Ecce Homo led me back to Paglia's Sexual Personae. Much of her substance comes from Nietzsche. More than that, she drew style from him -- like Nietzsche, her prose contains the inflection of both poet and prophet. This section stuck in my brain today:
"Sexual freedom, sexual liberation. A modern delusion. We are hierchical animals. Sweep one hierarchy away, and another will take its place, perhaps less palatable than the first. There are hierarchies in nature, and other hierarchies in society. In nature, brute force is the law. . .Posted by Discoshaman at décembre 23, 2004 01:32 AM | TrackBackIn society, there are protections for the weak. . . When the prestige of state and religion is low, men are free, but they find freedom intolerable and seek new ways to enslave themselves. . .
My theory is that whenever sexual freedom is sought or achieved, sadomasochism will not be far behind. Romanticism always turns to decadence. Nature is a hard taskmaster. It is the hammer and the anvil, crushing individuality. Perfect freedom would be to die by earth, air, water and fire. Sex is a far darker power than feminism has admitted."
OT: Hi Disco;
Just want to mention that I will be taking a vaction from blogging while I spend Christmas back in my hometown, Dayton, Ohio. Will be flying back in the morning and will not be back till next Wed., Dec. 29th. Sorry I will not be online for the Ukrainian election this Sunday. Hope everything will go okay. Thanks for your friendship, Disco. Wish everybody a Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday and will catch you on the flip side.
David-
Have a GREAT vacation! Enjoy the time with your family.
It's awesome to have you on the blog, and I especially appreciate the supplemental info you provide on things here in Ukraine. :-)
Posted by: Discoshaman at décembre 23, 2004 12:07 PMHow can you READ prose like that? Maybe it's my own weakness, but I can't imagine getting through an entire book with that cadence. It's not exactly bad writing, but it's extremely difficult to read (and oughtn't readability be a legitimate measure of quality, if writing is not a narcissistic exercise?) ;-)
Posted by: pentamom at décembre 23, 2004 09:26 PMPentamom-
The actual passage reads much smoother. It definitely suffers from the ellipses I added. :) Her prose is actually pretty exciting, IMO.
Posted by: The Duchess at décembre 24, 2004 12:39 AMI read part of Sexual Personae before I became a commited Christian again, and the other part afterward. Her idea of the swamp of decay and regeneration fits in Romans 8:19-22 and the theme of creation subjected to decay and groaning in corruption.
What a surprise to see her name mentioned here. I look foreward to see how you and Tulipgirl process her world view.
Brian-
I find her fascinating. So much of what she says counter to the Rousseauist worldview is spot-on. We hate many of the same things. But obviously, where she sees reptilian brains and mother hate/love, we see human depravity.
As a Christian, I find her writing most applicable (or at least acceptable) when she's focused on psychology and art history. Common grace leaves room for me to learn a great deal from secular thinkers like Paglia, and there are huge areas of knowledge where the Bible is relatively silent. For example, the archetypes which litter Western cultural history, or the psychodynamics of sex.
I'm curious, what are some of the things you've taken away from her writing?
Posted by: Discoshaman at décembre 24, 2004 01:37 AMIt has been a long time since I went through Sexual Personae. I have wondered how much could be mentioned in polite company (I know her stuff about Sade (defintely not the singer) would send most screaming into the night. Mostly what sticks with me is the whole cthonic (what a Lovecraftian name) take on how life and art are, and it isn't always bad to talk about sex.
I recommend to you and the Duchess (if you haven't read it already) Marva Dawn's Sexual Character. She namechecks Paglia (in her critique of the PCUSA's 1991 document on Keeping Body and Soul Together).
By the way; thank you so much to the both of you for your tag team blogs from Ukraine. I found this from ardrewsullivan.com
Merry Christmas and God Bless
Brian
Posted by: Brian Greenwell at décembre 24, 2004 02:02 AM