Spoilers, TW: abuse/assault and homophobia
A part that lingers after playing Gone Home is the embedded narrative of Uncle Oscar. Among Sam's story there were pieces of Terrance and Janice Greenbriars' lives scattered through the house too - as there should be with a space well lived in - and the problems in their personal dramas unfolded along with the central story. However the narrative that unfolded when finding remnants of Oscar Masan - the will, his letter to Terrance, and the letter to Terrance's mother/his sister - don't really create a complete story. They leave questions, and unsettling ones at that. Oscar did something (heavily implied to be abuse or sexual assault) to Terrance as a young boy, scarring Terrance and resulting in Oscar secluding himself to his home in "repentance" for the rest of his life. The year 1963 that Terrance fixates on in his novels is full of a lot of questions, and I have to ask myself why was this included in the game.
In a game that celebrates a wlw it seems strange that implied pedophilia or endangerment of a child is the secret story you can find through the house - as pedophilia and child endangerment have been conflated with homosexuality. The "dark secret" of Oscar Masan fits well into the horror-like architecture of the space you explore, and explicit retelling of what happened in 1963 just wouldn't work with an embedded narrative, but I just wonder what place this story has in a house filled with resolutions. It can stand as a kind of old tragedy and fault that haunts the house where the Greenbriars keep moving forward, but why this story of Oscar Masan.
That's such a interest juxtaposition that I didn't catch on my playthrough of the game. I thought the horror theme contrasted with the main narrative, but maybe this is related to the comment in class about horror subgenre of queer literature.