Monique Wittig’s The Lesbian Body
Begin: 03/2/07
End: 03/05/07
Quality: Ten Out of Ten.
Reason: Love It!!!
Genre: Fiction. Women’s Literature. Queer Literature.
Original Language: French.
Date of Publication: 1973.
Protagonists: Unnamed.
Antagonists: Unnamed.
Setting: Lesbos? A utopist lesbian island community.
Fog Index: N/A
Flesch Index: N/A
Flesch-Kincaid Index: N/A
Complex Words: N/A
Number: Fifth?
Where do I even begin? How do I even begin to talk about this text? I mean it’s just so rich and astonishing and shockingly erotic.
It doesn’t really have a plot. I would even hesitate to call it a work of fiction. It’s an extended prose-poem or possibly a lesbian erotic fable. Wittig is saying, “here I am” and I love her for that. She writes in her author’s note, “Our fiction validates us.” Which is one of the reasons why I connect so much to this work, well that and the eroticism but I will get to that later.
I often feel like a strange in a strange world. I have often been an outcast. It is not so easy to just blame it all on my sexuality, although that is very much a part of it. The important part to note is that I can relate to Wittig wanting to create a world of her own, to create this theoretical island of Lesbos where Sappho is worshipped as the supreme deity. Wittig writes, again in the author’s note, “The desire to bring the real body violently to life in the words of the book (everything that is written exists), the desire to do violence by writing to the language which I (j/e) can enter only by force.”
The other way in which I related to this book is the sheer and unabashed eroticism of it. I realize that most people will not find it erotic or romantic or passionate. Here is an example,” Under m/y frantic pressure your head becomes detached at the level of the cervical vertebrae."
Yes, it is violent. I understand that on a purely realistic and logical level, talking about detaching your lover’s head is not exactly most people’s idea of romantic. Wittig though is not at all advocating any sort of violence. She is celebrating, albeit in a experimental way, the female body. She is celebrating her love and her desire for this woman. And I, despite being a huge fag, love every visceral minute of it.
I guess I should probably talk about the pronoun thing. It is odd for the first couple of pages but I adjusting very quickly to it. And I think that Wittig makes a very valid point about revolting against the “mark of gender” as she refers to it. Wittig says, “But the ‘I’ [Je] who writes is driven back to her specific experience as subject. The ‘I’ [Je] who writes is alien to her own writing at every word because this ‘I’ [Je] uses a language alien to her.”
And now on to some of the quotes that I enjoyed.
“You gaze at m/e with your ten thousand eyes, you do so and it is I, I do not stir, m/y feet are completely embedded in the ground, I allow m/yself to be reached by your ten thousand glances or if you prefer by the single glances of your ten thousand eyes but it is not the same, such an immense gaze touches m/e everywhere.” (18)
“You are the tallest, Ishtar goddess of goddesses you are the powerful one, blessed be your name over centuries of centuries. You are the possessor of all power, you are strong impassive while you abide in the green in the violet of the heavens while they all await you, head erect you shine in the black nights, you are blinding days of summer, desire for you overwhelms m/e once for all together with terrors as befits all your adorers, the earth the trees the waters the rivers the torrents the seas the stars of the sky do they not tremble at the mere utterance the mere vibration of your formidable name.” (93)
“Your hand followed by your arm have entered into m/y throat, you traverse m/y larynx, you arrive at m/y lungs, you itemize m/y organs, you make m/e die ten thousands deaths while I smile, you rip out m/y stomach, you tear m/y intestines, you project the uttermost fury into m/y body, I cry out but not from pain, I am overtaken seized hold of, I go over to you entirely, I explode the small units of my ego, I am threatened, I am desired by you. A tree shoots in m/y body, it moves it branches with extreme violence with extreme gentleness, or else it is a bush of burning thorns it tears the other side of m/u exposed muscles m/y insides m/y interiors, I am inhabited, I am not dreaming, I am penetrated by you, now I must struggle against bursting to retain m/y overall perception, I reassemble you in all m/y organs, I burst”
Fog Index: N/A
Flesch Index: N/A
Flesch-Kincaid Index: N/A
Complex Words: N/A
Number: Fifth?
Where do I even begin? How do I even begin to talk about this text? I mean it’s just so rich and astonishing and shockingly erotic.
It doesn’t really have a plot. I would even hesitate to call it a work of fiction. It’s an extended prose-poem or possibly a lesbian erotic fable. Wittig is saying, “here I am” and I love her for that. She writes in her author’s note, “Our fiction validates us.” Which is one of the reasons why I connect so much to this work, well that and the eroticism but I will get to that later.
I often feel like a strange in a strange world. I have often been an outcast. It is not so easy to just blame it all on my sexuality, although that is very much a part of it. The important part to note is that I can relate to Wittig wanting to create a world of her own, to create this theoretical island of Lesbos where Sappho is worshipped as the supreme deity. Wittig writes, again in the author’s note, “The desire to bring the real body violently to life in the words of the book (everything that is written exists), the desire to do violence by writing to the language which I (j/e) can enter only by force.”
The other way in which I related to this book is the sheer and unabashed eroticism of it. I realize that most people will not find it erotic or romantic or passionate. Here is an example,” Under m/y frantic pressure your head becomes detached at the level of the cervical vertebrae."
Yes, it is violent. I understand that on a purely realistic and logical level, talking about detaching your lover’s head is not exactly most people’s idea of romantic. Wittig though is not at all advocating any sort of violence. She is celebrating, albeit in a experimental way, the female body. She is celebrating her love and her desire for this woman. And I, despite being a huge fag, love every visceral minute of it.
I guess I should probably talk about the pronoun thing. It is odd for the first couple of pages but I adjusting very quickly to it. And I think that Wittig makes a very valid point about revolting against the “mark of gender” as she refers to it. Wittig says, “But the ‘I’ [Je] who writes is driven back to her specific experience as subject. The ‘I’ [Je] who writes is alien to her own writing at every word because this ‘I’ [Je] uses a language alien to her.”
And now on to some of the quotes that I enjoyed.
“You gaze at m/e with your ten thousand eyes, you do so and it is I, I do not stir, m/y feet are completely embedded in the ground, I allow m/yself to be reached by your ten thousand glances or if you prefer by the single glances of your ten thousand eyes but it is not the same, such an immense gaze touches m/e everywhere.” (18)
“You are the tallest, Ishtar goddess of goddesses you are the powerful one, blessed be your name over centuries of centuries. You are the possessor of all power, you are strong impassive while you abide in the green in the violet of the heavens while they all await you, head erect you shine in the black nights, you are blinding days of summer, desire for you overwhelms m/e once for all together with terrors as befits all your adorers, the earth the trees the waters the rivers the torrents the seas the stars of the sky do they not tremble at the mere utterance the mere vibration of your formidable name.” (93)
“Your hand followed by your arm have entered into m/y throat, you traverse m/y larynx, you arrive at m/y lungs, you itemize m/y organs, you make m/e die ten thousands deaths while I smile, you rip out m/y stomach, you tear m/y intestines, you project the uttermost fury into m/y body, I cry out but not from pain, I am overtaken seized hold of, I go over to you entirely, I explode the small units of my ego, I am threatened, I am desired by you. A tree shoots in m/y body, it moves it branches with extreme violence with extreme gentleness, or else it is a bush of burning thorns it tears the other side of m/u exposed muscles m/y insides m/y interiors, I am inhabited, I am not dreaming, I am penetrated by you, now I must struggle against bursting to retain m/y overall perception, I reassemble you in all m/y organs, I burst”
1 comment:
Thank you for reviewing this book. I am going to put it on my wish list now.
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