Bisexuals and eternity, or: yes, this is what I spend my spare time pondering

As I stated previously, the BBC show Torchwood has begun to take over my life. So much so that this strange unidentifiable bugs that inhabit our apartment building have earned the name "weevil bugs" even though they don't look like the actually weevil or the weevils from the TV show. But calling them weevil bugs at least incorporates how alien they look.

An actual weevil. I could make a Master and Commander reference, but I'll spare you.

A weevil from Torchwood. I think this one is named Janet.

What we're dealing with.... gross gross gross gross gross gross.

Upon looking for images of our little "weevil bug" I have since discovered that our strange creature is in fact centipedes. WHICH I LOATHE.  Seriously, they are one of my least favorite insects ever. FUCK. Well, I'm still going to call them "weevil bugs." Because for some reason naming them after aliens from a TV show somehow makes them less terrifying than calling them by their real names. Unless they start actually looking like weevils... *ugh*

Anyway, I digress. Point is, I'm obsessed with this show. It's killing me that we know that the main character Jack Harkness can live forever but we don't really know who he is, what's happened to him, how he joined the organization Torchwood. Thus the reason the show is so damn addicting. But over the course of watching the first season (we're into the second season now, yay!) I've noticed something - though the show focuses on relationships with Jack  that usually involve men, the writers have also hinted at heterosexual relationships (note season 1, episode 5 - "Small Worlds," for those who are as nerdy as me :p). Which reminded me, strangely enough of another sci-fi/fantasy series I'm interested in - namely, Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series.


If you're not familiar with the series (a lot of people aren't, it hasn't caught on in popularity like Twilight has - at least, not to my notice. Then again, they want to make a movie out of. So we'll see how that goes...), here's the gist - a girl named Clary finds out that she's actually part of this group called Shadowhunters who fight demons and that her dad is this totally evil dude that's trying to take over the world. Anyway, long story short, she ends up meeting this warlock named Magnus, who's the shit and has been alive for several centuries. He falls in love with another Shadowhunter named Alec and - ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, it's the first teen novel I've read with a homosexual relationship. For the win.

Except for Alec, there's a bit of catch. Magnus has not been strictly homosexual in his past - he's had relationship with women, namely a vampire named Camille (wow, it's only when writing like this do I notice how strange these books sound). Alec is not totally happy that his lover is also attracted to women, as this was not what he expected. Magnus gives some sort of unexpected explanation (which I would quote to you in the actual words, but I don't remember where it is in the book, which book it's in and I don't have the books with me. Sorry.) along the lines of, "Well, I've been alive for a long time."

Right, this is Adam Lambert. But this is totally how I picture Magnus Bane. So take note of that, movie makers. Not that you care...

Which brings me to this pondering - is there something about being able to live forever that gives this immortals the tendency of being bisexual? Is that just a common theme in sci-fi? Or is there something more to it? Or can immortals only be bisexual? Or do bisexuals just live forever? Yay, win for you guys then...

Okay, in all seriousness, I'm intrigued by this. If it had just been The Mortal Instrument series I would have been like, "Okay, whatever." But since it's in Torchwood, and I've recently professed that I don't have much conviction concerning random coincidences, I wonder if this idea appears in other books and TV shows. Would living forever cause you to be a lot more flexible with how you regard your sexual orientation? Or are immortals just predisposed to be that way? But if Jack Harkness became immortal somehow, how does that work? Who knows... I'll let the queer theorists (as I recently learned that's a theory group and that apparently some have quite interesting views, according to [Львица] and her friend [The Question]) fight that one out. For now, I'm going to help [Львица] cook fish.