Subject: RE: John Keats/John Keats/John/ Please put your scarf on.
From: Sean Draine (seandr@microsoft.com)
Date: Tue Apr 18 2000 - 13:17:36 EDT
Well done, Paul.
For those bananafishers who don't get off on mysticism, there's always
Freud, Darwin, and Madonna, who have demonstrated, by entirely different
lines of argument, that sex is the force that ultimately drives everything
we do.
Now get to it!
Sean
-----Original Message-----
From: kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca [mailto:kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 9:12 AM
To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
Subject: Re: John Keats/John Keats/John/ Please put your scarf on.
>
>the fact that Seymour died a virgin gives him another mystical quality in
my view.
>
>
I should probably leave this one for Scottie, but I want to say that I get a
bit worried about any attempt to connect mysticism with virginity. (I'm
told there are literally tens of thousands of teenagers in the U. S. of A
carrying cards within their wallets on which they've signed pledges of
celibacy. When I was a kid, a guy would carry a condom around until the
wrapper wore off--and might even be more 'celibate' than his contemporary
equivalents!--but would probably DIE before signing such a death-wish....
So I'm truly sorry if I step on any bananafishfins. But, come on, kids!
Use it or lose it.)
Sonny's probably infinitely more useful here, and I'm frankly WAY over my
head when I go under the covers, but I believe that there are many brands of
Indian mysticism in which sex is virtually prerequisite. And I know that
there are 'erotic' classics from the east in which the very mystical
dimensions of sex are celebrated, because I'm having to read many of them
right now, for work. Kama Sutra.... Perfumed Garden.... Honest, it's
part of my job description.... I've often said I have the best job in the
world!
When Scottie nominated Tony Pole for a posthumous bananobel prize a few
weeks back, I countered that I found the kaleidescopic works of Aldous
Huxley much more satisfying. Meantime, while discussions about mystic
manners raged in these parts, I've been meaning to recommend a WONDERFUL
Huxley book on mysticism, called, I think, THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE (but I
can't be sure because those sorts of books are a couple hundred kilometres
away, and I'm pretty sure it's out of print....)
Anyway, Huxley (whose Belgian wife proofread the galleys of both Lady
Chatterly and Finnegan's Wake, some of which were apparently set by a
unilingual Italian typesetter!) would likely be the last person to exclude
sex from mystical experience--and I'm with Huxley on this one!
Cheers,
Paul
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