Perversion the Social Relation

"As If Set Free into Another Land" 165logical as well as the physical sense, because they each place the otherin the position of the self— "we did with our hands together what, before,I had done alone." In this way, it is impossible to read the scene asa sign of Nat's emasculation, as early critics wanted to, because Nat'spleasure derives specifically fromthe replication—and not the assertionor surrender—of his own masculinity with another male body.Although the plantation society's constructions of identity initiallyenable Nat's experience of homo-ness, the temporary release both fromthose categories and from the self liberates him, transporting him notonly to a new level of pleasure and satisfaction, but also to a state thatmakes him forget his status as a slave. Describing homo-ness as a kindof emancipation where he feels "as if set free into another land," Natcomes to recognize a new system of relations that aren't governed bythe laws of domination, force, violence, inequality, and ownership thatgovern the "land" of Virginia in which he actually lives. Thus, the temporaryshift into freedom indicates the socially revolutionary potentialof homosexuality. Contrary to the opinions of Styron's critics, homonessis not a sickness or a failure to live up to the dominant constructionsof mainstream identities. And contrary to those who would arguethat gays and lesbians or any other minorities can simply be absorbedinto mainstream society—giving homosexuals or African Americans "aplace at the table," as it were—homo-ness does not simply rearrange theterms of dominant culture or soften their powers to classify, control, andsubjugate individuals through a hierarchy of differences. Instead, homonessinvokes the possibility of taking the power away from those identitiesand terms entirely by creating a new system of relations groundedin sameness and equality. It is a radical disruption of culture that doesmore than simply expose or test the limits of social relations because itoffers a contrary vision of what may lie beyond those limits. Althoughit is largely the product of the plantation's symbolic order, Nat's briefaffair also offers him a glimpse of what may be possible outside of thatsymbolic order. More importantly, the erotic component of homo-nessmakes that brief glimpse fully experiential, for the dissolution of selfnecessarily incorporates the simultaneous dissolution of those terms thatdefine and control him within the plantation. Thus, Styron clearly situatesthis transcendent sexual moment as Nat's most empowering inspirationfor both the idea and the real possibility of slave revolt.