Fanfic Thoughts, Asexual Erik Headcanon

[varianbetweenstars]

I've been tracking down fandom communities on here, and one of the first ones I looked up was Phantom of the Opera, because I think I'll always be a fan, and it was the first *real* fandom I was involved in.

Thanks to some things I read on vicomte_de_chagny I found myself thinking about my own headcanons, mainly that Erik is asexual, and probably sex repulsed as well. It bothers me when he's represented in fanfic as an incredibly sexual character--in the book he dies from a kiss on the forehead.

I don't necessarily *like* headcanoning the villain of the story as asexual, as an ace person myself, but I guess this particular headcanon came to me as a reaction from the super sexual Erik fanfiction.

Comments

[igenlode]

I don't think Erik is repulsed in any way by the kiss he gives Christine (and note that it is, in the novel, he who kisses her, although she seems to invite it, at least in his perception, by offering up her forehead). I think it's just outside the scope of his wildest dreams up to that point; after all, from what he says, rather disjointedly, to the daroga, he half-expects the contact with him to kill her in some fashion.

(E.M.K.81 on fanfiction.net has written an origins story for Leroux-Erik ("Heart to Heart Conversation") in which, among many detailed elements of historical research, she also suggests that there actually was a woman when Erik was fifteen who died of sheer horror when she woke to find him trying to kiss her...)

After all, Erik several times passionately kisses the hem of Christine's dress, etc. I don't think he's the tingling lust-inducing being beloved of fan-fiction -- and I think he's very much repulsed by himself, and perhaps understandably if he really is 'made of death from head to foot', i.e. deformed beyond his face alone -- but I doubt he's any more asexual than Raoul is.

(Another accusation that gets bandied about by people who try to map their Gothic feminist lore onto the novel, and see Erik as signifying 'underground' sexual allure and Raoul as the sexless and unthreatening alternative. The acute and vivid nature of Raoul's jealousy suggests on the contrary a boy whose hormones are running riot -- the fact that he wouldn't dream of doing anything to shame Christine or himself doesn't mean that he doesn't want to!)

[varianbetweenstars]

I mis-remembered who kissed who, it's been a while since I've read Leroux.

I do agree that Erik is very much repulsed by himself, especially since he's "made of death from head toe," as he says in the novel. I have read some fanfiction where it's Leroux Erik who's a lustful, sexual, person, and I felt like that was out of character--both with his deformity,and with how he views himself.

I have seen that theory, that Erik represents "underground" sexuality, while Raoul is the "less threatening" option. Again, I feel like this goes back to movie/musical Erik, who's much more physically attractive, rather than Leroux Erik.

[igenlode]

I wonder if seeing Leroux-Erik as representative of forbidden sexual experience is influenced by Susan Kay's fanfiction novel "Phantom", in which apparently -- I haven't myself read it -- his singing voice creates lustful feelings in women up to and including his own mother... (Apparently the book isn't as cringe-making as that little detail would make it seem!)
I think it's more a case of a sex-obsessed society assuming that everything dangerous and hidden must be code for some kind of sexual desires (see also: vampires. They maintain a ghastly half-existence by draining living people's blood and use the corpses of their victims to swell their numbers-- how is that sexy?)

Susna Kay is definitely responsible for the image of Erik as being unusually tall -- the only thing that Leroux ever says about his height is a casual mention by the daroga that Erik is about the same height as he is, when wondering how far up the wall of the torture chamber a potential catch is likely to be located ;-p

I think people who represent Erik as some kind of supremely skilled dream lover (he studies Oriental texts on the subject in his library!) forget that that sort of thing takes practice... I also think they tend to forget about the whole-body deformity and the clammy hands and odour of rotting flesh that Christine twice mentions.

And, in fact, for a supposed representative of forbidden sexuality Erik notably doesn't make any advances of that kind to her -- unless you count (presumably) buying her underwear. It's her consent he wants, even if it is only the illusion of a forced consent: he wants to possess a wife, not satisfy a momentary lust.

So perhaps that takes us back to an asexual Erik, or one whose deformities affect his sexual function... "The fate that condemns me to wallow in blood/Has also denied me the joys of the flesh"