We just had a really interesting almost-discussion (my teacher really needs to learn that lecturing in a seminar is the best way to close down discussion, not the best way to encourage it) in class today about Genji sleeping with the younger brother of a woman he wants as a substitute for sleeping with her. This started me thinking about the tropes, I guess, of slash, and how slashers frequently see our heroes' relationships with women as substitutions. I wonder how it would affect a writer trying to slash a character who canonically only sleeps with men when he can't get the women he wants. Granted, I still have more of the book to go, but I'm pretty sure that's a constant. Of course, he also sleeps with women as substitutes; in fact, this particular woman is, probably, something of a substitute for yet another woman, so the brother is a substitute for a substitute. 

Now, all of this is coming from my growing interest in slashing Genji and his best friend/brother-in-law/rival/etc Tō no Chūjō, and one of the nicest things about Genji-canon is that everything in it is so very discreet that often the same descriptions attach to historically acknowledged affairs (they "talked all night") as do to two friends hanging out together. I can't say I actually believe at this point that Genji and his best friend were sleeping together regularly, but I can certainly believe they experimented together. I also, as a mostly separate character observation, think Tō no Chūjō puts more into the friendship than Genji does, because Genji inspires people to pour their souls into him, and he never (with the possible exception of Murasaki) gives quite that much back. 

So, I have one character (Genji) who is constantly searching for something (which scholars have variously seen as love, intimacy, a replacement for the mother he lost, etc), who regularly uses substitutes for it, and who, moreover, uses romantic/erotic relations with males as substitutes for such relations with females. Then I have another character (Tō no Chūjō) who doesn't seem to feel the need to go searching for much, especially romantically, who doesn't sleep with men, who has fairly good reason to be ticked off at Genji's amorous escapades, considering Genji is ignoring his sister to sleep with (among others) his mistress, but who seems attached to Genji anyway. So how would Tō no Chūjō react if his friendly and filial feelings for Genji started shading in towards the romantic? He knows Genji well enough to know that Genji sees men as substitutes. He also knows Genji enough to know that Genji frequently needs substitutes, since his affairs are ridiculously complicated. Unfortunately for his sanity, when Genji throws himself wholeheartedly into pursuing anyone, even a substitute, it's rather hard to remember that one is a substitute and Genji will be moving on. 

It's a fascinating situation (or story idea) that wouldn't happen in modern American culture, when so many of our fandoms are set, because we make same-sex (especially male/male) interest so very inconvenient, but I really, really want to see it. I'm also terribly tempted to write it, which is difficult, since I don't even know Tō no Chūjō's name (that appellation, the conventional one, is just a title, Secretary Captain) or Genji's given name, for that matter. But, oh, it would be fascinating to explore in fic rather than papers.