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English Pages 80 [96] Year 1976
CONSCIOUSNESS
A COMMENTARY ON LOVE'S BODY WILLIAM C. SHEPHERD
~The Library.
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SYMBOLICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION AIDS FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION SERIES Edited by Gerald J. Larson
Number 4
SYMBOLICAL CONSCIOUSNESS: A COMMENTARY ON LOVE’S BODY
by William C. Shepherd
SCHOLARS PRESS Missoula, Montana
“SYMBOLICAL CONSCIOUSNESS: . A COMMENTARY ON LOVE’S BODY
by William C. Shepherd
Published by
SCHOLARS
PRESS
for
AMERICAN
ACADEMY
OF RELIGION
‘Theology Library 1.6) OS AT
4 SO Ge
Gers REM ON T
California
Distributed by
SCHOLARS PRESS University of Montana Missoula, Montana 59801
SYMBOLICAL
CONSCIOUSNESS:
A COMMENTARY
ON LOVE’S BODY by
William C. Shepherd
Copyright © 1976
by AMERICAN ACADEMY
OF RELIGION
Quotations from Love’s Body, by Norman O. Brown. Copyright © 1966 by Norman O. Brown. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc. Vintage Books edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Shepherd, William C Symbolical consciousness. (Aids for the study of religion series ; no. 4) 1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Brown, Norman Oliver, 1913- Love’s body. I. Title. II. Series.
BF175.S495 150°.19°S ISBN 0-89130-083-X
76-26582
Printed in the United States of America
Printing Department University of Montana
Missoula, Montana 59801
,
For MRS
TABLE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER,
is
CHAPTER
LL:
CHAPTER
LLine
CHAPTER IV: CHARTER
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TIONING
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APOCALYPSE:
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SYMBOLICAL
OF
CONTENTS
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PLACE OF MYSTERY LEBER OF THE MIND
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66
CONSCIOUSNESS
6
6
AND
6
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Introduction
"To explore is to penetrate: the world is the insides of the mother.... Already in childhood the symbolic equivalents for the inside of the mother's body are discovered in external objects, the toys. Growing up consists in finding new toys, new symbolic equivalents; so that in all our explorations we are still exploring the inside of our mother's body." (pp. 36-7) "Having a soul, the hero with a thousand faces, is the same as having genital organization--to take the penis as the 'narcissistic representative of the total personalTig YS (Ges. Salt) "The endless task: to achieve the impossible, to find a male female (vaginal father) or female male (phallic mother). It is to square the circle; to desire the pursuit of the whole in the form of dual unity or the combined obWCEAaoG = Mio 745) "All work is women's work. Every commodity is, as Marx says, a fetish, that is to say a non-existent penis. An investment. From feudal investiture to capitalistic investment, the manufacture of clothes for their own sake, not to be worn but to be saved in the hope chest. Instead of fixed robes and roles, fashion design and the endless search for identity: new personalities from old, turn in
last
year's
model."
(p.
78)
"To make in ourselves a new consciousness, an erotic sense of reality, is to become conscious of symbolism. Symbolism is mind making connections (correspondences) rather than distinctions (Separations). Symbolism makes conscious interconnections and unions that were unconscious and repressed." (pp. 81-2) "Personality is persona, a mask. themsel fal theatrical creatlon.
The world | (pi. 90)
is
a
stage,
"Tt is not that children, neurotics, and primitives are so stupid as to be unable to discriminate between words and things; Le as that they are not so repressed as to’'be unaware that personality is a social fiction, and a name a magical invocation of a particular role in the social chasis (as. YA)
like the body politic, "The body, is symbolic, everything including
everything is a theater; The the sexual act....
function of the representative organ is to incarnate, incorporate in his own body the (peels)
impersonate, body politic."
"The divorce between soul and body takes the life out of the body, reducing the organism to a mechanism, dead in itself but given an artificial life, an imitation of life, by will or power." (p. 138) "To The
give up boundaries reality-principle,
is to give up the reality-principle. the light by which psychoanalysis
has
set
a
its
and outside; physical and "Literal
course,
is
false
boundary
subject and object; real mental." (pp. 150-1)
meanings
are
icons
become
between
and
stone
inside
imaginary;
idols."
(p.
185)
"Literal meanings as against spiritual or symbolic interpretation, a matter of Life against Death. The return to symbolism, the rediscovery that everything is symbolic--a penis in every convex object and a vagina in every concave one--is psychoanalysis. A return or turning point, the beginning of a new age (Aquarius?); the Third Kingdom, the age of the spirit prophesied by Joachim of Fiore; or the second coming, the resurrection of the body. It is raised as spiritual or symbolical body; the awakening to the symbolacals lite tof thesbody. “(ps ol) "Literalism is tutes the lost
to take pars pro (hidden) unity."
toto; symbolism (p. 210)
reconsti-
"In Ferenczi's apocalyptic theory of genitality the sexual act is a historical drama, a symbolic reenactment or recapitulation of all the great traumas in the history of the individual, of the species, of life itself. Psychoanalytic time is not gradual, evolutionary, but is discontinuous, catastrophic, revolutionary. The sexual act is’ a return) to i
:
:
‘
a
ay
i
23
i
c
t 4 4
a
#
=
P
n wi AY t -
-
;
:
Shwe,
See ; ~
‘
e
“a ry
oh 5S + in nialians,
ive
The
following
commentary chapter By
on
and of
way
and
Don
ping
I
"That "I
That
is
is
for.
the is
all
I
can
sense.
Birds
weed
"As
birds
"No,
he
imagination,
ly
broke
that
you
ings
of The
the
not
I
portion of
a
second
it,
been
trip-
Devil's
the
Didn't
you?"
did
body
my
simple
you.
fly
like
flies
as
such."
as
a man
cannot of
you
portion
tell
fly?
Did
I
the will
answer.
learn
matter. of
the
What
you
want
birds
and
a man
You
devil's
weed
how
to
A man
fltes
devil's
weed.
to
makes
know
who
has
flew. is fly with That
taken
no the
do?" who
has
taken
Maardnetenealilvetilyv,.
Don
uuan..,
in
Where
my
mind
Juan
trouble
alone.
he
laughter
understand Don
questions
bushes,"
into
me.
I mean,
more
flies
imnnent
con-
himself
have or
each. a
Juan?"
told
second
is
the
devil's
"In
ask
take It
of
you
Don
Juan.
the
you
help
fly,
Don
always
perfectly.
on
between
Weed
each
to
refer
They
man.
chapter
thoughts to
like
Jimson
calls
by from
a bird?"
what
As
brief
Castenada
holy
Yanqui
what
like
"You
Carlos
Juan
really
know,
off
some should
I
chapter
begins:
Carlos "Did
take
passages
by
the Don
what
Weed.
a
quoting
suggesting
recorded
Juan,
on
present
Body,
introduction,
versation
e.Body
remarks
Love's
then
Love
replied
again.
things
only
with
you
is
in pp.
that
38
my
trouble one
weed."
£ flew
cuttingly, "The
[Ballantine],
was
the
way"
ian my
body?" but with
immediateyou
is
(The
Teach-
understand
things
130-31). you
34
in
only
as
well. in
I with
said
to
earlier
mind
How
to
forge
it
and
body,
union
symbols
which
Brown
is
bodily
jections.
I
from
with
object,
and
vagina a mere
object.
well.
All
are
the
link
way
out
of
surrection The
p.
reunion"
(Beyond
religions as
great
Christian
and
Buddhist
mystical
traditions:
all
Reltgions
are
symbolism
built
for
individual, loss
Roszak's
is
the
of
way
meaning
words
"the
on
in
effort
body to
and
and
loss
Making
to
road
this
of
recover
but
for
of a
the
to
re-
is
scheme as
con-
dealing psychofrom
relevant
alienating:
symbolism
is
235-36).
and
overcoming
sleep"
Bellah, it
symbolism
available
repressive
and
symbolism,
symbolism,
are
"Two-
in
forms
some-
Blake:
traditions,
become
no
thing.
the
pp.
places
which
symbolism,
Body
Beltef,
is
is
and
Robert
it
convex
one
says
their
religious
that than
vision
symbols
Ligtous
Theodore
find
There
pro-
fol-
every
unconscious,
and
not
literalism,
and
early in
from
stems
dreams,
single
"Symbolism,"
conscious
Brown.
the
quotes
keep/From
literalisms,
great
primitive
more
dividing
reality.
analytic
49).
between
great
of
Brown
us
always
And
basically
one.
is
body;
say.
Freud's
mean
all
Brown's,
veyors
God
It
to
transcendent,
might
a penis
concave
things
symbolic. May
("Apocalypse,"
Love's
every
as
always.
with
in
of
idiom.
symbolism,
and
fantasies,
is
How
tries
is
symbolism
one
body?
as
mind
what
one
erotic
there
as
"is
of
that
else
things
fold
all
Brown
link of
do
conscious
and
mysticism,
view
that even
thing
thing All
a
its
to
splits
contemporary
that
much
had
dualisms,
mind
the
suggest so
Ferenzci,
say
in
important,
Freud
can
project
intellect,
integrate
Symbols
to
perhaps
Brown
minded.
overall
say
symbolism.
lowers,
such
not
society
Thus
understand
and
to
dualism?
and
we
emotion
ultimately
learned
from
that
is
pernicious
we
through,
a
Love's
literal
are
Brown's
as
body
link
of
erasing
how
together?"
especially
that
But
overcome a
that
with
unconscious. "get
We
way.
one
integration,
between
and
only
Body
message
of us indictment
Brown's
things
basic
the
That's
way.
one
for
but
the
way
reout
fragmentation, enjoyment.
Counter
from
this
In
Culture,
patholog-
35
ical
culture
ness
and
based
the
to
on
fashion
the
repression" ciple
is
bols are is
of
that
not
only
infinite
literally
on
literalism of
framework,
exercise, by
is
we
by
bodily
more a
to
level by
the
a new
advent
that
brought live
but
and
sense
can
bring,
and
sym-
body
fragmentation
we
dualism,
of
prin-
through
symbol
thing:
whole-
principle
reality
symbolically,
consciousness
avoid
one
predated
one
recommending
psychic
reality
instincts:
than
new
a
such
living
reinforced
of
to
on
about. this
avoid
chaos
equally
fragmented
remarks
setting
the
that
especially and
sort al-
living
as
that
complex
institutions.
those
our
remnants
which
fragmentation only
social
With
begin
is
disintegrated
Creating
all
and
think,
level,
sets
unity
mean
overcome I
our
these
115).
reflect both
thus
most
organic (p.
of
of
accomplished
one:
Brown,
traces
preliminary
may
turn
effort
quoting
from
to
to
the
test,
interpret
Chapter
I,
to
and
our
hence
Liberty:
our
conceptual
hermeneutical
to
learn.
I
36 IV.1
Liberty
Freud's myth of the rebellion of the sons against the father in the primal, prehistoric horde is not a historical explanation of origins, but a suprahistorical archetype; eternally recurrent; a myth; an old, old story.
(Pius) ..etaboos which prescribe sexual separation, mutual avoidance; the castration complex. Without an understanding of the seamy side of the sexuality there is no understanding Oe OOMCSem Dreme) The ideology of utilitarianism which in the origin of the state and everywhere in life sees only obedience to necessity and the satisfaction of elementary vital needs, is senile, and in politics sees only senatorial activity. Youthful energy has that exuberance which overflows the confines of elementary necessity, and rises above labor into the higher, or is it lower, sphere of play. (p. 14) Academic orthodoxy, senile and senatorial, is against fraternities; against Sparta; against Plato; against athletics; against play; against sex; against youth. (p. 14) In the end, in accordance with the Freudian law of the return of the repressed, the murdered father returned and put an end to the quarreling of the brothers; it came to a choice between libertas and pax;... (p. 28) Political parties are conspiracies to usurp the power of the father, "a taking of- the sword out of the hand of the Sovereign." Political parties are antagonistic fraternities, or moieties;... (p. 29)
hd
Behind
liberty,
democratic primal
father
Remus,
the
so
party;
we
his
and
ganization, coitus.
in
the
the
breaking
game
needs
we
pair,
the
killing
fratricide: the
primal
dual
Hiss,
need
every
of
off
Romulus
the
and
organization
brothers
democracy
his
particularly
need
of
each
the
warring
Abbie
Hoffman
Hoffman.
apparent what
rationality think
male
reflects
between
analogue
the
putative
organization:
political
and
as
Julius
Politics
genital as
the
behind
notion
patricide,
undergirded
Just our
our
lies
king,
which
Nixon
Judge
Behind cess
in
there
the
Rome.
every
needs
or
myth
republican other
freedom,
freedom,
of
boundaries
is
and
female,
dual
the
political
lies
in
the
the
parties,
polymorphous
game all
is
structured
even
which
between
the
power.
perversity
pro-
genital
warring
organization
and
of
of
freedom
is
orin
reflects sexes, The
anarchy:
organization.
38
IvV.2
"Maiden most ful, lady of She
is
our
beautiful, mother most beautilands, Queen and republican--"
real
mother:
"Hast thou known how Child, underground?" Geography jeorsly7g Gig
Nature
is the SG)
I fashioned (p. 34)
geography
of
thee,
the
mother's
Already in childhood symbolic equivalents for the inside of the mother's body are discovered in external objects, the toys. Growing up consists in finding new toys, new symbolic equivalents; so that in all our explorations we are still exploring the inside of our mother's body. (p. 37) The dance of life, the whole story of our wanderings; in a labyrinth of error, the labyrinth of this world. We wandering in the wilderness: Israel, Aeneas and his band of brothers to find Britain; the band of Pilgrims, compact together in one ship, to fly into the wilderness from the face of the dragon, from England to New England. The exodus is an inLeLatvon.. (pi 40) "Embryos we must be, till You ambient, azure shell,
(p. You The
we burst the shell and spring to life."
44) The woman penetrated is a labyrinth. emerge into another world inside the woman penis is the bridge; the passage to another
world
is coitus;
the
other
Cave man still drags cave all coitus is fornication ground arched vault). (p.
world
is
woman to (fornix, 48)
a womb-cave. his cave; an under-
The wandering heroes are phallic heroes, in a permanent state of erection; pricking o'er the plain. The word coition represents genital sexuality as walking; but the converse is also true: all walking, or wandering in the labyrinth, is genital-sexual. All movement is phallic, all intercourse sexual. Hermes, the phallus, is the god of toads, of doorways, of all goings-in and comingsout? all goings-on. (p. 50)
39
In
the
philosophy
of Freud's
Beyond
the
Pleasure
Prinetple and Ferenczi's Thalassa, life itself is a catastrophe, or fall, or trauma. The form of the reproductive process repeats the trauma out of which life arose, and at the same time endeavors to undo it. The "uterine regressive trend in the sex act” is an aspect of the universal goal of all organic life--to return to lifeless condition out of which life arose. "The goal of all life is death." In this philosophy life and the main stages of biological evolution (sexual differentiation, adaptation to dry land) are catastrophes excited by external forces: these catastrophes create "tension"; and the aim of life (or of evolutionary adaptation) is to get rid of the tension, and so die. Life is a temporary (accidental) disturbance in a lifeless (and thus peaceful) universe. It is best, then, never to have been born; and second best, quickly to die. Nirvana is release from the cycle of rebirth. The real death is the death we are dead with here and now. (p. 53)
40
god,
sky
the
In
universe. or
for
as
mother earth
the
only
up
theme
mobility.
From
the
in
From
parents
absurd.
cut
the
to
Taking
grave:
rinth is
of
the
and
The wake life,
adult
from
either
earth
mother:
walks
one
man:
acid
mother
on
step
on
this
womb
is
is We
the
of
the
must
and
of
is: be
resurrected
lives
or
outside. growing
in
enter
Road;
move-
world
parentts:
and
bus
the
our
own
decisions: alone
Ken
into
Kesey:
you're
off
The out
The the
analogue
analogue
of
life:
and
"This of
of in
bus
body.
to
laby-
movement out:
in
sleeping.
the
new
Polymorphous
more
cave
the
our and
life=slumber=death.
again
means
labyrinth:
The
waking
this born
everything
the
is
decisions,
the
tomb."
in
alternation equation
into
vagina.
go
our
past
the
to
Nature
test.
and
life
of
On
on
loco
life:
the
on
cave
we
always."
the
get
each
home in
burdens
the
up:
symbolism:
ancestral
Kerouac:
kool-aid of
penis.
out:
chapter
college:
off
Jack
--electric
is
Brown's
the
Trip--you're
Out
manner:
into
ourselves
future.
Bus
we
god
medicine
sacred
a
in
hands--initiation to
sky
Sioux
the
sacred.
Another ment,
the
the
Elk,
running
magisterially
figure
of
place
Black
earth is
father
of
rejection
the
is
chapter
this
in
themes
the
of
One
than
one
life,
We the
must real
perversity: thing,
"twofold
41 EWA 3} Aireshinbliesye
The parents in coitus make one flesh; not a juxtaposition of two separatenesses, but a genuine Two-in-One, incorporated; making one corporate body. "The father's penis incorporated in the mother"; “at this early stage of development the principle of pars pro toto holds good and the penis represents the father (p. 60) in person." Mother and child as one body is mother with a penis. The symbolic equation, penis= child. The king entering the arch; the priest in the tent or tabernacle: "He is the Lamb and I the fold"; both a penis and a child.
(p.
62)
In the ascent of the soul, the doffing of garments, the slipping of knots, the loosing of bonds, disaftftiiation: “the sum of these knots is called ‘psyche':--the complexes, or conplaicatvons. (po. 7/4) Zeus has an erection, in the head; and bears a child. And he bears a child via castration; his head is split by the blow of an axe. The father produces children from his head. Paternal power is not natural virility or paternity but castration denied; a lie, a veil made of the pubic hair of mother. "The father-image is a thin mask covering the image of the pre-Oedipal mother." "A great advance was made in civilization when men decided to put their inferences upon a level with the testimony of their sense and to make the step from matriarchy to patriarchy. The pre-historic figures which show a smaller person sitting upon the head of a larger one are representations of patrilineal descent; Athena had no mother, but sprang from the head of Zeus. A witness who testifies to something before a court of law is still called 'Zeuge' [literally, 'begetter'] in German, after the part played by the male in the act of procreation; so too in hieroglyphiesia “witness® is represented pictorially by the male genitals." But the witness that stands up in the court is denying Castration; the testimony is. false tesLr lesmeanGmcivalazatvon sas Irenes. All work is woman's work. Every commodity is, as Marx says, a fetish, that is to say a non-existent penis. An investment. From feudal investiture to capitalistic investment, the
42
manufacture of clothes for their own sake, not to be worn but to be saved in the hope chest. Instead of fixed robes and roles, fashion deSign and the endless search for identity: new personalities for old, turn in last year's model. The industrial revolution. Work is a masturbation dream, punishment for the Fall, which is falling asleep; and also a fall into
division
of
the
sexes.
(pp.
77-78).
43 Trinity: All
the
combined.
object, and
unity.
child
dream
The
both
and
in
head
Holy
ian
homogeneity
Spirit
we
do
and
sky,
stead work
we but
having
miss
to
up the
self
and
sexual
only
our
part
the
primordial
with is
rather onanism,
a
the
unity,
diverse a
penis
father,
We the
and
than
the
womb:
out,
We not
trinitar-
do
are
dream.
but
do
not
con-
earth
love.
our
But
not
between
only
Son,
object.
primal
divide
in
Father,
nature:
coitus,
penis
both
combined
the
inversions
In-
interminable
symptoms
of
our
whole--sado-mashochism,
homosexuality--all are attempts unity is
ultimate
remarkably with
penis
the
others.
also
female
tarian
promises.
connection,
ourselves,
it
in
its
castrate
female
wish:
wish,
the
and
one
the
basic
in
child.
combined
symbolism,
being,
is
between
regain
The
one
also
the
transvestitism,
in
sameness,
fulfill
We
womb,
Christian
mother,
hole:
child
or
unity
not
quer.
father,
mommy's
the
the
In all
in
as
for
are
family:
penis
same
waking.
and
This
nuclear
Daddy's
the
of
symbol cultural is
the
mother,
the
symbol of
combined of
unity
child
object. we
that
settings.
ultimate and
what
so
has
The
cropped
symbol
symbol
of
all
one.
in
dearly
trini-
of
44 ID EE AOpen ey
a cure; there a way out; an end to analysis; there such a thing as health? as in wholesome; To heal is to make whole, this to unify or reunify: to make one again; Eros is the instinct that is Eros in action. and Thanatos, makes for union, or unification, is the instinct that makes the death instinct, for separation, or division. (p. 80) Is is
Crazy Jane
Jane
in
both
is
who
William
the
Butler
student
Yeats--Crazy the
and
teacher--
says, Nothing can be sole or whole That has not been rent. We have been rent; there is no health in us. We must acknowledge the rents, the tears, the splits, the divisions; and then we can pray, as Freud prays at the end of Civiligzatton and Its Discontents, “that the other of
the
two
heavenly
forces,
eternal
Eros,
will put forth his strength so as to maintain himself alongside his equally immortal adversary." (pp. 80-81) The unification of the human race: a mental fight, a struggle in and about men's minds. The rents, the tears, splits and visions are mindmade: they are not based on truth but on what the Buddhists call illusion, what Freud calls unconscious fantasies. The prevailing sense of reality, the prevailing forms of knowledge, are fueled by the instinct of aggression and vision, are under the dominion of the death instinct. We are in Satan's kingdom; to build a Heaven in Hell's despite is to construct an erotic sense of reality. To
make
in
ourselves
a
new
consciousness,
an erotic sense of reality, is to become conscious of symbolism. Symbolism is mind making connections (correspondences) rather than distinctions (separations). Symbolism makes conscious interconnections and unions that were unconscious and repressed. (pp. 81-82)
souls. the
Union and unification is of bodies, not The erotic sense of reality unmasks
soul,
the
personality,
the
ego;
because
soul, personality and ego are what distinguish and separate us; they make us individuals, arrived at by dividing till you can divide no more--atoms.... Souls, person-
45
alities, and egos are masks, spectres, concealing our unity as body. For it is as one biological species that mankind is one--"the species-essence" that Karl Marx looked woah so that to become conscious of ourselves as ae is to become conscious of mankind as one. Demo) If we are all members of one body, then in that one body there is neither male nor female; or rather there is both: it is an androgynous or hermaphroditic body, containing both Sexese res Lhendiyas1on OL theone: man anto two sexes is part of the fall; sexes are secelem, (ae, We) In the collective unconscious Freud finds what he calls an "archaic heritage," or "phylogenetic inheritance." "Phylogenetic inheritance," i.e., belonging to the "speciesessence" of the human species. "Archaic heritage," i.e., archetypes; at any rate the phylogenetic factor is the symbolic factor, the former identity or lost unity which symbolic consciousness recovers. "There probably exists in the mental life of the individual not only what he has experienced himself, but also what
he
brought
with
him
at birth,
fragments
of a
phylogenetic origin, an archaic heritage." Not in entire forgetfulness do we come. Freud comes to the conclusion that "the archaic heritage of mankind includes not only dispositions, but also ideational contents, memory traces of the experiences of former generations." The nucleus of neurosis turns out to be precisely in this phylogenetic factor: not in the individual's own murderous impulses against his individual father, but in the primal crime against the primal parent or parents. For Freud, then, in the end, as for Christianity, in Adam's fall we sinned all, and there is just that one collective sickness of the human race in all its generations: we are all in the same boat, or body. (PP mnoi — clo) The td is instinct; that Dionysian "cauldron of seething excitement," a sea of energy out of which the ego emerges like an island.... The reality is instinct, and instinct is impersonal energy, an "it" who lives in us. I live, yer mot 1, but at lives in me; as in Creation, frat. Let at) be; no “1,” but an ee (15 {3}
46
Once be
no
we
unity,
cation
of
is
Unification egos.
no
combined
the
very
it
to
body-soul
as
survival
The Brown of
be,
"mystical
humanity
in
not
mankind
neither
says
is
of
male or
Life today
Eros.
is
the
souls, is nor
a
and body.
and female,
symbolical
can
Unifi-
with
androgynous,
Against is
there
biological,
anatomical
bodies of
dualism,
triumph
to
and
body
bisexual,
no
is
do with
unified
subject. But
if
anatomical,
has The
with
unification,
hermaphroditic,
Utopian.
cursed
mankind,
biological
not
are
the
body."
Death,
utopian
even hope.
ids
47
IV.5
Person
Fixed personalities; unchanging masks; character is carving. When.Marcus Aurelius says, "carve your mask," he means "develop your character." Stereotypes. All personality is rigid--"This is the way to do things, and this is the only way"--magical, and mechanical; a mechanization of a particular way of reacting; a repetition-compulsion. (p. 95) A person is always a feigned or artificial person, persona ficta. A person is never himself, but always a mask; a person never owns his own person, but always represents another, by whom he is possessed. And the other that one is, is always ancestors; one's soul is not one's own, but daddy's. This is the meaning of the Oedipus Complex. (p. 98) Instead of the cyclic recurrence of rary role, the historical personage continuous performance and achieves ous existence. (p. 100) The
ego
is
public
relations.
Patrilineal inheritance is the sons, but for the sake father. (p. 102) The construction open-air theater
(p.
a tempooffers a a continu-
101)
not for the sake of the defunct
of the super-ego moves indoors. (p. 103)
of
the
Freud says that the condition for giving up love-object is to make out of onean external part of for the lost object; self a substitute the ego dresses up as father and says to the you-ocan just I am so° Vike father; id») "Lock, So Roheim can say, as well love me instead." "By personality we mean that each individual grows up by wearing a mask, by imitating one (p. 104) of his parents."
nor God does not go for personalities; does the Last Judgment consist in the award for the perforof prizes to personalities The performance prinmance of their parts. (ore ciple must go; the show must not go on.
105)
48
round
and we
see,
we
and
home,
genu-
but
conviction
modern
the
time
do,
we
theatrical
all
seriously,
roles
We
masquerades.
roles,
victims
as
relationships,
Puritans
are
we
that
those
all
that
aware
interpersonal
those
all
is
thing
unfortunate
the
and
primitive,
the
like
not,
are
things
the
all
roles
play
is
we
masquerade;
unselfconscious
world
life
that
is
chapter
Person
the
in
theme
master
The
we
spiral
insight.
ine
in
premise,
fashion,
intellectual
just
not
insight:
have
premise,
nailed
are
points
its
until
premise, in
moves
it
Rather
deduction. round,
logic:
Aristotelian
of
tern
pat-
the
to
according
move
not
does
Body
Love's
of
gument
ar-
The
context.
a new
in
again
appear
to
only
disappear
and
transformed,
are
appear,
themes
score,
orchestral
an
Lake
form.
new
in
recur
themes
old
some
and
chapter,
this
in
appear
which
themes
important
some
are
there
Again
of
the
are
those
take
performance
principle. Brown a
pins
historical
in
Greece
ery
to
is
the
we
must
of
us;
after to
we
tations thetr How
can
is
be
the
voice
make We
have modern
and
all
theatre
it;
our
from
me,
of
us
involved of
the
or
must
death
in
on the me
in
or and to
the
the sons
is
the
voice
of
well
we
are
linear
his-
their
their sons?
expec-
up
for going?
immorThe
fa-
conscience,
internalized
perpetuity:
what
think
make
via
slavout:
performances
unless
of
via
ship
which
not
thetr
superego
telling
egoistic
we
deeds
themselves
living
of up
fathers,
keep
the
or
form Shape
others
are
man
individualism
non-cyclical
thus
by
Western
of
expectations
to:
escape
inside
cowards
modern
make
incarnate
voice,
are
vast
the
In
father
modern
principle.
attended
they
on
development
they
Conscience
of
of
must
guaranteed
prohibiting
same
all,
reincarnate
watchful
doth
we
shortcomings
superego. voice
root
children
else
thers
the
meet.
must
tality
indictment
performance
perform,
supposed tory,
this
analysis--the
it
is
authority,
I cannot
do.
| the
the Conscience
all. in
this
absurd.
same And
public
show,
we
all
are
this so
vain:
49
we
all
do
think
maniacal: of
we
approbation,
far
richer
activity Signed
show to
and
also Big
not
to
the
sively
to
in
more
stage
continue
song
thinking
the
all
only
we,
us.
We
project
of
of our
seeing, the
than
our
are
for
inactivity
others
Otherwise
theatrical
to
life
ourselves
God
on.
about
performance
that
convince
convince
is
frenetic
fruitful
to
Father, go
endless a
this
never
designed
The
world's
that
engage
be
hurly
burly
performances:
we
thoughtlessly
make
it
so.
a
and
de-
for
the
worth.
must
die
children,
if
sake
might
worth
own
ego-
the
are
but
all
and
self
doomed
the repres-
50 IV.6
Representative
the young men of the war .eethe Couretes, More and more dance, have a Leading Man. they differentiate him from themselves, make him their vicar. Their attitude becomes More and more and more one of contemplation. of his actzon: more they become spectators, Theatrically speaking, they become an audience; religious speaking, they become worGradually they shippers; he becomes a god. lose all sense that the god is themselves. "He is utterly projected." (ie ALT) It
is
a
duction as
in
mental
alienation;
of
self
the
minors
Vicarious
or
to
madmen.
satisfaction:
a
a
permanent
condition Gel, Nake), the
deed
of
is
re-
tutelage,
both
On this self-contheirs and not theirs. tradiction, this hypocrisy, this illusion, representative institutions are based. In vicarious experience there is both The mediator identification and distance. is to keep reality ata distance, to keep the multitude in remote contact with reality. Hobbes saw the paradigm in Exodus XX, 18-19: "And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when they saw it, they removed, And and stood far off. they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." Representative institutions depend upon the distance separating the spectators from the actor on the stage; the distance which permits both identification and detachment; which makes for a participation without action; which establishes the detached observer, whose participation consists in seeing and is restricted to seeing; whose body is restricted to the eyes. Everything which is merely seen is seen through a windowpane, distantly; and purely: a pure aesthetic experience. Representative institutions depend upon the aesthetic illusion of distance. (pp. 19 =2:0)) The garden is polymorphism of the senses, polymorphous perversity, active interplay; and the opposite of polymorphous perversity is the abstraction of the visual, obtained by putting to sleep the rest of the life of thes body.» Wpemk2as)
5a
The penis which still belongs to another; even aS our superego still belongs to Daddy. The super-ego is borrowed strength; or a stolen trophy; a head cut off, a monument erected high in our house. To idealize is to idolize; to make an idol; to translate into a fixed image for contemplation; to turn into monumental form; to turn into stone. To concentrate on seeing is to turn into stone; Medusa's head; castration. (p. 124)
a2
Politically authority. We
foist
Toward off
vicariously ers,
and
tatorship with
a
our in
the
coitus:
mal
scene
are
authority
our
places.
presidency
just
and is
participators.
endlessly we
under
our
view
"the
Genital
others:
we
become
be
turned
lethargic of
the
We
after
become
vicars
detached
into
Brown
organization
lust
our
gazes.
primal as
We
infantile-dependent.
on
So
effect,"
castration."
perversity.
can
docile.
are
responsibility
child's-eye
in
morphous
we
a
observ-
virtual
The
dic-
parallel
scene,
the
parents
says,
"of
the
voyeurs rather
act
rather than
is
prithan
poly-
5S
IV
Head
The apocalypse lays bare the mystery of kingship; stripping off the Emperor's New Clothes, to reveal the harlot. Kingship is fornication-the identity of politics and sex. In the apocalypse the walls do fall; the walls separating inside and outside; public and private; body physical and metaphysical. The identification (p. of sex and politics; as in psychoanalysis. 126) Psychoanalysis shows the sexual organization of the body physical to be a political Organization; the body is a body politic. Psychoanalysis stands or falls on the expansion of the idea of sexuality to comprehend the entire life of the human body; attributing a sexual ("erotogenic") action to all parts, organs, or "zones"; or rather, envisaging sexuality as an energy diffused throughout the whole body, and capable of displacement from one part to another, and of transformation from one mode of manifestation to another (polymorphism; metamorphosis). What the psychoanalytically uninitiated call "sex," psychoanalysis calls "genitality," or "genital organization," seeing in it an arrangement, a modus vtvendt, a political arrangement arrived at after stormy upheavals in the house of Oedipus. The arrangement is to concentrate sexuality in one part of the body, the genital; this concentration, or organization, establishes the "primacy" of one "componentimpulse," which is now the "dominating" or "supreme" component-impulse in the sexual life of the body. It is, says Freud, a wellorganized tyranny of a part over the whole.
(pp.
126=7)
It is part of the tyranny of genital organization that its slaves are blind, and see not tyranny but natural necessity. The status quo bears the seal of familiarity, until the seal is broken; the apocalypse. The revolutionary idea in psychoanalysis is the idea of the body as a (political) organiZacVon, auboGy politic; as @ historical variable; as plastic. Man Makes Himself, his own body; his image of the body; the Eternal Body OL Manse nerermacenate tom se 2)7/)) The body, like the body politic, is a theater, everything is symbolic, everything The principal part including the Sexual act.
54 is-a public person taking the part of the community as a whole: persona publica tottus communitatits gerens vitcem, The function of the representative organ is to impersonate, incarnate, incorporate in his own body the body politic. Incorporation is the establishment of a theater (public); the body of spectators depend on the performance for their existence as
one
body.
(pp.
131-32)
The penis is the head of the body, the band of brothers; the rest of the body is to the penis as chorus to tragic hero, hypocritically and from a safe distance enjoying the thrill of being spectators at their own execution. (p. 132) The head, the husband, and the soul of the body. The classic psychoanalytical equation, head=genital. Displacement is not simply from below upwards; nor does the truth lie in Simply reducing it all downwards (psychoanalytical reductionism). The way up is the way down; what psychoanalysis has discovered is that there is both a genitalization of the head and a cerebralization of the genital. The shape of the physical body is a mystery, the inner dynamical shape, the real centers of energy and their interrelation; the mystical body which is not to be arrived at by anatomical dissection and mechanical analysis; the symbolical life of the body, with which psychoanalysis can put us in touch. (p. 136)
55
To about
talk
the
about
imagination.
also
reeroticize
tion
is
to
to
and
roles
ly
said
emptied
prick: of
Throw
off
would
be
chains.
we
Sex
have
overcome
that
our
overcome dualism
part
Politics we
and
and
politics:
"Workers
hard
to
do
because
both
riches
ourselves
said
we
of
our
into of
Marx: we
to
the
both
fetishes
ejaculated
chains,"
body
talk we
body
organiza-
over
are
in
the
to
the
play
leading and
theatre
are
poor,
love
selfof
Psychic
and and
unite! said
with
the
precise-
commodities
Freud
is
presi-
the
world,
but
the
organization
them.
the
must
overcome
self-repression
deprivation: your
to
genitality:
allow
Amidst
made
of
is
genital is
genital
theatrical
Talleyrand.
or
symbolic
one
egoism.
part
because
To
to
forgetfulness. poor
head.
of
perversity
reeroticize, the
finally,
the
is
To
body-soul
domination
and
overcome
dent
the
overcome
tyrannical others,
polymorphous
our
that own
56 IV.8
Boundary
The possibilities adumbrated in infancy are as in Wordsworth's to be taken as normative: "Ode": "before shades of the prison house
close
in;
condition "The sole thing ship trol
we is
shrink normal
up
into
the
adulthood."
fallen (p.
141)
ambitions of the Id, while that was the governing force, were towards being the at the other side of whatever relationit established. When the Ego takes conof the Id's impulses, it directs them
towards "The
before which
having."
natural
man
(p. is
145) self-centered,
or
ego-
centric; everything he regards as real he also regards as outside himself; everything he takes ‘in' immediately becomes unreal and "spectral.' He tries to become an armored crustacean alert for attack or defense; the price of selfishness is eternal vigilance. This kind of Argus-eyed tenseness proceeds from the sealed prison of consciousness which Blake calls 'opaque.'" (p. 148) Separateness,
then,
is
the
fall--the
fall
into division, the original lie. Separation is secrecy, hiding from one another, the private parts or property. Ownership is hiding; separation is repression. It is a private
corporation.
(pp.
148-49)
There is, then, after all a sense in which the body is not real; but the body that is not real is the false body of the separate self, the reality-ego. That false body we must cast off; in order to begin the Odyssey of consciousness in quest of its own true body. (p. 154) Reality is not things (dead matter, or heavy stuff), in simple location. Reality is- energy, or instinct? “(p< 155) To
Overcome
of
sleep;
dualism
to
arise
would
from
be
the
to
dead.
awake
(p.
out
159)
Definitions are boundaries; schizophrenics pass beyond the reality-principle into a world of symbolic connections: “all things lost their definite boundaries, became iridescent with many-colored significances." Schizophrenics pass beyond ordinary language (the
Si
language of the reality-principle) more symbolic language: (p. 160)
into
a
truer
The mad truth: the boundary between sanity and insanity is a false one. The proper outcome of psychoanalysis is the abolition of the boundary, the healing of the split, the integration of the human race. (p. 160)
58
mine
Possessions
establish
and
yours.
what
parts.
If
possess, to
then
say,
there, thus ity
no
everything
made
it
of
to
eroticize talking that
about
sort
Ronald
reality mad,
is
dead Not
of
madness. insists,
truth
that
truth.
we
me
is
down and
and
we
Otherwise
things. to
or
the
divide;
be
It
mad
Captain
to
is
may
Ahab:
schizophrenics non-schizophrenics
I
that exist
out and
the
real-
of
We
must
live
must we not
power
dead
a
or
only matter
be
madness
do
me.
energize are
indeed
have
boun-
and
the
or re-
pernicious thee
is
there
projected
us.
between
experience
which
reality
made
is
private
domain
control
what
reality:
comes
the
have
and
than
inert,
Laing
and
to
my
things
projected
real.
matters.
Dionysian
inner
outer
to
rather
which
an
breaking
and
love,
unite that
really
maddest
things
by
the
real
between
I own,
into
there"
possess
inner to
is
I have "Out
reality
learn
of Eros
have
the
between
must
longer that
lines
am what out
me.
actually
inner
daries
I
myself
real.
principle:
claim
As
I
outside
possessed
We
is
I empty
boundary
the
maddened.
hold
not.
on The
59
IV.9
Food
Eating is the form of redemption. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of*man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. We must eat again of the tree of knowledge, in order to fall into innocence. (p. 167) Transubstantiation--the whole problem of symbolism. Metaphor is really metamorphosis: (pe L68) From the bloody to the bloodless sacrifice: from the literal to the spiritual body. Real presence, in a bloodless sacrifice; not sublimation, but transubstantiation of the body... (pe l/s)
60 Brown's symbolism eat,
for
ism.
chapter
as
its
this
Eating
and
the
growth
all
symbolism,
the
body.
for
Thus
And
chapter,
learning to
never
to
unity.
Nothing
rent
communal
away
sharing.
he
can
from
also
is
be
is:
whole
egoistic
that
course
or
Brown
undertones
one
self
of
based
in
another,"
sacrifice
striking
oneself.
the ego
eating=communion= by
about
again
of
ultimately
nourished
talks
giving
And
super
and
symbol-
incorporate
sexual
is
"Take
eucharistic
to
the
Christian
theme.
internal
guilt.
are
Brown
by
of
from
equation
I think love
son
up
symbolism
"They
when
the
of
far
all
the
copulation.
says.
rent,
is
utilizes
structural
Christian
building
Freudian
obviously
body."
the
the
this
my
again
conscience
he
is
food
central
Cannibalism.
father:
oral
on
most
the
Separation has
hoarding
not
and
in
theme gives
first
thrown
of way
been toward
61
IvV.10
Fire
The choice is between partial incorporation and total incorporation (integration). Partrerpation (playing a part) ‘of fusion, Total incorporation, or fusion, is combustion in iEbaeeys (ey5 AlZio) The true sacrifice is total, holocaust. Consummatum est. The one is united with the ali anearconsumimng fave. tp. 1577) Love is all fire; and so heaven and hell are the same place. As in Augustine, the torments of the damned are part of the felicity of the redeemed. Two cities; which are one city. Eden is a fiery city; just like hell. or 1879) Find the true fire; of which the fires of war are a Satanic parody. Fight fire with fire. The true teachers of peace are those who have the highest power, who can work miracles, who are masters of fire. fore the Buddhas are called Jinas,
(pe
TS)
but
The thing, to find the
Heart
of
in
Love.
Wars
of
(p.
182)
then, is not to true war. Open Mutual
ThereConquerors.
abolish war the hidden
Benevolence,
Wars
Save us from the literal fire. The literalminded, the idolaters, receive the literal fire. Each man suffers his own fire. (p. 182) Maes
real
f£une,
the
chariot
of
fire,
the
Fiery Chariot of his Contemplative Thought. The real fight, the mental fight; poetry, a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, that consumes the scabbard that would contain it. (oR 83)
62
In the
this
fiery
bodied house
of
native
the
Not
capacities
occur
of for
eralism
and
caust:
only
ing of
the
embodied
mundane
but
the
visionary,
mind.
trip.
mind.
Fire
apocalyptic to
idolatry:
literalism
transcendent the
whether
then
shall must
truth
the
new
Purification and
egoism
is
and
power
symbol that,
Fire
be
with
of
the
mystical,
the
make
fire
computer-like
reversal
survive.
we it
can
literal
as
mankind
of
consciousness, head
of
contrasts
the
mind
information,
question
ical
Brown
imagination,
mind.
Apocalypse, must
chapter
is
it.
consumed
an
imagi-
of
the
for
Brown,
answer is
as
in
a
symbol-
emerge,
the
truth
of
for
the
first
time
of
the
head
a
by
to
Error
and
thus
emstore-
fiery
liberation
of
litholo-
endurpurge the
63
IV.1l
Fraction
There is a seal or sepulcher to a rock to be broke open, to disclose water; an eruption. Begin then with a cesura, a rent; opening a crack in world, a shatt of light. (p. 185) Literal meanings are icons idols; the stone sepulcher, the OL the Law. (Pp. 185)
be broken, the living a fracture, this fallen
become stone stone tables
The crucified body, the crucified mind. The norm is not normality but schizophrenia, thersplit,. broken, crucified mind. (p..186) Exaggeration
the ness;
cost. it
or
extravagance;
Go
for
broke.
goes
too
far.
the courage to risk madness. (p. 187)
its
Aphorism
not
is
to
count
reckless-
Intellect
is
courage;
own
to
play
life;
with
Symbolism, or grotesque: "A fine grotesque is the expression, in a moment, by a series of symbols thrown together in bold and fearless connection, of truths which it would have taken a long time to express in any verbal way, and of which the connection is left for the beholder to work out for himself; the gaps, left or overleapt by the haste of the imagination, forming the grotesque character." (pp. 188-89) Broken speech; speech broken by silence. To let the silence in is symbolism. "In symbol there is concealment and yet revelation: here therefore, by Silence and by Speech act-
ing
together,
(oe
ESO)
comes
a double
significance."
64 Brown chapters
to
forming erupt
act
in
barely
the
it
our
16),
peace,
there
is
an
as
intuitive
opposed
and
bound
by Aristotelian
can
there
be
is
why
not all
said.
ended both
and
and
and
can
fill
in
following
McLuhan, read
thought: of
us
that
so
view
of
we
the is
the
gaps
a
cool
cannot
in
our
to
own
with
to
the
gaps;
one-sided,
is
for we
Aphorism,
system
be
open
thus
participate
observer.
which
allows
ourselves.
the
said
all,
and
of thought
the
aphorism
of
of
to
Only
time,
the
system
it
can
defense
opposed
say
per-
I
whole
the
last
will
of
silence,
genuinely
detached
which
aphorism
medium; is
the
to
same
for
were
unsuccessful,
the
the
then,
Body
fill
at
he
nirvana.
logic.
The
playful:
Brown,
Love's
point
are
serious.
these
ideas
as
and
tries
thought
so
and
speech
system
silence
Really
to
of
oh
lively
speech
readers
The
systems
fragmentary,
both
in
important
insight
packaged
the
minds
characterizes
aphorism
if
primary
aphorism and
as
with
(ch.
that
notice,
almost
mentioned
In
magical,
must
intensity,
style
Body:
you
intercourse
chapter.
thought:
as
Nothing
the
aphoristic
Love's
in
of
end
list
fraction
beginning,
build
an
and
simply
the
is
read It
is
in
from
must
otherwise,
hot.
Brown's
the
engage
it
too
fails. To
mention
through: courageous birth
find
primary
grotesque:
old
himself.
in
Fraction:
which
paradox:
is
only
a
rock
of
he
to
break-
intellectual
thought=semen=life:
brokenness,
There
themes
exaggeration:
intellect:
through
mysterious
other
course
who
be
courage:
painful
re-
expresses
the
loses
broken;
himself
go
for
can
broke.
65
IV.12
Resurrection
Literal meanings as against spiritual or symbolical interpretations, a matter of Life against Death. the The return of symbolism, (p. rediscovery that everything is symbolic.
191)
The return to symbolism the Protestant era, the literalism. (p. 191)
would be the end of end of Protestant
So also the psychoanalytic principle of overdetermination: "Psychical acts and structures are invariably over-determined." The principle of over-determination declares that there cannot be just one "true" interpretation of a symptom or symbol: it forbids literalmindedness. (p. 193) The book is a materialization of the spirit; instead of the living spirit, the worship of a new material idol, the book. (p. 195) There is another kind of Protestantism possible; a Dionysian Christianity; in which the scripture is a dead letter to be made alive by spiritual (symbolical) interpretations; in which meaning is not fixed, but ever new and ever changing; in a continuous revelation; by fresh outpouring of the holy spirit. Meaning is made in a meeting between the holy spirit buried in the Christian and the holy spirit buried underneath the letter of scripture; a breakthrough, from the Abgrund, from the unconscious of the reader past the conscious intention of the author to the unconscious meaning; breaking the barrier of the ego and the barrier of the
book.
(p.
Redemption
196) is
symbolism.
(p.
202)
The spirit is understood by the spirit; by the same spirit, i.e., in the same style. The proper response to poetry is not criticism but poetry. (p. 205) The dead letter. The dead metaphor. It is only dead metaphors that are taken literally, that take us in (the black magic). Language is always an old testament, to be made
to
be
new;
made
rules,
alive;
to
be
broken;
literal
dead
meaning,
metaphor,
to
be
made
:
66
symbolical, oldness of letter byethes SpaciitemaoeneZ Ome
to
Literalism, and futurism, are to from the reality of the present. We
must
rise
from
history
to
be
made
distract (p. 207)
mystery:
(p.
new
us
214)
To rise from history to mystery is to experience the resurrection of the body here now, aS an eternal reality; to experience the parousta, the presence in the present, which is the spirit; to experience the reincarnation of the incarnation, the second coming; which is his coming in us. (p. 214)
67
This one
in
tian
chapter Body.
symbolism
to
do
on
a
religion which
based
have
you
Unless
scathingly
The
hortation
the
image
happen in
a
literal
testant
if
we
thought
us
somewhere.
all.
aimed,
it
ligion
and
seems
the
breach
the
hard For
us
To
beyond
at
for the
involve
ourselves
indicts
in the
menon
that
to to
that
get read
the
academic but
a
calls
proper
hearts
of
in
the
response
to
Simon:
open-ended,
all
that
These
is are
it
the
"how
good
with
beyond Pro-
its
dead
is
between
re-
as
well and
really that
that
pheno-
happened" also
poetry: to
a
symbolic,
old
same
fundamentalism."
is
in
happened"
literalism
the
it
approach poetic, us
the
scholastic
really
course
history
about
move
against
humanists
mechanical
Of
to
researchers.
"how
“establishment on
to
for
moves
healing
the
linear
not
barrage
at
university,
poetry.
only
breach
soft
historical-critical
to
the and
hooked
as
this
thing,
modern
being
playful,
approach Carly
off
history
orthodoxy
experimental
do
Catholic
All
about
is
ex-
process
enslaved
arguing
Roman
healing
to
opts
they
time
that
is
one
worry
to
is
Brown
the
Brown But
move
against
the
Bellah
recur,
in
an
us
again
that
to
upon
historical
Brown
become
me,
to
the
hold
is
books.
of
Christian
first
that
think
academic
to
ever
To
to
between
heads
bonds
against
science,
modern
insisting
fashion
fundamentalism, and
of
these:
Things
spirit.
pseudo-commitment
is
time.
one-way
the
of
some
chapter,
is
me
as
cyclical
literalism,
to
getting
to
ago.
brilliant
some
this
Brown
seem the
for
event
years
literature
but
underbelly
that
chapter
and
the
Chris-
institutional
scholarship.
historical.
letter
soft
an
historical
in
in
Christian
using
thousand
spot,
of
linear,
the
all
out
of
once
to
is
as
two
Brown
emphases
time,
really
thoroughly
Brown
training
by
the
for
some
hard
biblical
to break
historical were
and
some
offered
major
most
course
in Christianity
are
Resurrection
the
of
once
finding
and
theology
But
had
they
are
vignettes
perhaps
happened
purportedly
Christianity
the
is
Love's
the
not
dead
the
thing,
polymorphous
present.
days.
means
Again,
68 TVl1s.)
BuLealiment
God being thus hidden, every religion which does not affirm that God is hidden, is not true; and every religion which does not give the reason of it, is not instructive. Psychoanalysis passes the test. (p. 216) Symbolic consciousness is between seeing and not seeing. It does not see self-evident truths of natural reason; or visible saints. It does not distinguish the wheat from the tares; and therefore must as Roger Williams saw, practice toleration; or forgiveness, for we never know what we do. The basis of freedom is recognition of the unconscious; the invisible dimension; the not yet realized; leaving a space for the new. (p. 217) The unconscious to be made conscious; a secret disclosed; a veil to be rent a seal to be broke open; the seal which Freud called repression. Not a gradual process, but a sudden breakthrough. A reversal of meaning; the symbolism suddenly understood. The key to the cipher: the sudden sight of the real Israel, the true bread, the real lamb. (p. 217) Symbolical consciousness--Christian, or psychoanalytical, or Dionysian--terminates in the body, remains faithful to the earth. The dreamer awakes not from a body but to a body. Not an ascent Erom body to Spirit, but the descent of spirit into body: incarnation not sublima-
Literalism makes the world of abstract materialism; of dead matter; of the human body as dead matter. Literalism kills everything, including the human body. (p. 223) Literalism
makes
a
universe
of
stone,
and
men
Literalism is the petrified. astonished, Ministration of death, written and engraven in stones; tables of stone and stony heart. (Diem 2i23))
To return the word knowledge carnal again; immediate by perception (p. 224) bodily senses. Life
is
is
the
phallic,
(Gomera)
power
and
to
to the flesh. To not by deduction, or sense at once;
make
fiery;
the
new
god
life;
is
the
make but the
spirit
Dionysian.
69
To reconcile body and spirit would be to recover the breath-soul which is the life-soul instead of the ghost-soul or shadow; breathconsciousness instead of head-consciousness; body-consciousness instead of head-consciousness. The word made flesh is a living word, not a scripture but a breathing. A line that comes from the breath, from the heart by way of the breath. Aphorism as utterance: a short breath, drawn in pain. Winged words, birds released from the sentence, doves of the spirit. (p. 23)
70
Brown dream
then
dream,
argues
that
we
interpret
can
which
is
to
dream
means
Thus,
everything
means
Shadow body. the edly
To body
to
to
is
the
(the
literalism
is
one
us
central;
and
to
be
a
sort
understand
it
as
we
do
and
for
never
everything
again
everything
just
one
is
light
or
to
say
a ina
thing.
that. happens
which
of
is
that
thing.
is
to
as
turn
realities over
the
Christ
fulfillment
bodily
life
things,
sublimation
shadowy to
consider and
of
meaning;
sublimate
symbolism
body
is
we
polymorphously;
that
in only
extolled
brating
say
a multitude
overdetermined nothing
if
symbol)
repressive
of
like TV. is
the
and
away
from the
here
Word
final
away
sublimation.
made
turn
from
is
to
reality
commodities
Again the
dawn the
the
to
the of
devot-
Christian flesh, the
adum-
symbolic
darkness
of
Wal
IV.14
Judgment
Symbolic consciousness; a trance, in transit: going over, from this world to the next. Overcoming this world. (p. 233) From this world to the next; from-utility to creation. Instead of words as market-place utilities, brand names to advertise established items, the creative words which make it new. Words made new again, as on the first day of creation; eternity's sunrise. Words used not to interpret the world but to change it; not to advertise this world but to find another. To pass from this world to the next; from ordinary to extraordinary language. (p. 234) Overthrow for
the
persons,
reality-principle: not
to
be
fooled
by
no
respect
masks;
no
clothes, no emperor. All power is an impostor; a paper tiger, or idol; it is Burnt up the Moment Men cease to behold it. The Last Judgment is the Vision; the political act is the poetical act, the creative vision.
(p..5235) Psychoanalysis is that revolving stage which completes this revolution, disclosing the bedroom and the bathroom behind the bourgeois facade, disclosing the obscenity of the onstage scene, abolishing the realityprinciple and its unreal distinction between public and private, between head and genital.
(p.
236)
Everything is symbolic, everything is holy. There is no special time or place or person, privileged to represent the rest. And then democracy can begin. The many are made one when the totality is in every part. When one thing is taken up, all things are taken up with it; one flower is the spring. Tt is all there all the time. (p. 239)
Not the reality-principle Upside down. a systematic Surrealism, but surrealism. illumination of the hidden places and a a perprogressive darkening of the rest; petual promenade right in the forbidden Zone. (pi. 241)
72
Politics vision only
if
dissolves
into
and
our
consciousness.
we
are
respecters
so-called
leaders,
are
poetics
we
Political
of
the
if
it.
grains
alter
power
All
of
us,
of
sand
is
not
which
our powerful just are
our
infin-
SEN?S Symbolical between
sacred
"Freud's
consciousness and
discovery:
underworld
of
seem,
things
we
can
profane,
that
"Seduce
the
Freud's
the
between
universal
means
actually world
overcomes and
to
that are
distinction
underworld."
things
upside
madness"
the
master
and
slave.
But
that they
are
not
what
down,
and
perhaps
after
all.
IvV.15
Freedom as
Freedom
is poetry,
taking
»
.
liberties .
with
.
i
.
——
ae: a |
words, breaking the rules of normal speech, +) | : violating common sense. Freedom is violence. ( (“i [4
en \uyerd MMOek ey ey
ped LXDi iota
pee ee)
Vv
+h Vd
The original sense is nonsense; and common sense a cover-up job, repression. Psychoanalysis, symbolic consciousness, leads from disguised to patent nonsenses--Wittgenstein, surrealism,
Finnegan's No
Wake.
things,
(pe. but
245) an
iridescence
in the
void.
Meaning is a continuous creation, out of nothing and returning to nothingness. If it is not evanescent it is not alive. Everything is symbolic, is transitory; is unstable. The consolidation of meaning makes idols; established meanings have turned to stone. (p. 246) Meaning is not in things but in between; in the iridescence, the interplay; in the interconnections; at the intersections, at the crossroads. Meaning is transitional as it is transitory; in the puns or bridges, the correspondence. (p. 247) Meaning
aeLoOnwOm newness
one
at
all;
OL
nOtaatwvall
is
thing
legal
not
NOteateral ls poctry
is
the
and
fiction,
new,
or
metaphor,
or
another.
It
which
liberates
from
the
new
cre-
othe
nonsense--saying
meaning
of the law and from meaning. (p. 248)
a
tyranny
of
is
the
the
letter
literal
Symbolism is polymorphous perversity, the translation of all of our senses into one the interplay between the senses, another, The the free translation. the metaphor, their mutual isoseparation of the senses, is sexual organizais sensuality, lation, tion, is bondage to the tyranny of one leading to the absolute impulse, partial and exclusive concentration of the life of (p. the body in the representative person. 249)
sexuality, Polymorphously perverse through every organ of perception:
in
If in the morning sun I find it, there my eyes are fix'd/In happy copulation. (p. 249)
and
74 Knowledge is carnal knowledge. A subterranean passage between mind and body underlies all analogy, no word is metaphysical without its first being physical; and the body that is the measure of all things is sexual. All metaphors are sexual; a penis in every convex object and a vagina
in every
concave
Every sentence Overs a(Pien25 2)
one. is
(pp.
249-50)
dialectics,
an
act
of
Fusion: the distinction between inner self and outside world, between subject and object, overcome. To the enlightened man, the universe becomes his body: "You never enjoy the world aright till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars.' (pp. 253-54) Symbolical consciousness, the erotic sense of reality, is a return to the principle of ancient animistic science, mystical participation, but now for the first time freely; instead of religion, poetry. (p.
254) But the outcome of psychoanalysis of discovery that magic and madness are where,
and
dreams
is
what
we
are
made
the everyof.
The goal cannot be the elimination of magical thinking, or madness; the goal can only be conscious magic, or conscious madness; conscious mastery of these fires. And dreaming while awake. (p. 254) Sleepers,
awake.
Sleep
is
separate-
ness; the cave of solitude is the cave of dreams, the cave of the passive spectator. To be awake is to participate, carnally and not in fantasy, in the feast; the Greateconmunvon (pe) 25'5))
Us
Freedom Our
means
speaking
is
Speech
is
embodied
ied
to
be
a
is
phallic
So
and and If
for
can,
The
sex,
self
all then
acts
all
spoken,
and
and of
word-act,
genuinely
also
union
like
between
others.
language
and
Can
to
be
spoken
stance
in
right
the
silence, the
we
so
that
disembodied.
self
Speaking
love.
reality
of
cerebral,
the
properly
like
the
silence: we
sexual.
a mystical
between
resexualization abstract,
speech,
thrust:
language,
symbol
the
never
and
learn
becomes
poetic
XVI,
is
is
like
place.
can and
embod-
be
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the
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rather
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it?
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About I hold
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And
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Symbolical and
Love's for
the
culture. and
Body,
The
the
and
to
much
common
philosophy
one
as
is
a way
being
formally
it
sterile
the
forms,
one
can
our
among
I do
the
implications
badly
for
fragmented
art
other
and
not
is
ordinarily an
any
to
longer
served
up
words,
ensnared
literalism
polysymbolic
speaks
development explored
students
read
to
do
each
own
view
For
me
to
little
religious of
which
what
polysymbolism.
is
If,
into
an
important
is
reason
Love's
forms dog-
tradition.
as and
as
that
to
the and
the
society,
respond
the
Brown
I regard
Brown
of
I have
significance
writing.
seem
without
narrowness
possibility
to
transcend
developed
and
not
sensitive
a way
how
ordinary-
transcending
the
considerable
my
our
cul-
which
herald
I think, religious
enough
Body,
a
and
to
ask
I shall
so.
risk
been
in
by
religiosity, of
has
shows
and
the
eclectic
in
the
of
to
in
alternative
to
most
traditions,
our
thinking.
He
other
polysymbolism
the
know
does
Yet
religiously
being
called
has
of
be
in
and
At
way
avoid
religiously
But
me
religious
alternative.
religious.
Body
continue
my
I can
Love's
I have
science
fields.
appear
available
as
to
that
matism
which
of
many
sensical-secular-empirical-scientific
shows
of
has
implications
of
better
world
tural
me,
implications
personally,
any
Marxism me
to
all.
of
Speaking in
has
religious
Significant
believe
seems
Choice
reunification
book
education
perhaps
and
it
potential
Consciousness
a
of
one
succumbing target
of
to
the
Brown's
Wi
academic thought,
literalism I want
to
78
conclude has
my
now
that
remarks
more
and
is
gone
it
is
differences
clear
apocalyptic,
The
February
and
issues
that
Brown
anathema gave, from
the to
happiness;
at
classes
keep
to
delusion
happiness
tory
is
lower
deliberate
classes
in
be
in
gained
and
therefore
Marcuse
the the
in
synthesized
the but
are
found.
At
tool
of
away
deluded best
and
earthly
the
ruling
falling
for
satisfaction--if
future,
"The
unhappiness status
radical
religious simply
be Marx
before
they
inequitable
attacks:
to
reasons
persons
line,
to
terminates
not
a
of
thinks
has
the
revolution
non-worldly
now,
history
the
is
Marcuse
problems
be
the
ultimate,
legitimated. of
it
for
of
is
bearable
ultimately
(and Marcuse
that
to
where,
in
Mystified,"
and
earthly
sphere
disastrous
worst
him,
attention
pressing
will
"Love simply,
precisely
the
worldly
happiness
on
1967
[Beacon]):
Put
in-
appeared
Commentary,
essay,
due
turns
and
other
is
his
religious
it
apparent
of
Brown.
Marxist
controversy
Negattons
in
by
gone
that
religion
the
Body
the
some
think,
then
March
Marcuse's
reply
has
for
namely
them to
a
deep,
are
late,
reprinted
Love's
view
revolution
there
the
is
type
socio-economic that
was
there
Marxist
Marcuse
Brown's
work.
and
the
If
with
visionary
criticizes
Marcuse.
to
by
deliberately
in
to
back
overcome
rearrangement,
eradicable
returning
more
repression
and
by
is
quo
is
destruction
tale,
in
negated,
which
his-
abolished"
GWMegact tons jp Pse232)is
Attitudinal in
this
controversy.
romanticism nation vant "is
the
penis
hours
from
the
crux
are
and
remains is
not
in
him,
just
business symbol, Berlin
of
the
to
a
and
particular
at
for
very
take
hand. it
gets
(p.
reality
things
job.
principle;
business,
not
insignificant
latent
airplane," you
roots
What
to
everything,
politics,
of
states
repression
their is
says,
couple
Marcuse of
imagi-
irrele-
he
ina As
Teutonic
fertile
totally
consequently,
rational
as
is
235).
"The
not
the
Brown's it
"The
also
Vienna"
roots;
are all
best
disagreement: real
the
always,
can't
the
but
remain real
as
Marcuse,
seriously--at
to a
matters,
eradication
be
abolished
but
such
exploitation
as poverty. Brown's of
Short
of
this
purpose
is
defeated,
history,
the
discovery
turns
into
the
tent"
(pp.
235-36).
common
sense
ficial, view
or
of
ject
might
say
world,
realms
and
of
object
is
as
expression"
for
is
the
turn of
what?
a Whole
which
tensions
and
Brown and
arti-
leave
the
the
end
is
lesson
which
must
be
The
fight
has
tion
of
that
commodities; relation
overcome;
chaos
divinized. but
to
the
taken
is
is
in
Totality, all
life"
(p.
the is
his
next
lies
a
the
proletariat; pp.
of
poli-
in
its must
not
comes
men
leave down
whose
to
to
you a
make
really
original
what
you
of
rea-
arguments; Love Cordelia,
like
246-47).
stunning
stakes
in
will
of
what
divergence
Freud
had
been
be
form
~
I
and
collec-
human
language
powerful
lit-
genera-
organization
goals;
241). of
life
realm not
reality-principle.
eternal
the
the
of
the
power;
(Negattions,
a
of
meaning
the
language
Realpolitik;
Nothing"
says,
world
genital are
in
Symbolic
shrouded
all
to
out
the
body;
Reason
empty-handed;
bringing
be
fusion
the
love.
he
as rub
interpretation
transmitted
poetry;
events.
mystification--from
technology's
and
"And
of
power-politics; comes
to
of
well
cruel
divisions,
say,
its
mystification
Absolute,
to
sub-
fulfillment
and
Marcuse's
lesson,
into
him
and
the
in
as
final
remain,
parts
label
and
a
for
an
the
tion.
for
between life,
freedom,
the
tics
And
must
that
accepts
human
or
accepts
hidden
even to
of
the
world
Fusion
goals
all
and
the
subject/object
unsublimated
envisions
needs,
real
238).
remains,
up
sense
fantasy.
"Revolution,
reply
con-
real
symbolism,
eralism
son
all
in
content,
real
the
common
(p.
swallows
real and
between
rational,
Brown
and
latent
of
symbolization
answer
because
latent the
destruction
obliteration
symbolic=--symbolic
The
mystery,
the
the
critical
reason,
the
be
as
revolution:
become
him,
well
and
Marcuse
to
instinctual
of
its
the
"would
reality
the
of
irrelevant
sublimated, Marcuse
of
For
of
and
mystification
distinction
we
the
nether
recapture
finally
between
so
two
similar
80
and
so
have
profound--they
noticed,
tions,
and
enment
they
old
quite
one
gets
can
classical
choice.
Or
CC
the
is
it
as
many,
us,
we
between
one
hand, on
really
a
including
developed
feeling
to
mysticism
that are
despite
choice
that
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on Press
for American Academy of Religion [c1976] 80p. 2hcem. (American Academy of Religion aids
for
the
study
of religion
series,
no.})
1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Brown, Norman Oliver, 1913Love's boar. J. Titie. Ii. Series. Figen
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WILLIAM C. SHEPHERD It is odd that the most penetrating and creative contributions to religious studies seem to come so often from persons not in Departments of Religious Studies. Norman O. Brown —a classicist — is a case in point. For some of us who came into our academic maturity (more or less!) during the late 1950’s and the 1960’s, Brown’s books have been deeply and powerfully influential.
Brown’s vision has engaged the energies and attention of the most provocative — and in-vocative — critics of the second half of our
century’s dark night of the soul. It is, therefore, a matter of more than passing interest that William
C. Shepherd
has constructed
this
commentary on Brown’s consummate, but penultimate, work — Love’s Body. The value of the commentary is that it is designed to guide undergraduates through Brown’s labyrinthine aphorisms without betraying the spirit of Brown’s insight. It is inevitable, given the nature of Love’s Body, that there will be disagreements with Shepherd’s interpretations at some points. But I
believe his commentary will help a new generation of students and teachers to unravel, without de-mystifying, the body of love’s language Brown spins with such passion and poetic clarity. I know I will find the commentary helpful in my classes and I recommend it to others. Richard A. Underwood The Sanskrit symbol on the front and back covers indicates the sacred syllable OM.
AAR Aids for the Study of Religion Published by Scholars Press for the American Academy of Religion