Literature Is A Form of Seduction
7-1-06 A Way Of Talking To Women
Writing is a way of talking to a woman. Singular. It isn't like science. Physics is all about understanding the objective facts & relationships between quantities & forces. Chemistry also. It isn't emotional. Art is emotional. It's erotic. If it's any good. But you will notice how intellectual some art has been getting in the last several years including mine. That used to be called upper persuasion for lower invasion. That's what we called it in high school. My girl friend kept saying tonight we are going to "talk." In other words it's time for me to pay my dues. If I participated in a decent conversation for about 15 minutes that might cover my debt and we could start making out again. This went on throughout the whole 16 months we went together. This was a Major Issue. We never talk, she'd always say---Bobby & Diane talk. Why can't we? Bobby & Diane were mates & friends of ours. Well, it so happens Bobby told me he was having the same problem I was. Diane was constantly on his case to do more serious talking to prove he was human not a mere animal. It was like a conspiracy. All high school girls refuse to do any basic kissing until the boys put in a certain number of hours of weekly talk. Well, literature, music, the movies are good stand-ins. Especially the movies. Because they deal with the sexual & the emotional. Art is interested in seduction. Getting laid. It's high on the list. Sexual satisfaction. But of course not mere sex. Sex must have an emotional context. Without genuine feelings relationships deteriorate immediately & the lust turns to hate. Lust dries up fast in the absence of true love or authentic feeling. Presently, before I came to the screen I was watching some blues singers on channel 10. And this just started turning in my craw. That all the poetry I have ever written that really means anything to me is related to the erotic. It's about breaking down the emotional barriers that exist between woman & me. Every woman I'm interested in. There are all kinds of other facts that make love rough sailing. There is the whole problem of STD. Of getting to know a woman before anything important can happen. Ditto the other way around. The problem for a woman of getting to know the man sufficiently before she can really get deeply involved. And what constitutes satisfactory knowledge? That is the question. What is it that gives one that feeling we call trust? That is the clincher. And it certainly is partly instinctive. It is intuitive. But it is also more than that. There are certain fundamental requirements. We have unconscious & conscious ways of testing this---testing the depth & accuracy of our feelings because we do make mistakes most of us. But usually our instincts have already warned us and we have failed to obey them.
I'm getting wordy up there. And I'll edit that later. I'm aiming at something. Changing my life. I have been making bad decisions my whole life. I mean usually it is the decision to say and do nothing. My best friend many years ago edited my poems and picked out 68 pages worth of poetry for a first book---out of maybe 250 pages total. This is at the beginning of my career. And this person was a man of superior judgment on this matter. And these were very original poems & might very well have won the poetry contest that he asked me to send the poems to. It would have changed my whole life. I consider myself a major American writer. It began that way. Like an epiphany---an irresistible command from The Muse. And that is the way I have been treated wherever I've participated. I take it for granted. At the time of that 68-page manuscript of poems I was up to my neck in woman problems. And I mean I was in trouble. Separated from the woman who loved me & who I loved. And in hell. This is no excuse. I just find it 'unbelievable' now because my friend was trustworthy not only but I trusted his judgment on this better than my own---on selecting a volume of individual poems that would give a rounded view of my range & capacities. I almost believe there is a devil alive & at work in the world. I mean this seriously. Because I have several times followed a 'damned' course which I myself did not even believe at the time was wise. Why? Why am I an Island? How did I get to this damned position? I have loved individual women who loved me back Equally. Yet nothing was ever finalized between us ever. This is HELL itself. Yet I've been stuck in this position all these years. And none of this is an accident. So the woman thing has everything to do with my career as a writer. I want to get back out on the Reading Circuit again. I want to read my living prose & poems because it is significant not just to me but to every living woman & man. I believe this. I will need to edit this later. So take this raw spill with a grain of salt.
RLG Copyright 2006
Writing is a way of talking to a woman. Singular. It isn't like science. Physics is all about understanding the objective facts & relationships between quantities & forces. Chemistry also. It isn't emotional. Art is emotional. It's erotic. If it's any good. But you will notice how intellectual some art has been getting in the last several years including mine. That used to be called upper persuasion for lower invasion. That's what we called it in high school. My girl friend kept saying tonight we are going to "talk." In other words it's time for me to pay my dues. If I participated in a decent conversation for about 15 minutes that might cover my debt and we could start making out again. This went on throughout the whole 16 months we went together. This was a Major Issue. We never talk, she'd always say---Bobby & Diane talk. Why can't we? Bobby & Diane were mates & friends of ours. Well, it so happens Bobby told me he was having the same problem I was. Diane was constantly on his case to do more serious talking to prove he was human not a mere animal. It was like a conspiracy. All high school girls refuse to do any basic kissing until the boys put in a certain number of hours of weekly talk. Well, literature, music, the movies are good stand-ins. Especially the movies. Because they deal with the sexual & the emotional. Art is interested in seduction. Getting laid. It's high on the list. Sexual satisfaction. But of course not mere sex. Sex must have an emotional context. Without genuine feelings relationships deteriorate immediately & the lust turns to hate. Lust dries up fast in the absence of true love or authentic feeling. Presently, before I came to the screen I was watching some blues singers on channel 10. And this just started turning in my craw. That all the poetry I have ever written that really means anything to me is related to the erotic. It's about breaking down the emotional barriers that exist between woman & me. Every woman I'm interested in. There are all kinds of other facts that make love rough sailing. There is the whole problem of STD. Of getting to know a woman before anything important can happen. Ditto the other way around. The problem for a woman of getting to know the man sufficiently before she can really get deeply involved. And what constitutes satisfactory knowledge? That is the question. What is it that gives one that feeling we call trust? That is the clincher. And it certainly is partly instinctive. It is intuitive. But it is also more than that. There are certain fundamental requirements. We have unconscious & conscious ways of testing this---testing the depth & accuracy of our feelings because we do make mistakes most of us. But usually our instincts have already warned us and we have failed to obey them.
I'm getting wordy up there. And I'll edit that later. I'm aiming at something. Changing my life. I have been making bad decisions my whole life. I mean usually it is the decision to say and do nothing. My best friend many years ago edited my poems and picked out 68 pages worth of poetry for a first book---out of maybe 250 pages total. This is at the beginning of my career. And this person was a man of superior judgment on this matter. And these were very original poems & might very well have won the poetry contest that he asked me to send the poems to. It would have changed my whole life. I consider myself a major American writer. It began that way. Like an epiphany---an irresistible command from The Muse. And that is the way I have been treated wherever I've participated. I take it for granted. At the time of that 68-page manuscript of poems I was up to my neck in woman problems. And I mean I was in trouble. Separated from the woman who loved me & who I loved. And in hell. This is no excuse. I just find it 'unbelievable' now because my friend was trustworthy not only but I trusted his judgment on this better than my own---on selecting a volume of individual poems that would give a rounded view of my range & capacities. I almost believe there is a devil alive & at work in the world. I mean this seriously. Because I have several times followed a 'damned' course which I myself did not even believe at the time was wise. Why? Why am I an Island? How did I get to this damned position? I have loved individual women who loved me back Equally. Yet nothing was ever finalized between us ever. This is HELL itself. Yet I've been stuck in this position all these years. And none of this is an accident. So the woman thing has everything to do with my career as a writer. I want to get back out on the Reading Circuit again. I want to read my living prose & poems because it is significant not just to me but to every living woman & man. I believe this. I will need to edit this later. So take this raw spill with a grain of salt.
RLG Copyright 2006
posted by rlg at 9:38 PM
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