Not as Beautiful, and: He reads her the definition, and: The Snake King and the Stagbeetle Queen, and: You'll Talk / I'll Listen

65 Rosa María Arenas Not as Beautiful // ivas a cruel disappointment, everyone on the bridge, and curiosity ivas wound up to the highest pitch: some vowed they saw resting on the beam of the vanishing trawl the white hand of the mermaiden for which we had watched so long in vain; but I think it is more likely that the trawl got bagged with the large sea-slugs which occur in some ofthese deep dredging* in large quantity, and have more than once burst the trawl net. —Abyss: The Deep Sea and the Creatures That Live in it What a letdown - the white hand of the mermaiden, only seaslugs slugging along Instead of a finger from that white hand - a sea slug rhvming with "ugh" Instead of "the white hand of the mermaiden for which we had watched so long in vain," Instead of that hand - we get a bunch of sea slugs waving their delicate slime in the air, Giving a pretty salute as they pitch back into the sea (- not silken, not tender, not luminous, not the white hand signal ing rescue, surrender, ecstasy -) Of course, Columbus was looking at a manatee, not a sea-slug when he wrote that the mermaid "was not as beautiful as painted" Of course, we know that the mermaid "as painted" was seen only by the shipwrecked, And of all those who saw, only a few lived to tell, their tongues still swollen with craving Of course, the sea slug is shaped like a tongue, a tongue loose from the mouth of the vast body of the sea And the mermaid speaking volumes, disembodied as wavering desire, voluble, undulating 66 the minnesota review He reads her the definition Ordinary-language philosophy Noun: a trend in philosophical analysis that seeks to resolve philosophical perplexity by revealing sources of puzzlement in the misunderstanding of ordinary language He dreams she is a building, a movie house from the thirties Inside her flicker images of idols Gesturing in the language of black gloves and cigarette holders Inside the gestures is the wish to be the passing Form of passing beauty Inside the wish is airy nothing Inside the nothing is the outside Outside, he is dreaming she is a building exhaling symmetry, Columns of marble women, spiraling He sees, in the blank eye of an adamant face, Blind adoration He says, as he traces his hand on her skin, "Now vour bodv is mine" The Snake King and the Stagbeetle Queen (Max Beckmann, watercolor, 1933) "Looks like a couple at a costume party at the beach," he says. And I think, what kind of couple? And what kind of party? And what kind of beach? The landscape is a discrete backdrop at the bottom lies a thin strip of brownish, furry sand, then a layer of greyish ocean like a curtain, and at the top, in the distance, the mythical sky, blurry as the past. Snake King? Stagbeetle Queen ? I question the picture. Arenas 67 And for the record, they are quite a pair. She is mostly and immensely an insect, except for the masked face in the tiny head atop a massive beetle body. Yes, it's a little hard to see, but that is a royal headdress and out of each side of the splendid head, feathery and wary, Mata Hari antennae. And - what's this I spy? shapely human feet and legs, revealed by a slit up the side of her queenly tunic, leading one to assume that further up are thighs and some other parts we shall call "other" creamy vulnerability underneath kick-ass armor. He, on the other hand, is all snake all the time, although a snake with brawny, bumpy arms. Out of the bottom of his tasteful toga, his sneakiness slithers in a classic S shape towards the bottom left hand corner of the picture. Out of his mountainous shoulders blooms - like an afterthought a minute serpent head, wearing a crude and spiky crown. The action in this costume drama is a wrestling match. Arms, like tree trunks, swell with purpose. Fat phallic fingers snag her left claw in a clutch, in a vise grip. No! Get me...