[lit-ideas] Re: The Sect of the Phœnix

I do like this inconspicuous thread title. It makes me think  I'd actually 
get 
away with a conversation about eritic literature.  

Mmm. I know you'll think it pedantic, but I'm using the good  old Latin "oe" 
in ASCII available to us.
 
I'm quoting from "The narrow act" a book on Borges:

"De  Quincey, like Borges, aspires membership in the Cult of the Phœnix".
 
"The story describes a sect or secret  society ... and refers to an enigmatic 
rite (of passage) for its members." "By  claiming that the mysterious rite 
'does not require description', Borges leaves  the reader with a puzzle. Those 
readers I have talked with all suggest that the  answer is propagation by 
sexual intercourse. The author of "The narrow act"  rejects that 
interpretation, 
though. "There are those perplexing ingredients of  cork, wax, gum arabic and, 
sometimes slime or mud. One chooses to stop short of  seeing a sexual 
implication in those." 
 
More later, perhaps -- if I find a truly  eroticoliterary reference to this.
 
Christ (the name), who wrote "The narrow act"  traces Borges's idea of the 
Cult of the Phoenix to De Quincey's reference to a  "Phoenix Club" in -- of all 
places -- Oxford. I know it's an unerotic title,  "Phoenix" but becomes less 
so if you are versed, as some like R. Paul are -- in  Pliny's Nat. History -- 
which MUST talk about the phoenix he's seen and how he  reproduced.
 
 
Cheers,
 
JL



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