Two Nights of Excess

Following up with last week's post on Michel Onfray, my last visit to the city of New York turned up a little small book by a french author, Alfred de Musset. A renown poet, playwright and novelist of the Romantic period, this little book I stumbled upon was his try at erotic literature, Gamiani, Or Two Nights of Excess. According to the sources I've found on the book, the character of Gamiani is modeled after George Sand, another french writer, this is also said in the introduction of the book.
I found, after reading this little 100 or so page book, that in regards to the sexual aspect, it was comprehensive, covering everything from orgies, sacrilegious or otherwise, sadomasochism, bestiality, voyeurism, etc. No major perversions are neglected in the book. Much of it reminded me of the Marquis de Sade, on referring to him I highly recommend the excellent movie, Quills. This book incorporated much of the libertine spirit with a heightened element of the extreme, all for the sake of la petite mort. What distinguished this book from other erotica is its' lack of phallocentricity. The dominant character and sex is Gamiani, a woman.

On the the novel itself, it centers around two nights, between Gamiani, the Italian seductress, Fanny, the innocent virgin, and M. Alcide, the voyeur. The three meet on a night Gamiani holds a ball, the guests leave, she has lured Fanny into her room and Alcide is watching from a hidden place. No crevice is left untouched in their encounters. These three characters indulge extensively in themselves.
A brief interlude occurs during these two nights, where, the hunger of the characters is momentarily satiated and each partake in recounting their first sexual encounters. These are the moments that struck me the most, since it is in these tales recounted that one is able to see the imbalance created by the preceptors of youth, such as family members, and culture, and the predominant stigmatization of religion in regards to sexuality. Each of the characters have suffered at the hands of these stigmas, This imbalance is revealed in extremes that hinder and warp the natural, biological elements and desires that make up a person. This consequently, brought to mind Michel Onfray and his excellent treatise, Théorie du Corps Amoureux: Pour une Érotique Solaire. Which highlights the importance of letting go of the warped views of sensual relations, hindered mostly by extreme religious notions, hatred towards oneself, as well as by idealized romantic views.
If anything else, besides being an erotic novelette, Alfred de Musset in this book reveals diverse facets of human sexuality, how it is susceptible to dangerous extremes, much along the lines with the Marquis de Sade, although Musset draws a more poetic stroke with his words.
So, in the end, I recommend this book to those looking for interesting erotica. I enjoyed it.

Por Una Erótica Solar

Hace unos posts atrás, yo hablé sobre un libro que en aquel momento estaba leyendo, el tratado filosófico de Michel Onfray titulado, Teoría del Cuerpo Enamorado: Por Una Erótica Solar. Michel Onfray es un profesor y filosofo contemporaneo francés. El libro, con el cual tropecé de manera inesperada, lo leí traducido al español. Éste esta dividido en tres grandes partes. Al encontrarnos en el mes de febrero, el cual para muchos es el mes del amor, hablaré sobre este pequeño libro de envergadura, que trata los temas de relaciones corporales.

La primera parte es la Genealogía del Deseo. Aquí, el autor traza desde los origenes filosóficos griegos, los coneptos y las definiciones del deseo. Define al deseo desde dos puntos de vista, de la falta: epifanía de la platija filosófica, caracterizada mayormente por el filosofo Aristófanes y el otro punto contrario, del exceso: travesuras del pez masturbador. Este segundo punto caracterizado por los filosofos materialistas, principalmente, Demócrito.

 La segunda parte del tratado se titula, Logica del Placer. De igual forma que el primero, esta segunda parte esta compuesta por dos partes contrarias. Primera, del ahorro: emblemática del elefante monógamo. Segunda, del gasto: bromas del cerdo Epicúreo. Es en éste capitulo que sale a la luz el filosofo que caracteriza en gran parte lo que Michel Onfray desea exponer y proponer, Epicúreo.

 La tercera y ultima parte es la teoría de las disposiciones. También comprendido por dos partes, del instinto: virtudes de la abeja gregaria y del contrato: celebración del erizo soltero. En ésta última sección se mete más de lleno en la filosofía Epicúrea y elabora el concepto hedonista.

Este es un tratado denso, lleno de referencias filosóficas y complejas. Pero no es difícil de leer, al contrario, he encontrado el libro sumamente interesante y revelador. El autor descompone la larga historia y trayectoria del deseo, desde la esfera platonica, que busca completar lo que falta y el bando contrario, los materialistas. Las propuestas de Onfray son expuestas utilizando el bestiario filosófico. Lo cual le otorga a los animales usados como ejemplo un sazón antropomorfo.

En fin, crudamente resumiendo un trabajo excelentemente expuesto, Onfray busca desprender del deseo las trabas que obstaculizan su goce y su placer. Trabas caracterizadas por ilusiones ilusorias de la pareja ideal y la defectuosa estructura de una relación impuesta por la religión y por dogmas antiguos. Sé que al deducir La Teoría del Cuerpo Enamorado en pocas palabras no le hará justicia. Yo disfrute mucho leyendo el libro y se lo recomiendo a todo aquel que se atreva. Les dejo unos extractos del libro:

"El amor, en primer lugar físico, se vive en la simplicidad de la expresión libre."

"La amistad proporciona la materia de toda intersubjetividad electiva. Primero, la amistad con uno mismo: no enfadarse consigo mismo, no mantener relaciones mortíferas con la propia intimidad, no celebrar subterráneamente las pulsiones negativas del odio o del desprecio dirigidas contra la carne, no consentir las violencias que se vuelven contra uno mismo, no desfigurarse, no lacerarse el alma, no encenagarse en la maceración mórbida, en el asco visceral del propio ser, no dejarse vencer por las maquinas de guerra judeocristianas como el sentimiento de la falta, la impresión del pecado, el imperio de la culpabilidad, la espina en la carne. No hay mañana para quien se entrega a la creencia de la bestia pecaminosa interior y alimenta la carne de horca incapaz de establecer contratos hedonistas.

"El contrato hedonista, en este registro del sentimiento amistoso, implica una doble exigencia: querer la pulsión de vida y el trato único con aquellos que la quieren, evitar la pulsión de muerte y la relación con aquellos que la escogen."

Y de tal manera hacer que la libre expresión del deseo se pueda disfrutar y, por consecuente, permitiendo el goce "del puro placer de existir."

Artículos relacionados e interesantes:
Sex: from a public to a private affair.
Nature, Nurture and Liberal Values.

El hombre que inventó Manhattan

I finally finished Ray Loriga's "El hombre que inventó Manhattan"
and let me just say that I loved every word of it. I still stand by what I said in my earlier post, on my first impressions of the book. This is a colorful and deliciously sordid tapestry of stories that combine to give life to a city that is at once famously elusive and enticing. Beyond its' relation to the City of New York, specifically the borough of Manhattan, I find that the entire book transcends its' title and this territory in that in general and concise words it paints for the reader the diversity found in human nature especially bred in a large mass of population coexisting in a tight space. We are all related and connected, man and nature. This was most evident when I found the chapter on the rat Missy, describing it's first adventure into central park, being a young rat. Which connects to the ending entitled, "De Ratones y Hombres", where this same rat is killed by the narrator, before his sons' eyes whom had just named it Missy.  Curiously enough, this immediately brought to mind lines by the scottish poet of the Romantic period in English literature Robert Burns, "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!" (Lines 39-42). This is from his poem "To a Mouse". There is an interesting correlation between these two different works that I find relevant and important in understanding the core of what Ray Loriga presents in this book. Besides a description of the human condition found in a city as diverse and populated as NYC it is also a testament of man at his most grotesque and real and the harsh reality of human nature.

Now, I have begun and am about 15 pages in in the philosophical book I said in my previous post I was to begin next, Théorie du Corps Amoureux: Pour une érotique solaire by Michel Onfray. So far, I love what the book proposes to discuss and analyze in the opening pages. Briefly and roughly, it proposes individual autonomy and freedom from the bounds of oppressive western cultural traditions retaking and reinstating the Greek philosophers.

Till next post...