Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor

[Michael]

Piratical adventures in Peake's first published work, Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor. Set sail aboard the Black Tiger with the Captain and his unconventional crew!

[Cecily]

Great fun, and not just for children. Not to be confused with Mr Slaughterboard, which is included in Peake's Progress: Selected Writings and Drawings.

[Michael]

Indeed, I thoroughly enjoy Captain Slaughterboard!

There's something about nonsense as a literary genre that seems to attract the label "children's book", yet so often they are more suitable for an adult reading. Or, perhaps more accurately, the best nonsense can bridge the divide between childhood and adulthood in a more complex way than the simple affection or nostalgia for a much-loved book we read as children?

[Cecily]

Yes, yes! (And some aspects of Slaughterboard are quite adult, when you really look.)

[Michael]

Is there a gay subtext to Captain Slaughterboard?

Well, it seems to me quite blatantly obvious that the Captain has a romantic, if not to say sexual, interest in the Yellow Creature, the gay element is only subtextual insofar as it's not stated in the text, but it's clearly 'stated' in the illustrations. Without deconstructing every panel, here are a few examples:

• The first full-page illustration of the Captain shoews him wearing a bandana decorated with 'feminine' flowers.
• "Elegant" Timothy Twitch shares the flowery bandana and holds his left hand in a stereotypically camp limp-wristed fashion (which could, of course, be passed of as a standard fencing pose).
• The first illustration of the Yellow Creature is seen from Captain Slaughterboard's voyeuristic viewpoint, and shows it naked, gripping a phallic rock in front of its groin, and topped with a large bird: a visual pun on cock?
• In the facing illustration, the Captain tightly grips his telescope, one finger semi-erect, the "elegant" Timothy Twitch peeing over his back, while directly below the Captain is a tumescent cannon. Just below the Captain's right arm, the Black Tiger is decorated with the image of what appears to be not a tiger, but a manticore, the mythical man-eater.

There are other elements that can easily be interpreted in this way. Maybe it's all a bit Freudian and says more about the reader's associations than it does Peake's, but it does seem to me be quite apparent. Is there a gay subtext to Captain Slaughterboard? I'd say that if you see it, it's there.

[Cecily]

Textbook definition of "subtext", methinks.

And if considering the illustrations, don't forget the one of the two of them in a reclined embrace. I kinda don't want to draw excess attention to it, but (view spoiler)[ with the Yellow Creature eating a banana somewhat suggestively <\spoiler>. (hide spoiler)]

[Michael]

I do know what you mean by the definition of subtext, at the same time, given the major role of the illustrations i telling the story, I don't think it's all that subtextual! I agree about the (view spoiler)[banana (hide spoiler)], though!

I'm going to guess that Peake was fairly liberal and had no hang-ups about homosexuality. The alternative is that it's all a snide "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" joke, but it doesn't read that way. The relaxed and accepting way the Captain and Yellow Creature relate to each other seems very modern.

I know that similar questions are asked about Holmes and Watson and Frodo and Sam, and in those instances I don't think the same inference can be drawn. They can be taken that way from the reader's viewpoint, which is fine as we can get from literature the personal meaning we want to take from it, but I don't think the authors of those works had the intent of showing a closeted gay relationship. With Slaughterboard, I think Peake is showng an out, if unspoken, gay relationship.

I hope that this doesn't lead to a ban on Peake's works by certain "traditional" (homophobic) sections of the community! :-D

[Cecily]

Yes, I think he was fairly open-minded for the times. His flambuoyant outfits, longish hair, and earring meant he was sometimes assumed to be gay, and I get the impression he enjoyed the ambiguity, despite not being so. The bios I've read are all a little coy, but although none every question his love for Maeve, it seems he had affairs with other women.