Graphic of author Anthony Doerr courtesy of Sofía Savid ‘24.
By Olivia Wilson ’24
Staff Writer
Love and regret span across lifetimes and centuries — two human experiences that are beautiful, horrible and inescapable all at the same time. That’s what Anthony Doerr seems to aim to teach in his new book, “Cloud Cuckoo Land.” Published on Sept. 28, 2021, “Cloud Cuckoo Land” follows five characters across five centuries who, in one way or another, revolve around the fictitious story of Aethon, the boy who wanted to be transformed into a bird to fly to a better place. In his book, Doerr includes a main character who is canonically gay, and takes readers through a chronicle of the character’s first inklings of love. But there is one caveat: one of the gay characters dies from a seemingly random cause, depriving readers of seeing a happy ending for him.
For a straight, white male author, Doerr’s representation and the inclusion of a gay character in itself is a pleasant surprise. Too often in LGBTQ+ stories, the character’s identity revolves around their sexuality, which can create flat characters that lack depth or any connection to the audience. However, Doerr establishes the character’s life and story before even mentioning his sexuality, so readers can fall in love with him and perhaps see their own struggles in his experiences.
The story follows two young soldiers in Korea, fighting in the Korean War in the 1950s. The pair meet in a Chinese prison camp where they survive horrible conditions, relying on one another for support. They also bond over the ancient Greek language; one of the soldiers is an avid classicist who eventually inspires the other to translate the titular play.
Once Aethon’s sexuality is revealed, it’s still a grounded, relatable portrayal of love because he expresses feelings for a love interest by picking out all of the things he loves about him. It’s a touching sentiment in any context, but as Doerr leads readers through the first and only love of a gay man, it’s even more poignant.
The novel also succeeds in featuring two gay characters whose sexualities aren’t the pinnacles of their personalities. The characters have interests and lives outside of that part of their sexualities. This level of nuance may help readers, regardless of identity, connect with the characters, presenting sexuality as just a part of the human condition, not the defining factor of it.
However, after readers are introduced to this positive portrayal of gay characters, Doerr falls into the unfortunate trap that many authors are prone to: killing off one of the gay characters. One of the most common trivializing tropes in media about the LGBTQ+ community is the ever-dreaded “Bury Your Gays” trope.
According to a post by TV Tropes, “Bury Your Gays” is defined as “the presentation of the deaths of LGBTQ+ characters where these characters are nominally able to be viewed as more expendable than their heterosexual counterparts.” It’s not just the fact that a character dies, it’s the way that a character is dispatched. TV Tropes goes on to note the caveat that “sometimes gay characters die in fiction because, well, sometimes people die.” In “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” the ill-fated gay character is not the only character killed, but it’s the only character death that felt wholly unnecessary.
In a war scenario like the one in which he places his gay characters, it might seem natural that Doerr would kill off one of them, especially since the book spends a lot of its time exploring the subjects of life and death. However, the issue comes when a gay character who fought in a war, surviving against all odds, dies from a completely unrelated health condition a few years later. The death of the love interest leads the gay main character to spend the next several years feeling unfulfilled, which makes the death’s necessity doubtful. Doerr could have achieved the same ends without subscribing to this trope. As TV Tropes noted, in the “Bury Your Gays” trope, the deaths of gay characters often don’t necessarily serve the story, so any addition to the list of works that fall into the trope is ultimately detrimental to the portrayal of LGBTQ+ people in media.
For its shortcomings with LGBTQ+ representation, “Cloud Cuckoo Land” is still a wonderful story with poignant commentary on the human condition. As a review from the New York Times expressed, Doerr’s story is “an ode to books and storytelling.” It would be unfair to undersell the artistry he puts into his work. It’s just a shame that a gay character was killed in order to achieve that end.