Saturday, 14 August 2021

Pictorial 183

 Having not read the Moore/Gebbie "Lost Girls", I can only go by the odd glimpse to ascertain it's a floridly decadent almost doll-like in a Geisha fashion exploration of tucks and folds in the continually-changing clothes as well as sexual experiences of the three protagonists.

It seems that the clothes and exotic surroundings are integral to the sexual experience. In a somewhat similar way, ecological issues have a sensual dimension in the fiercely fertile undergrowth, the bowers and hidden ponds naiads and dryads frequent in the vast forests of antiquity.

But the ancient sense  of ecology as espoused in Greek myth is the exact opposite to what passes for the ecological mainstream of today (Atten-bore &Co.)

One way to look at it is through the prism of the French decadents of the 19th century, who overlapped heavily with the symbolists, of whom Maeterlinck - Pelleas and Melisande, prev - is one.

The decadents were wary of nature to the point of deviating from the norm and being "unnatural" or beyond nature. However, this is also true of classical myth in that Zeus takes the form of various animals - bull, heffer - to pursue his lusts (see The Rape of Europa, prev.)

Man is beyond nature in that he employs animals to do his bidding, which no other animal (or plant) does. The decadents went so far as welcoming depravity, at least in-the-field, so they would have shrugged at sheep-shagging - or women cavorting with donkeys (rehsongcycle, suspended.)

It all depends what is called "natural". In Cider With Rosie (prev), Laurie Lee invokes mention of those who found animal pleasure being frowned on, so such decadence was not unheard of (incest likewise.)

If we lived in a reality full of fertility and bestial strength, then it is very far from our illusory reality of logical order. It can cause revulsion but equally attraction, and this may be the "unnatural order" that Clair Noto set out to create in "The Tourist" (P182)

The alien bestiality of these erotic zones is very close to the ancient cult of Dionysus. The gay god was often equated to a bull, which was sacrificed at spring equinox and the heart held aloft, symbolizing the resurrection of Dionysus from consumption by the Titans.

The agricultural province of this ritual speaks heavily of frenzied dancing and cavorting amongst the vines. Such experience of expressive acts that release the psyche from inhibitions are hard to find nowadays, and evoke mainly memories of the hippy-era of the 60s.

The "unnatural", or what you could call beyond nature, is typical of antiquity. Dionysus was syncretically linked to Osiris, the risen god of the Egyptians (killed by Seth). In fact, when the Roman Marc Anthony fell in love with Cleopatra (Ptolemy, Greek) of the Egyptians, they held a ceremony where he was consecrated as Dionysus-Osiris and she as Isis-Aphrodite.

If the fertile and the bestial in human culture are a part of the unnatural or " beyond nature", it is typical of ancient dynasties.

By contrast, the infertile (sterile or hygienic) and human-obsessives are only normal to an illusory system.

It's not that surprising the net attracts humans obsessives since it is really an illusory system (of straight-lines or algorithms, sun or electromagnetism.)

Fertility is also seen in the almost fetishistic folds and pins found in doll-like Geishas. Moderns tend to frown at this from their perspective of illusory normality. Where fertility is the norm, such flamboyant acts release inhibitions and mediate experience.

The psyche cannot experience a vacuum and that may be the case with modern obsessives (of an illusory reality.) It's nor possible to explain a Dionysian world by means of Apollo (logic and social order.)