The book arrived at the last minute. Others were lost or returned because they couldn't be found. Or a glitch in the system, or some malevolent demon. the masks we wear, the masks we need. There is something perverse in the desire to see everything naked, without veils.
That made you think of the(French?) oriental pictures/postcards of "exotic" women from the east and the current desire to rip the veil off women or...why can't any image be put up in public and ridiculed (because it's any image we're democratic; because we have no settled natures nothing can be allowed to stand. And what would freedom be if it wasn't a freedom from the spell of power: religion, the state, family, love?)
No more spells, no more enchantments, only laughter at the ridiculous fictions we've conjured up-or, instead, Voltaire's smile of reason, as we congratulate ourselves on our spectacular intelligence, our maturity that allows us to see though everything, say what we mean. We, we latecomers live on the surface, having dispensed with the ancient dichotomies, such as culture/nature, time and the end of time, and appearance and reality. From now on there is only "sovereign becoming" so jump in.."just do it" and "go with the flow".
No more masks, no more distances to traverse or strange worlds to discover, no more grand flights of escape: this is where we are, and this is where it's at! (and old Neil Simon line). We want to colonize every experience, reveal and unravel every mystery (through reason, laughter). Nothing is sacred and nothing must be allowed to be and herein resides our freedom! Deathworks,as Rieff once wrote, spell the end of bewilderment, fascination, and mystery.
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J.B. writes superbly, mixing popular music with reflections on growing up and how the words we are given, like words for loss,say, can follow us about through our lives.
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