"If a man lie with a man as with a woman, he shall die," the book of Leviticus says, taking a hard line not on homosexuality so much as having sacred sex with male temple prostitutes. But never mind the historical details. (Never mind either the legalistic argument that until men start growing vaginas it's not *possible* for a man to lie with a man as with a woman; he's lying with a man as with a man.) This is a romance about love vs religion, which is after all some people's kink. 

The action is set in what looks convincingly like a Catholic seminary, where Our Guys are studying to be priests or ministers, taking all the expected subjects like Hebrew and Greek. Our Guys have Japanese names, naturally, not because this actually is intended to show a real-life seminary somewhere in Japan but because the Japanese notion of reality is a bit more fluid than westerners find congenial. But the emotional action is as real (and lowkey dull) as life: guy A gets the hots for guy B, guy A puts the tentative moves on him, nothing happens, guy A angsts a bit, guy A tries forcing the issue, guy B doesn't protest, and all goes happily except that the Archbishop is suspicious of guy B's proclivities (on the principle of 'It takes one to know one'); and inevitably someone sees guy B leaving guy A's room in the early morning. The authorities burst in and find the two in flagrante delicto, and at this point I stopped reading for a week. I didn't feel like going through yet another realistic confrontation between doomed gay lovers and the hypocritical powers of the church, state or whatever. If I must have doomed lovers, I want them doomed for the same reason as straight lovers would be, and not just because some sentimental straight artist thinks gays look so romantic in their martyr's crowns. 

Well, I reckoned without that fluid Japanese notion of reality. Our Guys come up for their inquisition bound in chains, which are not standard equipment in most Catholic seminaries. Suddenly we're out of institutionalized homophobia and into grand opera: the last act of Aida, for choice. Guys assert their love for each other in ringing sentences, even fighting a bit when it comes to grabbing responsibility for who seduced whom. 'I forced myself on you- you were resisting!' 'That was just to encourage you to keep on doing it!' (Analysts of the 'Iya dame' uke syndrome, take note.) Both insist that the death penalty prescribed by Leviticus must be given to him alone. Archbishop sentences Guy B, the uke, to the death penalty, which isn't, exactly. It's more like an Anglo-Saxon ordeal to establish innocence. There's a machine that induces hallucinations during the dream state. Guy dreams that he's being chased by wild dogs to the edge of a cliff. If he stays at the cliff's edge, the dogs will devour him but he'll wake up unhurt, and both guys will be allowed to leave. If he falls over the edge he'll never wake up. 

Guy B dreams as promised. The dogs are ripping his flesh. What the Archbishop hasn't told him, but does tell Guy A as they watch the sleeping body, is that Guy B will see his lover standing in mid air below the cliff's edge and urging him to jump. Archbishop knows this because he went through the same ordeal in his student days. He'd always done what his lover wanted, but only because he was afraid of being discarded. When it came to the crunch, he didn't trust his lover enough to jump over the cliff's edge-- and so eventually he got to be Archbishop. Archbishop says the experience will make Guy B realize how shallow his love really is, and that will be the end of it. This ordeal is intended to show both of them what really lies behind all those noble phrases of theirs- self-deception and lust that will finally be shown up for what it is. Guy A says calmly that Guy B will wake up unharmed. Guy B was never the kind to do what Guy A told him to, and Guy A always knew it-- so of course he never tried telling him. 

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Guy B sees his lover calling him, telling him he'll be safe. Guy B thinks that he's always known he could trust Guy A, and so he jumps. His monitor flatlines, Archbishop says the punishment has been carried out, Guy A carries Guy B's body back to their dorm. Bishop says to his aide 'Different from us, wasn't it?' 'As different as mud from stars.' 'After all,' Archbishop muses, 'I think I'm a little envious of those two.' Back in the dorm, Guy A holds Guy B's body and thinks 'This is the continuation of our dream. I touch his lips with my finger. Even now, his pure eyes are looking back at me.' Happi endo, Japanese/ grand opera style: all for love, or the world well lost.