Chapter Six

Chapter Six

1 . Paragraph begins with: He was trying not to think.

Alexis: I normally try to avoid runs of sentences like this, because it can be repetitive to read, but Alfie is slightly more straight-talking than a lot of my narrators, and so there are times when I deliberately allow a little clumsiness into the style. And, yes, I know it’s technically third person, but the narrative voice is still meant to be reflective of Alfie.

2. Paragraph begins with: “And you don’t think,” Greg asked predictably…

Alexis: I know that “how to live an authentically queer life within an inescapably heteronormative context” is a theme I keep returning to, but I kind of think both Greg and Alfie are right here. I think, in their own ways, they’re equally trapped by heteronormativity: Greg in opposition to it, even though that opposition doesn’t always make him happy, Alfie because he wants certain things that feel as though they belong to it.

3 . Paragraph begins with: “Will you stop with the ‘everything is arbitrary’ shit?”

Alexis: I think this is another of The Many Contradictions of Alfie Bell in that he’s, secretly, quite an educated bloke. I mean, he’s not great at articulating his emotions, nor the most perceptive when it comes to people (sometimes), but he doesn’t lack for smarts. It’s just he comes from a culture where his kind of more abstract smarts would be regarded with suspicion and seen as potentially unmanly.

4 . Paragraph begins with: That’s kind of a weird question…

Alexis: #relatablecontent

5 . Paragraph begins with: “It felt like more than that.”

Alexis: I think there’s a lot of confusion going on in Alfie’s drunken head right now—but there’s a kind of understanding that only someone from the same place you are (place in the broad sense, not just the geographical one) can give you. Probably it’s not fair for Alfie to be looking for that from Fen, given their history. But the truth is, in his own way, Fen needs the same thing.