Col49 2--shadows of rocks both grey and red

[Paul Mackin]

The Death of Saint Narcissus according to young T.S. Eliot

Come under the shadow of this gray rock -
 Come in under the shadow of this gray rock,
 And I will show you something different from either
 Your shadow sprawling over the sand at daybreak, or
 Your shadow leaping behind the fire against the red rock:
 I will show you his bloody cloth and limbs
 And the gray shadow on his lips.

 He walked once between the sea and the high cliffs
 When the wind made him aware of his limbs smoothly passing
each other
 And of his arms crossed over his breast.
 When he walked over the meadows
 He was stifled and soothed by his own rhythm.
 By the river
 His eyes were aware of the pointed corners of his eyes
 And his hands aware of the pointed tips of his fingers.

 Struck down by such knowledge
 He could not live men's ways, but became a dancer before
God.
 If he walked in city streets
 He seemed to tread on faces, convulsive thighs and knees.
 So he came out under the rock.

 First he was sure that he had been a tree,
 Twisting its branches among each other
 And tangling its roots among each other.

 Then he knew that he had been a fish
 With slippery white belly held tight in his own fingers,
 Writhing in his own clutch, his ancient beauty
 Caught fast in the pink tips of his new beauty.

 Then he had been a young girl
 Caught in the woods by a drunken old man
 Knowing at the end the taste of his own whiteness,
 The horror of his own smoothness,
 And he felt drunken and old.

 So he became a dancer to God,
 Because his flesh was in love with the burning arrows
 He danced on the hot sand
 Until the arrows came.
 As he embraced them his white skin surrendered itself
   to the redness of blood, and satisfied him.
 Now he is green, dry and stained
 With the shadow in his mouth.



http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/e/eliot/britten89.html





By the way, is all the talk of Narcissus pointing at the
fact that someone in the picture was suffering from
excessive narcissism? What kind of guy was Pierce.  Like in
bed? Doesn't Oedipa have any girlfriends she can talk things
over with. Maybe at the Tupperware Party.  Is it stated
anywhere why she left Pierce or he her? Gotta read more I
guess. Been a long time. Mucho is very much the intuitive
introvert type. Anyone who remembers the 50s recognizes the
kind of questioning he does over whether or not he  really
believes in something. Like he DID believe in the cars.
Young earnest types honestly talked that way. They would
also  wonder a lot about whether what they were doing was
"worthwhile" or "a  good idea." No one from the Badass
talked like that. Pynch had been recently enough in college
though.
            P.
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