"The Copulating Lions"

It is not quite usual to write a post on a post. Generally comments are posted in lieu. However since no such written rules or precedents are in place I thought, I rather write something I felt on the post of Balachandran "So that you know how much I loved you",and his follow up observations with the bewitching verses of Richard Ebehart.

Those were powerful and glorious ode to the act of taboo. The word “taboo” is not of my volition. It is something I felt like interposing after noticing that only a few responses came by.The act of copulation is still

considered  abhorring to speak about. The poem “The lions copulating” on the great African plain brought out like in a three dimension picture the greatness of the vast continent and the majesty and dignity of those beasts.

One of the most fascinating account of Victorian social life and the intertwined hypocrisy was unleashed with subtleness and vehemence by D.H.Lawrence in “The Lady Chatterley’s Lover”. The novel depicted the amorous physical liaison between a aristocratic woman and a commoner. The book could not be openly published in the U.K. And ipso facto was banned in many countries and includes the ban in puritanical British India and followed up by independent India as well. In the late seventies and early eighties,when I was frequenting the British Council library in Thiruvananthapuram, I had frantically searched for the book but in futility. In 1982, I finally got a good print edition from a road side vendor in Connaught place, New Delhi. Reading it was different experience. The notoriety and the explicit passages were subservient to the more contrasting mind and body of human beings. It is in one's noticing and comprehension that obscenity and beauty is born.

The ruling of the court in the U.K when the publishers of the book were hauled up in the 1960’s is an enlightened example. The publishers could defend the “obscenity trial” and prove the literary merit of the novel. It was convincingly argued that the word “fuck” was certainly not lewd, and the act of physical union was only a primitive biological factor,detached from the human mind and body..

The Lions on that vast plains in the African savanna are unique examples. If bringing in  physical relationship of opposite sexes, man or beast as subjects into literature is filthy, repugnant, obscene and abhorring then it is obvious that the vast majority of men and women are indulging in the very nefarious conduct in real time. And beasts too!Quite a few of the mythical and religious classics must be banned or restricted The Gods may also be hauled up for salacious conduct.

That reminds me a contrast- a post I uploaded borrowing from a source. It was on the ubiquitous 'Lungie', and I still often see comments flowing in about the post and raving it.

Not seeing, feigning to have not noticed ,ignoring the literary value, aesthetics of imagination, and magical words in a creation as in the poems in question ,is blatant hypocrisy. I wonder if the signs of absence of comments constructive or otherwise suggests only the general conservatism of the society. The silence and closed eyes may be wicked extensions of denying what is there on the surface and beneath. The openness is found wanting.

 

We caught lions copulating on the plains
Of Africa. ….,
I pressed so hard on my 8mm. color film
I almost lost this gigantic naturalism, 

…………,
But saw the King of Beasts with his head high, 
His mane imperial, no expression on his face, 
Prodding in and out of the great female 

…………………………………….. ,
For his great face had no expression at all
While his lower being worked mechanical, 

Then he fell away, and stood off, and lay 
His full length on the ancient earth
While the lioness with a sumptuous gesture 
Rolled over as I have seen other females do

.......................................,

Stood in their historical posture of superiority 
And ambled across the limitless plains in silence
Without a thought of the lucubration of man, 
Trying to signify their big natures in empathy. 

The 'detachment' in discussion is worth some deep pondering! :-)

I can only see the majesty of the beasts and the incomparable vastness and feel of the great African savanna. The act of copulation is secondary to the imperiousness of nature.And also with the subtle depiction of the  act and the vastness of time around one should be in sublime mood..

And as in the poem  "So that you know how much I loved you"

“Yet I wonder, what is it that I loved in you?

Was it the person or the persona, the mind or the body,

That I had desired more; maybe both, maybe it is that

I wanted it all, with such a hunger, such an appetite…”

“…………………………………….,

So that I bled you, my sweat stank of you

My lips and yours one

My spittle and yours one......

.

Unfortunately candid expressions are frowned or shooed underneath. Surreptitious or false notions stand out as moral values. They are like the cloak that suppresses forthright feelings.

However there were a few comments that sensed the depth of the words. Whether the detachment which is instilled in the male species as mentioned by Bindu, or the words of discernment of the Doc and other couple of bloggers, it can be seen that there are people who have the right senses to appreciate the magical words and thereby ideas and imaginations laced in works of literature and consign hypocrisy to places it richly deserves.

“Like the feline with eyes closed

Lapping up milk in stealth

I fornicated day and night

All the while I comforted in the belief,

When my eyes were closed the world seldom saw

My act of promiscuity ”.