square white world

fear took hold of him, or rather tightened its grip and entered his body.

- Roberto Bolaño, Nazi Literature in the Americas, trans. Chris Andrews, Picador, London, 2010, p. 127

operating outside space and time, at the dawn of a new age, as it were, in which spatio-temporal perception is undergoing transformation and even becoming obsolete.

- Ibid., p. 133

The body oscillates between carrying a profound anatomical shock, and deliquescing into a mist of deteriorating celluloid, in performance films of Hijikata’s work.

- Stephen Barber, Hijikata: Revolt of the Body, Creation Books, 2006, p. 57

- Hijikata, 1969, poor copy of photo by Masahisa Fukase

Ankoku Butoh would be an art form whose social threat and negation proved insidious and virtual, rather than explicit. Rather than Hijikata, it would be Genet himself, during one of his visits to Tokyo … , who took part in the most violent Shinjuku street-riot of 17 December 1969, opening himself to physical danger by taunting and harassing the riot-police lined-up before the thousands of protesters – while Hijikata, as the photograph of him carrying a watermelon indicates, was heading off in the opposite direction at that moment, increasingly swallowed-up in his own, insular concerns.

- Ibid., p. 63

- Yoko Ashikawa in Intimacy Plays Its Trump

From the earliest stages of Ankoku Butoh, its participants (including Hijikata himself, and Akiko Motofuji) had also performed in commercial sex-cabarets; by the end of the 1960s, much of the Asbestos Hall’s income was generated by activity in sex-cabarets of varying degrees of explicitness. Akiko Motofuji managed those activities and expertly co-ordinated the appearances of Hijikata’s young pupils in the Tokyo sex-industry. From April to December 1969, the (usually-separated) art-focused and sex-industry-focused facets of Ankoku Butoh reached their closest proximity, in a series of spectacles choreographed by Hijikata for his own dancers (such as Saga Kobayashi and Yoko Ashikawa) and other performers, at the Space Club Capsule venue, located in one of Tokyo’s principal upmarket sex-industry areas, Akasaka; the performances, with titles such as Space Capsule Illusionetique, featured intricate sequences of sexual tableaux, including lesbian sex-acts. The vast, mult-faceted Tokyo sex-club and prostitution industries would remain a principal, enduring source of income over the next decades, for both male and female Butoh performers.

- Ibid. pp. 65-66

The black slit lies in its copper cloud.

‘Quiet as a knife.’

His heart beats its heavy, sinking beats.

Straight into the shadowy blue channel through the pines.

Fall silently or remain hanging.

They stay just as they are, forgotten.

- from Alexander Ahndoril’s The Director, trans. Sarah Death, Portobello Books, London, 2008, line by line, pp. 132, 172, 181, 191, 196 & 203

I

Je chante la chaleur à visage de nouveau-né, la chaleur désespérée.

I SING THE WARMTH IN THE FACE OF A NEWBORN,

THE DESPERATE WARMTH.

II

Au tour du pain de rompre l’homme, d’être la beauté du point du jour.

THE BREAD’S TURN TO BREAK MAN,

TO BE THE DAWN’S BEAUTY.

III

Celui qui se fie au tournesol ne méditera pas dans la maison. Toutes les pensées de l’amour deviendront ses pensées.

HE WHO BELIEVES THE SUNFLOWER WON’T BROOD IN THE HOUSE.

ALL THOUGHTS OF LOVE WILL BE HIS THOUGHTS.

IV

Dans la boucle de l’hirondelle un orage s’informe, un jardin se construit.

A STORM INQUIRES INTO THE SWALLOWS LOOP,

A GARDEN IS CONSTRUED.

V

Il y aura toujours une goutte d’eau pour durer plus que le soleil sans que l’ascendant du soleil soit ébranlé.

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A WATER DROP TO OUTLAST THE SUN

THAT WILL NOT SHAKE THE SUN IN ITS ASCENDANCY.

VI

Produis ce que la connaissance veut garder secret, la connaissance au cent passages.

MAKE THAT WHICH FAMILIARITY WOULD KEEP SECRET,

FAMILIARITY WITH ITS HUNDRED HALLWAYS.

VII

Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience.

THAT WHICH COMES TO THE WORLD TO DISTURB NOTHING

MERITS NEITHER CONSIDERATION NOR TOLERANCE.

VIII

Combien durera ce manque de l’homme mourant au centre de la création parce que la création l’a congédié?

HOW LONG WILL THIS LACK AT THE CENTRE OF CREATION LAST

OF THE DEATH OF MAN BECAUSE CREATION HAS REJECTED HIM?

IX

Chaque maison était une saison. La ville ainsi se répétait. Tous les habitants ensemble ne connaissaient que l’hiver, malgré leur chair réchauffée, malgré le jour qui ne s’en allait pas.

EVERY HOUSE WAS A SEASON. THE CITY WAS THUS REPEATED.

IN SPITE OF THE DAY THAT WOULDN’T LEAVE THEM.

X

Tu es dans ton essence constamment poète, constamment au zénith de ton amour, constamment avide de vérité et de justice. C’est sans doute un mal nécessaire que tu ne puisses l’être assidûment dans ta conscience.

YOU ARE A POET IN YOUR BEING CONTINUOUSLY, AT THE ZENITH OF YOUR LOVE CONTINUOUSLY,

THAT IN YOUR CONSCIENCE YOU CAN’T BE SO ASSIDUOUSLY.

XI

Tu feras de l’âme qui n’existe pas un homme meilleur qu’elle.

YOU’LL MAKE OF THE SOUL WHICH DOESN’T EXIST

A MAN BETTER THAN IT.

XII

Regarde l’image téméraire où se baigne ton pays, ce plaisir qui t’a longtemps fui.

LOOK AT THE RECKLESS IMAGE

THIS PLEASURE THAT FOR A LONG TIME ESCAPED YOU.

XIII

Nombreux sont ceux qui attendent que l’écueil les soulève, que le but les franchisse, pour se définir.

THOSE WHO WAIT TO BE LIFTED UP BY WHAT BLOCKS THEM,

ARE NUMEROUS.

XIV

Remercie celui qui ne prend pas souci de ton remords. Tu es son égal.

THANK HIM WHO PAYS YOUR REMORSE NO MIND.

YOU ARE HIS EQUAL.

XV

Les larmes méprisent leur confident.

TEARS SCORN THE SYMPATHISER.

XVI

Il reste une profondeur mesurable là où le sable subjugue la destinée.

THE DEPTH IS STILL MEASURABLE THERE

WHERE FATE FOUNDERS IN SAND.

XVII

Mon amour, peu importe que je sois né: tu deviens visible à la place où je disparais.

MY LOVE, WHO CARES THAT I WAS BORN:

YOU BECOME VISIBLE AT THE PLACE WHERE I DISAPPEAR.

XVIII

Pouvoir marcher, sans tromper l’oiseau, du coeur de l’arbre à l’extase du fruit.

THE POWER TO WALK,

TO THE FRUIT’S ECSTASY.

XVIX

Ce qui t’accueille à travers le plaisir n’est que la gratitude mercenaire du souvenir. La présence que tu as choisie ne délivre pas d’adieu.

WHAT YOU GET FROM PLEASURE

GRANTS NO ADIEUS.

XX

Ne te courbe que pour aimer. Si tu meurs, tu aimes encore.

DON’T BOW YOUR HEAD

STILL YOU LOVE.

XXI

Les ténèbres que t’infuses sont régies par la luxure de ton ascendant solaire.

THE DARKNESSES INSTILLED IN YOU

OF YOUR SOLAR ASCENDANT.

XXII

Néglige ceux aux yeux de qui l’homme passe pour n’être qu’une étape de la couleur sur le dos tourmenté de la terre. Qu’ils dévident leur longue remonstrance. L’encre du tisonnier et la rougeur du nuage ne font qu’un.

IGNORE THEM IN WHOSE EYES MAN PASSES FOR NO MORE THAN A TONE OF COLOUR

THE POKER’S INK AND THE REDNESS OF CLOUD ARE JUST ONE.

XXIII

Il n’est pas digne du poète de mystifier l’agneau, d’investir sa laine.

IT’S UNWORTHY OF THE POET

TO INVEST HIMSELF IN WOOL.

XXIV

Si nous habitons un éclair, il est le coeur de l’éternel.

OUR LIFE IS IN THE LIGHTNING,

TO BE IN THE HEART OF THE ETERNAL.

XXV

Yeux qui, croyant inventer le jour, avez éveillé le vent, que puis-je pour vous, je suis l’oubli.

EYES WHO, THINKING TO CREATE THE DAY,

I AM OBLIVION.

XXVI

La poèsie est de toutes les eaux claire celle qui s’attarde le moins aux reflets de ses ponts.
Poèsie, la vie future à l’intérieur de l’homme requalifié.

POETRY IS OF ALL CLEAR WATERS

INSIDE OF THE MAN RETRAINED.

XXVII

Une rose pour qu’il pleuve. Au terme d’innombrables années, c’est ton souhait.

A ROSE THAT IT RAIN.

THAT IS YOUR WISH.

The spectre showed a spectre’s ordinary caprice.

- Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, first published 1847, a year before the death of its author, aged 30, although it appeared under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell, Penguin Books, Australia, 2009, p. 33

A nothing vexed him, and suspected slights of his authority nearly threw him into fits.

- Ibid., p. 47

‘Is Heathcliff not here?’ she demanded, pulling off her gloves, and displaying fingers wonderfully whitened with doing nothing, and staying in doors.

- Ibid., p. 62

I cannot express it; but surely you and every body have a notion that there is, or should be, an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here?

- Ibid., p. 96

they were really in possession of deep and growing happiness.

It ended. Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run

- Ibid., p. 108

‘I have such faith in Linton’s love that I believe I might kill him, and he wouldn’t wish to retaliate.’

I advised her to value him the more for his affection.

- Ibid., p. 115

I believed a person who could plan the turning of her fits of passion to account, beforehand, might, by exerting her will, manage to control herself tolerably even while under their influence

- Ibid., p. 138

he was too good to be thoroughly unhappy for long. He didn’t pray for Catherine’s soul to haunt him

- Ibid., p. 217

He maintained a hard, careless deportment, indicative of neither joy nor sorrow; if anything, it expressed a flinty gratification at a piece of difficult work, successfully executed.

- Ibid., p. 221

‘Her affection for him was still the chief sentiment in her heart; and he spoke without anger; he spoke in the deep tenderness of one about to leave his treasure amid perils and foes, where his remembered words would be the only aid that he could bequeath to guide her.’

- Ibid., p. 300

‘he’s such a cobweb, a pinch would annihilate him’

- Ibid., p. 336

Living among clowns and misanthropists, she probably cannot appreciate a better class of people, when she meets them.

- Ibid., p. 356

‘my mind is so eternally secluded in itself, it is tempting, at last, to turn it out to another.’

- Ibid., p. 378

obéissez à vos cochons qui existent;

j’obéis à mes dieux qui n’existent point.

- René Char

OBEY THE PIGS THAT EXIST;

I OBEY THE GODS THAT DON’T.

The rear end exists. I see no reason to be ashamed of it. It’s true there are rear ends so stupid, so pretentious, so insignificant that they’re good only for sitting on.

- Josephine Baker, quoted by Edmund White, The Flâneur: A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris, Bloomsbury, London, 2008, p. 76

Imagine dying and being grateful you’d gone to heaven, until one day (or one century) it dawned on you that your main mood was melancholy, although you were constantly convinced that happiness lay just around the corner. That’s something like living in Paris for years, even decades. It’s a mild hell so comfortable that it resembles heaven.

- Ibid., p. 50

They fell about laughing, then an unspeakable fear seized them, to be followed by a melting love of all humanity or by total immersion in a picture book. Movement became slow and sticky, the size of the rooms expanded dramatically, a sense of the epic and the magnificent distorted the feeling of the gathering, to be replaced by a repulsed gaze on the grotesque faces of the other revellers.

- Edmund White on the meeting of Le Club des Hachichins at Lauzun’s Pimodan Hotel on the Île St. Louis, Théophile Gautier (from whom more here) in attendance, ibid., p. 132

The extreme reluctance of the French to recognise the gravity of AIDS or to campaign against its spread is linked to other national ambiguities that show up in an overview of French attitudes towards gays and literature in particular, and towards identity politics in general. For example, one of the great paradoxes is that France – the country that produced some of the most renowned pioneer homosexual writers of this century (Marcel Proust, André Gide, Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau and Marguerite Yourcenar, just to begin the list) – is also the country that most vigorously rejects the very idea of gay literature. As Didier Eribon, the author of a major biography of Michel Foucault, pointed out, this response is all of a piece with a more general rejection in France of everything that smacks of a politics based on minorities or the legitimization of feminism.

- Ibid., pp. 161-162

The French themselves would argue that their rejection of all ghettoization, far from being a sign of closetedness or cynicism, is in fact consistent with their ‘singularity’ as a nation. The French believe that a society is not a federation of special interest groups but rather an impartial state that treats each citizen – regardless of his or her gender, sexual orientation, religion or colour – as an abstract, universal individual. For the French any subgroup of citizens is a diminishment of human equality. [sic]

- Ibid, p. 166

Didier Lestrade, the openly gay and HIV-positive founder of Act Up in France … has admitted that he instinctively rejected Michel Foucault’s writing from the outset:

Act Up arrived at the very moment when denial of homosexuality had reached its limit. Suddenly I decided early on that in order to be the president of Act Up I would have to forego reading Foucault. Not that I felt a cultural inferiority complex, but Foucault’s thinking had so marked the first organizations in the struggle against AIDS that I had to save myself from its influence.

- Ibid., p. 169

French individualism – abstract and universal – along with a corresponding scorn of identity politics, has made France unusually vulnerable to AIDS.

- Ibid., p. 170

- from here

‘The Glass Delusion’ was the name given in the late Middle Ages and Baroque times to a form of depression. The syndrome evokes a psychological separation between reality and imagination. Sufferers were obsessive, compulsive, driven by irrational fears and envisioned themselves to be made of glass, hence delicate and vulnerable to scrutiny.

- from ibid.