GRGR(8) The Army of Lovers

[David Morris]

Leni is angry.  Leni has declared war on the state of _Being Used_.

Leni tries to shed femininity and maternity (Isn't "motherly love" really
just Their tie that binds the female?), but Leni's not very good at shedding
her inner nature, the "Dependent Little Girl," which is read in her face,
revealing her constant dream:
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(156.18)  a dream of gentleness, light , her criminal heart redeemed, no
more need to run, to struggle, a man arriving tranquil as she and strong,
the street becoming a distant memory: exactly the one dream she least allow
herself.  She knows what she has to impersonate.  Especially with Illse
watching her more.  Illse is not going to be used.
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This dream of being taken care of is then morphed into a "True-Romance"
novelette in which she is swept away by Richard which passage ends with
"Everyone is in Love." (158.21)  But reality slaps Leni in the next line: AN
ARMY OF LOVERS CAN BE BEATEN.

Leni's war spawns a wealth of contradictions in her life because she is
really at war with herself.  She calls Franz a "romantic/mystic" with a
"death wish" and thus styles herself as the "realist."  But Leni's the one
laying down her life to a cause that even she knows is impossibly out of
reach.  As for mysticism, Leni the Astrologist fits that bill well too.

David Morris 
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