🦋 Eros
Another chapter of Elizabeth Costello, another bunch of references.
Robert Duncan is an American poet from California. (Ellen has heard him read but says he was "considered old-fashioned" by her cohort.) Elizabeth heard him read "A poem beginning with a line from Pindar", the only time she met him, and it turned her on. She thinks of him while reading Susan Mitchell's prose poem  "Erotikon (a Commentary on «Amor and Psyche»)" (this link is to Google Books, I'm not sure if it remains usable in the long term.)
And shall I come sweet sex to thee
bound truelovewise?
O take fast hold, said Sex to me,
of the moneybox, and night was our koine
with its bleats and glottic stops
its suctions and seductions.
All night we laved a fierce lallation.
Wake now, my love, I said to Sex.
Be not overly
subtle with periods and semicolons.
Take fast hold of the quim and quid.
By morning I was catamount.
Sex was microcephalic.
The legend of Eros and Psyche, which I feel like I really ought to know already, is the story of Venus attempting to humiliate her mortal daughter Psyche by the agency of her divine son Eros. (Duncan's poem also has reference to this legend.) Why the interest in Psyche among American poets, she wonders? Do they find something American in her, the girl who, not content with the ecstasies provided night after night by the visitor to her bed, must light a lamp, peel back the darkness, gaze on him naked? In her restlessness, her inability to leave well enough alone, do they see something of themselves? Anybody know what is the movie referenced here:
She thinks of a movie she saw once, that might have been written by Nathanael West though in fact it wasn't: Jessica Lange playing a Hollywood sex goddess who has a breakdown and ends up in the common ward of a madhouse, drugged, lobotomized, strapped to her bed, while orderlies sell tickets for ten minutes at a time with her. 'I wanna fuck a movie star!' pants one of their customers, shoving his dollars at them.
Please speak up in comments if you know. (Update: paledave says it is Frances (1982).)
Interesting that this is the first chapter not to include a speech. This makes me think the talk on censorship in Chapter 6 was a turning point for the novel, and that Coetzee is giving us an interlude here. (Would kind of like to know how the conference in Chapter 6 played out, what were the repercussions for Costello and for her reputation...)
posted evening of Friday, February 13th, 2009
➳ More posts about Elizabeth Costello
➳ More posts about J.M. Coetzee
➳ More posts about Readings
A: Frances, about Seattle's own free spirit/nutzo Frances Farmer. She did not last long in the Dream Factory. I prefer Blue Sky when I'm in the mood for Jessica Lange tearing down the scenery.
Dude, I'm sorry, but I'm not a Coetzee fan. I'll read him only when pressed. My real invective is saved for V.S. Naipaul. I hate him.
posted evening of February 13th, 2009 by paledave
Huh, I could see that. But what is the connection between Coetzee and Naipaul, besides that you don't like either one? It's been such a long time since I read anything by Naipaul, hard to say what I think of him; I seem to remember liking The Return of Eva Peron quite a bit.
posted evening of February 13th, 2009 by Jeremy
Anathema toward Naipaul: don't like him, will have to have his greatness explained to me, will go to hell because of his personal life.
Not fair to lump Coetzee in with Naipaul, although in reading Coetzee there was a major distance between author and reader.
Please don't take my arguments too seriously. I don't.
posted morning of February 14th, 2009 by paledave
Please don't take my arguments too seriously. I don't.
(don't worry, I feel the same way...)
See, it's a little bit hilarious for you to say this in responding to a thread about Elizabeth Costello, in the context of saying you can't stand Coetzee; because that very sentiment echoes from the pages of this book.
I know nothing about Naipaul's personal life and have only read a couple of his books; I'm not the right person to explain his greatness to you. But, the Peron essay is a darn good read.
posted morning of February 14th, 2009 by Jeremy
|
