8·Nov·2005 · "The Misery Desire" · bogusbrig

[The Poets]

The Misery Desire

Into the black yawning gob of the tunnel
The dark mouthed kiss of the deep swallow
It is at this point he was usually shocked by the sunrise
Catching him bolting along on the dawn stallion
Dracula retreating to his tomb

‘For him she is sex - absolute sex, no less.’

He read De Beauvoir as a form of redemption
All the time thinking of his cock and a woman’s warm insides
Feminism he could understand if he closed his ears
Their minds functioned with different cogs and springs
He preferred to think of her locked into coition
And jigging a comic dance
The absurd locomotion of pelvises thrashing together
So he returned to Schoppenhauer

‘Hence, it will be found that the fundamental fault
of the female character is that it has no sense of justice.’

Misery is more reliable than women
It’s a source of happiness
When nursed

For what is she, but desire?
She baits you with her body
Then leaves

I have never lied about my desires, she said
She was desire and she knew it and used it
Like a weapon​

There were one hundred men queuing outside her window
The drapes slightly parted allowing in a little light
As she busied herself with social obligations
Fussing her cats and connecting with friends
And moving coyly with affected decorum
With just enough whore walk to show them she might

Her defence was intellectual violence
The false premise, her evidence
Proving it was all the fault of men
As she bent over the library chair
Demanding her new lover ride her hard​

Serge Gainsbourg said to Whitney Housten….​

…‘I want to fuck you!’​

The result…​

Die Uberfrau was aghast
And having assumed Caesars throne
Was hoping for satisfaction
In relenting to popular demand

But the auditorium was full
And sniggering at his conceit
For the jester’s soured wit
Mirrored the awful truth

She offers slavery on her terms
Then offers a reward
For choosing desire over will
But why not choose free will...
..........and misery instead?​

‘Je t’aime mon non plus’​

Who is on whose leash and who takes whom for a walk?

He laughed then cried​

His addled brain fumbled like clumsy hands
To perceive what only light to the eye can satisfy
And roughly get to grips with the situation
But like Actionman his will outgunned the ways
And not even a conjuror's confusion of mirrors
Could raise his state in that condition
Not even her wandering naked about his brain​

 

[BooMerengue]

*sucking in a deep inhale... here goes nothin'!

Bogus? To me this poem is written only for a select few. Maybe one reference to be looked up in a poem is acceptable, but so many, though they add to the poem, appear to me as if they are there to confuse (read:sound elitist) I didn't go to college- just to the campuses. I'm not a stupid person at all, but my smarts are more the street variety. I know who Schopenhauer is- I even know how to spell his name. I read de Beauvoir when I was 14, and being private tutored by a Jesuit from Fairfield University. But I'm not sure if even she is a household word yet. Or ever will be.

I like the story you tell here, though I had to reread it several times to fully get it- if I have in fact, got it. And thats why I'm speaking up. I have no quarrel with those who love to study poems and dig through them. But there are a lot of puff brains like me out here who like our satisfaction fast and sweet. I fear this poem is not for us. So even though it's only one opinion, and I know you will get pages more of more deserving comment, I give it a 4. (out of 5)

 

[twelveoone]

Bogus, you devil, Actionman! I am envious. I have been trying for years to fit his ass for years in one of my atocities.

I disagree with Boo, I'd give it 100, you can dance to it...

with Doc Martens

 

[BooMerengue]

Bogus, you devil, Actionman! I am envious. I have been trying for years to fit his ass for years in one of my atocities.

I disagree with Boo, I'd give it 100, you can dance to it...

with Doc Martens

You just made my point, DancinMan! And the Doc Martens made it even clearer. It's a poem written only for a select few. And there's nothing at all wrong with that. I have written a few myself.

 

[Guest]

My head's still throbbing from meditating on Rybbie's offering. I think I'll sit this one out.


*unlacing Doc Martens*

 

[wildsweetone]

The Misery Desire

Into the black yawning gob of the tunnel
The dark mouthed kiss of the deep swallow
It is at this point he was usually shocked by the sunrise
Catching him bolting along on the dawn stallion
Dracula retreating to his tomb

‘For him she is sex - absolute sex, no less.’

He read De Beauvoir as a form of redemption
All the time thinking of his cock and a woman’s warm insides
Feminism he could understand if he closed his ears
Their minds functioned with different cogs and springs
He preferred to think of her locked into coition
And jigging a comic dance
The absurd locomotion of pelvises thrashing together
So he returned to Schoppenhauer

‘Hence, it will be found that the fundamental fault
of the female character is that it has no sense of justice.’

Misery is more reliable than women
It’s a source of happiness
When nursed

For what is she, but desire?
She baits you with her body
Then leaves

I have never lied about my desires, she said
She was desire and she knew it and used it
Like a weapon​

There were one hundred men queuing outside her window
The drapes slightly parted allowing in a little light
As she busied herself with social obligations
Fussing her cats and connecting with friends
And moving coyly with affected decorum
With just enough whore walk to show them she might

Her defence was intellectual violence
The false premise, her evidence
Proving it was all the fault of men
As she bent over the library chair
Demanding her new lover ride her hard​

Serge Gainsbourg said to Whitney Housten….​

…‘I want to fuck you!’​

The result…​

Die Uberfrau was aghast
And having assumed Caesars throne
Was hoping for satisfaction
In relenting to popular demand

But the auditorium was full
And sniggering at his conceit
For the jester’s soured wit
Mirrored the awful truth

She offers slavery on her terms
Then offers a reward
For choosing desire over will
But why not choose free will...
..........and misery instead?​

‘Je t’aime mon non plus’​

Who is on whose leash and who takes whom for a walk?

He laughed then cried​

His addled brain fumbled like clumsy hands
To perceive what only light to the eye can satisfy
And roughly get to grips with the situation
But like Actionman his will outgunned the ways
And not even a conjuror's confusion of mirrors
Could raise his state in that condition
Not even her wandering naked about his brain​

i'm going to pass on the 'hidden' contents of this one. Dracular, and Whitney Housten, Caesar and Actionman i know. De Beauvoir, Schoppenhauer, Serge Gainsbourg, Die Uberfrau i don't. and to me that indicates that there's stuff in here i'm never going to understand without spending a massive amount of time researching. while i can do that for one or perhaps two references, i see little point hunting out every reference here. i'd rather spend my time writing or reading things a little closer to my skill level.

if you write to a specific audience, then only that specific audience is likely to have the skills to give a useful critique. obviously twelveoone has an excellent understanding and if i were you, i'd hit him up for a decent critique instead of the pat on the back.

instead i'll look at basic critique.

imagery:
gob is an interesting word. while i get that it means mouth, and most people will, i'm betting that it's not a common knowledge word as it's slang and i thought slang in English, not American - interesting if it is understood there easily.

i think the imagery is good, even if over the top at times.

metaphor and similie:
i have to pass on this because it goes into the realm of those people you've mentioned and their works and i have no knowledge of them.

language:
language use i'll say is good, but again i am unable to comment on how it relates to the works indicated.

rhythm and sound:
upon reading, some of this sounds 'jerky'... see 'mechanics' below for my thoughts on the reason.

integrity:
i can't say there is a general sense of wholeness to this poem for me as i don't understand it.

mechanics:
there appear to be few periods indicating complete sentences. the punctuation would help with smoother reading. the set out on the page is interesting.


i think as a whole, this poem could be better read as prose. i also think that although the first stanza is full of imagery, none of the images seem to tie in with the rest on a basic level of understanding. what does a tunnel have to do with a kiss, sunrise, stallion, Dracula? see, probably they do when you have knowledge of the rest of the people mentioned, but for me they don't tie together nicely. i could liken that stanza to a sex act, but then it just seems there are too many metaphors in the one place which is an overwhelming smothering of images.

i'm not sure that any of this helped, but hopefully you get my drift about people at my skill level (i'm sure there must be somebody else down at my level here) being unable to understand enough of the poem to give a credible critique.

good luck with this and i hope those who know what you're talking about give good account of their understanding. (maybe i'll learn something in the process)

 

[bogusbrig]

I didn't realise my poem was up so I won't make a meaningful comment on it yet other than just thank those that have already taken the time to read my poem.

I never thought of myself as an intellectual Boo and if I did I know there is a few people on these threads that could torpedo my boat. I was aware that some of the imagery and references might be a little obscure to some people but I was hoping people would be able to enjoy the poem just for the imagery, like a road movie or a weird thriller.

I can give a detailed explanation of the poem but I'll do that later, after it has been up for a couple of days. Thanks.

 

[twelveoone]

...you read your Emily Dickenson.
and I my Robert Frost....

He read De Beauvoir as a form of redemption
I assume this is reinforcement for what you are saying
So he returned to Schoppenhauer
followed by a quote
Serge Gainsbourg said to Whitney Housten….
But like Actionman his will outgunned the ways

is just funny, I would normally object to excessive name drops, these are easily googled and fit in context. Normally not a good idea, you see the objection.

You have a lot of balls, this message will not be well recieved. One of the more misogynist poems in this bunker of estro-facism, where badly written odes to the vagina are more appreciated. Consider the audience.

It does not look like poetry- and your style is a little offsetting, it took me awhile to figure out your flow, its like spitting blood with bits of teeth in it.

"Into the black yawning gob of the tunnel
The dark mouthed kiss of the deep swallow
It is at this point he was usually shocked by the sunrise
Catching him bolting along on the dawn stallion
Dracula retreating to his tomb"

this is sheer genious, says quite alot, if you where to maintain it, you would not have the objections (or the readership) you have, but you didn't, I think I understand why - but will wait.

"It is at this point he was usually shocked by the sunrise"

this sentence bothers me - a tendency of yours- I cannot get a handle on it - "usually" is buried, will be misread and prefaced with "It is at this point" - the line is too long, too wordy, find a way to shorten it, I think, make the point subtle, it is the crux of the stanza. Think this one through.

Misery is more reliable than women
It’s a source of happiness
When nursed

For what is she, but desire?
She baits you with her body
Then leaves

I have never lied about my desires, she said
She was desire and she knew it and used it
Like a weapon

Objection to "and she knew it and used it" - given - cut something, unbalances the line and detracts from the following line.

The objections Boo, and WSO raise are valid considerations - I love it, it is obvious to me, some of it too obvious, here I recommend reading Frost, bury it. Make it look like something else, yeah a nature poem learn that, move to America, in time who knows, a Pulitzer, a pennant from the minors. Auden did it.

I'll be back with more abuse.

 

[bogusbrig]

You've got me laughing 1201. I think you have sussed it or certainly found the code to the lock but I'm not going to say anything just yet. I think you can read me too well, I'm going to have to get up really early in the morning and be really creative to take you for a ride.

You are spot on with what needs correcting.

 

[The_Fool]

Dracula retreating to his tomb…..retreats for retreating

He read De Beauvoir as a form of redemption…..redemption may be correct, I like the thought of penance instead.

He preferred to think of her locked into coition….preferred or prefers? Into or in?

And jigging a comic dance….no ‘And’ required

The absurd locomotion of pelvises thrashing together….Locomotion bothered me somewhat. Went and googled the definition to see why. “an act or the power of moving from place to place.” He doesn’t want to go anywhere but wishes to maintain the status quo. Locomotion sounds good, motion may be more accurate.

It’s a source of happiness….No “It’s” required

I have never lied about my desires, she said….A quote should be in quotes.

There were one hundred men queuing outside her window…One hundred men queue outside her window.

The drapes slightly parted allowing in a little light….Either ‘Drapes, slightly parted, allows in a little light.’ or ‘Slightly parted drapes allow in a little light.’

Fussing her cats and connecting with friends…This may be a matter of dialect, but I would prefer ‘fussing with her cats…’

And moving coyly with affected decorum…I would prefer ‘She moves’ to ‘And moving.’

And having assumed Caesars throne….Caesar’s for Caesars. Do we need ‘And?’

She offers slavery on her terms…Then offers a reward…For choosing desire over will…I question how ‘then’ implies a condition on the choice. I think it would read cleaner and combine the two actions of ‘offers slavery’ and ‘offers a reward.’’

I’m having a hard time not rewriting the poem to my own style as you can see… From an overall perspective I feel your style in this poem is much more passive than I would prefer. That is neither good nor bad, but merely a statement of how narrow minded I am and how I’ve been condition by what I’ve recently read and written.

I think this poem makes a good he said, she said statement. With a nice swag at how sometimes we “make do” rather than appeal to the higher points of optimism. I think there was excellent imagery that most of us can relate to either as men about men or women about women. Being a man, the concept of woman is rather dark and strange to me..

He preferred to think of her locked into coition
And jigging a comic dance
The absurd locomotion of pelvises thrashing together

I think this segment speaks loudly to the concept of “I love my women in bed, but would rather leave them otherwise.” My one concern here is that this type of person usually doesn’t look at sax from a ridiculous viewpoint, simply because then their actions also become ridiculous, and ridicule is to be avoided at all cost. Not to say that this mindset is out of place, but should be stated from an uninterested party. And the ridiculous appeals to me.

There were one hundred men queuing outside her window
The drapes slightly parted allowing in a little light

From my own viewpoint, this would read into the story better if you said, ‘allows(ing) out a little light.’ You have men queued up outside of her window, the image of the light going out presents a better image of men watching her. The emphasis is on her, so inside should be more lit up than the outside. With the men kept lurking in the shadows.

Overall, punctuation would certainly help the reader better understand your meaning, but that is not always what the writer wants. Leaving the reader to find his or her own meaning is sometimes more desirable.

This is a good poem to see written. I have seen suggestions on longer poems indicating that they might function better as prose. I disagree. Sometimes it takes more words to tell both sides of the story.

Nice read. Thanks.

And these are the mere ramblings of a fool. They are suggestions only. Since I didn’t write it (and I’m a fool), I am most certainly sure to miss all the nuances you were trying to hit.

 

[WickedEve]

From this line "Into the black yawning gob of the tunnel" down to this line "Demanding her new lover ride her hard" I thought it was brilliant, and I loved it. Of course, I think the fact that I can pick up most anything with my toes is quite a brilliant feat--or feet.
But after "...ride her hard" I lost interest, or interest was twisted and ripped out of me in a rather confusing and comical way.
This poem was definitely worth a read, and thank you, and I cannot possibly tinker with it and make suggestions.

 

[bogusbrig]

Thanks Fool, you're no fool, you made some very good points there. They helped a lot.

As for 'locomotion', I used to be a mining mechanic and we used to call the action of the winding engine 'locomotion' and that was hopfully going nowhere. Hmm I've got a definition here, 'the power of moving'. I suppose a piston pumping fits into that. (I'm convincing myself)

I know what you mean about where you lost interest Wicked. Maybe I lost momentum but at that point I felt I had a choice between the intellectual integrity (In the sense of it making sense to me) of the poem or poetic aesthetics. There must be a way of having both but I overcooked my brains trying to fathom it.

 

[Tzara]

O, ho! What have we here? The Love Song of J. Michael Tyson? But which needs footnotes?

Y'know, Brigster, you are sumthin' of a mizzogyneest. And you're reading some pretty thick books down there in the pub.

The Misery Desire

Into the black yawning gob of the tunnel .. 1
The dark mouthed kiss of the deep swallow
It is at this point he was usually shocked by the sunrise .. 2
Catching him bolting along on the dawn stallion
Dracula retreating to his tomb

‘For him she is sex - absolute sex, no less.’ .. 3

He read De Beauvoir as a form of redemption
All the time thinking of his cock and a woman’s warm insides
Feminism he could understand if he closed his ears
Their minds functioned with different cogs and springs
He preferred to think of her locked into coition
And jigging a comic dance
The absurd locomotion of pelvises thrashing together
So he returned to Schoppenhauer

‘Hence, it will be found that the fundamental fault
of the female character is that it has no sense of justice.’ .. 4

Misery is more reliable than women
It’s a source of happiness
When nursed

For what is she, but desire?
She baits you with her body
Then leaves

I have never lied about my desires, she said
She was desire and she knew it and used it
Like a weapon​

There were one hundred men queuing outside her window
The drapes slightly parted allowing in a little light
As she busied herself with social obligations
Fussing her cats and connecting with friends .. 5
And moving coyly with affected decorum
With just enough whore walk to show them she might

Her defence was intellectual violence
The false premise, her evidence
Proving it was all the fault of men
As she bent over the library chair
Demanding her new lover ride her hard​

Serge Gainsbourg said to Whitney Housten….​

…‘I want to fuck you!’ .. 6​

The result…​

Die Uberfrau was aghast .. 7
And having assumed Caesars throne .. 8
Was hoping for satisfaction
In relenting to popular demand

But the auditorium was full
And sniggering at his conceit
For the jester’s soured wit
Mirrored the awful truth

She offers slavery on her terms
Then offers a reward
For choosing desire over will
But why not choose free will...
..........and misery instead?​

‘Je t’aime mon non plus’ .. 9​

Who is on whose leash and who takes whom for a walk?

He laughed then cried​

His addled brain fumbled like clumsy hands
To perceive what only light to the eye can satisfy
And roughly get to grips with the situation
But like Actionman his will outgunned the ways.. 10
And not even a conjuror's confusion of mirrors
Could raise his state in that condition
Not even her wandering naked about his brain​

Footnotes by Charles Kinbote

1. Gob: Mouth. (http://www.answers.com/topic/gob)
2. In F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, Count Orlock (Dracula) is seduced by Ellen Hutter to remain in her bedroom until the sun rises, where he is destoyed by the sunlight streaming in the window at dawn. Though, Mrs. Hutter is not performing fellatio on the good count, as seems to be hinted at here.
3. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, Introduction. (http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/debeauv.htm)
4. Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism, Chapter 7. (http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/pessimism/chapter7.html) Schopenhauer introduced the idea of the Will to Live (Wille zum Leben), which he defined as an inherent drive within human beings, and indeed all creatures, to stay alive and to reproduce. This Will he felt took presence over reason in man. (Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer)
5. Fussing her cats: possibly a reference to Brigitte Bardot (see also below). Bardot owns 40 cats.
6. Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) was a French singer and composer who was something of the "bad boy" of French pop music. He once famously proclaimed "I want to fuck you" to American pop singer Whitney Houston on a French television show.
7. Uberfrau: "superwoman" (German). Cf. the Nietzschean concept of the Ubermensch and the related Nietzschean concept of Will to Power (Wille zur Macht) and its obvious relationship to Schopenhauer's Will to Live.
8. having assumed Caesars throne: A reference to Cleopatra?
9. Je t’aime mon non plus: Probably a corruption of Je t'aime... moi non plus, probably Serge Gainsbourg's most famous song. Literally translates as "I love you... me neither." Je t'aime... moi non plus was originally recorded by Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, with whom he was having an affair. She did not want the record released and Gainsbourg re-recorded it with English actress Jane Birkin. The song is notorious for the female part, which sounds rather remarkably like a woman having an orgasm.
10. Actionman: Hasbro toy/action figure/game in which brave Actionman battles the nefarious Dr. X.

Hmmmm. No wonder you don't like Yeats.

Does this kind of thing really get you laid? Perhaps your Nemesis was right after all:

Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.​

What a fun read!

 

[bogusbrig]

Tzara, you have got me laughing.

 

[Tzara]

As for 'locomotion', I used to be a mining mechanic and we used to call the action of the winding engine 'locomotion' and that was hopfully going nowhere. Hmm I've got a definition here, 'the power of moving'. I suppose a piston pumping fits into that. (I'm convincing myself).

C'mon man. 'Fess up to the truth.

You've just got an unrequited jones for Little Eva.

 

[bogusbrig]

C'mon man. 'Fess up to the truth.

You've just got an unrequited jones for Little Eva.

I'm saying nothing for a day or so more but I like smart asses, especially when they think they're right and want confirmation.

 

[bogusbrig]

Does this kind of thing really get you laid?

I missed this. Actually it does Tzara. I've found it much more potent than Yeats. Women like a bad boy. Gainsbourg understood that.


They don't trust you to pay the rent though so you are kicked out in the morning but hey!...who's complaining?

I'm hoping to read this one at a poetry reading on December 10th so I'll let you know if this particular one works.

 

[Tzara]

I missed this. Actually it does Tzara. I've found it much more potent than Yeats. Women like a bad boy. Gainsbourg understood that.


They don't trust you to pay the rent though so you are kicked out in the morning but hey!...who's complaining?

I'm hoping to read this one at a poetry reading on December 10th so I'll let you know if this particular one works.

Where were you when I was twenty and had some hormones, duder? (Though I suspekt that thick geekly glasses and me mournfully yearnin' cast o' lip lent me more towards the Yeatsian seduction technique. No burly hunk of confident manhood was me!) Smoozle them with sen.si.tiv.i.ty, I sez.

Good luck on the reading, man.
Both the poetry, and
the scam.​

I will here try and comment a bit more seriously on the poem. Soon. Honest.

I very much liked it. Language is a bit rough for my taste (meaning, I suppose, a little inelegant--as twelvie says, like broken teeth in blood). I love the refs, of course, being the nerdball bookish sort.

O, please make my Nosferatu/fellatio reference be what you were thinking of! Just goin' to work in the mines is so much more, well, ordinary. And I love that movie.

Tick tick tick DING!

Done.

 

[bogusbrig]

Where were you when I was twenty and had some hormones, duder? (Though I suspekt that thick geekly glasses and me mournfully yearnin' cast o' lip lent me more towards the Yeatsian seduction technique. No burly hunk of confident manhood was me!) Smoozle them with sen.si.tiv.i.ty, I sez.

I bet you wear geeky glasses, have your hair parted down the middle and wear ill fitting suits too, just so no one suspects you've got a harem full of pneumatic beauties at home that turn to jelly everytime they gather round your feet in anticipation of you reading Yeats to them.

 

[champagne1982]

I see the dark references to the feminine in this. You seriously don't want us to think the poet is afraid of the tunnel, do you? The poor subject certainly is. But, such is the miserable mystery of the womb to those who seek to impale it and use it to pleasure themselves; merely a vessel to jerk off in.

To what lengths would a man go to have a woman? You explain the inherent dishonesty and patrinomy in a relationship where all the two parties share in common are snobbery and society very well here. It's illustrated in their tastes as well as the words you use to express their stand on things.

For her:

Misery is more reliable than women
It’s a source of happiness
When nursed

For what is she, but desire?
She baits you with her body
Then leaves

I have never lied about my desires, she said
She was desire and she knew it and used it
Like a weapon​

For him:

His addled brain fumbled like clumsy hands
To perceive what only light to the eye can satisfy
And roughly get to grips with the situation
But like Actionman his will outgunned the ways
And not even a conjuror's confusion of mirrors
Could raise his state in that condition
Not even her wandering naked about his brain​

I may be totally off base, but I think, even though there is nothing to admire in the male's thoughts, you make his kinder and you also give him an excuse. "His addled brain" indeed! I think he's drunk .

Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Tzara]

I bet you wear geeky glasses, have your hair parted down the middle and wear ill fitting suits too, just so no one suspects you've got a harem full of pneumatic beauties at home that turn to jelly everytime they gather round your feet in anticipation of you reading Yeats to them.

• Geeky glasses: Check. (Though, they're Calvin Klein frames. Does that count fer anything?
• Hair parted down the middle: Hair? (Sorry. Just joking. I'm 'Merican and it's parted proudly on the left!)
• ill fitting suits: What can I say? Fucking Irish tailors!
• pneumatic beauties: How did you know about my collection of inflatable toys?!
  
  Y'know, Huxley, in Brave New World talks about Lenina Crowe as being "pneumatic." That always puzzled me. Is that a Brit thing?
  
  You guyz like girls filled with air?
  
  Weird.
• Yeats. Well, I am at this point in my life, happily stuck to one gurl. Forget Yeats--she isn't interested in poetry. She (thank God!) loves books, though. We have almost completely disjoint sets of bookish interest.
  
  There are (ahem) other things we have in common, though.

Note to the moderator who is about to expunge this from the thread as obnoxious "chit chat":

The poem under discussion is a remarkable litany of man's eternal battle with the female element. Sex as biologic drive contrasted with intellectual aspirations, portrayed in a manner both brutal and subtle in its use of high and low cultural references.

Is that enough?

Hey. What's to do in Rotterdam? We might be travelling to the Netherlands next year.

 

[bogusbrig]

Hey. What's to do in Rotterdam? We might be travelling to the Netherlands next year.

Well there are coffee shops on every corner, which is a euphemism for dope shops where you can get stoned in comfort. Just over the bridge is a large fetish store and several sex shops and further down the road several erotic night clubs. Hmm This might say more about the part of town I live in. Around the corner from me is Delfshaven where the Pilgrim Fathers took the Speedwell to Plymouth and the chaple they left from is still there and is still a fascist protestant black stocking chaple. Rotterdam has some great modern architecture thanks to the space left by the Germans after the last war. Apparently it's a heaven for architecture students.

Seriously, if you like paintings, there is an abundance here and there is plenty of culture and events such as music festivals and there is a large international poetry festival that happens here every year. The bars are great and I spend a lot of time in summer sat outside one reading by the banks of the canal as the barges head down river for the Rhine. You'll always get talking to someone, most people speak at least a little English. It's also just nice to get on a bike and discover the place. There are cycle tracks that go everywhere, even a dedicated bike tunnel under the river. I've cycled down to Antwerp for the weekend from here. I just love how much water there is here, very calming but it doesn't bode well if global warming is a fact.

I'll let you know how right you are about the poem this evening before I go to bed.

Oh as for pnuematic beauties, I have to admit, it gives me an image of a woman having a bike pump stuck up her arse and pumped vigorously to inflate out all those sagging parts women's magazines constantly write so excitedly about.

 

[twelveoone]

Damn. Tzara is the smartest ass I know, catching "Actionman" AND the Plath-like overtones. Even giving you the book blurb:
"The poem under discussion is a remarkable litany of man's eternal battle with the female element. Sex as biologic drive contrasted with intellectual aspirations, portrayed in a manner both brutal and subtle in its use of high and low cultural references."

best book blurb, ever on Literotica, Tzara, worthy of a MFA

what does that leave me with? - It rocks - it does.

My only other beef was this meat curtain could use a little punctuation - Fool covered it.

To think, I thought it was about the Chunnel.

 

[bogusbrig]

Tzara just about got it all. The first verse was a fantasy fellatio, interupted by the sunrise, hence Nesferatu retreating and all the sexual conotations. 'catching him bolting along on the dawn stallion' (masturbating). This like Tzara suggested is unrequited love, hence all the angst.

Serge Gainsbourg was the bad boy of the French pop scene. A punk before punk was invented. A Frenchman of Jewish Russian decent so he was an insider who could look from the outside. No one knew if he was being serious or playing games. He was a complex joker, self destructive and a very interesting character but I digress.

Die Uberfrau comes from slang for heavy duty feminists who wanted his balls for telling Whitney Houston he wanted to fuck her. One feminist was supposed to have said in relation to the episode, man is no longer Ceasar. I assume she meant, men can no longer do what they want.

Actionman is a 'he man' without a penis, for all his bravado he is emasculated. Hence 'the will outguns the ways'. So 'And not even a conjuror's confusion of mirrors/ Could raise his state in that condition/Not even her wandering naked about his brain

Other than that I would be repeating everything.

"The poem under discussion is a remarkable litany of man's eternal battle with the female element. Sex as biologic drive contrasted with intellectual aspirations, portrayed in a manner both brutal and subtle in its use of high and low cultural references."

What else is there to say?

 

[Tzara]

Tzara just about got it all. The first verse was a fantasy fellatio, interupted by the sunrise, hence Nesferatu retreating and all the sexual conotations. 'catching him bolting along on the dawn stallion' (masturbating). This like Tzara suggested is unrequited love, hence all the angst.

Serge Gainsbourg was the bad boy of the French pop scene. A punk before punk was invented. A Frenchman of Jewish Russian decent so he was an insider who could look from the outside. No one knew if he was being serious or playing games. He was a complex joker, self destructive and a very interesting character but I digress.

Die Uberfrau comes from slang for heavy duty feminists who wanted his balls for telling Whitney Houston he wanted to fuck her. One feminist was supposed to have said in relation to the episode, man is no longer Ceasar. I assume she meant, men can no longer do what they want.

Actionman is a 'he man' without a penis, for all his bravado he is emasculated. Hence 'the will outguns the ways'. So 'And not even a conjuror's confusion of mirrors/ Could raise his state in that condition/Not even her wandering naked about his brain

Other than that I would be repeating everything.

"The poem under discussion is a remarkable litany of man's eternal battle with the female element. Sex as biologic drive contrasted with intellectual aspirations, portrayed in a manner both brutal and subtle in its use of high and low cultural references."

What else is there to say?

O, Briggie!

Damn you. I was just getting ready to be even more clever.

Par example: Footnote the line But why not choose free will with the Rush song:

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose free will.​

Or my planning to do a whole Terry Eagleton Marxist workup on the poem. Workers (men) vs. the oligarchy/capitalists (women) who both hoard and flaunt that sexual capital. The Labor Theory of Value indeed!

And, oh, Serge Gainsbourg. Russian name, Jewish heritage. Hey! Symbol for St. Karl Marx! (Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was, I think, German, but the Revolution came from Rooshia.) Literary asiprations as well.

I would have called you brilliante
But now I only call you swell.
Tant pis. Or then in English: Hell!​

It is an interesting poem. Darwinian, in its darker parts. More later.