At the beginning of June, 1999, I received some complimentary E-mail about my site from Ruth Fink-Winter, a member of the Pink Invader cast who also maintains the Anal Retentive Rocky Horror Costume List.
Ruth also edits an RHPS fanzine, Crazed Imaginations. This monthly newsletter contains articles and artwork by fans, updates on what the RHPS folks are doing now, as well as past interviews, news about casts and conventions, and even some color pictures. Each issue costs $2.50. For more information or copies of the magazine, write to the address below.
Crazed Imaginations
c/o Ruth Fink-Winter
PO Box 1548
Sauk Village, IL 60412
USA
Anyway, Ruth also wondered if I would write an article for her fanzine. So I did, about my favorite piece of RHPS criticism that I've ever come across.
"A regular Frankie fan": Crazed Imaginations and the article (about Frank) I wrote for it
by Elizabeth A. Allen
"Lotsa Larfs and Sex": The Wild 'n' Wacky World of RHPS Criticism
by Elizabeth A. Allen
I'm primarily a reader and a writer, but I design Web pages and analyze movies on the side. For my enjoyment and amusement, I also collect articles by people who take RHPS way too seriously...such as Amittai Aviram. This guy wrote an essay in the Journal of Popular Culture, winter 1992, 26 (3), p. 183-192. It's called "Postmodern Gay Dionysus: Dr. Frank N. Furter." Really. I am not making this up.
Aviram's theory is that Frank is "a postmodern, gay version of Dionysus
[Greco-Roman god of wine and orgasmic lust], followed by his intoxicated
Maenads [disciples who dashed about in a frenzy, invoking Dionysus and dancing
wildly, sort of like the Transylvanians doing the Time Warp]" (p. 183).
According to the article, Frank, like Dionysus, has connections to music
("Let me show you around and maybe play you a 
sound...")
and wine ("A toast -- to absent friends..." -- see right), as
well as intoxication in general -- he acts pretty trashed when he's tripping
after Rocky in "Sword of Damocles." Not only that, but he also
gets other people high on sex in a way that's binding (he chains Rocky to
the bridal bed) but also liberating. It's no accident that the first words
Janet says after being de-transduced are "I feel released!"
Aviram also claims that Frank, like Dionysus, is associated with epiphanies. According to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, epiphanies are illuminating discoveries. I don't know about you, but I never really considered a guy in diamanté heels sneering, "A mental mind fuck can be nice!" as representing philosophical illumination, but hey...
So Frank, as a Dionysian deviant of attractive and unusual sexuality, disrupts Brad and Janet's normal (read "boring") lives. Thus, according to Aviram, Frank does a gay parody of conventional heterosexual culture. For example, he breaks down that pesky little ideal of monogamy by seducing first Janet, then Brad. He turns them on instead to the wonders of aquatic group sex during the floor show.
The author loses me at this point. I understand about Frank as a subversive character, but I do not wholly get the bit about the "gay rewriting" of pop culture. In any case, Aviram becomes increasingly funny as he tries to demonstrate the classical sources that RHPS is "rewriting." Did you know that "Riff Raff's non-sexual relation to his mysterious sister [Magenta, of course!] resembles that between Apollo [Greco-Roman god of sun and reason, anti-Dionysus] and his virginal twin sister Artemis [goddess of the moon and the hunt]" (p. 189)?! Neither did I. As far as I'm concerned, Riff looks more like the driver of a hearse than a golden sun chariot.
Nevertheless, the parallel between Frank and Dionysus is interesting; you must admit that Frank does have a supernatural...ahem...potency. And, despite the fact that many of Aviram's "classical references" are, to put it mildly, strained, I agree with the idea of Frank as a disruptive mover and shaker (vibrator?!) in Denton, U.S.A.
But...the pelvic thrust may drive you insa-a-a-ane, but what
about that sweet transvestite? What happens to the wildness that he
embodies at the end? I could say with Riff, "Frank N. Furter, it's
all over; your mission is a failure..." because Frank dies. But he
does convert Brad, Janet and Dr. Scott. On the other hand, they're just
movie characters.
However, Frank has rose-tinted the world of many a real-life person outside of the movie...or else you wouldn't be reading this article. One could argue, though, that RHPS fans are only a minority; I suppose most of you have tried to discuss RHPS with people who get an expression on their face that says, "If only we were amongst friends...or sane persons!" Frank doesn't have any effect on these people because they don't really pay any attention to him.
So I'm not sure how much Frank and his movie (you can see my bias here :) ) promote epiphanies. Frank's a peculiar kind of character, though. Some days you can just dismiss him as a stereotype that doesn't even exist. But then you find yourself whispering at the oddest moments, "Don't dream it; be it!"