I had never heard of the Edith Pargeter novels before, but they sound fascinating, and this example illustrates perfectly what I was trying to get across.

Re: the translation of physical affection between men into sexual attraction, that easily happens in any visual medium among fans these days, and yes, in a way it's a pity.

Yes, indeed. There are so many nuances of romantic friendship between being best buddies and being totally gay for each other, and I would like to see them respected as well. However, this could be difficult to achieve without falling into the "sex, especially of the homoerotic variety, is dirtybadwrong!" trap. Maybe it would be easier somehow to see it all as a continuum from homosocial companionships to homosexual relations without worrying about at which exact point on that continuum a particular relationship might be.

And, well, there's definitely oodles of Aragorn/Boromir subtext in the FOTR movie, but I can't quite see them as shagging like bunnies on the trip through the wilderness. For reasons of logistics alone.

Byron: wenn Du Deutsch liest...

Und wenn es im Goldmann-Verlag erschienen ist, dann meinen wir wohl dasselbe Buch.