[lit-ideas] Re: The Sect of the Phœnix
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:34:53 EDT
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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