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THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF CAMP 105
communicate the queer subject’s affective response to the material effects of
homophobia. To that end, Freud’s theory about humor provides a useful model
for investigating examples of Camp discourse which employ humor (e.g. dyke
noir) in the service of critiquing the material circumstances of the queer subject
of Camp.
On the other hand, Freud’s theory also points to a limitation of the usefulness
of Camp to gay and lesbian political struggle. Freud notes that, unlike the comic
and the wit, who are more dependent on their material form than humor, and who
afford a more intense psychic release through “the vent of hearty laughter,”
the jest made in humour is not the essential [thing]; it has only the value of
a demonstration. The principal thing is the intention which humour fulfills,
whether it concerns the subject’s self or other people. Its meaning is:
“Look here! This is all that this seemingly dangerous world amounts to.
Child’s play—the very thing to jest about!”
(268, emphasis mine)
If indeed humor “has only the value of a demonstration,” its particular form of
“rebelliousness” would appear to be somewhat limited. For example, as seen in
Schulman’s novel, the narrator’s performance of Camp concurrently marks and
rejects her proscribed relationship to the essentialized ontology of the un-queer;
however, her expression of gallows humor only serves to demonstrate her
“psychic” or internal response to homophobic oppression and to Delores.
Although her involvement in Punkette’s murder preoccupies much of the novel,
the narrator’s foremost concern is to force Delores to acknowledge and accept
responsibility for the betrayal of their relationship. Even though she is successful
at solving the crime and avenging Punkette’s death by killing her murderer, the
narrator remains entirely unsuccessful in her attempts at finding “justice” for
herself. At the novel’s end, the narrator observes that she “still misses Delores.”
This inability to find a suitable revenge for herself results from her continuing
fear of having to face the consequences of taking action. Near the end of After
Delores, the narrator asserts that
The basic obstacle to getting justice is that everything in life has its
consequences. Of course, you could argue that they hurt you and your
revenge is their consequence. But bullies see themselves as the status quo,
and when a person is a reactive type, like myself, what you consider
“getting even,” they call “provocation.”… For each pleasure I’ve enjoyed,
I’ve had to pay it back in sorrow.
(133)
Yet the narrator suffers no repercussions for her “pleasure” in responding to or,
as she puts it, “neutralizing” Punkette’s murder (154). Significantly, despite her
success at “delivering justice” for Punkette, the narrator continues to fear the