Freethought & Rationalism Archive

gstafleu · 08-22-2007, 10:48 AM

In the thread about revisiting kata sarka, Amaleq13 couldn't refrain himself from commenting about similes and metaphors, so I have an excuse. The following is mostly for fun, but it does actually relate to BC&H issues. If you squint hard enough.

I've noticed before that people sometimes have a problem with similes and metaphors (never mind what the difference between them is), and tend to assume that authors mean the things they write in the most literal sense. To counter this I'm going to post a poem here. I'll even tell you what it is about: pre-marital sex, which at the time it was written was a larger issue than it is now.

You don't have to be a kata-sarka freak in order to enjoy this. The poem is mostly metaphor, so almost nothing means what it "literally" means. This should make it fun, at least. Plus, the thread title has "sex" in it, so I'm sure that will attract some readers. It wouldn't be the first time that sex is used to spice up an BC&H issue.

Here are some initial question for you to keep in mind when getting to the end: (1) Did the couple in the end decide to do it, and (2) if so, who initiated it. I'll have some more questions later.

Quote:

Crossing the Frontier, A. D. Hope (1963)

Crossing the frontier they were stopped in time,
Told, quite politely, they would have to wait:
Passports in order, nothing to declare
And surely holding hands was not a crime
Until they saw how, ranged across the gate,
All their most formidable friends were there.

Wearing his conscience like a crucifix,
Her father, rampant, nursed the Family Shame;
And, armed with their old-fashioned dinner-gong,
His aunt, who even when they both were six,
Had just to glance towards a childish game
To make them feel that they were doing wrong.

And both their mothers, simply weeping floods,
Her head-mistress, his boss, the parish priest,
And the bank manager who cashed their cheques;
The man who sold him his first rubber-goods;
Dog Fido, from whose love-life, shameless beast,
She first observed the basic facts of sex.

They looked as though they had stood there for hours;
For years -- perhaps for ever. In the trees
Two furtive birds stopped courting and flew off;
While in the grass beside the road the flowers
Kept up their guilty traffic with the bees.
Nobody stirred. Nobody risked a cough.

Nobody spoke. The minutes ticked away;
The dog scratched idly. Then, as parson bent
And whispered to a guard who hurried in,
The customs-house loudspeakers with a bray
Of raucous and triumphant argument
Broke out the wedding march from Lohengrin.

He switched the engine off: "We must turn back."
She heard his voice break, though he had to shout
Against a din that made their senses reel,
And felt his hand, so tense in hers, go slack.
But suddenly she laughed and said: "Get out!
Change seats! Be quick!" and slid behind the wheel.

And drove the car straight at them with a harsh,
Dry crunch that showered both with scraps and chips,
Drove through them; barriers rising let them pass
Drove through and on and on, with Dad's moustache
Beside her twitching still round waxen lips
And Mother's tears still streaming down the glass.

Here are some more questions:
(3) Should we go looking for the historical border gate where all this took place and turn it into a shrine for the sexual revolution?
(4) Is it of any interest who the historical border guards, fathers, mothers, aunts and dog Fido were?
(5) Given that the girl initiated the final proceedings, what does this mean for the hypothesis that the Original Immanent Deity was female?
(6) When the girl grabbed the wheel, did she do so kata sarka or kata pneuma?
(7) Assuming their children carry on like their parents, are these children of the flesh or children of the promise?

Gerard Stafleu

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