GRGR(20)

[Paul Mackin]

Though it might be said that the whole book strives for eradication of
binary opposites, might I be correct in saying that in the hashish
delivery episode there's a quite a cute  tying together of false
binarisms with respect to the Sex and Music Themes of the book. In the
Slothrup/Trudi lovemaking the undifferentiated sexual ideal (according
to Norman Brown's way of thinking anyway) seems plainly in play--"it's
an open house here, no favored senses or organs." Yet what immediately
happens is the spinning off of a brand new erotic center namely the
nose--the ideal in other words is shattered once again. The cute thing
though is that the actual phrase "polymorphous perversity" is saved for
the music discussion where it is used is a way to blow apart in an
important respect the musical oppositeness of Beethoven and Rossini. If
p-p can stand for lack of differentiation or ANALYSIS if you will in Sex
how can it be identified with the "analytic" and "mechanical"
characterization of Beethoven's Music? Anyway this is the way things
struck me in reading these passages.

				P.