Marriage Portal was initially inspired by an image on a website called ‘Sydolf’s pictures’ which is a collection of computer aided graphics with a space or fantasy theme. Rather a lot of them seem to involve scantily clad women with large bosoms, but they’re quite imaginative. I often peruse them for ideas that I could get a setting for a story from.

The Marriage Monument by Sydolf is exactly what is described in this story, a stylized sculpture of two people holding hands. To the unimaginative it’s a pair of stone goalposts, but science fiction and fantasy people tend to have imagination. Lars Sydolf, about whom I know nothing except that he owns a Mac computer and loves to draw, has it in abundance.

So, the marriage monument became the marriage portal and was placed on a plateau at the top of a mountain. In the back of my mind, I may have had a vague thought about the trip Arthur Dent and Fenchurch take in the Hitchikers noel So Long, and Thanks for All The Fish, to the place where God’s Final Message can be witnessed. (The message is ‘Sorry for the inconvenience’). A stream of people walked up a mountain, refreshed along the way by acolytes in robes and hoods, very much like the couples going to the portal to have their love tested.

So far so good. Trudi and Tristie pass with flying colours, of course. But Davie runs into problems. His love life is not as clear cut.

The two visions of his future were quite easy to write in so far as getting the words onto the laptop. They felt terribly painful in so far as the characters I have developed over the years have such a tragic time. In the first, Davie is tortured by the way his family have rejected him for his decision to break up with Brenda and marry Spenser instead. He is wracked with guilt because Brenda tried to kill herself, and that is having a terrible effect on his relationship with Spenser.

In the second version, Davie is trapped in a loveless relationship with Brenda, and seeks comfort from Spenser. Many readers felt at once that Davie wouldn’t do that, because he is a far more honourable man than that, and they’re right, of course. This is a nightmare scenario and everyone is acting out of character, except, possibly, Spenser, who rightly points out that he is tired of being used.

The vision Davie himself projects, in protest at those two bleak insights into his future has, on the other hand, been criticised a little for being unlikely. Some readers don’t think Brenda and Davie could have a happy marriage with Spenser as a third party in it even if it is non-physical. Well, I’m inclined to agree that in the real world it would be hard work. But this is make believe. Don’t worry about it, guys.

What a lot of people DO seem satisfied with is the idea that Davie will love Brenda to the end of her days, and that Spenser, his faithful platonic lover will be there to comfort him in his loss before becoming his life partner after that. The question of whether Davie is gay or straight has been debated for more than a year now. Recently, we also had the question of whether he was that fourth option known as heteroflexible. Well, lets settle this once and for all.

Davie is Bisexual.

As they say on the Stonewall posters, Get Over It.

http://homepage.mac.com/lasyd/PhotoAlbum.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_for_All_the_Fish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexuality
http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/otherfunstuff/g/Heteroflexible.htm
http://www.afterelton.com/TV/2009/7/heteroflexible-the-new-gay