn’t thk of Drax those terms (gay, closeted, bisexual, et cetera), partly bee those tegori feel fairly morn to me, but also, probably, bee I didn’t want him and his actns to be or feel explaable any nventnal psychologil terms.

Through them he portrays a nflatn between homosexualy, sexual asslt, and paedophilia, and then explor how that affects their treatment of both Drax and McKendrick, as guilt is prumed before nocence. Brownlee acc McKendrick of beg gay, who says he’s “red–blood” like the rt of the crew. An ugly stance of homophobia here, though unsurprisg for the era.

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He says he isn’t to boys, nsirg that BEING GAY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MOLESTING KIDS.

Also don’t stop them om puttg a gay man irons for simply beg gay, nor om g up wh some kd of proof to nmn him further. Other them explored clu the era’s homophobia, the class rtrictns that keep men like Sumner and Drax, no matter their rpective tn levels, down on lower enomic ngs, and the “Whe Man’s Burn” that domated the 19th century Brish Empire to believg all people of lor were savag and bt (a theme that recurs episo four to vastatg effect).

The director was another enuragg pick: Andrew Haigh, who was behd Lookg, HBO’s acclaimed drama about gay iends San Francis. It’s tough to out-spair The North Water, a show that starts wh an epigraph om Arthur Schopenher—“For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the vils ”—and featur episos entled “To Live Is to Suffer, ” “We Men Are Wretched Thgs, ” and “Homo Homi Lup” (which is Lat for “man is wolf to man”).