I'm just finishing this book, read a big chunk of it today whilst on a plane which included the following excerpt, which left me breathless, yes there is a certain cynical aspect to it, but there is a lot of truth here too, such a strange book, obtuse, full of half stories and rotten behaviour, and then there is this, which is a bit like revealing a secret about all of us men.. but like I said there is an aspect which I just don’t think is so, not in this poet anyway..
'With each new woman that a man is attracted to there appears to come a broadening of the outlook, or, if you like, an acquiring of new territory. A turn of the eyebrow, a tone of the voice, a queer
characteristic gesture--all these things, and it is these things that
cause to arise the passion of love--all these things are like so many
objects on the horizon of the landscape that tempt a man to walk
beyond the horizon, to explore. He wants to get, as it were, behind
those eyebrows with the peculiar turn, as if he desired to see the
world with the eyes that they overshadow. He wants to hear that
voice applying itself to every possible proposition, to every
possible topic; he wants to see those characteristic gestures against
every possible background. Of the question of the sex-instinct I
know very little and I do not think that it counts for very much in
a really great passion. It can be aroused by such nothings--by an
untied shoelace, by a glance of the eye in passing-- that I think it
might be left out of the calculation. I don't mean to say that any
great passion can exist without a desire for consummation. That
seems to me to be a commonplace and to be therefore a matter
needing no comment at all. It is a thing, with all its accidents, that
must be taken for granted, as, in a novel, or a biography, you take
it for granted that the characters have their meals with some
regularity. But the real fierceness of desire, the real heat of a
passion long continued and withering up the soul of a man is the
craving for identity with the woman that he loves. He desires to
see with the same eyes, to touch with the same sense of touch, to
hear with the same ears, to lose his identity, to be enveloped, to be
supported. For, whatever may be said of the relation of the sexes,
there is no man who loves a woman that does not desire to come to
her for the renewal of his courage, for the cutting asunder of his
difficulties. And that will be the mainspring of his desire for her.
We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the
outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist. So, for a
time, if such a passion come to fruition, the man will get what he
wants. He will get the moral support, the encouragement, the relief
from the sense of loneliness, the assurance of his own worth. But
these things pass away; inevitably they pass away as the shadows
pass across sundials. It is sad, but it is so. The pages of the book
will become familiar; the beautiful corner of the road will have
been turned too many times. Well, this is the saddest story. And
yet I do believe that for every man there comes at last a woman--or
no, that is the wrong way of formulating it. For every man there
comes at last a time of life when the woman who then sets her
seal upon his imagination has set her seal for good.'
and the lovely people at Ginosko asked me to let you know that they are accepting short fiction & poetry, creative non-fiction, interviews and excerpts for the 8th issue of the literary journal Ginosko, the winter issue.
Editorial lead time 1-2 months; accept simultaneous submissions and reprints; length flexible. Receives postal submissions & email—prefer email submissions as attachments in Microsoft Works Word Processor.
Publishing as semiannual ezine, winter & summer. Selecting material from ezine for printed anthology.
Copyright reverts to author.
Check downloadable issues on website for style & tone: http://www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com/
Use latest version of Adobe Reader.
ezine circulation 4000+. Website traffic 750-1000 hits/month.
Also looking for artwork, photography, to post on website and links to exchange.
Book/CD ads $60/6months, $90/12 months.
Ginosko (ghin-océ-koe)
To perceive, understand, realize, come to know; knowledge that has an inception, a progress, an attainment. The recognition of truth by experience.
Member CLMP. Listed in Best of the Web 2008.
Ginosko Literary Journal
Robert Paul Cesaretti, Editor
PO Box 246
Fairfax CA 94978
USA
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