In the novel, the desolate man asks whether this is not indeed a 'homosexualized culture.' "Critics have declared that the situation of the gay man in Notes is similar to that of Taiwan at present. Chu responds that people with different backgrounds will see different things, but when she was writing she did not deliberately create any such parallel.
評論者指出，《荒人手記》中同志的處境恰似台灣目前的處境，朱天文卻表示，不同來路、不同背景的人，會看出不同的東西。