Dædalus coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus on capitalism Joyce Appleby, John C. Bogle, Lucian Bebchuk, Robert W. Fogel, & democracy Jerry Z. Muller, Richard Epstein, Benjamin M. Friedman, John Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Dunn, Robin Blackburn, and Gerhard Loewenberg Spring 2007 on the public interest William Galston, E. J. Dionne, Jr., Seyla Benhabib, Jagdish Bhagwati, Adam Wolfson, Lance Taylor, Gary Hart, Nathan Glazer, Robert N. Bellah, Nancy Rosenblum, Amy Gutmann, and Christine Todd Spring 2007: on sex Whitman comment Paul Ehrlich & Marcus W. Feldman The fallacy of genetic reductionism 5 on life Anthony Kenny, Thomas Laqueur, Shai Lavi, Lorraine Daston, Paul Rabinow, Robert P. George, Robert J. Richards, Nikolas Rose, John on Tim Birkhead Promiscuity 13 sex Broome, Jeff McMahan, and Adrian Woolfson Joan Roughgarden Challenging Darwin 23 Brian Charlesworth Why bother? The evolutionary function of sex 37 on nature Leo Marx, William Cronon, Cass Sunstein, Daniel Kevles, Bill McKibben, Harriet Ritvo, Gordon Orians, Camille Parmesan, Anne Fausto-Sterling Frameworks of desire 47 Margaret Schabas, and Philip Tetlock & Michael Oppenheimer Elizabeth Benedict On the Internet 58 Wendy Doniger In the Kamasutra 66 on cosmopolitanism Martha C. Nussbaum, Stanley Hoffmann, Margaret C. Jacob, A. A. Stanley Corngold Franz Kafka & sex 79 Long, Pheng Cheah, Darrin McMahon, Helena Rosenblatt, Samuel Terry Castle The lesbianism of Philip Larkin 88 Scheffler, Arjun Appadurai, Rogers Smith, Peter Brooks, and Craig Lawrence Cohen Homosexuality & hope in India 103 Calhoun

annals Greil Marcus A trip to Hibbing High 116 plus poetry by Lawrence Dugan, Molly McQuade, Ted Richer, C. D. Wright &c.; ½ction by Chris Abani, Nadine Gordimer &c.; and poetry Charles Simic Darkened Chessboard & Secret History 125 notes by Keith T. Poole & Howard Rosenthal, Omer Bartov, Susan ½ction Peggy Newland Clowns 127 Goldin-Meadow, Harriet Ritvo, Phyllis Coley, Don Harrán, Victor Navasky &c. notes Samuel Weber on Walter Benjamin 138 William F. Baker on American television & its future 141

U.S. $13; www.amacad.org

Inside front cover: A plate depicting the Month of Bh¯adon (August–September): the rainy sea- son, when people have to stay indoors a lot, and use the weather as an excuse for making love. See Wendy Doniger on Reading the “Kamasutra”: the strange & the familiar, pages 66–78: “It is not, as most people think, a book about the po- sitions in sexual intercourse. It is about the art of living–½nding a partner, maintaining power in a marriage, committing adultery, living as or with a courtesan, using drugs–and also about the positions in sexual intercourse.” Image cour- tesy of the State Museum, Lucknow, India. James Miller, Editor of Dædalus Phyllis S. Bendell, Managing Editor and Director of Publications Esther Y. Chen, Assistant Editor

Board of editors Steven Marcus, Editor of the Academy Russell Banks, Fiction Adviser Rosanna Warren, Poetry Adviser Joyce Appleby (u.s. history, ucla), Stanley Hoffmann (government, Harvard), Donald Kennedy (environmental science, Stanford), Martha C. Nussbaum (law and philosophy, Chicago), Neil J. Smelser (sociology, Berkeley), Steven Weinberg (physics, University of Texas at Austin); ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi (President of the Academy), Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (Chief Executive Of½cer) Editorial advisers

Daniel Bell (sociology, Harvard), Michael Boudin (law, u.s. Court of Appeals), Wendy Doniger (religion, Chicago), Howard Gardner (education, Harvard), Carol Gluck (Asian history, Columbia), Stephen Greenblatt (English, Harvard), Thomas Laqueur (European history, Berkeley), Alan Lightman (English and physics, mit), Steven Pinker (psychology, Harvard), Diane Ravitch (education, nyu), Amartya Sen (economics, Harvard), Richard Shweder (human development, Chicago), Frank Wilczek (physics, mit)

Contributing Editors Robert S. Boynton, D. Graham Burnett, Peter Pesic, Danny Postel

Dædalus is designed by Alvin Eisenman Dædalus

Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Design for the hedge maze is by Johan Vredeman de Vries, from Hortorum viridariorumque elegantes et multiplicis artis normam affabre delineatae (Cologne, 1615).

Dædalus was founded in 1955 and established as a quarterly in 1958. The journal’s namesake was renowned in ancient Greece as an inventor, scientist, and unriddler of riddles. Its emblem, a maze seen from above, symbolizes the aspiration of its founders to “lift each of us above his cell in the labyrinth of learning in order that he may see the entire structure as if from above, where each separate part loses its comfortable separateness.” The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, like its journal, brings together distinguished individuals from every ½eld of human endeavor. It was chartered in 1780 as a forum “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Now in its third century, the Academy, with its more than four thousand elected members, continues to provide intellectual leadership to meet the critical challenges facing our world. Dædalus Spring 2007 Subscription rates: Electronic only for non- Issued as Volume 136, Number 2 member individuals–$40; institutions–$92. Canadians add 6% gst. Print and electronic © 2007 by the American Academy for nonmember individuals–$44; institu- of Arts & Sciences tions–$102. Canadians add 6% gst. Outside What I learned about sex on the Internet the United States and Canada add $20 for © 2007 by Elizabeth Benedict postage and handling. Prices subject to change A trip to Hibbing High School without notice. © 2007 by Greil Marcus Darkened Chessboard and Secret History Institutional subscriptions are on a volume- © 2007 by Charles Simic year basis. All other subscriptions begin with Clowns the next available issue. © 2007 by Peggy Newland Single issues: current issues–$13; back issues Editorial of½ces: Dædalus, Norton’s Woods, for individuals–$13; back issues for institu- 136 Irving Street, Cambridge ma 02138. tions–$26. Outside the United States and Phone: 617 491 2600. Fax: 617 576 5088. Canada add $5 per issue for postage and han- Email: [email protected]. dling. Prices subject to change without notice. Library of Congress Catalog No. 12-30299 Newsstand distribution by Ingram Periodicals tn isbn Inc., 18 Ingram Blvd., La Vergne 37086. 0-87724-062-0 Phone: 800 627 6247. Dædalus publishes by invitation only and as- Claims for missing issues will be honored free sumes no responsibility for unsolicited manu- of charge if made within three months of the scripts. The views expressed are those of the publication date of the issue. Claims may be author of each article, and not necessarily of submitted to [email protected]. Mem- the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. bers of the American Academy please direct all Dædalus (issn 0011-5266; e-issn 1548-6192) questions and claims to [email protected]. is published quarterly (winter, spring, summer, mit ma Advertising and mailing-list inquiries may be fall) by The Press, Cambridge 02142, addressed to Marketing Department, mit for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, An electronic full-text version of Dædalus is ma mit Cambridge 02142. Phone: 617 253 2866. available from The Press. Subscription Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-info@ and address changes should be addressed to mit.edu. mit Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge ma 02142. Phone: 617 253 2889; Permission to photocopy articles for internal us/Canada 800 207 8354. Fax: 617 577 1545. or personal use is granted by the copyright Email: [email protected]. owner for users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (ccc) Transactional Report- Printed in the United States of America by ing Service, provided that the per copy fee Cadmus Professional Communications, of $10 per article is paid directly to the ccc, Science Press Division, 300 West Chestnut ma pa 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers 01923. The Street, Ephrata 17522. fee code for users of the Transactional Report- Postmaster: Send address changes to Dædalus, ing Service is 0011-5266/07. Address all other 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge ma inquiries to the Subsidiary Rights Manager, 02142. Periodicals postage paid at Boston ma mit Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, and at additional mailing of½ces. Cambridge ma 02142. Phone: 617 253 2864. Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-rights@ The typeface is Cycles, designed by Sumner mit.edu. Stone at the Stone Type Foundry of Guinda ca. Each size of Cycles has been separately designed in the tradition of metal types. Comment by Paul Ehrlich & Marcus W. Feldman

Genes, environments & behaviors

Our large brains are surely at the cen- public discourse–especially in the wide- ter of our humanity. But it is equally cer- spread notion that most behaviors con- tain that few organs are the subject of trolled by our marvelous brain are some- more misinformation in scienti½c and how programmed into it genetically. A typical treatment in the popular press is this overexcited claim by columnist Paul Ehrlich, a Fellow of the American Academy Nicholas Wade in the New York Times: since 1982, is Bing Professor of Population Stud- “When . . . [the human genome] . . . is ful- ies and president of the Center for Conservation ly translated, it will prove the ultimate Biology at Stanford University. He is the author thriller–the indisputable guide to the of numerous publications, including “The Pop- graces and horrors of human nature, the ulation Bomb” (1968), “The End of Affluence” creations and cruelties of the human (with Anne H. Ehrlich, 1974), “Human Na- mind, the unbearable light and darkness tures: Genes, Culture, and the Human Prospect” of being.”1 (2000), and “One with Nineveh: Politics, Con- Wade may get a pass for being a jour- sumption, and the Human Future” (with Anne nalist, but some scientists are equally H. Ehrlich, 2004). confused. Molecular biologist Dean Hamer wrote: “People are different be- Marcus W. Feldman, a Fellow of the American cause they have different genes that cre- Academy since 1987, is Burnet C. and Mildred ated different brains that formed differ- Finley Wohlford Professor and director of the ent personalities,” and “[u]nderstand- Morrison Institute for Population and Resource ing the genetic roots of personality will Studies at Stanford University. He has published help you ‘½nd yourself’ and relate better extensively in scienti½c journals such as “Science,” to others.” As distinguished a neurobiol- “Nature,” and “Evolution.” His current research ogist as Michael Gazzaniga is guilty of interests include the evolution of complex genetic systems that can undergo both natural selection and recombination; human molecular evolution; 1 The authors thank Richard Lewontin, Deb- orah Rogers, Robert Sapolsky, and Michael and the interaction of biological and cultural evo- Soulé for their comments on earlier versions of lution. the manuscript. N. Wade, “Ideas and Trends: The Story of Us; The Other Secrets of the Ge- © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts nome,” New York Times, February 18, 2001, sec. & Sciences 4, 3.

Dædalus Spring 2007 5 Comment the misleading claim that “all behavior- extreme values of a trait are bred to one by Paul al traits are heritable”;2 and molecular another–for example, the heaviest indi- Ehrlich & Marcus W. evolutionists Roderick Page and Edward viduals from a hog population. The off- Feldman Holmes have asserted that “genes con- spring are then raised in the same envi- trol 62% of our cognitive ability.”3 In ronment, and their average weight cal- fact, an entire neo-½eld labeled evolu- culated. If the average weight of the off- tionary psychology has sprung up based spring doesn’t increase over that of the on the misconception that genes are entire population (not just of the heavy somehow determining our everyday be- parents) in the previous generation, the havior and our personalities. It is a ½eld heritability is zero. On the other hand, that believes there are genetic evolution- if the average weight of the offspring ary answers to such questions as why a equals that of their heavy parents, the man driving an expensive car is more at- heritability is 100 percent. tractive than one driving a cheap car.4 In the 1960s, the term ‘heritability’ So even well-educated and thoughtful was adopted by some students of human observers have been persuaded by the behaviors who wanted to know what language of heritability. With expres- fraction of the variation in these behav- sions such as ‘genes are responsible for iors was primarily attributable to genetic 50 percent of,’ or ‘genes contribute 50 differences and what percentage to envi- percent of,’ a behavior, this language ronmental differences. Because control- gives the impression that genetic and ling the environments of human subjects environmental contributions to human is not possible, however, this fraction– behaviors are actually separable. They now called ‘broad-sense heritability’– are not. includes variation from interactions be- Heritability was originally introduced tween genes and environments. That in the 1930s in the context of agriculture. fraction of variation is nevertheless in- It is an index of amenability to selective terpreted as determined by genes, thus breeding under environmental condi- inflating the heritability. tions that the breeder could control. In other words, this new heritability This index, now often termed ‘narrow- statistic assumes no relationship be- sense heritability,’ is the fraction of all tween genetic transmission and envi- variation in a trait that can be ascribed ronment, e.g., that the iq scores of par- only to genes that act independently of ents cannot affect those parts of the one another and whose joint effect is environment that might interact with the sum of their individual effects. One genes to influence a child’s iq. The easy-to-understand way of measuring amount of stimulation parents provide heritability is through a one-generation their young children, the nature of din- selection experiment. Individuals with ner-table conversations, and the number of books in the home are thus taken to 2 M. S. Gazzaniga, The Ethical Brain (New be independent of any genetic influences York: Dana Press, 2005), 44. on children’s iq. When this indepen- dence assumption is violated, there is 3 R. D. M. Page and E. C. Holmes, Molecular gene-environment correlation–exactly Evolution: A Phylogenetic Approach (Oxford: the correlation that agricultural experi- Blackwell, 1998), 119. ments to estimate narrow-sense heri- 4 D. M. Buss, The Evolution of Human Desire tability eliminated by holding environ- (New York: BasicBooks, 1994), 99–100. ments constant. But with human behav-

6 Dædalus Spring 2007 iors such designs are impossible, and the It might be thought that some of the Genes, en- correlation between parental iq and the problems with twin studies may be over- vironments & behaviors offspring’s environment may contribute come if the identical twins under study to the heritability. were reared apart, that is, in different Many of the high estimates for heri- families. In a perfect experiment of this tability, and the resulting interpretation kind, all observed differences between that human behavioral traits are heavily the twins should be environmental, influenced by genes, have been derived and high levels of similarity of the pair from comparisons of identical twins should be due to their identical genes. It (who originate from a single fertilized turns out not to be so simple. First, sepa- egg) and fraternal twins (from two rated twin pairs are rare, and the reasons eggs). These estimates are based on the for the separation are not usually known. fact that identical twins share exactly Second, the twins share the prenatal en- the same hereditary endowment, while vironment of the ovary, fallopian tube, fraternal twins, on average, share only and uterus, which could be very influen- 50 percent of their genes. tial in producing similar developmental But many assumptions about twins pathways. Third, the separation is fre- inflate twin-based estimates of broad- quently carried out well after birth so sense heritability. One is the ‘equal en- some shared early postnatal environ- vironments’ assumption, that variation mental effects could mistakenly be inter- in environments created by parents to preted as genetic. Fourth, twins have of- which identical twin pairs are exposed ten been placed in separate homes that is the same as those to which fraternal are similar in aspects that may be impor- pairs are exposed–i.e., that there is no tant for the traits under study, for exam- difference between the way parents treat ple, in homes of relatives of their par- identical and fraternal twins. Statistical ents. The environments are thus not a estimates of the differences in the envi- random sample of all possible environ- ronmental exposure of identical and fra- ments. Kamin and Goldberger docu- ternal twins outside of the parental contri- mented these problems with the well- bution, however, are not usually made. publicized Minnesota study of twins Some studies have found that the corre- reared apart.6 All of these effects add to lation between iq and the environments that component of variation that is in- not transmitted by the parents of identi- terpreted as genetic, with the result that cal twins is much higher than that of fra- estimates of genetic heritability based ternal twins.5 Thus, factors in the non- on identical twins raised separately are familial environment of identical twins biased upward. are often more similar than those of fra- At ½rst glance, some of the stories of ternal twins, but this difference between the similarities of identical twins raised identical and fraternal twins is usually separately seem extraordinary examples ignored. of the power of genetic identity. Two men separated near birth grow up to be 5 C. R. Cloninger, J. Rice, and T. Reich, “Mul- beer-drinking ½re½ghters and grasp the tifactorial Inheritance with Cultural Trans- beer cans in the same unusual way, hold- mission and Assortative Mating,” American Journal of Human Genetics 31 (1979): 176–198; 6 L. J. Kamin and A. S. Goldberger, “Twin M. W. Feldman and S. Otto, “Twin Studies, Studies in Behavioral Research: A Skeptical Heritability and Intelligence,” Science 278 View,” Theoretical Population Biology 61 (2002): (1997): 1383–1384. 83–95.

Dædalus Spring 2007 7 Comment ing the little ½nger under the can.7 But environment) would be critical to the by Paul medical recommendation and, in most Ehrlich & they were raised in similar lower middle- Marcus W. class Jewish homes in New Jersey. Be- cases, likely to overwhelm any genetic Feldman ing a ½re½ghter is an ambition of many effect inferred from population studies. males, and ½re½ghters are not notorious The logic of using the heritability of for being addicted to wine. Furthermore, some trait in a population to predict it is well known that physical attributes something about a member of that pop- of people greatly influence how other ulation would be foolish. people treat them. Individuals with iden- Recent studies of intelligence in sam- tical genomes are usually strikingly alike ples of twins of different socioeconom- in appearance, and within the same cul- ic status strongly reinforce these restric- ture they will be treated more similarly tions on the generalization of heritabili- than randomly selected individuals of ty. For example, the estimated heritabili- the same gender from the same occu- ty of iq in individuals from advantaged pational and age groups. Resemblance backgrounds is signi½cantly higher in body structure (strong in identical than in those from disadvantaged back- twins) would probably also make it com- grounds.8 That is because better envi- fortable to hold containers in the same ronments allow more variance in iq to manner, and we doubt if even the most be expressed: potential geniuses have dedicated hereditarian would seek a trouble developing into Einsteins in gene for use of the pinky in beer drink- slums without schools. Likewise, the ing. heritability of height in a normal human Ever since narrow-sense heritability population would be greater than that in was ½rst used, it has been well under- a starved one, where everyone’s growth stood by geneticists that an estimate of is stunted and the variance in height the genetic influence on a trait’s variabil- thereby reduced. ity depends on the particular population Individuals with Down syndrome, and the particular environment in which caused by an entire additional chromo- the trait was measured. Furthermore, some 21 (trisomy), develop as severely even a very high heritability measured mentally handicapped if given no spe- in a population cannot be used to infer cial treatment. But it turns out that the something about any single member of degree of handicap is extremely labile that population. Suppose a population to the environment of rearing.9 In fact, is known to have higher than average the day may come when an environment blood pressure. Would a physician treat- can be provided in which their develop- ing one individual patient from that pop- ment will be entirely normal. Moreov- ulation prescribe an antihypertensive er, not even evolutionary psychologists drug on the basis of the population sta- tistic? Of course not–a doctor would 8 E. Turkheimer, A. Haley, M. Waldron, B. use detailed history and laboratory D’Onofrio, and I. I. Gottesman, “Socioeconom- ic Status Modi½es Heritability of iq in Young workup to decide on the appropriate Children,” Psychological Science 14 (2003): 623– treatment for that particular patient. 628. The patient’s diet or stress level (the 9 R. I. Brown, “Down Syndrome and Quality of Life: Some Challenges for Future Practice,” 7 N. L. Segal, Indivisible by Two: Lives of Extraor- Down Syndrome Research and Practice 2 (1994): dinary Twins (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni- 19–30; N. J. Roizen and D. Patterson, “Down’s versity Press, 2005). Syndrome,” The Lancet 361 (2003): 1281–1289.

8 Dædalus Spring 2007 have proposed that chromosome 21 is that genes favored by selection while Genes, en- vironments the locus of ‘the intelligence gene.’ our ancestors were hunter-gatherers & behaviors Such important gene-environment signi½cantly influence such contempo- interactions preclude the partition of rary individual behavioral characteris- variation in traits like trisomy, iq, or tics as choice of beers or marriage part- height into genetic and nongenetic in- ners. fluences. It is especially inappropriate For many behavioral traits, especially to talk about genetic ‘contributions’ to serious psychiatric disorders, some in- such complex traits when in some envi- dividual genes have been shown to play ronments genetic variation is not even a role in some environments but not in detectable. It is equally incorrect to say, others. Consider research by psycholo- ‘characteristic A is more influenced by gist Avshalom Caspi and his colleagues nature than nurture,’ as it is to say, ‘the on the effects of having different forms area of a rectangle is more influenced of a gene involved in the transport of by its length than its width.’ (Note that serotonin, a compound that is involved the area of a rectangle one hundred in transmitting signals along certain miles long and one inch wide is halved nerve pathways. Which form an indi- by reducing its length by ½fty miles or vidual possesses apparently influences by reducing the width by half an inch.) whether stressful events will produce None of this should be taken to mean depression. Having the ‘wrong’ gene, that genes do not affect behavior. In fact, however, only makes a difference if an in a sense, they influence all behavior, at individual is exposed to a stressful envi- least by laying out how human capabili- ronment early in adult life–a beautiful ties differ from those of other primates. example of gene-environment interac- If genes did not, in the course of devel- tion.10 opment, interact with pre- and postna- Many other cases illuminate the fail- tal environments to generate the brain– ure of genes to ‘control’ behavior. The some of the major patterns of its organi- original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, zation, and its principal modes of inter- were joined for life by a narrow band of action with hormonal systems–the hu- tissue connecting their chests. Despite man behaviors that interest us would their identical genomes, they had very not occur at all. Genomic disparities be- different personalities. One was an al- tween species doubtless influence differ- coholic, the other sober; one was domi- ences in the general con½guration of the nant, the other submissive. Equally fas- systems that control behavior. cinating is the story of the Dionne quin- But it is clear from the long pre- and tuplets, ½ve genetically identical little (especially) postnatal environmental girls who, in the 1930s, were essentially programming that these systems must raised in a laboratory under the super- undergo to produce a behaviorally ‘nor- vision of a psychologist. When the girls mal’ person that genes are not responsi- were only ½ve, the psychologist wrote a ble for embedding detailed instructions book that expressed his astonishment at on how to act, or even ‘tendencies’ to- how different the little girls were–some- ward certain kinds of behavior. Environ- thing con½rmed by their very different mental inputs are so extensive that the cortex of the brain is not fully developed 10 M. Rutter, Genes and Behavior: Nature-Nur- until the mid-twenties. In view of this, ture Interplay Explained (Oxford: Blackwell, it’s not surprising that nothing indicates 2005).

Dædalus Spring 2007 9 Comment life trajectories. One had epilepsy, the ceptives (which we are convinced were by Paul 12 Ehrlich & others did not; some died young, the very effective!). Indeed, although evo- Marcus W. others old; some married, others re- lutionary psychologists like to imagine Feldman mained single; and so on. Similarly, that rapists are programmed to assault the identical Marks triplets grew up women in order to reproduce themselves with different sexual orientations, two –that is, to increase their ½tness–over straight and one gay; one of the two half of all rapes occur in circumstances identical Perez girls chose to change (e.g., victims too old or too young, no her sex with hormones and surgery and ejaculation into the vagina) where fertil- married a woman, while the other twin ization is impossible, and in more than remained female and married a man.11 a ½fth of cases more force is used than But one does not even have to look at would be required to achieve the sup- such extreme cases to see that genes are posed reproductive goal.13 not controlling human actions; evidence Most de½nitive, though, is the prob- that common behaviors are not geneti- lem of gene shortage.14 Our roughly cally determined is superabundant. Per- twenty-½ve thousand genes can’t pos- haps the most impressive comes from sibly code all of our separate everyday thousands of cross-cultural ‘experi- behaviors into the human genome. Af- ments’ in which children from one cul- ter all, we have less than twice as many ture are raised from an early age by as required to make a fruit fly, and just adoptive parents from another. Invari- a few more than those that lay out the ably, the children mature with the lan- ground plan of a simple roundworm. guage and attitudes of the adoptive cul- Even if the human brain had not evolved ture. for flexibility but instead were pro- Also impressive is the ease with which grammed for stereotypic behavior, our culture overrides the only ‘command- genes couldn’t store enough informa- ment’ we can be sure is contained in tion to accomplish it. Genes are not lit- everyone’s dna: ensure that your genes tle beads with instructions like ‘grow are maximally represented in the next up gay’ engraved on them. They are in- generation, either by having more chil- structions that, in a very complex mech- dren or by helping your relatives (who anism, can be translated into a sequence tend to have the same genes) to repro- of amino acid residues in a protein. It duce. Differential reproduction of genet- is near miraculous that these proteins– ically different individuals (not explica- interacting with each other, function- ble by chance) is natural selection, the creative force in evolution. We wouldn’t 12 L. Manniche, Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt be here if our ancestors hadn’t been ef- (New York: Kegan Paul, 1997). fective reproducers of their genes, if they hadn’t had high ‘½tness.’ But culture 13 J. Coyne, “Of Vice and Men: A Case Study in Evolutionary Psychology,” in Evolution, Gen- (part of the environment) has led human der, and Rape, ed. C. Travis (Cambridge, Mass.: beings to limit their reproduction as far mit Press, 2003), 171–189. back in history as we can trace, all the way to the ancient Egyptians who used 14 P. R. Ehrlich, Human Natures: Genes, Cul- crocodile-dung suppositories as contra- tures, and the Human Prospect (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2000); P. R. Ehrlich and M. W. Feldman, “Genes and Cultures: What 11 Segal, Indivisible by Two: Lives of Extraordi- Creates Our Behavioral Phenome?” Current nary Twins. Anthropology 44 (2003): 87–107.

10 Dædalus Spring 2007 ing in different physical, physiological, This may be why it has been so dif½- Genes, en- vironments and social environments, and helping cult to demonstrate that natural selec- & behaviors to control the production of other pro- tion has changed more than a tiny frac- teins–are able to produce an entire hu- tion of genes during the transition from man body and the basic scaffolding for chimpanzee to modern human being. a brain with a trillion or so nerve cells Changing just a few genes can have ef- (neurons) connected to each other by fects that totally transform an entire or- tens of trillions of intricate junctions ganism. Thus, most population geneti- (synapses). On average, each gene must cists–remembering linkage, pleiotropy, influence many characteristics. There epistasis, and developmental complexi- are obviously enough genes, interacting ty–reject evolutionary psychology as a with each other and with diverse envi- theoretical paradigm: its predictions ig- ronments at all scales, to provide a brain nore how dif½cult gene-gene and gene- that can generate all observed human environment interactions make it for behaviors. But this has confused some selection to operate on just one pheno- observers into thinking that because one typic attribute. If we had trillions of gene normally affects many functions largely independent genes, then it might there is no gene shortage. be possible for selection (were it strong That fact is actually the basis of calling enough and time available long enough) it gene shortage. It means that natural to program us to rape, be honest, detect selection altering the genome to encode cheaters, excel at calculus, or vote Re- one behavior would inevitably change publican. But the number of independent other aspects of the genome as well–so genes is much smaller than twenty-½ve that selection increasing, say, the speed thousand. of contraction of muscle ½bers would Perhaps the most interesting thing quite possibly modify the connections about all the attention paid to whether between some neurons that, say, trans- nature or nurture controls behaviors is mit visual information from the retina not that individuals with identical ge- to the brain. Because of the small num- nomes often behave very differently, but ber of genes in the human genome and that those same individuals exposed to the ubiquity of interactions between extremely similar environments also proteins and between proteins and envi- turn out to behave quite differently. This ronments, natural selection must ordi- has been clearly demonstrated in mice, narily entrain a multiplicity of changes. where genetically uniform strains ex- It must operate on a genome enormous- posed to laboratory environments made ly ‘ampli½ed’ in development by the as identical as possible still behaved dif- multiple uses of the proteins produced ferently.16 Indeed, nonidentical human by single genes, by the alternative ways siblings, who share half of their genes, the proteins are assembled, by the small the same parents, and apparently very rna molecules that often control the similar environments, often seem more expression of multiple genes, and by the epigenetic phenomena that may have Twins,” Proceedings of the National Academy of differing effects even on identical geno- Sciences usa 102 (2005): 10604–10609. types.15 16 J. C. Crabbe, D. Wahlsten, and B. C. Du- dek, “Genetics of Mouse Behavior: Interac- 15 M. F. Fraga et al., “Epigenetic Differences tions with Laboratory Environment,” Science Arise During the Lifetime of Monozygotic 284 (1999): 1670–1672.

Dædalus Spring 2007 11 Comment unalike than unrelated people drawn siblings, including identical twins? We by Paul Ehrlich & from the same population. Think of all hypothesize that there may be a ‘sibling Marcus W. the ‘isn’t it weird that Johnny and Sam- bifurcation’ phenomenon, in which in- Feldman my Smith are so different’ anecdotes– dividuals having close relationships with many more, it seems to us, than ‘isn’t it others early in life, either pre- or post- weird that Johnny and Sammy Smith are natal, often seek different life courses. so similar.’ This could be related to such things as a If genes don’t ‘determine’ our behav- kin-recognition/inbreeding avoidance ior, how can it be that obvious aspects system; attempts by parents, siblings, of our (or mice’s) environments don’t teachers, and peers to distinguish relat- either? We don’t know for sure, but we ed individuals; genetic differences (be- can make some guesses. One is that re- tween fraternal twins); birth-order ef- searchers have not yet identi½ed key en- fects; and so on. vironmental variables that are subtle to We now know more than enough them but central to a behaving organ- about the human genome and human ism–be it a mouse with a genome that development to see that the notion of makes it love alcohol or Johnny trying ‘genes for behaviors’ is misguided. For to get along with Sammy. Another is that complex traits such as normal behaviors, prenatal influences may put genetical- few cases have been found where a spe- ly similar (or identical) individuals on ci½c gene, or even many genes, greatly quite different behavioral trajectories. influences variation in the trait. It is There is a tendency to think, ½rst there’s clear that when genes influence traits, fertilization, and then some nine months including behaviors, they only do so in later a baby pops out. But, of course, an ways that are affected by environments. incredibly complex series of events takes Thus environments during any phase of place during those nine months: cell- life might alter the way in which an indi- cell, tissue-tissue, and organ-organ inter- vidual’s genes function in those environ- actions; pulses of hormones; responses ments. This is, of course, a tribute to the to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli such marvelous plasticity of the human brain, as voices heard through the uterine wall; which neurobiologists know changes in and in some cases interactions with response to external and internal envi- another fetus in the womb. Studies have ronments throughout life. It also makes already shown what dramatic effects ridiculous the claim that genes program prenatal environments can have. For our behaviors or, indeed, that genes are instance, young female fetuses whose responsible for some speci½ed fraction mothers had minimal diets during the of any human behavior. Dutch famine of World War II grew up into women who were more obese than those whose mothers were well fed; they also had higher levels of ‘bad’ choles- terol. As more is learned about environ- mental influences in the womb it seems likely that many of the differences be- tween siblings could be discovered to have prenatal origins. Could there be another source of the sometimes dramatic differences among

12 Dædalus Spring 2007 Tim Birkhead

Promiscuity

Darwin’s theory of natural selection miscuity–the fact that, in many ani- is so widely known it is almost a cliché, mals, males achieve high reproductive despite continually being misunder- success by copulating with several dif- stood. His concept of sexual selection ferent females. At the same time as he is less well known but no less impor- accepted male promiscuity as the norm tant. Darwin developed the idea of sex- and as an important component of sex- ual selection to account for the dramat- ual selection, Darwin regarded females ic differences that often exist in the ap- as sexually monogamous and faithful to pearance and behavior of the sexes. The a partner for at least a single breeding reason for these differences, he said, attempt. By doing so he automatically was competition for, or choice of, sex- assumed that sexual selection ceased ual partners. Typically, males compete once an individual of either sex had ac- among themselves for females, hence quired a mating partner. their larger body size and their weapons, But Darwin knew it wasn’t true that such as antlers and spurs. Females, on females were sexually monogamous, for the other hand, typically choose among in his various writings he referred to in- males on the basis of the males’ elabo- stances in which females had received rate coloration, extravagant ornaments, sperm from more than one male. For ex- or remarkable vocal repertoires. ample, in The Descent of Man, and Selec- One integral aspect of Darwin’s con- tion in Relation to Sex (1871), Darwin refers cept of sexual selection was male pro- to a case his cousin William Darwin Fox recounted to him, of a female domestic Tim Birkhead is professor of behavior and ecolo- goose that copulated with both a male gy at the University of Shef½eld and a Fellow of domestic goose and a Chinese goose and the Royal Society of London. His books include hatched a brood of very obvious mixed “Promiscuity: An Evolutionary History of Sperm paternity. Despite such clear evidence Competition and Sexual Conflict” (2000) and to the contrary, though, Charles Darwin “The Red Canary” (2003). He is currently writ- stuck ½rmly to the story of female mo- ing a history of ornithology: “The Wisdom of nogamy. Birds.” There are several reasons for this. First, although it was perfectly respect- © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts able to discuss sexuality, fertilization, & Sciences and promiscuity among plants, it was

Dædalus Spring 2007 13 Tim less appropriate for a Victorian gentle- Geoff Parker, then a Ph.D. student, Birkhead man to discuss the sexual habits of fe- studied the mating behavior of yellow on sex male animals, including humans. Sec- dung flies in the meadows around Bris- ond, Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus tol, England. He watched as male after Darwin, had been enthusiastic about re- male copulated with the same female production, advocating sex for his hypo- in what he recognized might be a ½erce chondriac female patients and himself competition for paternity. Parker re- siring several illegitimate offspring. At ferred to this phenomenon as sperm exactly the time Charles was writing De- competition: the competition between scent another illegitimate descendent of the sperm (or more correctly, the ejacu- Erasmus had been discovered–hardly lates) of different males to fertilize the an opportune time to be discussing pro- eggs of a single female. Female dung miscuity. Third, and most important, flies appeared to be passive or indiffer- Charles did not want to offend the wom- ent, and because males were consider- enfolk in his life, especially his wife Em- ably larger and able to impose them- ma and daughter Henrietta. Etty, as she selves on the females, there was no sug- was known, helped proofread and check gestion of female choice. At Harvard, her father’s writings but also acted as another graduate student, Bob Trivers, his censor, striking out anything she observed the pigeons on his of½ce win- didn’t approve of with her blue crayon. dow ledge as they went to roost, and She did precisely that to Charles’s brief was fascinated by the males’ attempts biography of Erasmus Darwin–delet- to position themselves between their ing the reference to Charles’s grandfa- partner and any other male. Once con- ther’s “ardent love of women.” We get sidered models of monogamy, pigeons a further feel for what Charles was up were–as Trivers noticed–exactly the against when we discover that, in later opposite, with both sexes perpetually life, Etty tried single-handedly to remove on the lookout for extrapair liaisons. the eponymous fungus Phallus impudicus In 1970 Parker produced a citation from the British countryside because she classic with his paper “Sperm Competi- thought it might have a bad influence on tion and its Evolutionary Consequences the maids.1 in the Insects,” and in 1972 Trivers did By stating that females were sexually the same with his paper “Parental In- monogamous, Charles Darwin preclud- vestment and Sexual Selection.”2 The ed the possibility that sexual selection revolution in evolutionary thinking might continue after copulation. For a that Williams had initiated in the mid- hundred years after Descent, sexual se- 1960s3 took as its main premise the idea lection was thought to cease at mating. Then, in the late 1960s, as the sel½sh 2 G. A. Parker, “Sperm Competition and its gene was just beginning to raise its rev- Evolutionary Consequences in the Insects,” olutionary head, due largely to the work Biological Reviews 45 (1970): 525–567; R. L. of George C. Williams, two young re- Trivers, “Parental Investment and Sexual Se- searchers, one on each side of the Atlan- lection,” in Sexual Selection and the Descent of tic, changed our view of reproduction Man 1871–1971, ed. B. Campbell (Chicago: forever. Aldine-Atherton, 1972), 136–179. 3 G. C. Williams, Adaptation and Natural Se- 1 G. Raverat, Period Piece: A Cambridge Child- lection (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University hood (London: Faber & Faber, 1952). Press, 1966).

14 Dædalus Spring 2007 that individuals (rather than popula- But Trivers deliberately neglected Promiscuity tions or species, as had previously been part of Bateman’s results. Because of assumed) were the target in both natural a glitch in the experiment, some of the and sexual selection. A natural develop- flies had received a different diet, so ment of this evolutionary viewpoint was Bateman had kept the two sets of re- that individuals of either sex had evolved sults separate. Trivers reported only the to maximize their own reproductive suc- results from one set, ignoring the other, cess, even at the expense of members of which showed that females that copulat- their species and even their mating part- ed with more than one male did produce ners. more offspring. The bene½ts of promis- Initially, the focus of research was on cuity were fewer for females than they males, and on sperm competition. Much were for males, but they existed none- has been made of this, especially by fem- theless. But since these results didn’t ½t inists. Undoubtedly there was some in- with Trivers’s preconceived ideas, he tellectual chauvinism, but the reality was disregarded them.6 that male behavior, so often lacking in Had he publicized them, the study of sophistication, was much easier to study. female aspects of reproduction might To Parker, female dung flies appeared have occurred much sooner than it did. merely indifferent to their multiple cop- However, they might also have done ex- ulation partners. Trivers was more obvi- actly the opposite and merely clouded ously sexist and unashamedly told me the issue. Instead, for twenty years fol- that that was how most people (men) lowing Trivers’s paper, researchers fo- thought at that time. cused on male aspects of what we now The clearest evidence for Trivers’s call postcopulatory sexual selection, and chauvinism came from his interpreta- started to consider female aspects only tion of a study that formed the basis of once those male-driven processes were his classic 1972 paper.4 In 1948 Angus reasonably well understood. Bateman published an important study of sexual selection in fruit flies.5 Ignored Geoff Parker recognized that, by as- by almost everyone, Bateman’s paper suming sexual selection ceased at the was noticed by the evolutionary vision- point of copulation, Darwin had missed ary Ernst Mayr, who pushed it in Triv- the immense evolutionary potential of ers’s direction. Bateman had measured sperm competition. If females were in- the reproductive bene½t of each sex cop- seminated by more than one male, he ulating with multiple partners. The way surmised, then sperm from those males Trivers portrayed Bateman’s results was would compete to fertilize a female’s that the more females males copulated eggs–and the males that ‘won’ the com- with, the more offspring they fathered; petition would leave more descendants but for females it made no difference and would pass on their genes for those how many partners they had–after their traits that made them successful. ½rst insemination their reproductive In fact, it is more complex than this. success remained unchanged. When sperm competition occurs, selec-

4 R. Trivers, Natural Selection and Social Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). 6 S. J. Arnold, “Bateman’s Principles and the Measurement of Sexual Selection in Plants 5 A. J. Bateman, “Intrasexual Selection in Dro- and Animals,” American Naturalist 144 (1994): sophila,” Heredity 2 (1948): 349–368. S126–S149.

Dædalus Spring 2007 15 Tim tion simultaneously favors males that him that males must have some chance Birkhead on successfully fertilize previously insem- of fertilizing these females’ eggs–other- sex inated (but not yet fertilized) females, wise there would be no advantage to this and those males that prevent other behavior. And without an evolutionary males from inseminating or fertilizing advantage such behavior would soon females they have just inseminated. disappear. Typically what happens in dung flies is There is an important point of biolog- after a male has ½nished transferring his ical information here. First, like many sperm to a female, he remains attached other animals, female dung flies store to, but not in genital contact with, the sperm before using it to fertilize their female, in what Parker called ‘the pas- eggs. Any male that could somehow dis- sive phase’ of mating and what we now pose of, or disable, these stored sperm refer to as ‘mate guarding.’ Guarding and replace them with his own would provides time for the guarding male’s be at a huge selective advantage. sperm to fertilize at least some of the Parker tested this idea using the only female’s eggs. Other males attempt to technology then available to determine usurp the guarding male, in what Park- the paternity of a female’s offspring: he er called a ‘takeover.’ allowed females to copulate sequential- As we’ll see, selection favors males ly with two males, one of which was that successfully achieve a takeover. Se- sterilized via a dose of radiation. Strictly lection, however, also favors guarding speaking, the sterile males had function- males that prevent takeovers; that is, it al sperm, but any eggs fertilized by their favors males that protect their paternity. sperm failed to develop. As he predicted, Parker realized that these opposing se- regardless of whether the sterile male lection pressures on males would result copulated ½rst or second, the second (or in the rapid evolution of adaptations to last) male to copulate fertilized the ma- sperm competition. Mate guarding is an jority of a female’s eggs, a phenomenon adaptation, and takeover a counteradap- he called “last male sperm precedence.” tation, to sperm competition. Aristotle had noticed the same thing in These are just two of a multitude of chickens in 300 bc, and many studies adaptations and counteradaptations to conducted in the last thirty years have sperm competition that spans behavior, con½rmed it in domestic birds.7 physiology, and anatomy. Indeed, sperm Last male sperm precedence explains competition provides a good evolution- why it is always worthwhile for a male ary explanation for many previously to copulate with a previously inseminat- unexplained reproductive phenomena: ed female, and why, in Bateman’s study, huge testicles, spiny penises, vast quan- male fruit flies that copulated more sired tities of sperm, toxic semen, excessively more offspring. prolonged or frequent copulation, and Working out how last male sperm pre- many others. cedence occurs in the yellow dung fly proved to be dif½cult. Initially, Parker This brings us to the actual mecha- assumed that incoming sperm flushes nism of sperm competition itself: how out or displaces any existing sperm in do sperm compete? As Geoff Parker no- ticed, male dung flies were always very 7 T. R. Birkhead, “Sperm Competition in keen to copulate, even with females that Birds,” Reviews of Reproduction 3 (1998): 123– were already inseminated, suggesting to 129.

16 Dædalus Spring 2007 the female’s storage structures, but in combination of sperm quality and quan- Promiscuity fact the process appears to be largely fe- tity. male driven. In response to new insemi- What is surprising is that there should nation, the female dung fly dumps the be any individuals at all with slow majority of previously stored sperm. sperm. If sperm competition is intense, In birds, last male sperm precedence one might expect selection for sperm occurs in a different way. Female birds velocity to be so strong that all males release sperm from their sperm-storage possess fast sperm. But it isn’t quite that structures continually over the several simple. Dominant cockerels have prefer- days they are ovulating (typically each ential access to females (who want to egg is fertilized twenty-four hours before copulate with them) and, as a result, can it is laid). If two inseminations are suf- achieve reasonable reproductive success ½ciently well separated in time, most of with low-velocity sperm. Subordinate the sperm from the ½rst insemination males, on the other hand, who might have been used by the time the second only rarely get a chance to copulate, have insemination occurs, and the second (or to make the most of any opportunity last) male ‘wins’ simply by having more and tend to have high-velocity sperm. sperm in the female’s reproductive tract Amazingly, a change in social status is at the time of fertilization. followed by a corresponding change in Sperm numbers are important and ex- sperm velocity. plain why, in species where sperm com- So far we have ignored the effect of petition is intense (and females highly females on male fertilization success. promiscuous), males tend to have rel- Are females really just passive conduits atively large testicles. Larger testicles for male gametes? This was the view make more sperm per unit time, and back in the 1970s, but it has slowly be- more sperm (larger ejaculates) outcom- come apparent that females play an pete smaller ones–all else being equal. important role in the way sperm per- Across much of the animal kingdom, in- form. The change in outlook was slow cluding butterflies, birds, amphibians, because it was remarkably dif½cult to reptiles, and mammals, relative testis establish unequivocally whether females size is an excellent predictor of the in- could influence fertilization. The pro- tensity of sperm competition. cess is referred to as ‘cryptic female All else is rarely equal, however, not choice’–cryptic because it takes place least in terms of the quality of sperm. out of sight inside the female’s repro- As well as favoring large numbers of ductive tract. sperm, promiscuity also favors high- Human reproductive biologists ½rst quality sperm. In species where females proposed the idea as long ago as the are promiscuous, sperm need to be fast 1940s, but since it lacked evidence, the and effective. In our studies of domes- idea slipped quietly into obscurity. With tic and feral fowl, in which sperm com- the birth of behavioral ecology, the idea petition is rife, faster-swimming sperm reemerged in the 1980s, but again was outcompete slower sperm–all else be- ignored, probably because researchers at ing equal.8 Paternity is decided by a

the Outcome of Sperm Competition in the Do- 8 T. R. Birkhead, J. G. Martinez, T. Burke, and mestic Fowl,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: D. P. Froman, “Sperm Mobility Determines Biological Sciences 266 (1999): 1759–1764.

Dædalus Spring 2007 17 Tim that time were still struggling to demon- conducted paternity tests on the chicks. Birkhead on strate precopulatory female choice and If the pattern of paternity was similar sex didn’t want to be distracted by the tech- across all ten hens there would be no nically much more dif½cult question of evidence for any female effect. But, in cryptic female choice. There was anoth- fact, each time we did the experiment, er problem. Most of those interested in a small number of females showed a pat- these questions were behavioral ecolo- tern of paternity very different from that gists, ½rst and foremost ½eld biologists of the others, suggesting that those par- with little knowledge or experience of ticular females preferred the sperm of what was going on inside the female re- one male over that of the other.9 How productive tract. Eventually, however, they do this remains a mystery–but we in the 1990s they started to devise inge- suspect that they must be able to recog- nious experiments to see whether fe- nize (physiologically) proteins on the males did have any control over whose surface of the sperm that either facilitate sperm fertilized their eggs. or hamper (unconsciously, of course) The ½rst of these studies looked at the sperm’s progress through the ovi- whether females showed any preference duct. for the sperm of close relatives (broth- Because sperm competition is so in- ers) or that of nonrelatives, on the as- tense in domestic fowl (and in their wild sumption that females would want to ancestor, the red jungle fowl), females avoid inbreeding. But these investiga- have additional ways to control paterni- tions were dif½cult to design and to exe- ty. Females prefer to be inseminated by cute: to be certain that a female effect the dominant cockerel. Subordinate had occurred researchers had to be ab- males, however, do not accept celibacy solutely sure they had eliminated, or lightly, and seduce females whenever controlled for, all possible male effects. the dominant male is absent. On being An example will make this clearer. Imag- approached by a subordinate male, fe- ine we were unaware of the differences males typically run away, but sometimes in sperm quality in the domestic fowl a subordinate male will capture a hen, mentioned earlier. We might inseminate holding her by the feathers on her nape. hens with a mixture comprising equal When this happens, the female shrieks numbers of sperm from two cockerels for help, uttering a distinctive distress and ½nd that one male fertilized most of call that causes the dominant male to the eggs. Super½cially it would appear intervene hurriedly. We tested the ef½- that all females ‘preferred’ the sperm of cacy of this distress call by playing re- one of the males (i.e., a female effect), cordings of it: If the dominant male when in fact it could have been due to a was within earshot, he never failed to male effect–sperm quality. respond. If, however, the dominant was My colleagues and I designed an ex- too far away, a subordinate could coerce periment to examine whether female a female into copulation and successful- fowl could discriminate between the ly inseminate her. When this occurs, the sperm of different males. We made a female has one last trick up her sleeve: sperm mixture with equal numbers of live sperm from each of two males 9 T. R. Birkhead, N. Chaline, J. D. Biggins, and then inseminated an appropriate T. A. Burke, and T. Pizzari, ”Nontransitivity amount into each of ten females. We of Paternity in a Bird,” Evolution 58 (2004): collected and hatched the eggs, and 416–420.

18 Dædalus Spring 2007 she can eject the unwanted sperm. Even the previous winter when they foraged Promiscuity before the subordinate has dismounted together in small mixed-sex flocks. By from the female’s back, she often squirts providing the ½rst clear evidence that out most of his ejaculate.10 females might bene½t from their choice of extrapair copulation partner, Susan Most of what I have discussed so far Smith’s study launched a revolution in has been concerned with the mecha- behavioral ecology. Within a short time nisms of sperm competition: how sperm other researchers were reporting females compete, how females bias paternity, of ‘their’ species looking for promiscu- and how sperm and the female repro- ous copulations, with the implication ductive tract interact. Traditionally, that doing so had an evolutionary bene- however, behavioral ecologists have fo- ½t.11 cused on questions relating to the adap- What did females stand to gain? There tive signi½cance of particular behaviors were two possibilities: direct bene½ts or anatomical traits, asking how they for themselves or indirect (genetic) ben- enhance an individual’s reproductive e½ts for their offspring. A direct bene½t success. might be food–females might trade sex The question of whether promiscuity for food. Some birds and insects, for ex- is adaptive for males seemed at one time ample, perform courtship feeding, in self-evident: more copulations meant which males present females with a pre- more offspring, as in Bateman’s fruit-fly copulatory gift of some sort. Another di- study. It was more dif½cult to show that rect bene½t might be paternal care–the this was true in nature, but the develop- females of some species trade sex for ment of molecular paternity tests during assistance in raising offspring. By ‘sex’ the mid-1980s made such ½eld studies here, I mean paternity and increased more tractable. Based on such paternity reproductive success for the extra-pair analyses, the few suf½ciently detailed male. studies that have been conducted (main- Direct bene½ts may also accrue from ly on birds) con½rm that male promiscu- sperm itself. For many insect species ity pays. It need not have done; any ben- that lay large numbers of eggs, the pos- e½ts of extrapair paternity could easily sibility of a female running out of sperm have been offset by cuckoldry. is real. To avoid this they remate and re- The one major unanswered question plenish their sperm supplies at regular is whether promiscuity is adaptive for intervals. It would be too risky to wait females. As mentioned earlier, females until all their stored sperm has been were initially ignored. But then in the used before remating, so females may mid-1980s, in a study of a small North routinely carry the sperm from different American bird, the black-capped chick- males. So, for many insects, a plentiful adee, Susan Smith noticed that females supply of sperm may be the main bene- went looking for extrapair copulations. ½t of copulating with several different Not only that, they seemed to go upmar- males. ket–seeking out males that were social- ly dominant to their partner–during 11 S. A. Smith, “Extra-Pair Copulations in Black-Capped Chickadees: The Role of the Fe- male,” Behaviour 107 (1988): 15–23; B. Kempe- 10 T. Pizzari and T. R. Birkhead, “Female Fowl naers et al., “Extra-Pair Paternity Results from Eject Sperm of Subdominant Males,” Nature, Female Preference for High Quality Males in London 405 (2000): 787–789. the Blue Tit,” Nature 357 (1992): 494–496.

Dædalus Spring 2007 19 Tim For most other animals, females do which males congregate to display. Fe- Birkhead on not seem to acquire any direct bene½ts males visit the lek, choose a partner, sex from being promiscuous. That leaves copulate, and then leave to rear their genetic bene½ts, but the concept of ge- offspring entirely alone. There are (ap- netic bene½ts has a number of theoreti- parently) no direct bene½ts from her cal problems. Let’s start by considering choice of male, only genetic ones, since the main potential genetic bene½ts. The all a male provides are sperm. The males ½rst possibility is that some males are of lekking species are often elaborately genetically superior (that is, they possess adorned, like birds of paradise, because genes that confer greater longevity or sexual selection is intense and a few reproductive success) compared to oth- males fertilize the majority of females. ers and females compete for them. Some A similar situation involving genetic females get to pair with superior males, bene½ts–in which females, like Susan but some have little choice but to accept Smith’s chickadees, seek extrapair cop- a mediocre or inferior male in order to ulations–also occurs among socially reproduce at all. In those cases females monogamous birds.13 can modify their initial choice of partner Here is the resolution to the lek para- by seeking extrapair copulations with a dox: if the expression of sexually select- genetically superior male. ed traits is dependent on an animal’s By doing so it is assumed that females body condition or health, as seems to will produce genetically superior sons. be the case (individuals in good condi- It has also been presumed that females tion produce bigger and better displays), identify these genetically superior males and if there are large numbers of genes from their sexually selected displays– influencing condition, then mutations large tails, flashy colors, wonderful song. in condition may arise just as quickly The theoretical snag is that if all females as they are eroded through selection by have their offspring fathered by these females. The theory relating to this reso- superior males the variation in genetic lution of the lek paradox remains to be quality would be quickly used up. An fully tested, but the results so far are en- analogy will make this clearer: if an ani- couraging. mal breeder selects for a trait such as A second possible advantage to pro- body size in cattle, the ½rst few genera- miscuity is genetic compatibility– tions will exhibit a rapid increase in size, whether your genes mesh well with but as time goes on increases in size will those of your partner. A good genetic become less and less as the genetic varia- combination results in vigorous, healthy tion in size is used up. offspring; a bad one generates genetical- A possible solution to this erosion of ly defective offspring. A clear example genetic variation and the question of in humans is the Rhesus factor (Rh): a what maintains genetic diversity in sex- Rh-negative mother and a Rh-positive ually selected traits involves a somewhat father can result in hemolytic disease convoluted but nonetheless plausible ar- in the newborn (hdn). Another almost gument. It is referred to as ‘the paradox obvious example of genetic incompati- of the lek.’12 A lek is a breeding arena in

13 A. Johnsen, V. Andersen, C. Sunding, and 12 M. Kirkpatrick and M. J. Ryan, “The Evolu- J. T. Lifjeld, “Female Bluethroats Enhance Off- tion of Mating Preferences and the Paradox of spring Immunocompetence Through Extra-Pair the Lek,” Nature 350 (1991): 33–38. Copulations,” Nature 406 (2000): 296–299.

20 Dædalus Spring 2007 bility is inbreeding–something Darwin, Females in the breeding season are Promiscuity whose wife Emma was his cousin, won- primed for copulating, and may–as in dered might explain the sickly natures Geoff Parker’s dung flies–½nd it easier and early deaths of some of his children. to acquiesce rather than waste a lot of The problem with the genetic-compati- time and energy avoiding male atten- bility idea, however, is that it isn’t clear tion. Even if this is true, though, there how a male would signal his compatibil- are many other species where females ity (or otherwise) to a potential partner. are overtly promiscuous and produce On the other hand, he might not have broods or litters with multiple fathers– to. If females are routinely promiscuous, and where we still have no idea why. then they could let physiological mecha- nisms in their reproductive tract sort out I want to conclude with two addition- the compatible from the incompatible al points: genuine monogamy and hu- sperm–using the sperms’ surface pro- mans. There appears to be a small num- teins as their guide. ber of species in which females are usu- Despite several possible genetic ben- ally faithful to their partner. Seahorses e½ts to female promiscuity, the evidence (several species of them) provide the is far from compelling. Some published classic example. Since it is the male sea- studies–probably a biased subset–pro- horse that cares for the eggs inside his vide support for the idea of genetic ben- brood pouch (transferred there by an e½ts, but many studies fail to detect any egg tube from the female), and since effect at all. To date, we simply do not the eggs are fertilized as they go into the know why the females of many species brood pouch (or inside it), the opportu- apparently seek copulations with ad- nity for another male to introduce his ditional males. There is an interesting sperm is extremely limited. The one sea- twist to this: Susan Smith’s study horse-paternity study con½rms that all launched a new wave of research that the offspring in a single brood have but showed that female birds in particular a single father. As predicted, male sea- sought extra copulation partners. As horses also have very small testes–so often occurs in science, enthusiasm for small, in fact, that they are extremely this particular idea probably led to a dif½cult to ½nd. With no sperm compe- publication bias, overemphasizing how tition and complete control over where active females were in initiating promis- their sperm go, males can afford to have cuous matings. With hindsight, it now tiny testes producing a small number seems that the evidence for female ini- of sperm. A rather different form of mo- tiative is limited.14 nogamy occurs in Hamadryas baboons: Where does that leave us? With birds, males are much larger than females and which is what I know most about, I won- ferociously bully females into ½delity. der whether, in those species that typi- Among birds, there is a handful of spe- cally have around 10 to 15 percent extra- cies, including the mute swan, where no pair paternity, extrapair paternity may extrapair paternity has been detected, simply be accidental and not adaptive. but the reasons for this are currently un- known. 14 D. F. Westneat and I. R. K. Stewart, “Extra- Finally, what about sperm competition Pair Paternity in Birds: Causes, Correlates and and cryptic female choice in humans? Conflict,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systemat- As one might expect, this is a topic close ics 34 (2003): 365–396. to the hearts of researchers and nonre-

Dædalus Spring 2007 21 Tim searchers alike, and while there has been tellectual pathway. The nuts and bolts Birkhead on a great deal of speculation there is very of reproduction were still poorly known sex little hard evidence. Obviously, some fe- at that time, which may have made it males are promiscuous, but the impor- dif½cult to imagine postcopulatory sex- tant question is whether female promis- ual selection. On the other hand Dar- cuity is adaptive or suf½ciently frequent win was no prude–he joked about the to result in the evolution of speci½c ad- barnacle’s enormous penis in a book aptations. While the level of extrapair he knew the public (and his wife and paternity might be a useful measure of daughter) wouldn’t read. My guess is promiscuity in birds and a good starting that he would say the same thing Thom- point for thinking about the evolution of as Henry Huxley did on having natural promiscuity, equivalent data for human selection explained to him: why didn’t societies are, I believe, much less inform- I think of that? ative. Cultural circumstances have so dramatically changed human sex lives that it is dif½cult to infer anything from contemporary data. The best indication of our inclination toward promiscuity is relative testis size. Compared with other primates, human testes are neither as large as those of the highly promiscuous chimpanzees, nor as small as those of the monogamous goril- la, suggesting that humans have evolved to cope with only a moderate degree of female promiscuity. Other morphologi- cal features further suggest that human males are poorly adapted to sperm com- petition: the rate of sperm production is relatively low, and ejaculate quality is abysmal, with many dead or deformed sperm. On the other hand, we do have a long penis for our body size (an indica- tor of sperm competition in some other animal groups–longer is better for plac- ing sperm closer to the eggs). Evolution- ary psychologists are also persuaded of the ubiquity of sperm competition by our powerful sexual jealousy and obses- sion with paternity, but, despite this, my overall impression is that sperm compe- tition in humans has always been rela- tively modest. What would Darwin have made of all this? Despite knowing, but not writing, about female promiscuity, Darwin never allowed himself to venture down this in-

22 Dædalus Spring 2007 Joan Roughgarden

Challenging Darwin’s theory of sexual selection

May a biologist in these polarized (“almost all,” “rarest of exceptions”), so times dare suggest that Darwin is a bit that, for all practical purposes, males are wrong about anything? Even worse, universally “passionate” and females does a biologist risk insult, ridicule, an- collectively “coy.” ger, and intimidation to suggest that To explain this claim, Darwin consid- Darwin is incorrect on a big issue? We ered the joint mechanisms of male-male have a test case before us. Darwin ap- competition and female choice. He en- pears completely mistaken in his theory visioned that males compete for access of sex roles, a subject called the ‘theory to females, while females choose superi- of sexual selection.’1 or males on the basis of success in male- In his 1871 book The Descent of Man, male competition and/or perceived and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin beauty. In effect, through their choice wrote: “Males of almost all animals have of mates, females breed their offspring stronger passions than females,” and to have their mates’ desirable traits, “the female . . . with the rarest of excep- “just as man can improve the breed of tions is less eager than the male . . . she his game-cocks by the selection of those is coy.”2 Notice that the exceptions are birds which are victorious in the cock- dismissed as empirically insigni½cant pit.” Another example: “Many female progenitors of the peacock must [have], Joan Roughgarden, a Fellow of the American by the continued preference of the most Academy since 1993, is professor of biological beautiful males, rendered the peacock sciences and geophysics at Stanford University. the most splendid of living birds.” From Her publications include “Theory of Population a masculinist perspective, acquisition Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology” (1979), of females is a just reward for victory in “Anolis Lizards of the Caribbean” (1995), “Evo- male-male combat. From a maternalist lution’s Rainbow” (2004), which won a Stone- perspective, the duty of females is to bed wall Prize for non½ction from the American Li- brary Association, and, most recently, “Evolution 1 J. Roughgarden, Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolution- Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People (Berke- ley: University of California Press, 2004). ary Biologist” (2006). 2 C. Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts in Relation to Sex, facsimile edition (Princeton, & Sciences N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1871).

Dædalus Spring 2007 23 Joan the victors, thus endowing their off- I refer to sexual selection today as a sys- Rough- spring with valuable traits. tem, meaning a set of logically intercon- garden on The Darwinian narrative of sex roles nected theoretical propositions with a sex is not some quaint anachronism. Restat- truth status independent of the facts ed in today’s biological jargon, the narra- they were originally intended to explain. tive is considered proven scienti½c fact. As contrary data appear, the theoretical The geneticist Jerry Coyne, at the Uni- propositions are updated. Thus the sys- versity of Chicago, declared: “Males, tem cannot be challenged and becomes, who can produce many offspring with in effect, tautological. only minimal investment, spread their By using the word system, I also echo genes most effectively by mating pro- the phrase “sex-gender system,” coined miscuously. . . . Female reproductive out- in 1974 by the anthropologist and gen- put is far more constrained by the met- der theorist Gayle Rubin.5 Rubin empha- abolic costs of producing eggs or off- sized how expectations flowing from spring, and thus a female’s interests are how a culture de½nes gender wind up served more by mate quality than by “the part of social life which is the locus mate quantity.”3 So the passionate male of the oppression of women, of sexual has become the promiscuous male, and minorities.” Although gender categories the coy female the constrained female. may not be constructed for the purpose Yet the spirit of this present-day narra- of oppressing others, they end up autho- tive is identical to Darwin’s of nearly 130 rizing such oppression by de½ning what years ago, and the sexual conflict that counts as a norm and what counts as an flows from attributing different objec- exception, thereby privileging one over tives to males and females remains the the other. starting point for sexual-selection theory In place of sexual selection, I propose today just as it did in Darwin’s time. social selection. It is equally extensive I have been foolhardy enough to sug- but differs point by point from sexual gest that this thoroughly entrenched selection. Social selection is selection theory of male-female relationships is for, and in the context of, the social in- biologically mistaken. The response to frastructure of a species within which my proposal offers a revealing commen- offspring are produced and reared. The tary on the willingness of evolutionary social strategies in the infrastructure biologists to face up to contrary evidence generally include cooperation as much and logic. Let us turn to the proposal and as–or more than–they do competition; then to the responses.4 and they revolve more around negotia- tion than ‘winning.’ Social selection, in my formulation, does not extend sexual 3 J. Coyne, “Charm Schools,” Times Literary selection but replaces it. Supplement, July 30, 2004. Ultimately, the evolutionary system of 4 The following exposition of the proposal is sex, gender, and sexuality that prevails condensed from a recent review, which should determines our worldview of nature it- be consulted for further detail and references self. Sexual selection’s view of nature to primary literature: J. Roughgarden, “Social emphasizes conflict, deceit, and dirty Selection vs. Sexual Selection: Comparison of Hypotheses,” in Daniel Kleinman and Jo Han- 5 Gayle Rubin, “A Contribution to the Critique delsman, eds., Controversies in Science and Tech- of the Political Economy of Sex and Gender,” nology, vol. 2, Genetics of Race and Gender (Madi- Dissemination 1 (1) (1974): 6–13; 1 (2) (1974): son: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007). 23–32.

24 Dædalus Spring 2007 gene pools. If this Darwinian picture of lection, a parent divides the material it Challenging nature is true, so be it. But is it true? places into eggs and sperm to maximize Darwin’s theory of the number of gametic contacts that pro- sexual selec- To begin with, sexual selection and so- duce viable zygotes. The number of ga- tion cial selection differ in their accounts of metic contacts increases as gametes be- the very origin of sexual reproduction come more numerous and form a large, and the sexes. dense cloud. The greatest number of Origin of sexual reproduction. Accord- viable zygotes is thus created when one ing to sexual selection, sexual reproduc- of the gametes is close to the desired zy- tion evolved from asexual reproduction gote size while the other is as small as as a mechanism to cleanse the gene pool possible. of deleterious mutations. According to Origin of whole-organism male/female bi- social selection, sexual reproduction nary. If a sexually reproducing species evolved from asexual reproduction to produces more than one type of gamete, maintain a diverse gene pool needed each individual of that species (at least for long-term population survival in an among multicellular organisms) com- ever-fluctuating environment. monly makes both male and female Origin of gametic male/female binary. gametes at the same time, or at different The difference in size between the sperm times, during its life–a condition known and the egg is the basis for de½ning male as hermaphrodism. Species in which an in- and female in a sexually reproducing dividual generates only one size of gam- species. Sexual selection imagines the ete are dioecious. In these species, one can protosperm and protoegg playing a game classify whole individuals as either male against each other. Initially, both the or female, depending on the size of the protosperm and protoegg are the same gametes an individual produces. Sexual size. But then the protosperm ‘cheats,’ selection takes a whole-organism binary becoming a little smaller so that more as the starting point and views hermaph- sperm can be produced with the leftover rodism as a special case arising in pecu- energy. This numerical advantage allows liar circumstances. Social selection, on the smaller sperm to outcompete the less the other hand, takes hermaphrodism numerous sperm of the original size. The as the starting point and sees dioecy as a protoegg responds by increasing its size, specialization for the ‘home delivery’ of restoring zygote viability to its original sperm. level. This compensating move is better than shrinking to try to match the small- The theories of sexual selection and so- er sperm; otherwise, the zygote would cial selection each tells its own central suffer a very deleterious double loss of narrative of male/female social dynam- investment. These responses of egg and ics. sperm to each other culminate in one Universal sex roles. According to sexual gamete–the protoegg–growing nearly selection, males and females conform as large as the zygote, and the other–the to near-universal templates: Darwin’s protosperm–becoming as tiny as possi- “passionate” male and “coy” female (or ble. in today’s jargon, the “promiscuous” In sexual selection, the distinction be- male and the “constrained” female). tween male and female gametes arises Though there are no general surveys of from a battle: the sexes are created as reproductive habits across all dioecious combatants. But according to social se- animal species, it is evident that these

Dædalus Spring 2007 25 Joan templates are, at best, unsubstantiated spring successfully reared. Sexual selec- Rough- and, as generalizations, apparently false. tion elevates one component of repro- garden on In insect species, for example, males duction, namely mating, into an end in sex are often as choosy as females. And in itself. Meanwhile, social selection views ½sh, surveys show that, of those species reproductive social behavior as compris- in which one or more parents care for ing an ‘offspring-rearing system.’ With- the eggs, the male is more likely than in this system, natural selection arises the female to be the care provider. Birds from differences in the number of off- often provide biparental care, whereas spring successfully reared, and particular among mammals the female usually sup- behaviors are understood by how they plies the care. contribute to building, or maintaining, It is hard, moreover, to distinguish the social infrastructure within which ‘care’ from ‘control.’ Often, the parent offspring are reared. The principal male- who is caring for the eggs or young female social dynamic is to determine might actually be more concerned with bargains and to exchange side-payments the control of the young than in the pro- that establish control over offspring and vision of care for them. manage the offspring-rearing social in- No general pattern has actually been frastructure. demonstrated about male/female sex Objective of female mate choice. Accord- roles throughout the animal kingdom, ing to sexual selection, females select although the stereotypes that Darwin mates with the goal of endowing their enunciated are widely accepted. Social own sons with the traits they ½nd attrac- selection believes that no necessary and tive in their mates. Females thus ensure universal sex roles exist; what each sex that their own sons are destined to suc- does is subject to negotiation in local cir- ceed in the mating game–a rationale cumstances. Any statistical regularity called the ‘sexy son hypothesis.’ In fact, in sex roles may reflect a statistical fre- data are scanty that female choice is quency of circumstance, together with motivated more by indirect future ge- what constitutes a best bargain in such netic bene½ts than by direct present-day circumstances. Equally, if local ecology ecological bene½ts. In reality, females shows statistical regularities, so will the choose males who provide food and/or sex roles that emerge in those ecologies. protection, rendering the importance of Purpose of reproductive social behavior. genes moot. The sexual-selection narrative explains Under social selection, a female choos- what happens within a reproductive so- es mates based on maximizing the num- cial system primarily in terms of ‘mat- ber of young she can successfully pro- ing.’ Within a mating-based system, nat- duce and rear–with help from her mates ural selection arises from differences in and from the social infrastructure. The ‘mating success,’ and particular behav- criterion for female choice is an expecta- iors are understood by how they con- tion of direct bene½ts from a male dis- tribute to attaining plentiful mating op- counted by the probability that the male portunities. Females are regarded as a will renege on, or somehow be prevent- ‘limiting resource’ for males, and males ed from, delivering those bene½ts. Thus, compete for access to, and control of, a premium will be placed on the compat- mating opportunities with females. ibility and health of the prospective part- In fact, evolution does not depend on ner. Health is important not as an indica- mating as such but on the number of off- tor of ‘good genes’ but as a sign of com-

26 Dædalus Spring 2007 petency to deliver promised direct bene- sexual-selection narrative. As a result, Challenging ½ts. in sexual selection, male ½tness has Darwin’s theory of Male genetic quality. According to sex- come to be de½ned primarily in terms sexual selec- ual selection, males can be ranked in a of the number of matings, or ‘mating tion hierarchy of genetic quality. In addition success,’ and female ½tness in terms of to the good genes that females are sup- egg production, or ‘fecundity.’ In this posedly seeking in their mates, they aim way, males and females are convention- to avoid bad genes. But if, generation ally assumed to be governed by differ- after generation, female choice weeds ent de½nitions of evolutionary ½tness. out males with bad genes, then eventu- The Bateman experiments are a cor- ally no bad genes should remain, which nerstone of sexual selection and have presents an internal contradiction in the been widely cited in papers and text- logic of sexual selection. Therefore, sex- books. Over the last ½ve years, however, ual selection is logically compelled to many critiques have revisited the 1948 concoct genetic schemes, typically in- Bateman paper and found that Bateman volving high mutation rates spanning overstated his results. Sexual-selection polygenic loci, to replenish the supply advocates have quoted selectively from of bad genes that are being continually what Bateman did report and have eliminated by female choice. These ad- sometimes even attributed to Bateman ditional schemes have never been tested quotations that they made up out of thin much less veri½ed. air. In social selection, Bateman’s princi- Social selection, in contrast, states ple is nonexistent. Instead, both males no hierarchy of genetic quality among and females share the same de½nition of males exists. If genes matter at all to fe- ½tness, namely, number of offspring suc- male choice, females are choosing for cessfully reared. genetic compatibility, and not overall genetic quality. All males are equivalent Social selection departs from sexual in genetic quality, excepting a rare frac- selection in the way it models behavior tion that obviously contain deleterious in reproductive systems. Sexual selec- mutations and are present in a muta- tion relies on competitive evolutionary tion-selection balance (1 in 10^6). game theory, considering particular be- Bateman’s principle. In 1948, the English haviors as strategies. The prisoner’s di- geneticist Angus Bateman published lab- lemma game is an oft-cited example in oratory experiments with Drosophila that which the strategies of play are either to were presented as con½rming Darwin’s cooperate or to defect. The ‘payoff ma- theory of sexual selection.6 Bateman re- trix’ tabulates the payoff to each player ported that a male’s “fertility is seldom for all combinations of these strategies. likely to be limited by sperm production The solution to the game is an evolution- but rather by the number of insemina- ary stable strategy (ess): a combination tions or the number of females available of strategies for both players such that a to him.” Similarly, he claimed to have mutant allele for some other combina- found in his flies an “undiscriminating tion cannot increase when rare. eagerness in males and discriminating This is a single-tier approach in the passivity in females” in accord with the sense that particular behaviors are them- selves viewed directly as evolutionary 6 A. J. Bateman, “Intrasexual Selection in Dro- strategies. The problem is that it re- sophila,” Heredity 2 (1948): 349–368. quires thinking of particular behaviors

Dædalus Spring 2007 27 Joan as having a genetic basis, e.g., the gene tion very differently from the way sexual Rough- garden ‘for’ cooperating, for defecting, for shy- selection views them. on ness, for aggressiveness, etc. Behaviors Parental investment. According to sexu- sex rarely have much direct genetic basis. al selection, the female has a higher pa- But the single-tier approach forces nar- rental investment than the male because ratives of genetic determinism. the egg is bigger than the sperm. The Social selection approaches the model- sperm are considered ‘cheap’ and the ing of social behavior as a two-tier prob- egg expensive. This initial difference is lem: development on one tier, evolution then extrapolated to explain an entire on another. Particular behaviors develop suite of female and male behaviors, such as animals interact with one another, as male promiscuity and female coyness. similar to how morphological structures Social selection, on the other hand, develop through cell-cell contact during sees male and female parental invest- embryogenesis. A social system is a ‘be- ments as more or less the same initial- havioral tissue’: a system of phenotypes ly. An ejaculate might typically contain produced through interactive develop- 10^6 sperm while an egg is typically 10^6 ment. times as large as a sperm. So the size of In social selection, the developmental the ejaculate and egg are often about dynamics employ both cooperative and the same order of magnitude. Hence, competitive game theory. Cooperative male and female sex roles emerge not solutions mostly occur when parties play as a matter of logical necessity from with coordinated tactics and with the gamete size, but from the local context. perception of shared goals made possi- Sexual conflict. The sexual-selection ble through animal friendships. Even narrative regards a male and female as though a seemingly cooperative out- always fundamentally in conflict and come may also result from competitive male-female cooperation as a possible behavior, as in a standoff between weary (and unlikely) secondary development. combatants, the emphasis in social se- According to social selection, however, lection is on attaining cooperative out- male and female mates begin with a co- comes through behavior that is explicit- operative relationship because they have ly cooperative, involving coordinated ac- committed themselves to a common tivities in pursuit of a shared goal. Social ‘bank account’ of evolutionary success. selection also envisions an evolutionary Their offspring represent indivisible tier in which the payoff matrices and earnings. Hurting the other hurts one- rules of play evolve based on traditional self, and helping the other helps oneself, competitive evolutionary game theory. in terms of number of offspring success- Particular social behaviors evolve indi- fully reared. As such, conflict develops rectly as emergent properties from what- only secondarily if a division of labor ever payoff matrices and rules of play cannot be successfully negotiated. have themselves evolved. Thus, evolution Male promiscuity. According to sexual produces the payoff matrix and rules of selection, males are naturally and uni- play, which then allow development to versally promiscuous, reflecting the low produce particular behaviors within the parental investment of a sperm com- social infrastructure. pared to an egg. In social selection, male promiscuity is a strategy of last resort Social selection thus accounts for cer- that occurs when males are excluded tain characteristics of sexual reproduc- from control of offspring rearing.

28 Dædalus Spring 2007 Monogamy. In sexual-selection theo- miscuity, whereas epms are described as Challenging ry, monogamy is a violation of the basic ‘sexual parasitism.’ Indeed, sexual selec- Darwin’s theory of dictate that males should be promiscu- tion refers to the females who deposit sexual selec- ous. Therefore, sexual selection explains eggs in a neighbor’s nest as ‘brood para- tion away the instances of monogamous-pair sites.’ bonds, including those of most birds and For social selection, extrapair parent- some mammals, as entrapment of males age is a system of genetic side-payments by females or as a default when no other that stabilizes the social arrangement mates are available. of economic monogamy when individ- Social selection distinguishes two dis- uals differ asymmetrically in their capac- tinct forms of monogamy: economic ities to contribute to rearing offspring. monogamy, an agreement to carry out Distributed parentage also spreads the the work of rearing offspring in teams risk of nest mortality across a network of one male and one female, and genet- of nests, acting as a social-insurance pol- ic monogamy, an agreement not to mate icy. outside the pair bond. Most monogamy Secondary sexual characteristics. Accord- is economic monogamy, and nothing ing to sexual selection, females choose requires economic monogamy and ge- mates on the basis of secondary sexual netic monogamy to coincide. In social characteristics like the peacock’s tail and selection, economic monogamy emerges the stag’s antlers so that their own sons in ecological situations where the work will be similarly attractive and success- of rearing offspring is most ef½ciently ful at mating. The ‘beauty’ of a male’s done in male-female teams rather than ornaments is how she apprehends his by solitary individuals or in teams of good genes; they are, in effect, ‘condi- more than two individuals. tion indicators’ of genetic quality. Extrapair parentage. Extrapair paterni- Social selection sees ornaments, both ty (epp) occurs when a male sires young male and female, differently: they are in a nest other than the one he is work- ‘admission tickets’ to power-holding ing on with a female; extrapair mater- cliques that control the resources for nity (epm) occurs when a female depos- successful rearing of offspring, including its eggs in a nest other than the one she the opportunity for mating, safety of the is working on with a male. Both epps young from predation risk, and access and epms result in extrapair parentage. of the young to food. Accordingly, a pea- Sexual selection’s primary literature de- cock’s tail, a rooster’s comb, etc., facili- scribes extrapair parentage as ‘cheating’ tate male-male interactions, and females on the pair bond: the male is said to be are indifferent to them. ‘cuckolded’; offspring of extrapair par- Admission tickets are expensive be- entage are said to be ‘illegitimate’; and cause the advantages to membership in females who do not participate in extra- a clique reside in the power of monop- pair copulations are said to be ‘faithful.’ oly, which is diluted when membership This judgmental terminology reflects is expanded. By requiring a high price of the failure to distinguish economic from admission, the monopolistic coalition is genetic monogamy, and amounts to ap- kept exclusive, maximizing the bene½ts plying a contemporary de½nition of to those within. Ornamental admission Western marriage to animals. Further- tickets belong to a class of traits called more, epps are assumed to reflect the ‘social-inclusionary traits’ that are need- inevitable outcome of basic male pro- ed to participate in the social infrastruc-

Dædalus Spring 2007 29 Joan ture within which offspring are reared. in short supply for mating relative to fe- Rough- garden Other traits include those needed for males. In this situation, sexual selection on communication and cognition within claims that females compete with one sex the social infrastructure. Not possessing another for access to males and become such traits, or not participating in social- the showy sex, whereas the male re- inclusionary behaviors, is reproductively mains drab, thus reversing the putative lethal. peacock story. This account, even if it The strong natural selection imposed were true, cannot be an explanation of by the requirement of membership in sex-role reversal–it is merely a redescrip- power-holding cliques can produce the tion of the phenomenon. Sexual selec- very fast evolution, including possibly tion does not say why the male in these runaway evolution, that has long been species should happen to be the sex pro- the signature of sexual selection. Admis- viding the higher parental investment. sion tickets are not the only way to enter Moreover, the mere existence of sex- power-holding cliques, however. Con- role-reversed species challenges a basic ceivably, individuals might be recruited tenet of sexual selection–that sex roles to join, and the admission ticket waived, can be traced to gamete size–because if they supply capabilities or assets val- sex-role-reversed males, like all other ued by the other members. But if the males, produce tiny sperm. Thus, gam- sole bene½t from membership is monop- ete size does not entail sex role. olistic, then membership should require Reversed sex roles are not especially an expensive ticket. problematic for social selection, because sex roles are always negotiated in local Two phenomena in particular present ecological situations anyway. It is in a challenges to sexual selection. male’s interest to secure some control Sexual monomorphism. Species in which of the eggs, thereby retaining some con- males and females are identical in ap- trol of his evolutionary destiny. In some pearance pose a direct contraction to ecological circumstances, doing so may Darwinian templates, which say males mean the male winds up with more pa- should be showy and females drab. Dar- rental responsibility than the female win dismissed these species as having does. females that lack an aesthetic sense. In social-selection theory, sexual mono- Social selection provides peripheral morphism reflects the absence of same- narratives for diversity in gender expres- sex power-holding cliques whose mem- sion and sexuality. bership requires admission tickets. This Gender multiplicity. Many species have should occur in ecological situations more than one type of male and female, where the most economically ef½cient so that comparing the males to just one coalition is the coalition of the whole. template and the females to another is Sex-role reversal. Species in which the impossible. I call each such template a male is drab and the female showy, ‘gender.’ In many species of ½sh, lizards, the reverse of the peacock/peahen com- and birds, for example, one male gender parison, also contradict the Darwinian has a large body size at reproductive age ‘norm.’ In sex-role-reversed species, the but must survive several years to attain male provides more parental investment that size, thereby suffering a high cumu- than the female does by carrying and/ lative risk of mortality. But once large, or tending the eggs–so the males are such a male can command a territory

30 Dædalus Spring 2007 and defend eggs laid in it. Another gen- male typi½es ‘maleness’ in the species Challenging der of males reaches reproductive age more than the large male does; and the Darwin’s theory of sooner, does not defend territories, and small males often band together in the sexual selec- fertilizes eggs that are in the territories open to chase away the large male and tion defended by large males. These species fertilize eggs in the territory, rather than exhibit two male and one female gen- entering singly and stealthily. ders. Social selection, in contrast, extends A three-male pattern is observed in economic theory for the elemental one- some ½sh and birds, where the large male-one-female economic team to larg- male solicits the help of a medium-sized er teams with more ‘social niches.’ A re- male. The pair together maintains the productive social group subsumes the territory and participates jointly in concept of a ‘family,’ which is a repro- courtship with females. The large male ductive social group whose members allows the medium male to fertilize happen to be genetically related. In a some of the eggs in the territory. A third reproductive social group, some mem- type–the small male–meanwhile re- bers are ‘prezygotic helpers’–animals mains as a competitor to the large- and that assist in bringing about courtship medium-sized males, fertilizing some and mating–together with ‘postzygotic of their eggs in spite of their attempts helpers’–members who remain at the to chase him away. nest to help rear the offspring that have These species with multiple male and already been born. Those not included female genders all defy any attempt to in the reproductive social group’s coali- apply sexual-selection theory directly tion form other arrangements to oppose because that theory posits only one tem- it, either singly or in coalitions of their plate each for male and for female ap- own. pearance and behavior. As a result, sexu- In this conceptualization, coalitions al selection theory has been augmented may form containing medium-sized with additional narratives to account for males who assist in recruiting females to more than one gender per sex. the nests of the large males who control The problem with sexual selection, eggs by means of controlling territory. A though, is that it takes the large terri- large-male/medium-male coalition may tory-holding male gender as the refer- then be opposed by a small-male coali- ence male, while considering the other tion that competes to control the eggs. genders of males as ‘alternative mating The complex social dynamics for these strategies’ and de½ning them as ‘sexu- scenarios can be approached with coop- al parasites.’ A pejorative language mas- erative game theory, which deals with querades as description throughout the formation and dissolution of coali- these peripheral narratives of sexual se- tions and with the distribution of the lection. Sexual selection terms the small team’s payoff among its members. non-territory-holding male a ‘sneaker’ Feminine males. In species with multi- who ‘steals’ copulations that rightfully ple male genders, one gender often has belong to the territory-holding male. It colors or markings somewhat resem- depicts the sneaker as stealthily entering bling those of females. In popular writ- the large male’s territory through a back ing, I have termed these males ‘feminine door. males.’ In sexual selection, feminine In fact, small males are often more nu- males are called ‘female mimics’–sex- merous than large males, so the small ual parasites who steal the reproductive

Dædalus Spring 2007 31 Joan investment of territory-holding males males than by feminine females. Such Rough- through deceit. A female mimic is dis- conversations might involve establish- garden on guised as a female to fool the territory- ing and defending territories in species sex holding male into allowing him to enter where these tasks are sometimes carried the territory-holding male’s harem and out by females. Masculine females ap- mate with his females. pear underreported because feminine This story has not been demonstrated. males draw more sensational attention. The capacity of a feminine male to fool Homosexuality. Biologists are just now a territory-holding male into ‘thinking’ starting to appreciate the extent of ho- it is a female implausibly requires gulli- mosexuality as a natural part of the so- bility by the territory-holding male as cial systems of animals in their native well as craftiness by the feminine male. habitats. Homosexual behavior is now In fact, the territory-holding male is of- documented in the primary literature ten a visual predator with well-honed for over three hundred species of verte- skills at sizing up and identifying prey brates, not to mention invertebrates; from a distance; he is not likely to be and many cases are reported in news fooled by a feminine male who only im- media, popular magazines, and wildlife, perfectly resembles a female. Instead, agricultural, or hobbyist sources. In the courtship between the territory- some species, homosexuality is mostly holding male and the feminine male is between males; in others, mostly be- perhaps best thought of as a job inter- tween females; and in still others, both. view prior to joining the team, rather In some, homosexuality is relatively un- than an elaborate deception. common, occurring in about 10 percent According to social selection, mark- of matings; and in others it is as com- ings and colors on animals represent mon as heterosexual matings, account- ‘body English’–how animals tell one ing for 50 percent of all matings. another what their social role is, what Sexual selection explains homosex- their intentions are, and what activities uality as an inadvertent mistake, as de- they promise to perform. Feminine ceit, or as a deleterious trait maintained males are simply participating in a con- through peculiar population-genetic versation on topics and with words used mechanisms that promote the persist- more frequently by females than by mas- ence of bad genes. A typical deceit narra- culine males. tive postulates that a small male sneaks Masculine females. In sexual selection, into the territory of a large male, tires masculine females are discussed under the large male by acquiescing to homo- the rubric of ‘female ornaments’–hang- sexual copulation, and then proceeds to ing skin flaps (wattles), colored patches mate with the females in the large male’s of feathers, antlers, and so forth–usual- harem. This behavioral narrative credits ly considered male ornaments. Darwin homosexual behavior as adaptive to the dismissed out-of-place ornaments as small participant, but views it as exploi- male traits accidentally expressed in fe- tation–the gay animal exploits the males–a developmental error. Accord- straight animal. ing to social selection, however, mascu- Meanwhile, population-genetic narra- line females are simply the reverse of tives of homosexuality consistently por- feminine males, namely, a female using tray homosexuality as a genetic defect body English to converse on topics and or a maladaptive disease maintained by with words used more frequently by peculiar genetic schemes, such as sexual-

32 Dædalus Spring 2007 ly antagonistic selection, in which the nation that underlies effectiveness at Challenging genes that cause homosexuality decrease raising offspring in the context of a hu- Darwin’s theory of ½tness in one sex but are maintained in man social infrastructure. sexual selec- the population because they increase Human brain. Sexual selection posits tion ½tness in the other sex. These approach- the human brain as a counterpart of the es attempt to encode a homophobic nar- peacock’s tail, an ornament used by men rative of homosexuality as deleterious to attract women. One imagines a man and pathological into the hypothesis using his big brain to compose lovely structure of evolutionary biology, and sonnets to woo his mate. The problem uncritically ignore the many alternative then is to explain why women have adaptive hypotheses for homosexuality brains. Is a woman’s brain a ‘female or- in the behavioral literature. nament,’ as out of place in a woman as According to social selection, not only a gaudy tail on a peahen? Sexual selec- is homosexuality natural and adaptive, tion postulates that females use their but its explanatory narrative focuses on brains to appreciate the brains of males positive contributions to both parties. –only big-brained women are turned Homosexuality is grouped with many on by the sonnets of big-brained men. other social behaviors involving physi- Social selection, on the other hand, cal intimacy, such as mutual grooming, views the human brain as a social-inclu- mutual preening, sleeping together, rub- sionary trait, a trait needed to partici- bing tongues together, and even mak- pate in the social infrastructure within ing interlocking calls and other vocali- which offspring are reared. This trait zations. These behaviors allow two ani- is equally necessary in both men and mals to work together as a team, to co- women because both share the work of ordinate their actions so they make rearing offspring. moves simultaneously. Furthermore, these behaviors allow animals a tactile One might have anticipated that evo- sense of each other’s welfare. Since, in lutionary biologists would react with social selection, the outcomes of cooper- glee to an alternative theory to sexual ative game theory are realized through selection. After all, challenges to the the- team play and perception of team wel- ory of relativity, or to the theoretical ba- fare, homosexuality is one of the physi- sis of gravity, elicit calls on Congress to cally intimate behaviors between ani- fund expensive experimental facilities mals that enable team play. lest billiard balls suddenly change trajec- tories or gravity suddenly evaporate. If How might one apply these contrast- sexual selection is wrong, then surely we ing theories to the human case? need to get the matter right lest sex itself Human attractiveness. If the theory of disappear. This threat to our personal sexual selection applies to humans, security seems grave enough to usher in women are supposed to ½nd handsome a bonanza of funding so that evolution- men who display traits indicating their ary biology might champion the noble genetic quality. Conversely, men are sup- mission of making the world safe for posed to be promiscuous. According sex. to social selection, males and females But no, rather than seizing the choose each other equally, with the cri- research opportunity that an alterna- terion for both being compatibility of tive to sexual selection provides, evo- circumstance, temperament, and incli- lutionary biologists have, for the most

Dædalus Spring 2007 33 Joan part, tried to discredit me personally ly on the exceptions.” In fact, no one Rough- as biased. Even before my book Evolu- knows how many species conform to garden on tion’s Rainbow was published, the edito- Darwinian sex-role templates, and many sex rial staff of Nature in 2003 encouraged thousands do not, as I have already dis- a young journalist, Virginia Gewin, to cussed. Coyne accuses me of being an- write: “Some scientists privately won- thropomorphic but then goes on himself der if–whether she likes to admit it or to illustrate sexual-selection theory with not–Roughgarden’s own experiences a human example: “The Guinness Book of social exclusion have biased her view of Records awards the laurels for repro- of the natural world.”7 When the book ductive output to a Moroccan emperor appeared in 2004, Alison Jolly’s review who sired more than 900 offspring. The in Science identi½ed me as a “transsexu- female record–though in some ways al professor” in the second sentence.8 more remarkable–is a mere sixty-nine.” Then Sarah Hrdy’s review in Nature Michael Ruse, a philosopher who has continued with, “This evolutionary written books advocating Darwinism, biologist becomes a woman, and only continued in the Toronto Globe and Mail. then do the problems occur to her.”9 He dismisses Evolution’s Rainbow as a A month later, Robin Dunbar ridiculed “cryptic autobiography” and “polemic” my book in Trends in Ecology and Evolu- against sexual-selection theory directed tion (tree): “Readers of tree will no to campus audiences in “areas like cul- doubt be pleased to know that sexual tural studies that are big into . . . the he- selection is dead so they can now get gemony of heterosexism and all that on with research into more useful top- sort of thing.”11 Ruse also plays the ics.”10 Dunbar concludes with the ad- transsexual card, excusing himself by monition, “It is almost impossible to re- saying, “Normally, one would not start tain a sense of dispassionate objectivity discussing a person’s thesis by talking when you see yourself as an object of about the person herself, but in this your own research.” Dunbar is happily case it is both legitimate and necessary.” unaware that this applies to him as well. He goes on to argue that the concept of Jerry Coyne followed up in the Times gender cannot be widened to include Literary Supplement. After outing my for- animals because a bullfrog could never mer name in the second sentence of his say, “I was a man trapped in a woman’s review, he charges that my “laundry list body.” Ruse objects to theorizing that is biased. She ignores the much larger homosexuality in animals evolved to number of species that do conform to promote bonds because this cannot ex- sexual selection theory, focusing entire- plain human “bathhouse culture.” The gold medal for insult goes to a 7 V. Gewin, “Joan Roughgarden Pro½le: A Plea Peter Conrad writing in a U.K. Sunday for Diversity,” Nature 422 (2003): 368–369. newspaper, The Observer, Guardian Un- limited. He declares Evolution’s Rainbow 8 A. Jolly, “The Wide Spectrum of Sex and Gender,” Science 304 (2004): 965–966. to be a “practical joke,” refers to San Francisco as “frisky,” and disparages 9 S. Hrdy, “Sexual Diversity and the Gender my “strange allegorical surname” by Agenda,” Nature 429 (2004): 19–21.

10 R. Dunbar, “Is Sexual Selection Dead?” 11 M. Ruse, “Why Not a Third Sex? And a Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19 (2004): 289– Fourth, and . . . ” Toronto Globe and Mail, July 290. 10, 2004.

34 Dædalus Spring 2007 claiming my life consists of “tending her tion theory,” from Kate Lessells of the Challenging mutated physique as if it were a rough Netherlands Institute of Ecology, and Darwin’s theory of garden that has now been weeded and “sexual selection theory . . . happily in- sexual selec- manicured into femininity.”12 cludes all of the points Roughgarden et tion Another angry defense of sexual selec- al. try and make,” from David Shuker at tion was broadcast by Michael Ghiselin the University of Edinburgh, to “many in the magazine California Wild. Ghiselin people felt that this was completely claims a previous article of mine in the shoddy science and poor scholarship, all same magazine “gives no indication of motivated by a personal agenda,” from the author’s ulterior motivations for Troy Day at Queens University in Can- writing it.”13 He proceeds to out me as ada.16 Put together, these comments someone who “at age 51 . . . had himself claim at once that social selection is part transformed into Joan Roughgarden” of sexual selection and also bad schol- and dismisses Evolution’s Rainbow as “a arship, a position sexual selectionists work of self-justi½cation.” Meanwhile, should ½nd discomforting. Giselin privileges himself as an “honest Sexual selectionists also attempt to in- seeker after truth” who does not “want timidate by noting I have been the “tar- to see the issues misrepresented.” get” of critiques “involving more than Similarly, together with collaborators, 50 distinguished behavioral ecologists,” I recently presented in Science our two- according to a recent anonymous grant tier alternative to sexual-selection theo- reviewer, as though I should now be si- ry, introducing cooperative game theory lent. The panel summary then charges for the behavioral tier, as well as conven- that “the pi [Roughgarden] does a ma- tional competitive game theory for the jor disservice to the ½eld and to her own evolutionary tier.14 It evoked ten indig- research . . . . The panel feels that the pi is nant letters of reply that were also pub- setting up a straw man.” Is sexual selec- lished in Science, representing over forty tion a straw man? authors.15 Nick Atkinson of The Scientist In response to this devastating recep- contacted the sexual-selection defenders tion, I sought to change my name and and recorded comments ranging from escape to Tierra del Fuego. But the vil- “the ‘new’ theory is merely part of the lage elders there declined my visa appli- existing body of Darwinian sexual selec- cation. Having now been declared per- sona non grata even to the ends of the earth, I am left no choice but to stand 12 P. Conrad, “Frisky in Frisco,” The Observer, my ground. Darwin’s theory of sexual Guardian Unlimited, August 1, 2004. selection is locker-room bravado pro- 13 J. Roughgarden, “The Myth of Sexual Selec- jected onto animals and then retrieved tion,” California Wild (Summer 2005); M. Ghis- as though a fact of nature. elin, “Sexual Selection,” California Wild (Winter Fortunately, the relentless dirge of 2005). anger directed against Evolution’s Rain- 14 J. Roughgarden, M. Oishi, and E. Akçay, bow was punctuated briefly in 2005, “Reproductive Social Behavior: Cooperative when the book received thoughtful and Games to Replace Sexual Selection,” Science extensive reviews by Robert Dorit in The 311 (2006): 965–969. 16 Nick Atkinson, “Sexual Selection Alterna- 15 Etta Kavanagh, ed., “Debating Sexual Selec- tive Slammed: Biologists Write to Science to tion and Mating Strategies,” Science 312 (2006): Defend the Theory of Sexual Selection,” The 689–697. Scientist, May 5, 2006.

Dædalus Spring 2007 35 Joan American Scientist and Douglas Futuyma Rough- in Evolution.17 garden on The criticisms of Evolution’s Rainbow sex and later work do not deal with substan- tive issues, and instead employ personal attack to deflect attention from the seri- ousness of sexual selection’s limitations. I have evidently stumbled upon a Dar- wingate. The invective in the criticisms may signal unease at unraveling a cover- up, a fear that decades of professional and personal investment in the sexual- selection narratives will collapse. The invective may also scratch the vein of a deep-seated transphobia among evolutionary biologists. Legit- imizing diverse expressions of gender and sexuality is clearly threatening. Ghiselin issues the threat explicitly: Had Roughgarden simply argued that there is more to reproductive strategies than just male combat and female choice, and presented some reinterpretations of the data, there would have been no reason to respond. But here we have an effort to discredit perfectly good science. Thus, it would be okay to add a little fluff to sexual selection to account for gay and gender-bending animals, so long as I do not touch the central narrative. I invite readers to consider the pos- sibility that sexual selection is com- pletely wrong because it started out on the wrong track, and that refusing to reconsider sexual selection’s ground- ing assumptions is leading subsequent research to compound the original er- rors. Only by devising and testing alter- native evolutionary theories of repro- ductive social behavior can we truly strengthen evolutionary biology.

17 R. Dorit, “Rethinking Sex,” American Sci- entist 92 (5) (September–October 2004); D. Futuyma, “Celebrating Diversity in Sexuality and Gender,” Evolution 59 (2005): 1156–1159.

36 Dædalus Spring 2007 Brian Charlesworth

Why bother? The evolutionary genetics of sex

It is an astonishing ½nding–derived Recombination happens regardless of from more than a century of painstaking whether the zygote divides to form research into the cellular basis of repro- many separate single-celled individuals duction in a huge variety of organisms– (as in simple organisms, like yeast), or that sex is the most prevalent mode of whether the daughter cells remain asso- reproduction among the great division ciated to produce a complex multicellu- of life (the eukaryotes), which includes lar organism, like an oak tree or a per- animals, green plants, algae, fungi, and son. In contrast, with asexual reproduc- protozoa.1 tion, a single parent produces offspring To geneticists, sexual reproduction is that are usually exact genetic replicates the formation of a new individual from of itself. a cell (zygote) produced by the union of We have good grounds for believing two different cells (gametes). In the case that regular sexual reproduction evolved of animals, the gametes are an egg and very early in the history of the eukary- a sperm. When the resulting individual otes, and that most instances of asexual reproduces, its gametes contain a patch- reproduction among them are the result work of genetic information derived of subsequent evolution. All mammals from each of the two gametes that gen- and all birds reproduce sexually, but only erated it (a process called recombination). 1 I thank Deborah Charlesworth for her com- Brian Charlesworth, a Foreign Honorary Mem- ments on the manuscript. J. Maynard Smith, ber of the American Academy since 1996, is Roy- The Evolution of Sex (Cambridge: Cambridge al Society Research Professor at the University of University Press, 1978); G. Bell, The Master- Edinburgh. He is the author of “Evolution in Age- piece of Nature (London: Croom-Helm, 1982). A regular cycle of sexual reproduction is ab- Structured Populations” (1980) and coauthor of sent from the other division of life (prokary- “Evolution: A Very Short Introduction” (2003) otes), which encompasses bacteria and viruses. in addition to numerous journal articles. His re- There are, however, often detectable exchanges cent research focuses on molecular evolution and of pieces of genetic information between indi- variation, the evolution of genetic and sexual sys- viduals within prokaryote populations, involv- ing a variety of processes that act as a substitute tems, and the quantitative genetics of life-history for sex. See J. Maynard Smith, N. H. Smith, M. traits. O’Rourke, and B. G. Spratt, “How Clonal are Bacteria?” Proceedings of the National Academy © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts of Sciences 90 (1993): 4384–4388. & Sciences

Dædalus Spring 2007 37 Brian a few dozen species of reptiles, amphib- celled eukaryotes. The common features Charles- ia, and ½sh reproduce asexually.2 Simi- of the cellular and molecular mecha- worth on larly, only about 0.1 percent of the over nisms involved in sexual reproduction in sex three hundred thousand species of flow- these and multicellular eukaryotes show ering plants are thought to reproduce that the cellular machinery involved in asexually.3 sexual reproduction probably had a sin- Most asexual species seem to be of gle origin around the time of the evolu- recent evolutionary origin, since they tion of the ½rst eukaryotes, about two have close sexual relatives and evident- billion years or so ago. ly have not had time to proliferate into diverse forms.4 There are only one or The big question about sex is: why two cases where an asexual group of bother? It seems much simpler for or- multicellular organisms seems to have ganisms to produce offspring without been around long enough to diversify, going to the trouble of making gametes, most notably the Bdelloid rotifers. These which in the case of animals like our- minute animals, which live in transient selves can only meet each other as a re- freshwater habitats (such as drops of sult of elaborate behavioral and anatom- water on mosses), have been classi½ed ical adaptations. Why should there be into several hundred species on the ba- males? Why don’t women simply pro- sis of anatomical and molecular differ- duce babies in the same way as Bdelloid ences among them. No males have ever rotifers: an egg is generated by the same been found–and study of their genomic process of cell division that makes the makeup supports the view that they rep- cells of the rest of the body; it then de- resent an ancient asexual group, many velops into an offspring. Indeed, why millions of years old.5 Nonetheless, the not just split in half and regenerate the Bdelloid rotifers represent the exception, missing half, as some flatworms do? and not the rule. These questions are not new: as Ed- Asexuality seems to be more common ward Gibbon maliciously pointed out, among single-celled eukaryotes, like the early fathers of the Christian church protozoa, but the dif½culty of studying were sorely troubled by the question of their life cycles in nature makes it hard why God had not provided human be- to exclude the cryptic occurrence of sex. ings with “some harmless mode of veg- And even so, regular sexual reproduc- etation” with which to propagate them- tion is widely distributed among single- selves. Their objections to sex were, of course, purely moral. But even the amor- 2 Maynard Smith, The Evolution of Sex; Bell, al intellectual framework of neo-Dar- The Masterpiece of Nature. winian evolutionary biology has raised 3 A. M. Koltunow, “Apomixis–Molecular a searching question concerning the Strategies for the Generation of Genetically prevalence of sex–or, more speci½cally, Identical Seeds Without Fertilization,” Plant about its so-called twofold cost, which Physiology 108 (1995): 1345–1352. John Maynard Smith brought to the at- tention of biologists in 1971.6 One can 4 Maynard Smith, The Evolution of Sex; Bell, The Masterpiece of Nature. 6 J. Maynard Smith, “The Origin and Main- 5 I. Arkhipova and M. Meselson, “Deleterious tenance of Sex,” in G. C. Williams, ed., Group Transposable Elements and the Extinction of Selection (Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1971), Asexuals,” Bioessays 27 (2005): 76–85. 163–175.

38 Dædalus Spring 2007 understand this cost by considering a surprising it is that sexual species are so Why sexual population with an equal number common and have not rapidly evolved bother? of males and females in each generation. either asexual reproduction or (in the Now imagine that within this population case of hermaphrodites) complete self- a mutation arises that causes females to fertilization. The question of why her- reproduce asexually by means of all-fe- maphrodites avoid self-fertilization male offspring. If the mutation has no has turned out to be the easier one to other effect, the average number of off- answer, as was shown by Charles Dar- spring per mother will be unchanged. win himself. The answer lies in the phe- The mutant females will thus produce nomenon of inbreeding depression: the twice as many daughters as their sexual viability and fertility of the progeny of competitors. A simple calculation shows matings between close relatives are usu- that the frequency of the mutants within ally much lower than those of the proge- the female population will double each ny of matings between unrelated indi- generation while they are still rare, and viduals. Darwin compared experimen- that they will spread rapidly through the tally produced individuals, which had population, replacing the sexual females been created either by self-fertilization and causing the extinction of males. or outcrossing in many different species We can make a similar but slightly of plants. He found an almost universal more complicated argument for her- tendency for the performance (survival, maphrodite organisms, which include size, seed production) of the self-fertil- most flowering plants and many ma- ized progeny to be much worse than that rine invertebrates. Here the bene½t of of the outcrossed progeny.9 He conclud- a mutation that produces asexual eggs ed, rightly, that natural selection disfa- is closer to one-and-a-half-fold than vors self-fertilization. Subsequent calcu- twofold–still a substantial advantage.7 lations have shown that a reduction of A mutation that causes fertilization of about 50 percent in ½tness to self-fertil- the egg cells by the male gametes of the ized progeny will prevent the spread of same individual, without signi½cantly a mutation that causes self-fertiliza- reducing the individual’s ability to fer- tion.10 Much larger reductions are often tilize others’ eggs, also has a consider- observed in outcrossing species.11 Odd- able advantage.8 But though many her- ly, until the 1970s, botanists working on maphrodites can fertilize themselves, the majority of hermaphrodite species 9 C. R. Darwin, The Effects of Cross and Self reproduce primarily by matings between Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom (London: separate individuals (outcrossing). John Murray, 1876). The results of these exercises in pop- 10 Lloyd, “Bene½ts and Handicaps of Sexual ulation-genetic calculations show how Reproduction”; Charlesworth, “The Cost of Sex in Relation to Mating System.” 7 D. G. Lloyd, “Bene½ts and Handicaps of Sexual Reproduction,” Evolutionary Biology 13 11 C. Goodwillie, S. Kalisz, and C. G. Eckert, (1980): 69–111; B. Charlesworth, “The Cost “The Evolutionary Enigma of Mixed Mating of Sex in Relation to Mating System,” Journal Systems in Plants: Occurrence, Theoretical of Theoretical Biology 84 (1980): 655–671. Explanations and Empirical Evidence,” Annual Reviews of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 36 8 R. A. Fisher, “Average Excess and Average Ef- (2005): 47–79; S. C. H. Barrett, “The Evolu- fect of a Gene Substitution,” Annals of Eugenics tion of Plant Sexual Diversity,” Nature Reviews 11 (1941): 31–38. Genetics 3 (2002): 274–284.

Dædalus Spring 2007 39 Brian the mating systems of plants largely ig- net reproductive advantage to inbreed- Charles- worth nored Darwin’s explanation, perhaps ing. on because they failed to grasp the implica- Darwin, however, did not have a sex tions of population genetics for under- convincing explanation for inbreed- standing evolution. ing depression. But modern genetics This explanation of the prevalence of has led to the realization that inbreed- outcrossing raises two further questions. ing makes individuals homozygous. In First: why are all hermaphrodite species other words, the copy of a given gene not highly outcrossing? Second: what received through the egg is identical causes inbreeding depression? There to that received through the sperm. If are, indeed, many examples of hermaph- this gene carries a harmful mutation, rodite species that reproduce nearly ex- which happens at a low but not entirely clusively by self-fertilization, including negligible frequency, the offspring will the nematode worm Caenorhabditis ele- receive only the mutant type. In an out- gans and the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, crossing population, on the other hand, two of the most important ‘model orga- a rare harmful mutation will nearly al- nisms’ used in the study of cellular and ways be carried in a single dose, since developmental processes. Just as with the copy of the gene in the other gamete asexuality, highly inbred species seem that forms an individual will usually be often to have originated fairly recently normal. in evolutionary time from outcrossing The exposure of harmful mutations relatives.12 This is true of the two I just in a gene in double dose, with no nor- mentioned. mal copy present, is thought to be a ma- As was also clear to Darwin, the prob- jor source of inbreeding depression.14 able cause of a transition from outcross- Although such mutations are individu- ing to inbreeding is dif½culty in obtain- ally very rare within a population, there ing mates: if you cannot ½nd someone are so many genes in the genome (about else to fertilize your eggs, it is better to twenty-½ve thousand in the case of hu- fertilize them yourself, even if the off- mans) that, collectively, we all carry sev- spring are of inferior quality. This situa- eral hundred harmful mutations (dif- tion can arise when a species invades a ferent ones are present in different peo- new habitat where population density ple).15 Most of these have very small ef- is low. As expected on this idea, oceanic fects on ½tness, but one or two among island populations are rich in inbreeders the mutations an individual carries can compared with animals and plant pop- be lethal when made homozygous, as ulations on the mainland from which experiments on the effects of inbreed- the colonizing species came. Many oth- ing in fruit flies and ½sh have demon- er geographical patterns associated with strated.16 breeding systems support this interpre- tation.13 Thus, it seems likely that in- 14 B. Charlesworth and D. Charlesworth, “The Genetic Basis of Inbreeding Depression,” Ge- breeding depression will generally main- netical Research 74 (1999): 329–340. tain outcrossing, unless fertilization suc- cess in outcrossing falls below a thresh- 15 S. Sunyaev et al., “Prediction of Deleterious old value, underneath which there is a Human Alleles,” Human Molecular Genetics 10 (2001): 591–597. 12 Ibid. 16 M. J. Simmons and J. F. Crow, “Mutations 13 Ibid. Affecting Fitness in Drosophila Populations,”

40 Dædalus Spring 2007 We therefore have a well-supported to reproduce like a Bdelloid rotifer. We Why theory of what controls evolutionary need look no further for an explanation bother? transitions from outbreeding to inbreed- of mammalian sexuality than this devel- ing in hermaphrodites. Similar consider- opmental requirement. But while the ations probably apply to the less intense reasons for imprinting are of great in- forms of inbreeding found in some spe- terest, and a matter of ongoing debate, cies with separate sexes. We now need they do not concern us here. Imprinting to ask if there are factors that can over- does not provide a universal explana- come the twofold cost of sex, and main- tion of the maintenance of sex, since tain sexual reproduction against mu- other groups of animals and plants do tations causing asexual reproduction, not have imprinting and contain many analogous to the effect of inbreeding examples of asexual reproduction depression in preventing the spread of among them. mutations causing inbreeding. There has A second point is that the problem of been a long and hard search for these, a large cost of sex does not apply to the and it is fair to say that there is still no origin of sex. The comparative evidence consensus about which of them is the already discussed suggests that sexual most important. reproduction ½rst evolved among single- celled eukaryotes, which lacked any dif- It is worth making a couple of points ferentiation of gametes into male and before discussing this question in de- female, i.e., all gametes were of approxi- tail. First, we know that mammals can- mately equal size, as is the case today in not reproduce asexually, because a mam- many single-celled organisms.18 With mal needs both a paternal and a mater- no asymmetry of gamete size, there is nal complement of genes in order to only a slight automatic advantage to develop successfully from an egg. This asexual reproduction.19 This means that is because of a phenomenon known as a small advantage to a genetic variant imprinting: some genes are temporarily conferring the ability to reproduce sex- altered chemically during gamete for- ually would allow it to spread. In princi- mation in such a way that they only ple, therefore, we can explain the origin produce functional products if they en- of sex by identifying the sources of such ter the zygote through the sperm, oth- an advantage. ers only if they enter through the egg.17 While only a small minority of the to- 18 The distinction between male and female gametes is an ancient one, but it is not a re- tal set of genes is imprinted, failure to quirement for the sexual fusion of gametes. express both copies of some of the im- Once sex evolved, there was probably selec- printed genes results in death. It is there- tion pressure in many (but not all) groups for fore impossible for a mammalian female some individuals to produce numerous, small, mobile gametes (the male gametes), and oth- ers to produce a few, large, immobile ones (fe- Annual Review of Genetics 11 (1977): 49–78; male gametes). See Maynard Smith, The Evo- A. McCune et al., “A Low Genomic Number lution of Sex; M. G. Bulmer and G. A. Parker, of Recessive Lethals in Natural Populations “The Evolution of Anisogamy: A Game-Theo- of Blue½n Killi½sh and Zebra½sh,” Science 296 retic Approach,” Proceedings of the Royal Society (2002): 2398–2401. B 269 (2002): 2381–2388.

17 I. M. Morison, J. P. Ramsay, and H. G. 19 Maynard Smith, The Evolution of Sex; Spencer, “A Census of Mammalian Imprint- Charlesworth, “The Cost of Sex in Relation ing,” Trends in Genetics 21 (2005): 457–465. to Mating System.”

Dædalus Spring 2007 41 Brian We still have to solve the problem of to the species.”22 However, even Fisher Charles- worth how sex is maintained in the face of its was prepared to make an exception for on cost in species with male and female “sexuality itself” and proposed an ex- sex gametes. One solution is to appeal to the planation for the maintenance of sex differential extinction of asexual popula- based on the inability of asexual species tions.20 Imagine the following situation: to evolve as rapidly as sexual rivals.23 we have a set of sexually reproducing It may, therefore, be suf½cient to look species, among which from time to time for factors that confer a quite modest ad- a member is successfully invaded by an vantage to sexual reproduction, not nec- asexual mutant. However, the asexual essarily large enough to prevent invasion species do not do as well as their sexual by an asexual mutant, but which cumu- rivals, in terms of their long-term ability latively increase chances of survival in to survive extinction, and so they even- the long run. There is no shortage of tually disappear. With the right balance candidates; indeed, as the Grand Inquis- between this species-level disadvantage itor said in The Gondoliers, “[T]here is and the rate of conversion from sex to no probable, possible shadow of doubt– asex, the majority of species will remain no possible doubt whatever . . . ” that we sexual. have identi½ed the major candidates. As This explanation ½ts many of the in his case, however, we do not know broad patterns of the distribution of which is the right one, and of course the asexuality. Similar patterns apply to different possibilities are not mutually highly inbreeding species; once a spe- exclusive. I will only briefly survey some cies has become highly inbreeding, it of the major theories under discussion, behaves in many ways as though it is as well as some of the relevant empirical asexual. This is because individuals that evidence.24 are homozygous for most of their genes produce offspring that are genetically The major advantage of sexual repro- nearly identical to themselves. It seems duction is the fact that genetic recom- that the long-term evolutionary fate of bination can only occur with sex. Brief- both inbreeders and asexuals may be ly mentioned at the beginning of this such that extinction is much more like- essay, this process now needs to be de- ly for them than for their outcrossing, ½ned more precisely. Gametes are hap- sexual relatives.21 Evolutionary biologists are, for good reason, rather hostile to the idea that 22 Fisher, “Average Excess.” selection among species plays a major role in evolution, compared with selec- 23 R. A. Fisher, The Genetical Theory of Natural tion among individuals. As R. A. Fisher Selection. A Complete Variorum Edition (Oxford: once wrote, “Unless individual advan- Oxford University Press, 1999). tage can be shown, natural selection 24 Maynard Smith, The Evolution of Sex; Bell, affords no explanation of structures or The Masterpiece of Nature; R. E. Michod and instincts which appear to be bene½cial B. R. Levin, eds., The Evolution of Sex (Sunder- land, Mass.: Sinauer, 1988); N. H. Barton and B. Charlesworth, “Why Sex and Recombina- 20 Maynard Smith, The Evolution of Sex. tion?” Science 281 (1998): 1986–1990; S. P. Otto and T. Lenormand, “Resolving the Par- 21 Ibid.; Barrett, “The Evolution of Plant adox of Sex and Recombination,” Nature Re- Sexual Diversity.” views Genetics 3 (2002): 256–261.

42 Dædalus Spring 2007 loid cells–they contain only one copy ing a major part of the evidence for the Why of each gene in the genome. The genes ancient origin of sex. Much the same bother? are parts of dna molecules called chro- holds true for animals like ourselves, mosomes, and each chromosome carries except that with us the diploid zygote a set of hundreds or thousands of genes divides by normal cell divisions to pro- concerned with different cellular func- duce the diploid cells that make up most tions. (In the human genome, there are of our body. Meiosis is postponed until twenty-three different chromosomes the production of eggs or sperm in the in an egg or a sperm cell.) In a primitive reproductive organs. unicellular organism, such as the green Accompanying the process of sexual alga Chlamydomonas, the two gametes fusion of cells is, therefore, a process fuse to form a zygote. The zygote is thus of mingling of material from maternal diploid, i.e., it contains two sets of chro- and paternal chromosomes. This is why mosomes, one from each parental gam- no two people in the world are exactly ete. After a resting phase, the zygote alike genetically, except for identical then undergoes two cell divisions called twins. To see this, consider the case of meiosis, but each chromosome only un- a mating between two Chlamydomonas dergoes one round of division. The num- gametes, which differ at two different ber of chromosomes is thereby reduced locations on a chromosome. One gam- to the haploid number. If this did not ete is ab and the other is ab, where the happen, chromosome numbers would alternatives at each site are A versus a double at each cycle of sexual reproduc- and B versus b, respectively. The zygote tion. will contain both ab and ab. In the ab- An extraordinary thing happens at sence of recombination, the gametes the ½rst division of meiosis: each pair derived from this zygote will be either of maternal and paternal chromosomes ab or ab, with equal probability. But comes together, and the partners line up with recombination, we will also see beside each other. A number of breaks the combinations Ab and aB. The fre- occur at the same place on each partner, quency with which these are found is and these are repaired in such a way that the recombination frequency for the two the material on each partner is now part- locations–and it is higher, the larger ly maternal and partly paternal, in a re- the distance between them on the chro- ciprocal pattern. The resulting products mosome. then part from each other at the ½rst di- Geneticists discovered recombination vision of the cell. This is followed by the by carrying out crosses in which they second division, resulting in four hap- could detect the presence of the variants loid cells, in which each chromosome at the two locations because they affect- is made up of segments of paternal and ed visible properties of the individuals maternal material. These cells go on di- carrying them. We can measure recom- viding by the normal cell division pro- bination frequencies by counting the cess, in which chromosomes split into numbers of offspring of the four differ- two daughter chromosomes. Eventually, ent types. Exactly the same holds for hu- these differentiate into gametes, which mans as for Chlamydomonas, except that fuse with other gametes to restart the our diploidy and small family sizes make cycle. it much harder to measure recombina- This basic pattern is found through- tion. Genes at distant locations on the out the single-celled eukaryotes, form- same chromosome, and genes on differ-

Dædalus Spring 2007 43 Brian ent chromosomes (which behave inde- combinations of variants at different lo- Charles- worth pendently of each other during meiosis), cations than do sexual populations, just on have recombination frequencies of 50 as this argument predicts. sex percent. Locations very close to each Now, if A and B represent variants that other on a human chromosome typical- confer higher ½tness on their carriers, ly have a recombination frequency of the combination ab is likely to be the around one in one hundred million. ½ttest of the four, yet it is unlikely to be Recombination through sexual repro- produced in the absence of sex and re- duction allows the production of all pos- combination. This suggests that these sible combinations of variants at differ- facilitate the action of natural selection, ent locations in the genome. This has by speeding up the production of selec- some staggering implications. Suppose tively favorable combinations of genet- we have one thousand locations in the ic variants. This idea was ½rst clearly genome, each with two different vari- stated around 1930 by R. A. Fisher25 and ants in the population. The number of H. J. Muller,26 and still forms the core of possible types of gametes that can exist much thinking about the evolutionary is then 2 raised to the power of 1000, advantage of sex. i.e., approximately 10 followed by 300 This effect can be realized in numer- noughts. It is currently estimated that ous different situations. One is when a there are about six million variants at population faces selection pressure to chromosomal sites in human popula- adapt to a new environment. Under a tions, so the true number of combina- wide range of circumstances, sex and tions is something like 10 followed by recombination then help to accelerate 1.8 million noughts. adaptation. Moreover, mathematical But if there were no sex and no recom- models demonstrate that genetic fac- bination, new mutations would remain tors that influence the frequency of re- associated with whatever genetic vari- combination also increase in frequen- ant they happened to be combined with cy in the population under these condi- originally. If in our example the popula- tions, because they become associated tion were initially ab, a mutation to A with the favorable gene combinations would create ab and Ab. The population they create.27 Environments that con- is likely to be mostly ab for a long time, tinually change–such as those created so that a mutation from b to B would by interactions between hosts and their probably arise in an ab gamete, giving parasites, which are constantly adapting just three types in the population (ab, to each other–are especially likely to Ab, and aB). The combination ab can create selection pressures of this kind. be generated only by a (very unlikely) Some have suggested that selection pres- further mutation event, or by recombi- nation in zygotes that carry both aB and A 25 Fisher, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selec- b. This is not possible if there is no sex- tion. ual reproduction, or if the population is highly inbred (in the latter case, nearly 26 H. J. Muller, “Some Genetic Aspects of all zygotes carry identical pairs of gam- Sex,” American Naturalist 66 (1932): 118–138. etes, so that recombination has no ef- 27 Barton and Charlesworth, “Why Sex and fect). Indeed, populations that repro- Recombination?”; Otto and Lenormand, “Re- duce asexually, or by very close inbreed- solving the Paradox of Sex and Recombina- ing, characteristically show far fewer tion.”

44 Dædalus Spring 2007 sures from parasites may be the major matical models demonstrate that it is Why factor favoring sex.28 harder for the population to remove del- bother? The possibility that adaptation to a eterious mutations from the genome in new environment promotes increased the absence of recombination, creating a recombination has been demonstrated selection pressure to maintain recombi- by experiments involving selection for nation frequencies at a nonzero level.32 traits such as ddt resistance in flies: These models predict that if recombi- these have shown increases in recom- nation stops, harmful mutations would bination frequencies in addition to the eventually become more prevalent, even trait under selection.29 A recent experi- spreading throughout the species.33 ment on flour beetles revealed a similar The Y chromosomes of many species effect of selection for resistance to a with separate sexes, including humans, parasite.30 Furthermore, experiments provide a test case. Here, males have a where a novel environment challenges Y chromosome and an X chromosome, Chlamydomonas populations show that which pair up at meiosis but only recom- populations that are allowed to repro- bine over a very small portion of their duce sexually evolve faster than popula- length. Females have two X chromo- tions that can only reproduce asexual- somes, which recombine normally with ly.31 Therefore, a body of experimental each other at meiosis. In mammals, the data supports the plausibility of this type Y carries a gene that causes individuals of mechanism, although it falls short of to develop as males; in the absence of proving that it is indeed the main cause an intact Y chromosome, an embryo of the origin and maintenance of sex. will develop as a female. Thus, the Y Recombination also allows more ef- chromosome determines gender. But, ½cient removal of harmful mutations paradoxically, its lack of recombination from the genome. While natural selec- means that most of the Y behaves like tion usually keeps these mutations at an asexual genome. This makes it very very low frequencies, again the sheer vulnerable to the accumulation of harm- number of genes in the genome ensures ful mutations. Despite clear evidence that the total number of such mutations from some remaining genetic similari- in the population is very large. Mathe- ties that the human X and Y chromo- somes were once almost identical in ge- 28 Barton and Charlesworth, “Why Sex and netic makeup (about two hundred mil- Recombination?”; Otto and Lenormand, “Re- lion years ago), only a handful of genes solving the Paradox of Sex and Recombina- out of the thousand or so that were orig- tion”; W. D. Hamilton, “Sex Versus Non-sex Y Versus Parasite,” Oikos 35 (1980): 282–290. inally present on the now remains– thus, it is degenerate.34

29 S. P. Otto and N. H. Barton, “Selection for 32 Barton and Charlesworth, “Why Sex and Recombination in Small Populations,” Evolution Recombination?”; Otto and Lenormand, “Re- 55 (2001): 1921–1931. solving the Paradox of Sex and Recombina- tion.” 30 O. Fischer and P. Schmid-Hempel, “Selec- tion by Parasites May Increase Host Recombi- 33 W. R. Rice, “Experimental Tests of the nation Frequency,” Biology Letters 1 (2005): Adaptive Signi½cance of Sexual Reproduction,” 193–195. Nature Reviews Genetics 3 (2002): 241–251.

31 N. Colegrave, “Sex Releases the Speed Limit 34 B. T. Lahn and D. C. Page, “Four Evolution- on Evolution,” Nature 420 (2002): 664–666. ary Strata on the Human X Chromosome,” Sci-

Dædalus Spring 2007 45 Brian This pattern has been observed repeat- which gene products arise from the un- Charles- Y X 39 worth edly in other groups where chromo- impaired chromosome in males. on somes have evolved, quite independent- However, in an asexually reproducing sex ly of each other.35 In a species of fruit fly species, it seems likely that the accumu- called Drosophila miranda, a whole chro- lation of harmful mutations would con- mosome has become attached to the Y tinue until the species suffers a serious chromosome, and is inherited in exact- loss of ½tness. Coupled with the reduced ly the same way as the original Y. It is, ability to adapt to changes in the envi- however, only about one million years ronment, the apparent inability of most old, giving us an opportunity to study asexual or highly inbreeding species to the early stages of its degeneration.36 maintain themselves does not seem Harmful genetic changes on the new Y surprising. Indeed, it is actually the per- chromosome have clearly accumulat- sistence of apparently ancient asexual ed:37 about one-third of the genes that groups, like the Bdelloid rotifers, that have been examined contain mutations raises the most challenging questions that destroy their function, and all of about the evolutionary signi½cance of the genes seem to have some minor but sex.40 harmful mutations.38 The evolution of Y chromosomes thus provides particu- larly striking evidence that the removal of recombination from a large part of the genome leads to its gradual evolu- tionary decline. In this case, the survival of the popula- tion is not endangered, since selection has acted to compensate for the degen- eration of the Y by raising the rate at

ence 286 (1999): 964–967; D. Charlesworth, B. Charlesworth, and G. Marais, “Steps in the Evolution of Heteromorphic Sex Chro- mosomes,” Heredity 95 (2005): 118–128.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.; M. Steinemann and S. Steinemann, “Enigma of Y Chromosome Degeneration: Neo-Y and Neo-X Chromosomes of Drosoph- ila miranda a Model for Sex Chromosome Evolution,” Genetica 102/103 (1998): 409– 420; D. Bachtrog, “Sex Chromosome Evolu- tion: Molecular Aspects of Y Chromosome Degeneration in Drosophila,” Genome Research 39 I. Marín, M. L. Siegal, and B. S. Baker, “The 15 (2005): 1393–1401. Evolution of Dosage Compensation Mecha- nisms,” Bioessays 22 (2000): 1106–1114. 37 Steinemann and Steinemann, “Enigma of Y Chromosome Degeneration.” 40 Maynard Smith, The Evolution of Sex; Arkhi- pova and Meselson, “Deleterious Transposable 38 Bachtrog, “Sex Chromosome Evolution.” Elements.”

46 Dædalus Spring 2007 Anne Fausto-Sterling

Frameworks of desire

Genes versus choice. A quick and dirty tain unalienable Rights . . . . ” Moreover, search of newspaper stories covering sci- rather than framing research projects in enti½c research on homosexuality shows terms of the whole of human desire, we that the popular press has settled on this neglect to examine one form, heterosex- analytic framework to explain homosex- uality, in favor of uncovering the causes uality: either genes cause homosexuality, of the ‘deviant’ other, homosexuality. or homosexuals choose their lifestyle.1 Intellectually, this is just the tip of the The mischief that follows such a for- iceberg. When we invoke formulae such mulation is broad-based and more than as oppositional rather than developmen- a little pernicious. Religious fundamen- tal, innate versus learned, genetic versus talists and gay activists alike use the chosen, early-onset versus adolescent genes-choice opposition to argue their experience, a gay gene versus a straight case either for or against full citizenship gene, hardwired versus flexible, nature for homosexuals. Biological research versus nurture, normal versus deviant, now arbitrates civil legal proceedings, the subtleties of human behavior disap- and the idea that moral status depends pear. on the state of our genes overrides the Linear though it is, even Kinsey’s scale historical and well-argued view that we has six gradations of sexual expression; are “endowed by [our] Creator with cer- and Kinsey understood the importance of the life cycle as a proper framework for analyzing human desire. Academics Anne Fausto-Sterling is professor of biology and –be they biologists, social scientists,2 or gender studies in the Department of Molecular cultural theorists–have become locked and Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown Uni- into an oppositional framework. As a re- versity. She has written “Myths of Gender: Bio- sult, they are asking the wrong questions logical Theories about Men and Women” (1985) and “Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the 1 I used the keywords ‘genes’ and ‘homosexual- Construction of Sexuality” (2000). Her current ity’ in the Lexis-Nexis academic database and work focuses on applying dynamic systems theory searched general newspaper articles for the past to the study of human development. two years. In well over one hundred articles, this is the framework for analysis.

© 2007 by the American Academy of Arts 2 I except some anthropologists from the & Sciences broad-brush claim.

Dædalus Spring 2007 47 Anne and offering intellectually impoverished maining variability being explained by Fausto- accounts of the emergence and develop- nonshared environmental influences”5), Sterling on ment of human desire. they ultimately argue that the linkages sex suggested by such studies are important. A steady patter of research papers link- Since they believe that many genes are ing genes to homosexuality rains down likely to be involved, they decided to on us, hitting ½rst the scienti½c jour- scan the entire genome (X, Y, and all of nals; then soaking through to the news- the autosomes) in an attempt to ½sh out papers, blogs, and television news; and a set of genes related in some way to ½nally growing like mold, often wildly male sexual orientation. reshaped from the initial tiny spore into The authors hoped to avoid false posi- the mycelia of popular discourse. As in- tives caused by “gay men who identify tellectual efforts, each of these articles as heterosexual”6 by only studying self- has technical strengths and weaknesses identi½ed gay men. But the idea that –one can always criticize the sample there are gay men who identify as het- size, or the method of recruiting study erosexual suggests that there is some subjects, or the statistical test employed. biological essence of gayness that can But most of them share a similar–and exist genetically and therefore be meas- problematic–analytical framework. ured independently of identity and be- We can expose this general framework havior. This begs the de½nitional ques- by considering one recent and widely tion. The state of being gay (in adult- reported article, “A Genomewide Scan hood) might, in fact, reasonably include of Male Sexual Orientation,” authored identity, behavior, and/or desire. by six scientists from ½ve prestigious Indeed, in their groundbreaking work, research institutions dotting the United The Social Organization of Sexuality, E. O. States from California to Washington, Laumann and his colleagues studied the D.C.3 The article introduces the problem interrelation of these components of by citing scholarly research linking bio- homosexuality in 143 men who reported logical events or genetic structures to any inkling of same-sex desire. Of the male-male sexual orientation. While the men surveyed, 44 percent expressed ho- authors, Brian Mustanski and his col- mosexual desire but not identity or be- leagues, concede that the evidence is in- havior, while 24 percent reported having complete (they note the limited number all three of these components. Another of studies that attempt to locate speci½c 6 percent expressed desire and behavior genes related to homosexuality) and that but not identity, 22 percent expressed be- nonbiological factors must also be in- havior but not desire or identity, 2 per- volved (they mention, for example, two cent had only the identity, and 1 percent recent twin studies that “report moder- had the identity and desire but not the ate heritability estimates4 with the re- behavior.

3 B. S. Mustanski et al., “A Genomewide Scan Routledge, 2000). S. E. Lerman et al., “Sex of Male Sexual Orientation,” Human Genetics Assignment in Cases of Ambiguous Genitalia 116 (4) (2005): 272–278. and its Outcome,” Urology 55 (2000): 8–12.

4 See Kaplan’s discussion of the use and mis- 5 Mustanski et al., “A Genomewide Scan,” use of the concept of heritability in Jonathan 273. Kaplan, The Limits and Lies of Human Genetic Research: Dangers for Social Policy (New York: 6 Ibid.

48 Dædalus Spring 2007 So Mustanski and colleagues selected embryo formation or disease, the genet- Frameworks a subset of men who, judging from the icist’s method is to study the mutant in of desire Laumann survey, would comprise only order to understand normal processes. 27 percent of men expressing some com- Although Mustanski and his colleagues ponent of homosexuality. Thus, even if prefer to consider homosexuality as part the authors were to ½nd genetic linkages, of the natural variation of the human genetic studies of this sort give insuf½- species, this ½g leaf cannot hide the bas- cient theoretical attention to the possi- ic framework of ‘normal versus mutant,’ ble meanings of such ½ndings. which emphasizes ½xed typologies rath- The study also compares the dna of er than biological processes and life- gay men with those of their heterosex- cycle analyses. ual brothers. Since all siblings share 50 If some sociologists can frame homo- percent of their dna, the dna regions sexuality in ways that better appreciate (genes) that are present in higher fre- its complexities, why can’t biologists? quency in the genomes of the gay broth- After all, the tools exist within their ers then become regions of interest, as ½eld: biologists know how to look at be- potentially related to male homosexual- havior or cellular states as processes or ity. But to ½nd the brothers for the study, emergences rather than as static cate- the authors advertised in homophile gories. In studying the role of gene net- publications, and the mean Kinsey score works in the process of embryonic de- for their sample was 5.46.7 Again, this velopment, for example, Eric Davidson sample would represent, according to and his colleagues have pinpointed the Laumann study, only about one- ‘feed-forward’ genetic networks that quarter of men expressing or feeling de½ne cell transitions as the fertilized some aspect of homosexuality. egg divides and the resulting cells dif- As Mustanski and his colleagues free- ferentiate into specialized tissues. The ly acknowledge, their ½ndings are mere- process is self-generating, involves hun- ly suggestive, providing trails to be fol- dreds of genetic elements and their feed- lowed rather than explanations to be back loops, and progresses historically had. In their own words, they identify –each new cellular state provides the “candidate genes for further explora- necessary conditions for the next one tion” and hope that any future molecu- until a stable feedback loop is estab- lar analysis of “genes involved in sexual lished.9 Using a more complex version orientation could greatly advance our of a cybernetic thermostat regulation understanding of human variation, evo- loop, the system maintains a stable dif- lution and brain development.”8 But ferentiated state under a broad range of here, they reflect the point of view of (though not all) conditions. Conceptu- most classical genetic studies. From ally similar approaches have been em- Thomas Hunt Morgan’s ½rst analysis of ployed to devise models of the emer- the white-eyed fruit-fly mutant to pres- gence of perceptual competence in de- ent-day dissection of genes involved in

9 E. H. Davidson et al., “A Genomic Regula- 7 0=exclusively heterosexual, and 6=exclusive- tory Network for Development,” Science 295 ly homosexual. (5560) (2002): 1669–1678; E. H. Davidson, The Regulatory Genome: Gene Regulatory Net- 8 Mustanski et al., “A Genomewide Scan,” works in Development and Evolution (New York: 277. Academic Press, 2006).

Dædalus Spring 2007 49 Anne veloping human infants.10 Such dynam- Grace, or in discussions about butch and Fausto- Sterling ic models have room for speci½c infor- femme lesbians, may derive from par- on mation about gene action during neural ticular, but certainly far from universal, sex development–the sort of information practices within the gay community. But Mustanski and his colleagues seek–but are they a reasonable basis for biological they provide a more productive frame- investigations of homosexuality? work for understanding human desire Theo Sandfort recently reviewed aca- as a developmental process rather than demic accounts of the relationship be- a typological state.11 tween gender and sexual orientation.13 The Mustanski article illustrates one He argues that we now understand ho- other–and quite central–component mosexuality to have multiple and not used in biological approaches to the always synchronous components (at- study of homosexuality: the imposition traction, orientation, behavior, self-iden- of a sex/gender schematic. The formal ti½cation) and varied expression accord- analogies are (1) ‘male:female’ is as ing to gender, ethnicity, social class, and ‘heterosexual male:homosexual male’; culture. In other words, the concepts of (2) ‘male:female’ is as ‘lesbian:hetero- masculinity and femininity are no longer sexual female’; and (3) ‘masculinity: seen as bipolar. Rather, “it has become feminity’ is as ‘straight male or lesbian: good practice to discuss them as multidi- gay male or straight woman.’ This is the mensional phenomena . . . [as] feminini- logic that led Simon LeVay to study the ties and masculinities.”14 He then places hypothalamus in gay men, hoping to the origin, in American psychology, of ½nd the same differences in the brains the idea that homosexual men are femi- of gay versus straight men that others nine and lesbians masculine, in the work had reported when comparing the brains of Lewis M. Terman and Catherine C. of (presumably straight) men and wom- Miles, published in 1936. Sandfort re- en.12 The Mustanski paper cites a num- minds us that Terman and Miles iden- ber of studies based on this concept–a ti½ed homosexual men who did not ½t concept that is also often embraced by this pattern of opposites, but failed to and acted out within the gay commu- theorize about masculine gay men. Sub- nity. The stereotypes seen on Will and sequent citations of their work followed suit, and the unquestioned link of male homosexuality to femininity was born. 10 D. Mareschal and S. P. Johnson, “Learning to Perceive Object Unity: A Connectionist More recent and more multifaceted Account,” Developmental Science 5 (2) (2002): attempts to correlate gender expression 151–172. with sexual orientation have yielded cor- respondingly more complex results. 11 M. D. Lewis, “Self-Organizing Individual Differences in Brain Development,” Develop- mental Review 25 (2005): 252–277. 13 T. G. M. Sandfort, “Sexual Orientation and 12 S. LeVay, “A Difference in Hypothalamic Gender: Stereotypes and Beyond,” Archives of Structure Between Heterosexual and Homosex- Sexual Behavior 34 (6) (2005): 595–611. ual Men,” Science 253 (1991): 1034–1037; W. Byne et al., “The Interstitial Nuclei of the Hu- 14 Ibid., 599. For a longer discussion of some man Anterior Hypothalamus: An Investigation of the subtleties involved, see also J. H. Gagnon, of Sexual Variation in Volume and Cell Size, An Interpretation of Desire: Essays in the Study of Number and Density,” Brain Research 856 (1–2) Sexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (2000): 254–258. 2004).

50 Dædalus Spring 2007 Current changes in gay and lesbian people can understand why the word Frameworks subcultures also contribute to the dis- ‘choice’ is bad in this context. First, it of desire cussion. Among gay men, there has is easily used–especially in the popular been a move away from femininity, as and political arena–to deny rights. This evidenced by the new gay macho, leath- usage implies that just as a person can ermen, and web sites such as www. ‘choose’ not to commit a crime and thus straightacting.com (“your masculine avoid prosecution, so, too, a person can gay guy hangout,” “a site for guys who choose not to be gay and thus avoid ho- like sports and change their own car mophobic violence or losing out on so- oil”). An analogous site– http://les- cial bene½ts afforded to straight people. biansclick.com/Butch-Femme/index. ‘Choice’ also carries with it the conno- html–offers, as the url suggests, infor- tation of conscious control and easy mation and connections for feminine changeability; yet few homosexuals be- lesbians. At this point, we do not have lieve that they chose their state of desire. clear answers to the question of the re- Indeed, the history of homosexuality is lationship between gender (masculini- ½lled with stories of people who tried for ty and femininity) and homosexuality, years to become straight before accept- making it dif½cult to interpret biologi- ing that, for whatever reasons, they felt cal studies premised on the idea that gay how they felt.15 Nor can heterosexuals men are more like (straight) women and choose to change their states of desire. gay women more like (straight) men. Even those who argue that being gay is a Sandfort recommends three research choice would vehemently deny that they areas that, if carefully investigated, could make such a choice. might help us add gender intelligently Rather than defend this oversimpli½- to a framework for understanding the cation of choice, academics prefer to development of human desire. First, he frame the opposition to biology in terms suggests we learn more about how dif- of social construction. They point out ferent groups (men, women, homosex- that regardless of where our sexual de- ual, heterosexual) understand the con- sires and our gender senses originate, cepts of masculinity and femininity. Do they are not easily changed. Just as biol- self-perceptions correlate with external ogy does not really imply permanence or perceptions? Second, he asks how the determinism, social construction does social and cultural environment (includ- not necessarily imply flexibility or im- ing gay subcultures that value male fem- permanence. But as with the biologist, ininity and female masculinity) influ- the social constructionist has yet to offer ence individual perceptions of masculin- a coherent account of the development ity and femininity. Third, he wonders of individual desire. The conventional what the consequences of gender per- constructionists do not explain how the ception and identi½cation are. How do body comes to feel desire, to respond they contribute to sexual practices and to touch, or to quiver when a person to desires? And, I would add, do the behav- whom it is attracted walks through the iors train brain circuits or otherwise in- door. Indeed, to date, attempts to offer fluence brain development rather than such accounts have found little empiri- (or in addition to) vice versa? cal support.

The ‘genes versus choice’ opposition is 15 M. Duberman, Cures: A Gay Man’s Odyssey also wanting on the ‘choice’ side. Most (New York: Dutton, 1991).

Dædalus Spring 2007 51 Anne In The Mismeasure of Desire, philoso- ing) to focus on the reproductive success Fausto- Sterling pher Edward Stein reviews a number of some offspring over others. If parents on of constructionist approaches to under- could manipulate the development of sex standing the origins of sexual desire. homosexuality in some children, so that Theories based on experience (rather they forgo reproduction in favor of sup- than genes) fall into three major cate- porting their siblings, parents could con- gories: early sexual experience, family tinue their genetic line by increasing the dynamics, and childhood gender roles. survival chances and reproductive possi- Early sexual experiences might be eith- bilities of selected grandchildren. er pleasant or unpleasant, and thus Stein considers a third category of might provide positive or negative feed- experiential theories: childhood gender back for either heterosexuality or ho- roles. This approach examines the ex- mosexuality. Such experiences might tent to which children engage in gender- include seduction or (in this modern typical behaviors–understood to be cul- era of priestly scandal) sexual aggres- turally speci½c. Those who are gender sion–or a chance encounter involving typical are thought to become trained in mutual desire. This latter scenario sug- some way by this typicality; such train- gests that even young or preadolescent ing in turn leads to the development of children may have unformed or part- heterosexual identity and desire. Gen- ly formed sexual desires, and that the der-atypical behavior, on the other hand, chance acting-out of these desires (i.e., is thought to shape adult sexual desire in the innocent childhood games of ‘play- atypical directions. It is for this reason ing doctor’ or kissing under the table) that many parents who spot early gen- might carve a psychic groove that en- der-atypical play in a child try hard to trains future encounters. change such behavior in hopes of staving Stein then analyzes two forms of the off future homosexuality. Some cite ear- second category of explanation, family ly gender atypicality as proof of a biolog- dynamics. The best known of these are ical cause, the logic being that behaviors theories stemming from Freud’s Oedi- in the very young must be caused by pal triangle. In Freud’s view, male ho- something genetic, since a two- or three- mosexuality appears in families with year-old would be too little to have been a strong mother and a distant father, influenced by experience. There are oth- while (male) heterosexuality results er evidential categories–e.g., twin stud- from strong paternal identi½cation and, ies, comparative anthropology, and the in adulthood, the replacement by other study of the history of sexuality–that women of the mother as love object. are used by both sides of the genes ver- This theory, it should be noted, is un- sus experience, nature versus nurture de- usual in that it attempts to explain het- bate. That the same considerable schol- erosexuality as well as homosexuality, arship supports both sides of supposed- although, as many have commented, ly incompatible theories provides more Freud’s theories of female sexuality are evidence that the analytical framework more inchoate. Less well known are a needs revision. variety of sociobiological theories that What evidence exists for the varieties employ the concept of parental manipu- of experiential theories of desire? In the lation. According to such theories, par- now classical study Sexual Preference: Its ents subconsciously realize that it would Development in Men and Women, Alan Bell, be advantageous (evolutionarily speak- Martin Weinberg, and Sue Hammer-

52 Dædalus Spring 2007 smith interviewed hundreds of gay, les- reconsidered, may get re-stored in the Frameworks bian, and straight men and women liv- brain in new form. Thus, the very act of of desire ing in San Francisco. The bulk of inter- asking a person to remember past expe- viewees said that childhood and adoles- riences begins a process of reformulat- cent sexual expression reflected their felt ing the present. desires but did not determine them. The Two anecdotes, one personal and one results also did not ½nd evidence for the from a recent longitudinal study of com- Freudian family dynamic or the parental ing-out stories, illustrate the ‘memory manipulation theories of sexual forma- as evidence’ problem. When I was a lit- tion. Subsequent studies have con½rmed tle girl I went off to camp in the country. these ½ndings. I was interested in natural history and The San Francisco project found what also navigated socially by developing a they claimed was a “powerful link be- niche and staying in it. One summer, tween [childhood] gender nonconfor- I combined niche development with a mity and the development of homosex- crush on the (male) camp counselor in uality.”16 Men and women who report- charge of the nature ‘museum’ (a little ed childhood gender atypical behaviors cabin with found natural objects), and were more likely to become homosexu- I devoted myself to catching snakes and al than those who did not. While the insects and collecting mushrooms and study was quick to note that a signi½cant the like. At the end of the summer, some minority of the homosexual study par- of the group of girls I had met made little ticipants was not gender atypical grow- wooden gravestones for each of us. Mine ing up and some of the heterosexual par- read: “In memory of Anne who liked ticipants were gender atypical in child- bugs better than boys.” I was twelve at hood, it nonetheless rested its conclu- the time. I understood the comment to sions on aggregate statistics. Its conclu- be about my interest in nature (nobody sions, however, cannot be taken at face knew about my crush on the counselor) value. and remembered it in that way as I made The Bell, Weinberg, and Hammer- my way through graduate school in biol- smith study, like Kinsey before them ogy, met and married my biologist hus- and a number since, depends on memo- band, and became a professor of genet- ry, on retrospection. This approach to ics. But fast forward thirty-odd years understanding the origins of human be- from the day my little girl friends wrote haviors deserves some commentary. A my epitaph, and I could be found sepa- retrospective study asks its participants rated from my husband, living on my to review, reconsider, reexamine the own, and courting women (one of past. Anyone who engages in such an whom I eventually married). During exercise does so in the light of present that transitional courting period, I came knowledge and experience. Current upon my miniature grave marker lying events may provoke new memories; old in a box of childhood treasures and read memories may take on new meanings; it with new insight. Of course it meant and old memories, when reevoked and that I had been pegged as gay all along. My little friends knew it, but it took me all that time to understand their mes- 16 Alan P. Bell, Martin S. Weinberg, and Sue Kiefer Hammersmith, Sexual Preference: Its De- sage. (Or could they have just been writ- velopment in Men and Women (Bloomington: In- ing about bugs after all?) Memories get diana University Press, 1981), 188. rewritten; new narratives are scripted.

Dædalus Spring 2007 53 Anne Lisa M. Diamond offers a more theo- damental lesson about women’s health Fausto- Sterling retical and formal version of my story as care that the many successful editions of on she reflects on her own research on sex- Our Bodies, Ourselves taught. It is no more sex ual identity formation.17 Consider three acceptable to develop theories of homo- interviews over ½ve years with the same sexuality without considering what ho- lesbian woman. In the ½rst interview the mosexuals themselves have to say. And woman remembers being different as a yet, memory is unreliable. It is not an child, a tomboy, uninterested in dating objective arbiter of past truths but rather men. But she only began to think of dif- a reconciler of past and present. Recon- ference in terms of sexuality in college, ciliation is a lifelong process, and it mat- after meeting a lot of gay people. Two ters both when in the life cycle a memo- years later, in the second interview, she ry is elicited as well as in what culture remembers being scared by her child- and historical period. hood crushes on female camp counsel- If we have not ½gured out how to make ors. This time around she remembers proper use of retrospective studies, per- linking her difference to sexual feelings haps prospective studies offer a better even as a child. In the ½ve-year follow-up approach. As it turns out, there are not interview her memories are quite explic- many prospective studies to draw on, itly sexual. Diamond asks if one of the and the most oft-cited ones, especially versions is the “true” one, and concludes by Richard Green and his colleagues, that “the very process of telling self-sto- have been roundly criticized. Green ries . . . engages multiple psychological studied so-called sissy boys, brought to mechanisms that promote later consis- his psychiatric practice by parents con- tency by organizing and consolidating cerned that their sons’ gender noncon- preferred versions of events.”18 formity heralded future homosexuality. Retrospective accounts, be they in for- He was able to follow up on no more mal academic studies or stories swapped than two-thirds of his original sample with friends or collections of coming- of sixty feminine boys and found that, out tales, present a dilemma. On the one compared to controls, a signi½cant num- hand how better to ½nd out about expe- ber became either homosexual or trans- riences and emotions than from the very sexual as adults. Psychiatrist Ken Zuck- people who are doing and feeling. If fem- er con½rms these general trends. But inists did nothing else for academia, they questions remain: What happened to successfully and rightly insisted that sci- the one-third or so children he lost track ence cannot ½gure out why people do of? Perhaps they resolved their early what they do, or how they feel what they gender issues and grew up heterosexual. feel, without taking into account what And how are we to understand the fact the feeling and experiencing individuals that these children were brought to re- themselves have to say. This is the fun- searchers’ attention by parents worried about their children’s gender nonconfor- mity? 17 L. M. Diamond, “Careful What You Ask In theory we should be able to design For: Reconsidering Feminist Epistemology and prospective studies that better examine Autobiographical Narrative in Research on Sex- ual Identity Formation,” Signs 31 (2) (2006): the relationship between early gender 471–489. nonconformity and later sexuality. The results would be important, but we 18 Ibid., 478. would be left, still, with the twin prob-

54 Dædalus Spring 2007 lems of process and bodies. What leads So what do we want to know and how Frameworks to gender nonconformity in young chil- do we ½nd it out? First, I suggest that we of desire dren, and how do these early behaviors take a page from contemporary dynam- relate to the emergence at later ages of ic-systems theories. Dynamic systems particular desires? In others words, are complex and interactive. They are what are the processes by which desire also self-organizing and self-maintain- becomes inherent to the body? And, of ing. In some periods of their develop- course, we would still need to consider ment they are unstable in that each cur- how homosexual desire emerges in indi- rent state produces the conditions for viduals who were gender conformists as the next developmental moment19–the young children as well as how heterosex- so-called feed-forward networks. But ual desire forms in both gender typical dynamic systems can also be self-stabi- and gender atypical children. lizing. And stability is one feature of hu- man desire that requires explanation. Our current theories are too narrow- Sexual preference, while not necessari- ly framed. They are shaped by the de- ly a permanent feature of a person’s psy- mands of empirical science and by the che, is very stable, as the failure of many politics of sexuality. Geneticists simpli- decades of efforts to ‘cure’ people of fy their study population to improve same-sex desire shows. their chances of ½nding important genes On the other hand, dynamic systems while social scientists hone the quality can destabilize. If enough of the inter- of their survey instruments to improve supporting subunits are disrupted, the statistical power. Psychiatrists study the entire system can become chaotic; even- children who land on their doorsteps be- tually it restabilizes. The new stable state cause it is reasonable to do so and some can produce the same types of desire, or information seems better than none. a new set of desires may emerge. This, Gay activists tell coming-out stories and I would argue, is what happens when welcome the scienti½c approaches that someone ‘changes’ sexual preference. af½rm personal memories and feelings. The current way of explaining a change Anti-rights groups write their own nar- in desire appeals to a hidden essence ratives and embrace supporting scien- that ½nally works its way to the surface. ti½c results. It is, quite frankly, a mess. Hence people ‘discover’ that they were But it needn’t be. Instead of using a always gay but did not know it, and an- dead-end framework to churn out more nounce that their true nature has ½nally data, we should debate what it is we been revealed. The revelation model is want to understand about human sexu- at the heart of endless hours of friendly ality, argue about the forms of knowl- gossip within the gay community about edge we seek, and consider what the best so-and-so who is surely gay but doesn’t ways of pursuing such knowledge might know it. It’s fun, but offers little sub- be. At the very least, geneticists, neuro- scientists, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and humanists of a 19 For general reading on dynamic systems, variety of stripes need to collaborate to consult E. Thelen and L. B. Smith, A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cogni- move forward. If this does not become tion and Action (Cambridge, Mass.: mit Press, an interdisciplinary conversation, then 1994); S. Camazine et al., Self-Organization in we will be having the same debate ½fty Biological Systems (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton years from now. University Press, 2001).

Dædalus Spring 2007 55 Anne stance with which to understand human consider the idea of incorporating prac- Fausto- 20 Sterling development–both its stability and its tices. N. Katherine Hayles distinguish- on mutability. es between inscription, which she likens sex If we are to understand desire as a to Foucauldian discourse, and incorpo- dynamic system, we must learn more ration. Incorporating practices are re- about the underlying components that peated actions that become part of bodi- produce a stable state (or become desta- ly memory. Learning to ride a bike is an bilized). There are many levels of organ- archetypal example. We start out unable ization to consider, from the subcellular to balance on two wheels, but by trying to the sociocultural. Here I want to dis- and trying again, we eventually learn to place genes. They don’t belong at the balance without conscious thought. Our bottom of the pyramid or as the ½rst ar- body has memorized the feeling; our row in a linear array of causes. Rather, muscles and nerves know what to do. they belong in the middle. Genes don’t Let me articulate the concept in the lan- cause; they respond. It is important to guage of contemporary neuroscience: understand gene activity as a reaction to We form new neural networks, and we a particular environment or experience. expand and train neuromuscular con- I use environment very broadly here to nections. Sometimes the memory is include both a cellular environment, say, maintained primarily in the peripheral in the developing embryo, and behaviors nervous system; other times the neural and experiences that stimulate gene ac- network involves the brain. tivity. Several features of incorporated The enormous and growing literature knowledge are conceptually interesting on neural plasticity is exemplary. From for an understanding of the develop- birth through adolescence, the density ment of human desire. First, there are of synapses in the human brain–a meas- improvisational elements: incorpora- ure of increasing complexity, connectivi- tion is contextual rather than abstract. ty, and speci½city–more than doubles. Second, incorporated knowledge is, lit- Recent work in the neurosciences shows erally, sedimented in the body and thus that central nervous system develop- resists change. Third, because it is habit- ment is dynamic and activity-depend- ual, it is not part of conscious memory. ent. In other words, throughout child- But–and this is the fourth point–be- hood, the brain grows, and nerve cells cause it is contextual, sedimented, and make and lose and remake and stabilize nonconscious, it is possible, through the multiple connections in response to ex- human capacity to narrate our own lives, periences and behaviors. Gene activity for it to become a part of our conscious mediates these events but does not cause thought as well. In proper cybernetic them in a directional sense. thinking our narrations of desire can in A dynamic approach, potentially, can turn modify incorporated knowledge. give us purchase on the question of how All of which places us at the beginning we come to embody desire. While the of a new effort to understand human early and mid-twentieth-century work sexuality. The information already gath- of philosophers, physiologists, psychia- ered using previous methods and con- trists, and psychologists such as Paul Schilder, Douwe Tiersma, and M. Mer- 20 N. K. Hayles, “The Materiality of Informat- leau-Ponty should be revisited in this ics,” Con½gurations: A Journal of Literature Sci- context, I want in this shorter piece to ence and Technology 1 (Winter 1993): 147–170.

56 Dædalus Spring 2007 cepts may be of some use in helping to Frameworks shape new research frameworks, even of desire though I argue that we must radically shift gears, abandoning the old ways and forging new approaches. I urge scholars from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to devote their energies to developing newly framed analytical projects in discussion with one another. I believe we can recoup the energy lost by continued devotion to the old nature versus nurture, genes versus choice de- bate and charge our batteries with ideas that promise an understanding of hu- man sexuality as something complex, ever changing, and more delectable for its very dynamism.

Dædalus Spring 2007 57 Elizabeth Benedict

What I learned about sex on the Internet

A decade ago, I had the peculiar dis- I hadn’t sought out either publication. tinction of being dubbed “The Sex Until a publisher asked me to write The Priestess of the Ivy League” by the sas- Joy of Writing Sex, I kept busy teaching sy New York Observer. I was teaching in and writing literary novels (each with a Princeton’s creative writing program few sex scenes), book reviews, and the and promoting a new book, The Joy of occasional travel piece or personal essay. Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers, a But the publisher’s idea appealed to me. serious approach to writing sex scenes in Before I knew it, I was conceptualizing literary ½ction. Not long after that, there theories and strategies involved in writ- would be more to my moniker than The ing about sex, collecting examples from Observer–or my students–knew. For contemporary work, and interviewing the next two years, while instructing my writers including Russell Banks, John young charges in the elements of serious Updike, Dorothy Allison, and Alan Hol- ½ction, I wrote a monthly column called linghurst. In New York, I happened to “Girl Talk,” under a pseudonym, for the meet a Japanese editor and book scout Japanese edition of Playboy. Each piece and sent her the ½nished manuscript, was a mini-play starring four saucy New hoping she might interest a Japanese York women in their twenties–though publisher. Instead, she phoned me some I hadn’t seen my own for some time– time later with a far more exotic invita- who met at trendy bars and ski lodges to tion. discuss their latest sexual exploits. It was Japanese Playboy needed a monthly lively banter and a smidgen of soft-core woman columnist after their New York- porn. based writer suddenly quit. Was I inter- ested? At ½rst I was flummoxed. Writ- Elizabeth Benedict is the author of ½ve novels, ing about sex in ½ction came easily to including “Slow Dancing” (1985), a Nation- me, but what could I possibly dream up, al Book Award ½nalist, “Almost” (2001), and month after month, that would hold in “The Practice of Deceit” (2005), as well as thrall tens of thousands of randy Japa- “The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction nese men? I balked until she mentioned Writers” (2002). Her website is www.elizabeth- the mini-play format, which suits my benedict.com. taste for writing dialogue, and the hyper- generous fee–every month for a year. © 2007 by Elizabeth Benedict Surely, I could think of something. Once

58 Dædalus Spring 2007 I did some novelist’s research into the In this maelstrom of loss, I conflated What I X learned sex lives of Gen ers and New York’s the personal, the political, and the grim about sex latest hot spots, I was turning out my news of the day, more and more of on the spicy columns the morning they were which I began to consume online. Soon Internet due. Readers were happy. I was prosper- after the invasion of Iraq began, I be- ous. The contract continued for a second came aware of a slew of alternate news year, until the editor in Tokyo moved to sites, ballast against the media’s lust Venice. for Shock and Awe and Annihilation Her departure coincided with the end and for the neocon con job: sites like of my four-year appointment at Princ- www.mediawhoresonline.com, since ton in 1998. Perhaps as a result of this retired, and www.buzzflash.com, still series of losses–the job, Playboy, and the going strong. Instead of going to sleep cherished Sex Priestess title–my body with J., my partner of many years, I soon lurched into another phase, the found myself staying up late many phase of losing all the estrogen I’d been nights, reading the latest flood of news born with, and then the phase of taking about what had become the great dra- little blue pills every day that gave me ma of our time, Bush-Cheney-Rove vs. back the estrogen in another form. All the United States of America–and the of these events spanned the period in Rest of Humanity. In my nightly haze which we witnessed the collapse of the of anxiety and disbelief, I occasionally nasdaq, where I’d put my Playboy win- remembered a friend’s funny story. “My nings; the election of George Bush; Sep- wife and I had a huge ½ght,” he said. “I tember 11; and the warning, issued by left the house and went to the movies. the nih on July 2, 2002, that the little The theater was mobbed. I said to my- blue pills, also known as hormone-re- self, ‘All these people had ½ghts with placement therapy, caused small but their wives?’” Adopting his twisted log- distinct increases in a virulent strain of ic, I became convinced that the political breast cancer, and we all had to stop tak- landscape had cast a pall on everyone’s sex ing them. life, on those, anyway, who were paying It was one thing for a part-time sex- attention. Wasn’t everyone awake till all writing expert to lose a cushy magazine hours reading the same alarming news I gig and a teaching job with a pension, was reading–and if not, why not? I sent but quite another to lose the essential frantic emails to reporters, I fretted, I hormone that regulates libido and keeps worked on political campaigns when the the equipment working. A woman mi- time came. Sex? It had a familiar ring, nus her estrogen is like a car with no oil like the word ‘gramophone,’ but as a liv- –and no shock absorbers. With my es- ing concept–well, in my addled, scared, trogen flowing, in real or synthetic form, estrogen-starved, 3 a.m. brain, it had it had been easy to imagine the hyper- begun to sound passé. It had begun to bolic escapades that ½lled my monthly sound very September 10. column. But without it coursing through Reader, I am trying to explain how the my blood, I could barely remember what former Sex Priestess of the Ivy League desire felt like. Or do I mean I didn’t came to the abject place I found myself want to remember, didn’t want to be on a recent night: googling the word reminded of what was no longer there? ‘sex.’ After midnight. Alone in the living Gone was the World Trade Center, gone room. Ashamed of typing in those three was my libido. little letters, as though I had no better

Dædalus Spring 2007 59 Elizabeth offers at that hour. As though I were des- dicts Anonymous.” The dark sides of sex Benedict on perate. When in fact I was only . . . curi- soon assert themselves on every page of sex ous . . . to see what everyone else was up Google, in the proli½c Sex Offender Pub- to while my own libido languished. lic Registry sites. The ½rst such site be- longs to the U.S. Department of Justice. There is more going on than I had doj insignia appear beside the name of imagined. On my ½rst try, Google our beloved attorney general, Alberto R. coughs up 733,000,000 entries. (I’ve Gonzales. But in order to ½nd out where since learned the number varies enor- the rapists live in my neighborhood, I mously, some days down to a mere must click an ‘I Agree’ box, and there’s 44,000,000.) The top entry is “Sex Etc.” no telling what I’m signing up for when at www.sxetc.org, “a website by teens I do this. Next: the home pages for Sex for teens” that’s straightforward and in the City; the Museum of Sex; the Sex informational. The quote of the day: Pistols; the eeoc Sex Discrimination “‘I give masturbation two thumbs up.’ of½ce, which I am surprised still exists; –Ian, 13, Hancock, ny.” Reassuring, and swop usa, the Sex Workers Out- that the gods of Google have somehow reach Program, announcing its upcom- made it easy for the most vulnerable sex ing State of Women’s Health Confer- consumers to have access to so many ence, in Toledo, Ohio. facts put forward by people they can The next eight or nine pages are pret- trust. ty dreary (Frequently Asked Questions The next entry is “Salon.com Sex In- about Sex, and lists of sex offenders in dex,” leading to all of Salon’s entries on Maine, Tennessee, New York, Oklaho- the topic, notably www.shoperotictv. ma, etc.) until I spot “Anal Sex Accord- com, where I watch an advertising video ing to the Word of God.” The url– that appears on tv (not sure what chan- www.sexinchrist.com–leads me to what nel), in which two straight-faced women must be some of the more bizarre faqs cheerfully sell a Turbo Stroker ($89.99, ever written: marked down from $99.99), a mechani- Anal Sex in Accordance with God’s Will cal vagina in a canister. It’s topped with pink rubbery lips, into which a man can Are you saving yourself for your wedding put ‘himself’ and experience a mechan- night? The Devil wants you to fail, that’s ical squeeze similar to a real woman why he puts stumbling blocks in your and/or Portnoy’s cored apple. (What a way. But God wants you to succeed, and hoot! I’m tempted to wake J. from his that’s why he has given us an alternative sleep–but what if he wants to order to intercourse before marriage: anal sex. one? I suppose I wouldn’t blame him.) Through anal sex, you can satisfy your Next I ½nd Wikipedia’s exhaustive body’s needs, while you avoid the risk of and exhausting entry on ‘sexual inter- unwanted pregnancy and still keep your- course,’ and then the home page for self pure for marriage. Playboy, where I ½nd, alas, no links to You may be shocked at ½rst by this idea. my alma mater in Tokyo. The Playboy Isn’t anal sex (sodomy) forbidden by the entry makes me feel nostalgic for the Bible? Isn’t anal sex dirty? What’s the bright, shining days when I made as difference between having anal sex before much money per hour as Bill Clinton’s marriage and having regular intercourse? lawyers. But then it’s on to the next en- try, a tilt toward the sinister: “Sex Ad-

60 Dædalus Spring 2007 I thought the Bible said anal sex was a We did not mean to suggest that Jesus What I sin. was propositioning the woman at the well learned about sex or asked her to give him a blow job. Of This is a common misconception. Anal on the course not! Jesus would never do that. In Internet sex is confusing to many Christians be- fact, he refuses to give her the “living wa- cause of the attention paid to the Bible’s ter” himself. When she asks him to give condemnation of homosexual acts. How- her the living water (semen), Christ tells ever, it’s important to realize that these the woman to get her husband. This is so often-quoted scriptures refer only to sexu- he (Christ) could instruct her on how to al acts between two men. Nowhere does give a blow job to her husband and receive the Bible forbid anal sex between a male the living water from her husband. Thank and female. you for your concern, and we hope this In fact, many biblical passages allude to clari½es matters. the act of anal sex between men and wom- en. Lamentations 2:10 describes how “the Shame on me, I ½nd myself engaged virgins of Jerusalem have bowed their and amused. In a world of unimagin- heads to the ground,” indicating how vir- able sexual abundance and license– ginal maidens should position themselves consider those 733,000,000 Google en- to receive anal sex. Another suggestive tries–this bizarre site somehow man- scripture tells of a woman’s pride in her ages to be truly over the top. To whom “valley” (referring to her buttocks and the does it belong? There are no ‘Contact cleft between them) and entices her lover Us’ or ‘Who We Are’ tabs, no links be- to ejaculate against her backside: “How yond the site. That it’s an elaborate joke boastful you are about the valleys! O back- makes the most sense, a prankster try- sliding daughter who trusts in her treas- ing to infuriate the Bible thumpers. ures, [saying,] ‘ Who will come against Another possibility: an obsessive guy me?’ (Jeremiah 49:4) And in the Song of trying hard to convince his Christian Songs, the lover urges his mate to allow wife that anal sex–and porn and adul- him to enter her from behind: “Draw me tery and ½st fucking–are kosher. May- after you, let us make haste.” (Song of Sol- be it’s the work of a solitary, tormented omon 1:4) man dreaming of a perfect world, where he can be a good Christian and a guilt- The site tackles, and mostly endorses, free perv, if only the right woman comes adultery, masturbation, pornography, along. even ‘½sting’; and each page is presented Or maybe–contrary to the usual pub- with a straight face and plenty of Bibli- licity–sexinchrist.com represents one cal quotes. But the most bizarre Q&As tributary of the Christian mainstream. come from readers, who have a page of In this spirit of inquiry, I google ‘sex + their own. A colloquy on Christianity Christ,’ and in 0.19 seconds, I’m blessed and swallowing semen leads to this: with 23,300,000 entries. Curiouser and This is complete blasphemy. You must curiouser: sexinchrist.com is the top take this down. To suggest that the Lord listing. Jesus Christ propositioned a woman for An advertisement on the right side of a blow job is preposterous. You are sin- the page tempts me at once: “Christian ning against God by twisting the words Porn.” The site is a pitch for his-and-her of His son. You need to take this down, e-books called Sexual Satisfaction for the for your own good. Christian Husband and Sexual Satisfaction

Dædalus Spring 2007 61 Elizabeth for the Christian Wife by Robert Irwin and in 0.28 seconds. What gets top billing? Benedict on Susan Irwin. Seems they were married Sexinchrist.com. At the bottom of the sex for thirteen years, happily except for the page is evidence of the true Christian awkwardness in the boudoir, before his way: www.uncontrolledthoughts.com, intensive study–“bookshelves . . . lined which promises to help us get rid of the with books, manuals and medical jour- desire for pornography and the nasty nals”–led to a sexual awakening for habit of masturbation. Unlike sexin- both of them. The ‘his’ page tells readers christ.com, this site includes an address that by reading his book, they can learn (in Midway, Utah), a phone number, and to experience “pleasure so overwhelm- a God-fearing rallying point: “Never ing that your wife will want sex as often masturbate again!!! Believe it or not, as you do! . . . hours-long lovemaking ses- you can do without it.” sions . . . multiple (and simultaneous) But on the World Wide Web, it’s near- orgasms in a single evening,” and that ly impossible to do without pornogra- they will be “capable of maintaining a phy for long. It was porn, after all, which single erection, literally, inde½nitely.” gave the World Wide Web its most prof- The wife’s corresponding page (“Chris- itable product early on; it was porn that tian Wives Click Here”) promises that was, almost a decade ago, a $10 to $14 “you too can experience sex that is an billion-a-year business, according to a intense, frequent and spiritual event . . . 1998 study.1 At the top of page two on including orgasms (for both of you) that my Christian porn search, I ½nd “Por- are so overwhelming that you will be nography Blogs: Many Great Pornog- amazed that such pleasure exists in this raphy Blogs to Read,” which includes world. And, best of all . . . you will not “173 blog articles about Christian por- have to embarrass yourself (as we did nography.” The home page leads to a many times) by having to look for this flashing billboard: information in a bookstore. You won’t The world of pornography blogged ‘til it’s have to hide any books from anyone, try- raw ing to avoid explaining your interest in click here to see my 22 such matters.” In the book, readers can favorite nude celebrities! also learn “how to help your husband to famous celebrities you may have never become your dream lover . . . . how to be- seen naked! come a ‘sexual explorer,’ while always pleasing God.” When I open this page, among the ce- At the end of Robert’s and Susan’s lebrities I may have never seen naked is: letters is a spiritual note: “P.S. You did jenna bush not ½nd this site by chance. With God, The President’s Daughter there are no ‘coincidences.’ You were missing bikini bottoms! meant to ½nd this site because God cares click here to join us inside to watch all of about you, your marriage . . . and your the celebrity videos sexual satisfaction!” Both books togeth- See her and Thousands er, $49.00. More For Just a Buck! God also seems to care about my Christian sex education, and only a mo- ment later I’m inspired to google the phrase ‘Christian pornography.’ Ten 1 Frank Rich, “Naked Capitalists,” New York thousand six hundred listings pop up Times, May 20, 2001.

62 Dædalus Spring 2007 On the one hand, I’m relieved that all remained “burned on the hard drive” What I learned of my searching has ½nally–½nally!– of his mind. He admits that every site about sex led me to something more risqué than on his computer is monitored by “some- on the the Turbo Stroker: some actual porn, at one else,” lest it lead him to the naughty Internet least I assume that’s what I’d see if I places (117,000,000 sites–a lot of temp- were willing to enter my credit card tation by any reckoning). He won’t trav- number into the system. But who knows el anywhere alone. “I’ve had to put in what list of perverts or criminals I might necessary safeguards to remain pure,” end up on? Still, at 2 a.m., having near- he con½des. Is it just masturbation he ly encountered the First Child in a com- fears in that lonely hotel room–or is it promising position, I’m emboldened some of the other big naughties that get to throw caution to the wind: then and so many squeaky-clean preachers into there I decide to google the real thing, so much trouble? (Ask observant friend ‘pornography.’ I get 17,000,000 hits. S. to view video and psych out Craig’s And then ‘porn’–117,500,000. Both ½rst interests.) pages turn up what we might expect– In a nearly 3 a.m. epiphany, it dawns except for “#1 Christian Porn Site” at on me that sexinchrist.com might well www.xxxchurch.com. These repen- be one man’s cheeky answer to Craig’s tant sinners have turned uncontrolled- purity campaign. Who knows? It might thoughts.com into a spiffy cottage in- even be the work of Craig Groeschel. dustry with a sharp-looking website. This is why he needs a chaperone. This The most heavily flogged item is a tee blasphemous website is why he can’t shirt ($15.00), whose message, “Chris- be trusted alone in a Comfort Inn. No tians Don’t Masturbate,” is broadcast telling what other passages he might in bright red letters on black cloth and, ½nd in a Gideon Bible, what other sins best of all, set on a gray imprint of a could be washed away with the right large hand. The problems with mastur- chapters and verses. Wonder who trav- bation are that “it is a sel½sh act that els with him so he doesn’t have to trav- pleases no one but yourself” (clearly el alone? the writers have put it to limited use) When I return to the Google ‘porn’ and that 76 percent of masturbators are listings, the right-hand column of ad- aided in sin by pornography. It’s unclear vertisements includes a surprise. The whether porn is bad because it leads to top ad–“Help the Children”–is an or- masturbation, or masturbation is bad ganization promoting children’s rights because it leads to porn. in India. The other ads are more pre- Yet the graphically engaging site dictable, but they have a plucky variety includes more than just tee shirts and I hadn’t expected: “Get Laid,” “Sexy bad advice. There is a section, “Just Russian Brides,” “See Photos of Hot For Pastors,” with a slew of statistics Women,” “Mobile Sex.” about how susceptible pastors are to Before I’m tempted to revert to my porn, and a slick video called “Pastors true Internet addiction, left-wing politi- and Porn,” starring lifechurch.tv pas- cal websites of the www.antiwar.com tor Craig Groeschel. He’s a surprising- variety, I do one ½nal Google search for ly handsome, hunky guy–considering plain old ordinary ‘sex,’ and ½nd a list- the depths of his sexual hang-ups–who ing so quaint it makes me smile: “Tree- tells us that images of pornography he hugger: TreeHuggertv. In the same viewed as a child and young man have week that thtv released this How To

Dædalus Spring 2007 63 Elizabeth Buy A Green Sex Toy video, Greenpeace endearing: “Before the evening gets Benedict on issued a warning about the toxicity of away from us, could you tell me what sex sex toys . . . . ” ‘dot-com’ means?” It’s part of an ad- Yet another sweet one turns up, like a dress on the Internet, I explained, know- daffodil blooming in April: “cnn.com– ing it wouldn’t make much sense to her. Mouthy parrot ‘reveals sex secret.’ A I showed her what it was all about once computer programmer found out his or twice on my laptop, but the informa- girlfriend was having an affair when his tion went no farther than her short-term pet parrot kept repeating her lover’s memory bank. Reading this piece, she name, British media reported Tuesday.” would have to ask: What does ‘Google’ Touching. An antitechnology story: mean? What does ‘www’ mean? What no pastor-to-pastor Quick Time videos, does it mean ‘to kick out 1.2 billion web- no photos of Jenna uncloaked, no bat- sites’? tery-operated vaginas, no porn videos But of course she would know what you can watch on your new Treo. A par- ‘sex’ means. Everyone knows what sex rot who chirps the Other Man’s name. is. Or we used to, when it was a less Hooray for unbridled, unchaperoned complicated proposition. Well, it was Mother Nature, even when she gets you never uncomplicated, except for the into trouble. mechanics. Now the mechanical dimen- sion offers a few more choices than were Who knows how the mind works in previously available, including this one: a state of Google stimulation? The con- me sitting in my living room staring at dition may soon require its own word. a screen in my lap, with X million shots Perhaps: Googlelation? Such disorders of genitals and/or sex videos available could become a new entry in the dsm to me with no more than a few typing compendium. Christian pastors are strokes on the keyboard, all of this pos- afraid of their own penises and everyone sible while the man I share a bed with else’s, and perhaps I ought to be afraid sleeps in the other room. I’m not sure of what I’m doing: studying the fearful, my mother would know what this the obsessive, and the flat-out pornog- means. She would assume that there is raphers. A friend jokes: “If there are something amiss. But is there? 800,000,000 websites for ‘sex,’ there are George Bataille didn’t have this tech- a total of 900,000,000 websites.” Actu- nology or this scenario in mind when ally, ‘money’ and ‘war’ both beat ‘sex’ he wrote, in 1957: “The human spirit is by a mile. Tonight ‘war’ kicks out 1.02 prey to the most astounding impulses. billion websites; ‘money’ 1.3 billion. Man goes constantly in fear of himself. ‘Sex’ is chump change. Perhaps ‘sex’ will His erotic urges terrify him. The saint be no more than a comma in the history turns from the voluptuary in alarm; she books, as President Bush recently said of does not know that his unacknowledge- the war in Iraq. Even if the porn indus- able passions and her own are really try has doubled or tripled since the 1998 one.” Alone in the living room, I realize study, it’s nothing compared to the hun- I fall somewhere on the continuum be- dreds of billions–or is it trillions?–that tween the hyperactive Internet pornog- ‘war’ generates. raphers and the terri½ed Reverend Craig Some seven years ago, as the Internet Groeschel, whose erotic urges frighten took off and my mother’s brain started him into a state of endless torment. I’d to shut down, she said something quite be delighted to have a few more erotic

64 Dædalus Spring 2007 urges, but far fewer than 17,000,000. ‘hot porn.’ Is the reason I’m not aroused What I learned The libidos of millions of women have –the reason I’m so turned off–because about sex changed since the hormone-replacement this form of stimulation is so ‘digital- on the news in 2002. And in roughly the same ized,’ so far from storytelling, or because Internet time period, sex and sexuality have un- I’m short on estrogen? Someone–mil- dergone alteration, too. Frank Rich, the lions of someones–are having a good Sex Priest of The New York Times, or at time. Or so the unfathomable abun- least the man who’s followed changes in dance leads you to believe. The truth the adult-entertainment business over might well be that only a few million the years with a vengeance, describes the hardcore porn lovers–or fewer than phenomenon: that–are dipping regularly into the well. In fact, there are probably more The cliché has it that when the formerly people trying to sell porn on the Inter- contraband becomes accepted, it loses net than there are buyers of it. its cachet. With sex, that’s not really an Oh, for the good old days. Back when option. What does seem to be happening I was the Sex Priestess of the Ivy League, is a digitalization of sex–and not only in sex was still, as far as I can remember, the sense that porn is distributed digital- an activity people wanted to do with ly, whether by Internet or dvd or televi- other people, not with their computers. sion or spam. In a more profound sense, Google was the embryonic ambition of the erotic is being ½guratively and literal- two Stanford graduate students. And the ly dismembered as it is broken down into word ‘war’ was employed more often on its various discrete bytes, like albums that our shores as a metaphor than as a series are atomized into their individual songs of real-life conflagrations that will em- to be downloaded from the Web.2 broil the U.S. military for the foreseeable “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” future. Tonight there are 324,000 entries exists independently of Sergeant Pepper’s on Google that contain the phrase ‘war Lonely Hearts Club Band. An image of a without end,’ and that, too, is an expres- shiny erect penis thrusts in the center sion I’m sure my mother would have of my computer screen, unconnected dif½culty grasping. The clock on my not only to a body and a human being computer tells me it’s 3:00 a.m. on the but even from the pretense of narrative nose, and I am suddenly a little bit lone- that used to accompany porn. This min- ly and more than a little sad. But before iature iteration of porn is a far cry from I turn out the lights and slip into the more narrative-driven examples of por- other room, into my side of the bed, I’m nography that were current circa 1967, inspired to do one last search for the when Susan Sontag published “The Por- night. Astonishingly, in a matter of 0.34 nographic Imagination.” She defended seconds, some of my melancholy lifts. the literary value of Story of O and did ‘Women + low libido + remedies’ turns not defend the literary value of the rib- up 92,400 possibilities. Who knew? ald novel Candy, but from this distance, There must be something in all those they both have the heft of Middlemarch gigabytes that will do the trick. (Leave when lined up against the 6,790,000 note for J. to see when he wakes up in the offerings that appear when you google morning: Guess what? The drought is over.)

2 Frank Rich, “Finally, Porn Does Time,” New York Times, July 27, 2003.

Dædalus Spring 2007 65 Wendy Doniger

Reading the “Kamasutra”: the strange & the familiar

The Kamasutra is the oldest extant Virtually nothing is known about the Hindu textbook of erotic love, and one author, Vatsyayana Mallanaga, other of the oldest in the world. It is not, as than his name and what little we learn most people think, a book about the from the text. Nor do we know anything positions in sexual intercourse. It is a about Yashodhara, who wrote the de½ni- book about the art of living–½nding a tive commentary in the thirteenth cen- partner, maintaining power in a mar- tury. But Vatsyayana tells us something riage, committing adultery, living as or important about his text, namely, that it with a courtesan, using drugs–and al- is a distillation of the works of a number so about the positions in sexual inter- of authors who preceded him, authors course. It was composed in Sanskrit, the whose texts have not come down to us. literary language of ancient India, prob- Vatsyayana cites them often–sometimes ably sometime in the second half of the in agreement, sometimes in disagree- third century of the Common Era, in ment–though his own voice always North India, perhaps in Pataliputra (near comes through, as ringmaster over the the present city of Patna, in Bihar). many acts he incorporates in his sexual circus. The Kamasutra was therefore certain- Wendy Doniger, a Fellow of the American Acad- ly not the ½rst of its genre, nor was it emy since 1989, is Mircea Eliade Professor of the the last. But the many textbooks of erot- History of Religions at the University of Chicago icism that follow it eliminate most of Divinity School and director of the Martin Mar- the Kamasutra’s encyclopedic social ty Center. Among her numerous books are “Siva: and psychological narratives and con- The Erotic Ascetic” (1973),“The Origins of Evil centrate primarily on the sexual posi- in Hindu Mythology” (1976), “Splitting the Dif- tions, of which they describe many ference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and more than are found in the Kamasutra. India” (1999), and “The Woman Who Pretend- Conspicuous by its absence, however, ed to Be Who She Was” (2005). She has also is what Europeans call the ‘missionary’ published a new translation of the “Kamasutra” position, which the Kamasutra mentions (with Sudhir Kakar, 2002). briefly but without enthusiasm: “In the ‘cup,’ both partners stretch out both of © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts their two legs straight. There are two & Sciences variants: the ‘cup lying on the side’ or

66 Dædalus Spring 2007 ‘the cup supine.’” (2.6.16–17) The com- And when the text describes the possible Reading the “Kama- mentator, too, scorns this position: positions, it uses these sizes keyed to an- sutra” “How does he penetrate her in this po- imal types as its basic referents: sition? It is so easy that there is nothing At the moment of passion, in a coupling to worry about!” So much for what Eu- where the man is larger than the woman, ropeans generally regarded as the default a “doe” positions herself in such a way position. as to stretch herself open inside. A “doe” By contrast, the default position for generally has three positions to choose ancient Indian men and women–over- from: the “wide open,” the “yawning,” whelmingly favored in illustrations of or the “Junoesque.” (2.6.1, 7) the Kamasutra–is something entirely different, as Monty Python used to say. The man’s fear that his penis is not big The Kamasutra describes three variants: enough–the recurrent leitmotif of spam on the Internet today–had apparently Her head thrown down, her pelvis raised already raised its ugly head in ancient up, she is “wide open.” Without lowering India. As a result, the doe became the fa- her thighs, suspending them while spread- vored woman, the ideal erotic partner. ing them wide apart, she receives him in The initial passage de½ning the three the “yawning” position. Parting her thighs sizes continues: “The equal couplings around his sides, at the same time she are the best, the one when the man is pulls her knees back around her own sides, much larger or much smaller than the in the “Junoesque” position, which can woman are the worst, and the rest are only be done with practice. (2.6.8, 10–11) intermediate. Even in the medium ones, Some variants of these positions are it is better for the man to be larger than more complex. In some, her thighs are the woman.” (2.1.1, 3–4) Thus two dif- bent back so far that, in effect, he enters ferent, conflicting agendas are set forth her from the rear even though she is fac- from the start: ideally, equal is best, but ing him: “When he raises her pelvis and in fact the man has to be bigger, because thrusts into her from below, violently, it women are by nature bigger. The biggest is called ‘grinding down.’” (2.8.24) Sig- woman (the elephant cow) is much larg- ni½cantly, this is the position that the er than the biggest man (the stallion). Kamasutra advises a man to use when the The problem of satisfaction posed by woman’s genitals are much smaller than the greater size of women is not easily his. solved, in part because it is not physi- Size, and its importance, becomes ap- cal but mental. No proto-Kinsey went parent from the very start of the part of around in ancient India measuring wom- the text describing the sexual act: en’s vulvas. It is a matter of fantasy, ap- parently a cross-cultural human fantasy, The man is called a “hare,” “bull,” or and it is not about physiology (for which “stallion,” according to the size of his sex- the Kamasutra offers physical correc- ual organ; a woman, however, is called a tives) but about desire. And desire is af- “doe,” “mare,” or “elephant cow.” And so fected not merely by size but also by in- there are three equal couplings, between tensity and duration: sexual partners of similar size, and six un- equal ones, between sexual partners of A man has dull sexual energy if, at the dissimilar size. (2.1.1) time of making love, his enthusiasm is in- different, his virility small, and he cannot

Dædalus Spring 2007 67 Wendy bear to be wounded, and a man has aver- text, a female-to-male bisexual says that Doniger age or ½erce sexual energy in the oppo- on when she was a woman, she had eight sex site circumstances. The same goes for the times as much pleasure (kama) as a man, woman. And so, just as with size, so with which could also be translated as eight temperament, too, there are nine sorts of times as much desire.1 couplings. And similarly, with respect to But the Kamasutra had its ways of cop- endurance, men are quick, average, and ing with satisfaction, a kind of end-run long-lasting. (2.1.5–8, 30–31) around the obstacle of size. Just as there are ways for a doe to expand, so, too, The passage then concludes that the the Kamasutra assures us, “In a coupling woman should reach her climax ½rst. where the man is smaller, an ‘elephant Why? The commentator explains: cow’ contracts herself inside . . . . Sex The best case is when the man and woman tools may also be used.” (2.1.3, 6) (The achieve their sexual pleasure at the same commentator helpfully remarks, “If he time, because that is an equal coupling. is larger than she is, there is no need for But if it does not happen at the same time, sex tools.”) The “grinding down” posi- and the man reaches his climax ½rst, his tion, in which the woman bends her banner is no longer at full mast, and the thighs so close to her chest that the man woman does not reach her climax. There- enters her from below, is particularly ef- fore, if the coupling is unequal rather than fective for this: “He thrusts from below equal, the woman should be treated with into the lower part of her vagina, vio- kisses, embraces, and so forth, in such a lently, because the itch is most extensive way that she achieves her sexual pleasure in the lower part of the vagina.” (2.8.24) ½rst. When the woman reaches her climax The Kamasutra also provides an extensive ½rst, the man, remaining inside her, puts collection of recipes that are the ancient on speed and reaches his own climax. Indian equivalent of Viagra, a combina- tion of drugs and surgical procedures to So the problem of ½t is merely one as- increase the size of the penis; and just pect of the greater problem of satisfac- as the doe may use drugs to expand, the tion. Just as mares are bigger than hares, elephant cow may use drugs to contract: the logic goes, so, the commentator “An ointment made of the white flowers points out in the context of an argument of the ‘cuckoos’-eye’ caper bush makes about female orgasm, women have far an ‘elephant-cow’ contract tightly for more desire than men: “Women want a one night.” (7.2.36) climax that takes a long time to produce, At this point, it might seem that an- because their desire is eight times that of cient India had come to terms with what a man. Given these conditions, it is per- Freud called penis envy (referring to fectly right to say that ‘a fair-eyed wom- women, though Woody Allen wisely re- an cannot be sated by men,’ because marked that it is more of a problem for men’s desire is just one-eighth of wom- en’s.” (2.1.19) Here he is quoting a well- known Sanskrit saying: “A ½re is never 1 Wendy Doniger, Splitting the Difference: Gen- der and Myth in Ancient Greece and India (Chica- sated by any amount of logs, nor the go: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 287– ocean by the rivers that flow into it; 292 (the tale of Chudala, in the Yogavasistha). death cannot be sated by all the crea- Some Greek texts maintain that Teiresias, too, tures in the world, nor a fair-eyed wom- said that women have not just more pleasure, an by any amount of men.” In another but nine times as much pleasure as men–there- by one-upping the Indian ante. Ibid., 293.

68 Dædalus Spring 2007 men). Perhaps size does not matter after There is also a variation with the wom- Reading the “Kama- all? an on top: “When she grasps him in sutra” Well, no. A counterweight to the prob- the ‘mare’s trap’ position and draws lem of desire is the problem of vulnera- him more deeply into her or contracts bility. It turns out that a man may be around him and holds him there for a caught between the Scylla of a woman long time, that is the ‘tongs.’” (2.8.33) who is too big, producing a kind of sex- The commentator adds helpfully: “She ual agoraphobia, and the Charybdis of uses the lips of the vagina as a tongs.” a woman who is too small, inspiring a This is the only sexual position that kind of sexual claustrophobia. Let us re- the Kamasutra associates with a mare, turn to our ideal woman, the doe, and and, confusingly, it is reserved for the look again at the ½rst position recom- “elephant cow” rather than the “mare” mended for her, the “wide open” posi- woman. The confusion arises because tion. It turns out to be rather dangerous. the horse, hypersexualized, is the only The commentator warns: animal that appears on both the male and the female sides of the initial triads When she is making love with the man’s of men and women. Though the male penis inside her, she should slide back and female equines are not paired–the with her hips; or when the man is making stallion is the largest male, while the love with her he should slide back little by mare is merely the middle-sized woman little, so that they do not press together –Hindu mythology regards the mare too tightly. For if he moves inside her too as sexually dangerous, bursting with re- roughly, she can be injured, and the man’s pressed violence: the doomsday ½re is foreskin can be torn off, which physicians lodged in the mouth of a mare who call “ruptured foreskin.” wanders on the floor of the ocean, wait- So the small woman may be too small. ing for the moment when she will be But it gets worse: the too-large woman released to burn everything to ashes.2 may also become too small, by overcom- The mare is the sexual animal par excel- pensating, as it were, for her size. The lence; the commentator on the Kamasu- elephant cow is encouraged to employ a tra, glossing the phrase “two people of sexual position that catapults her unsus- the same species” (in the argument that pecting partner from the frying pan of women have the same sort of climax as insatiable enormity to the ½re of stran- men), offers this example, surely not at gulating tightness. It begins, disarming- random: “Two people of different spe- ly, with the harmless missionary posi- cies, such as a man and a mare, would tion: have different kinds of sensual pleasure; and so he speci½es the same species, the Both partners stretch out both of their two human species.” (2.1.24) legs straight. If, as soon as he has penetrat- The conflation, in an animal image, ed her, he squeezes her two thighs togeth- of the woman who is too big with the er tightly, it becomes the “squeeze.” If she woman who traps you (and is, in that then crosses her thighs, it becomes the sense, too small) begins in ancient In- “circle.” In the “mare’s trap,” which can dia in a text from about 900 bce: only be done with practice, she grasps him, like a mare, so tightly that he cannot move. (2.6.13–20) 2 Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Siva: The Erotic Ascetic (London and Oxford: Oxford Universi- ty Press, 1973), 289–292.

Dædalus Spring 2007 69 Wendy Long-Tongue was a demoness who had back with his ½st when she is seated on Doniger vaginas on every limb of her body. To sub- his lap. Then she pretends to be unable on sex due her, the god Indra equipped his grand- to bear it and beats him in return, while son with penises on every limb and sent groaning, crying, or babbling. If she pro- him to her. As soon as he had his way with tests, he strikes her on the head until her, he remained ½rmly stuck in her; Indra she sobs, using a hand whose ½ngers are then ran at her and struck her down with slightly bent, which is called the “out- his thunderbolt.3 stretched hand.” At this she babbles with sounds inside her mouth, and she sobs. Long-Tongue is a dog, and she and the When the sex ends, there is panting and grandson of Indra (the ancient Indian crying. Shrieking is a sound like a bam- counterpart of Zeus/Wotan/Odin, a boo splitting, and sobbing sounds like a notorious womanizer) get stuck togeth- berry falling into water. Always, if a man er as dogs sometimes do; in this case, it tries to force his kisses and so forth on spells her death, and not his, but clearly her, she moans and does the very same it is an image of excess that corresponds thing back to him. When a man in the to her excessively numerous vaginas, throes of passion slaps a woman repeat- each one presumably demanding to be edly, she uses words like “Stop!” or “Let satis½ed. So this is the catch-22: if the me go!” or “Enough!” or “Mother!” and woman is too big, you cannot satisfy her, utters screams mixed with labored breath- but if she is too small (or too big), you ing, panting, crying, and groaning. As pas- may be injured and/or trapped inside sion nears its end, he beats her extremely her. quickly, until the climax. At this, she be- This example points as well to the ten- gins to babble, fast, like a partridge or a dency to identify women, more than goose. Those are the ways of groaning and men, as animals, as is also assumed in a slapping. (2.7.1-21) passage from the Kamasutra that makes women, in contrast with men, creatures It is worth noting that these women both explicitly likened to animals and make the noises of birds, never of mam- said to speak a meaningless animal lan- mals, let alone the mammals that char- guage: acterize the three paradigmatic sizes of women. Moreover, one of the birds There are eight kinds of screaming: whose babbling the sexual woman imi- whimpering, groaning, babbling, cry- tates–the parrot–appears elsewhere ing, panting, shrieking, or sobbing. And in the Kamasutra as one of the two birds there are various sounds that have mean- who can be taught to speak like humans. ing, such as “Mother!” “Stop!” “Let go!” (1.3.15, 1.4.8, 6.1.15) The passage about “Enough!” As a major part of moaning slapping and groaning inculcates what she may use, according to her imagina- we now recognize as the rape mentality tion, the cries of the dove, cuckoo, green –‘her mouth says no, but her eyes say pigeon, parrot, bee, nightingale, goose, yes’–a dangerous line of thought that duck, and partridge. He strikes her on her leads ultimately to places where we now no longer want to be: disregarding a 3 Jaiminiya Brahmana, 1.161–163. Wendy Don- woman’s protests against rape. And this iger O’Flaherty, Tales of Sex and Violence: Folk- treatment of women is justi½ed by a lore, Sacri½ce, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brah- combination of the of½cial naming of mana (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, women after oversized animals and the 1985), 101.

70 Dædalus Spring 2007 expectation that in the throes of passion deal with the mind as well as the body, Reading the “Kama- women will speak like animals, mean- to satisfy women not only of any size sutra” inglessly. but of any degree of desire. Vatsyayana’s The practice of naming the sexual words in such passages do not seem to movements after animals–the “boar’s reflect male anxiety at all; the women thrust,” the “bull’s thrust,” “frolicking are depicted not as enormous monsters like a sparrow” (2.8.27–29)–also im- but as pliant and manipulatable sources plies that there is a very basic sense in of great pleasure. Vive la différence: be- which sex, even when done according cause we are not animals, we can use cul- to the book, as it were, is bestial. But de- ture–more precisely, the technique of spite its recurrent zoological terminolo- the Kamasutra–to overcome our baser gy, the Kamasutra argues that people are instincts, which must surely include not animals, and that the sexuality of an- male phallic anxiety. imals is different from that of humans. But culture, in the Kamasutra’s sense, The very passages in which people are belonged to those who had leisure and advised, for the sake of variety, to imi- means, time and money, none of which tate the sexual behavior of animals, or was in short supply for the text’s pri- in which women are told to mimic the mary intended audience, an urban (and cries of animals, imply that such behav- urbane) elite consisting of princes, high ior is, by de½nition, different from ours. state of½cials, and wealthy merchants. Vatsyayana distinguishes human sexu- The production of manuscripts, espe- ality from animal sexuality in the argu- cially illuminated manuscripts, was nec- ment that he puts forward at the very be- essarily an elite matter; men of wealth ginning to justify his text: and power, kings and merchants, would commission texts of the Kamasutra to be Scholars say: “Since even animals manage copied out for their private use. sex by themselves, and since it goes on all The protagonist of the Kamasutra is the time, it should not have to be handled such a man. Literally a “man-about- with the help of a text.” Vatsyayana says: town” (nagaraka, from the Sanskrit Because a man and a woman depend upon nagara, ‘city’), he lives “in a city, a capi- one another in sex, it requires a method, tal city, a market town, or some large and this method is learnt from the Kama- gathering where there are good people, sutra. The mating of animals, by contrast, or wherever he has to stay to make a liv- is not based upon any method, because ing.” (1.4.2) He has, as we say of a certain they are not fenced in, they mate only type of man today, no visible source of when the females are in their fertile sea- income. Vatsyayana tells us, at the start son and until they achieve their goal, and of the section describing “The Lifestyle they act without thinking about it ½rst. of the Man-about-Town,” that the play- (1.2.16–20) boy ½nances his lifestyle by “using the Humans, whose sexuality is more com- money that he has obtained from gifts, plex than that of animals, are more re- conquest, trade, or wages, or from inher- pressed–“fenced in,” as the text puts itance, or from both.” (1.4.1) His com- it. Therefore, they have a different sexu- panions may have quite realistic money ality from animals, and need a text for problems (1.4.31–33); his wife is entrust- it, where animals do not. The Kamasu- ed with all the household management, tra’s claim to fame is precisely that it has including the ½nances; and his mistress- found ways–positions, tools, drugs–to es work hard to make and keep their

Dædalus Spring 2007 71 Wendy money. But we never see the man-about- Busy teaching his birds to talk, he never Doniger on town at work: drops in to check things at the shop, let sex alone visit his mother. Throughout the This is how he spends a typical day. First text, his one concern is the pursuit of is his morning toilet: He gets up in the pleasure. morning, relieves himself, cleans his That is not to say, however, that the teeth, applies fragrant oils in small quanti- pursuit of pleasure didn’t require its own ties, as well as incense, garlands, bees’ wax work. Vatsyayana details the sixty-four and red lac, looks at his face in a mirror, arts that need to be learned by anyone takes some mouthwash, and attends to the who is truly serious about pleasure: things that need to be done. He bathes every day, has his limbs rubbed with oil singing; playing musical instruments; every second day, a foam bath every third dancing; painting; cutting leaves into day, his face shaved every fourth day, and shapes; making lines on the floor with his body hair removed every ½fth or tenth rice-powder and flowers; arranging flow- day. All of this is done without fail. And ers; coloring the teeth, clothes, and limbs; he continually cleans the sweat from his making jeweled floors; preparing beds; armpits. In the morning and afternoon he making music on the rims of glasses of eats. (1.4.5–7) water; playing water sports; unusual tech- niques; making garlands and stringing Now, ready to face the day, he goes to necklaces; making diadems and head- work: bands; making costumes; making vari- After eating, he passes the time teaching ous earrings; mixing perfumes; putting his parrots and mynah birds to speak; on jewelry; doing conjuring tricks; prac- goes to quail-½ghts, cock-½ghts, and ram- ticing sorcery; sleight of hand; preparing ½ghts; engages in various arts and games; various forms of vegetables, soups, and and passes the time with his libertine, other things to eat; preparing wines, fruit pander, and clown. And he takes a nap. In juices, and other things to drink; needle- the late afternoon, he gets dressed up and work; weaving; playing the lute and the goes to salons to amuse himself. And in drum; telling jokes and riddles; complet- the evening, there is music and singing. ing words; reciting dif½cult words; read- After that, on the bed in a bedroom care- ing aloud; staging plays and dialogues; fully decorated and perfumed by sweet- completing verses; making things out of smelling incense, he and his friends await cloth, wood, and cane; wood-working; the women who are slipping out for a ren- carpentry; architecture; the ability to test dezvous with them. He sends female mes- gold and silver; metallurgy; knowledge of sengers for them or goes to get them him- the color and form of jewels; skill at nur- self. And when the women arrive, he and turing trees; knowledge of ram ½ghts, his friends greet them with gentle conver- cock½ghts, and quail ½ghts; teaching par- sation and courtesies that charm the mind rots and mynah birds to talk; skill at rub- and heart. If rain has soaked the clothing bing, massaging, and hairdressing; the of women who have slipped out for a ren- ability to speak in sign language; under- dezvous in bad weather, he changes their standing languages made to seem foreign; clothes himself, or gets some of his friends knowledge of local dialects; skill at mak- to serve them. That is what he does by day ing flower carts; knowledge of omens; and night. (1.4.8–13) alphabets for use in making magical dia- grams; alphabets for memorizing; group

72 Dædalus Spring 2007 recitation; improvising poetry; dictionar- you legal sons, and can be disregarded Reading the “Kama- ies and thesauruses; knowledge of metre; in all other erotic situations (1.5.1); and sutra” literary work; the art of impersonation; later in a passage about what we would the art of using clothes for disguise; spe- call rough trade: cial forms of gambling; the game of dice; “Sex with a coarse servant” takes place children’s games; etiquette; the science with a lower-class female water-carrier of strategy; and the cultivation of athletic or house-servant, until the climax; in this skills. (1.3.15) kind of sex, he does not bother with the And while we are still reeling from this acts of civility. Similarly, “sex with a peas- list, Vatsyayana immediately reminds ant” takes place between a courtesan and us that there is, in addition, an entirely a country bumpkin, until the climax, or different cluster of sixty-four arts of between a man-about-town and women love (1.3.16), which include eight forms from the countryside, cow-herding vil- of each of the main erotic activities: lages, or countries beyond the borders. embracing, kissing, scratching, biting, (2.10.22–25) sexual positions, moaning, the woman Vatsyayana disapproves of sexual rela- playing the man’s part, and oral sex. tions with rural and tribal women be- (2.8.4–5) A rapid calculation brings the cause they could have adverse effects tab to 128 arts, a curriculum that one on the erotic re½nement and sensibility could hardly master even after the equiv- of the cultivated man-about-town; he alent of two Ph.D.s and a long appren- would have been baffled by any Lady ticeship–and one that not many could Chatterji’s sexual transports with a afford. gamekeeper. But for all the rest of the So the lovers must be rich, yes, but not world of pleasure, class is irrelevant. necessarily upper class. When the text Where classical texts of Hindu social law says that the man may get his money might have said that you make love dif- from “gifts, conquest, trade, or wages, ferently to women of high and low class- or from inheritance, or from both,” the es, Vatsyayana just says that you make commentator explains, “If he is a Brah- love differently to women of delicate or min, he gets his money from gifts; a king rough temperaments. Size matters, and or warrior, from conquest; a commoner, money matters, but status does not. from trade; and a servant, from wages earned by working as an artisan, a travel- ing bard, or something of that sort.” Two worlds intersect for us in the Ka- (1.4.1) Brahmin, warrior, commoner, and masutra: sex and ancient India. We as- servant are the four basic classes, or var- sume that the understanding of sex will nas, of India. Indeed, the Kamasutra is be familiar to us, since sex is universal, almost unique in classical Sanskrit lit- and that the representations of ancient erature in its almost total disregard of India will be strange to us, since that caste, though of course power relations world existed long ago and in a galaxy of many kinds–gender, wealth, political far away. This is largely the case, but position, as well as caste–are implicit there are interesting reversals of expec- throughout the text. But varna is men- tations: some sexual matters are strange tioned just twice, ½rst in a single sen- (for, as you will recall, Vatsyayana argues tence admitting that it is of concern on- that sex for human beings is a matter of ly when you marry a wife who will bear culture not nature), or even sometimes repugnant to us, while some cultural

Dædalus Spring 2007 73 Wendy matters are strangely familiar or, if un- of this treatment, lie down on a cot with Doniger your face down and let your penis hang on familiar, still charming and comprehen- sex sible, reassuring us that the people of down from a hole in the cot. Then you ancient India took their trousers off one may assuage the pain with cool astrin- leg at a time, just like us. Consider the gents and, by stages, ½nish the treatment. description of the man’s day: his morn- This swelling, which lasts for a lifetime, is ing toilet is much like ours, but we do the one that voluptuaries call “prickled.” not, alas, schedule in things like teaching (7.2.25–27) mynah birds to speak. It is the constant Granted, I have chosen extreme sur- intersection of these perceptions–“How gical examples, but the pharmaceuti- very odd!” “Oh, I know just how she cal recommendations, though less gro- feels.” “How can anyone do that?” “Ah, tesque, are hardly more practical: I remember doing that once, years ago.” –that constitutes the strange appeal of If you coat your penis with an ointment the Kamasutra. made with powdered white thorn-apple, Take the matter of male anxiety about black pepper, and long pepper, mixed penis size and its prevalence on the In- with honey, you put your sexual partner ternet–a link between us and them. The in your power. If you pulverize a female Kamasutra tackles the problem aggres- “circle-maker” buzzard that died a natu- sively: ral death, and mix the powder with hon- ey and gooseberry; or if you cut the knot- The people of the South pierce a boy’s ty roots of the milkwort and milk-hedge penis just like his ears. A young man has plants into pieces, coat them with a pow- it cut with a knife and then stands in wa- der of red arsenic and sulfur, dry and pul- ter as long as the blood flows. To keep the verize the mixture seven times, mix it opening clear, he has sexual intercourse with honey, and spread it on your penis, that very night, continuously. Then, after you put your sexual partner in your power. an interval of one day, he cleans the open- (7.1.25, 27, 28) ing with astringent decoctions. He en- larges it by putting larger and larger spears The commentator’s comment on this– of reeds and ivory-tree wood in it, and he “Do this in such a way that the woman cleans it with a piece of sugar-cane coated you want does not realize, ‘A man with with honey. After that, he enlarges it by something spread on his penis is making inserting a tube of lead with a protruding love to me’”–has inspired at least one knot on the end, and he lubricates it with reader to remark, “Any woman who the oil of the marking-nut. He inserts in- would let you make love to her with all to the enlarged opening sex tools made that stuff smeared on you would have to in various shapes. They must be able to be madly in love with you already.” Pas- bear a lot of use, and may be soft or rough sages like this make us think, as a Victo- according to individual preferences. rian gentleman cited by Hilaire Belloc (7.2.14–24) remarked after seeing Shakespeare’s An- tony and Cleopatra, “How different, how And if that doesn’t work, try this: very different, from the home life of our Rub your penis with the bristles of insects own dear Queen.” born in trees, then massage it with oil for But we may also recognize, and ad- ten nights, then rub it again and massage mire, the precision with which Vat- it again. When it swells up as the result syayana tells us how to detect when a

74 Dædalus Spring 2007 woman has reached a climax (or, per- ing that you can stand on one leg or Reading the “Kama- haps, if we assume, as I think we should, another when you make love. sutra” that the text is intended for women, too, Sometimes the unfamiliar and the fa- he is telling the woman how to fake it): miliar are cheek by jowl: the culture- speci½c list of women the wife must not The signs that a woman is reaching her associate with, which include a Budd- climax are that her limbs become limp, hist nun and a magician who uses love- her eyes close, she loses all sense of shame, sorcery worked with roots (4.1.9), is fol- and she takes him deeper and deeper lowed in the very next passage by the inside her. She flails her hands about, woman who is cooking for her man and sweats, bites, will not let him get up, kicks ½nds out “this is what he likes, this is him, and continues to move over the man what he hates, this is good for him, this even after he has ½nished making love. is bad for him,” a consideration that (2.8.17–18) must resonate with many contemporary He also knew about what we call the readers. G-spot (after the German gynecologist One part of the text that surely speaks Ernst Graefenberg): “When her eyes roll to the modern reader is the advice on when she feels him in certain spots, he ways to seduce a married woman. In the presses her in just those spots.” (1.8.16) would-be adulterer’s meditations on rea- Vatsyayana quotes a predecessor who sons to do this, there are self-deceptive said, “This is the secret of young wom- arguments that still make sense in our en”–and, indeed, it remained a secret world: in Europe until well into the 1980s. “There is no danger involved in my hav- Contrary to expectation, there are mo- ing this woman, and there is a chance ments of recognition in the realm of cul- of wealth. And since I am useless, I have ture, too. There is the passage in which exhausted all means of making a living. the boy teases the girl when they are Such as I am, I will get a lot of money swimming together, diving down and from her in this way, with very little trou- coming up near her, touching her, and ble.” Or, “This woman is madly in love then diving down again. (3.4.6) This was with me and knows all my weaknesses. already an old trick when I was a young If I reject her, she will ruin me by publicly girl at summer camp in the Adirondacks. exposing my faults; or she will accuse me European readers must surely also recog- of some fault which I do not in fact have, nize the man who tells the woman on but which will be easy to believe of me whom he’s set his sights “about an erot- and hard to clear myself of, and this will ic dream, pretending that it was about be the ruin of me.” (1.5.12–14) another woman” (3.4.9), and the woman who does the same thing. (5.4.54) I felt a Meanwhile, another passage brilliantly guilty pang of familiarity when I read the imagines the resistance of a woman who passage suggesting that a woman inter- is tempted to commit adultery, in ways ested in getting a man’s attention in a that rival the psychologizing of John Up- crowded room might ½nd some pretext dike and Gustave Flaubert: to take something from him, making She gets angry and thinks, “He is propo- sure to brush him with her breast as she sitioning me in an insulting way”; or she reaches across him. (2.2.8–9) This is an fears, “He will soon go away. There is no amazingly intimate thing to know about future in it; his thoughts are attached to a culture, far more intimate than know-

Dædalus Spring 2007 75 Wendy someone else”; or she is nervous, think- public about the bad habits and vices that Doniger ing, “He does not conceal his signals”; or he cannot give up. She asks for things that on sex she fears, “His advances are just a tease”; should not be asked for. She punctures his or she is dif½dent, thinking, “How glam- pride. She ignores him. She criticizes men orous he is”; or she becomes shy when she who have the same faults. And she stalls thinks, “He is a man-about-town, accom- when they are alone together. And at the plished in all the arts”; or she feels, “He end, the release happens of itself. (6.3.39 has always treated me just as a friend”; or –44) she cannot bear him, thinking, “He does A little inside joke that does not survive not know the right time and place,” or she the cross-cultural translation is the word does not respect him, thinking, “He is an used for ‘release,’ moksha, which gener- object of contempt”; or she despises him ally refers to a person’s spiritual release when she thinks, “Even though I have giv- from the world of transmigration; there en him signals, he does not understand”; may be an intended irony in its use here or she feels sympathy for him and thinks, to designate the release of a man from a “I would not want anything unpleasant to woman’s thrall. The rest comes through happen to him because of me”; or she be- loud and clear, however: the woman comes depressed when she sees her own employs what some would call passive- shortcomings, or afraid when she thinks, aggressive behavior to indicate that it “If I am discovered, my own people will is time to hit the road, Jack. There is no throw me out”; or scornful, thinking, “He male equivalent for this passage, pre- has gray hair”; or she worries, “My hus- sumably because a man would not have band has employed him to test me”; or to resort to such subterfuges: he would she has regard for morality. (5.1.23, 25, 26, just throw the woman out. This, too, has 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 37–41) not changed very much. The woman’s thoughts on such sub- Our reaction to the central subject, jects as how to get a lover and how to tell the act of love, should surely be one of when he is cooling toward her also ring recognition, of familiarity, but no. Here, remarkably true in the twenty-½rst cen- rather than in the cultural setting, is tury. My favorite is the passage on the where we are, unexpectedly, brought up devious devices that a woman can use short by the unfamiliar. The Kamasutra to make her lover leave her, rather than describes a number of contortions that simply kicking him out: “require practice,” as the text puts it mildly, and these are the positions that She does for him what he does not want, generally make people laugh out loud at and she does repeatedly what he has criti- the mention of the Kamasutra. Reviews cized. She talks about things he does not of books dealing with the Kamasutra in know about. She shows no amazement, recent years have had titles like “Assume but only contempt, for the things he does the Position” and Position Impossible. A know about. She intentionally distorts the recent cartoon depicts “The Kamasutra meaning of what he says. She laughs when Relaxasizer Lounger, 165 positions.”4 he has not made a joke, and when he has made a joke, she laughs about something else. When he is talking, she looks at her 4 Mr. Boffo cartoon by Joe Martin, Inc., dis- tributed by Universal Press Syndicate; pub- entourage with sidelong glances and slaps lished in the Chicago Tribune, September 29, them. And when she has interrupted his 2000. A salesman is saying to a customer, story, she tells other stories. She talks in “Most people just buy it to get the catalogue.”

76 Dædalus Spring 2007 Cosmopolitan magazine published two Now for those of Suvarnanabha: When Reading both thighs of the woman are raised, it is the “Kama- editions of its “Cosmo Kamasutra,” offer- sutra” ing “12 brand-new mattress-quaking sex called the “curve.” When the man holds styles,” each with its numerical “degree her legs up, it is the “yawn.” When he of dif½culty,” including positions called does that but also flexes her legs at the “the backstairs boogie,” “the octopus,” knees, it is the “high-squeeze.” When he “the mermaid,” “the spider web,” and does that but stretches out one of her feet, “the rock’n’ roll.”5 There is a Kamasutra it is the “half-squeeze.” When one of her wristwatch that displays a different posi- feet is placed on the man’s shoulder and tion every hour. A recent Roz Chast car- the other is stretched out, and they alter- toon entitled “The Kama Sutra of Grilled nate again and again, this is called “split- Cheese” included the following menu: ting the bamboo.” When one of her legs is raised above her head and the other leg #14: The Righteous Lion. With a ½rm but is stretched out, it is called “impaling on loving hand, guide your cheese to a slice a stake,” and can only be done with prac- of bread. Top with another slice of bread, tice. When both of her legs are flexed at and place on hot, well-lubricated griddle. the knees and placed on her own abdo- Fry until bread and cheese become one. men, it is the “crab.” When her thighs are #39: Buddha in Paradise: When the time raised and crossed, it is the “squeeze.” is right, position your cheese atop a slice When she opens her knees and crosses of bread. Run under the broiler until the her calves, it is the “lotus seat.” When he cheese yields up its life force and is trans- turns around with his back to her, and she formed. #58: The Lotus: While your embraces his back, that is called “rotat- cheese is melting in the microwave, your ing,” and can only be done with practice. bread should be toasting in the toaster. If (2.6.23–33) all goes well, both will arrive at the crucial stage simultaneously, and can be united. Clearly, even Vatsyayana regards these Next Week: The Kama Sutra of Peanut as over the top, which is why he blames Butter and Jelly.6 them on someone else. What are we to make of these gymnastics? Did people The satirical journal The Onion ran a par- in ancient India really make love like ody about a couple whose “inability to that? I think not. True, they did have execute The Totally Auspicious Position, yoga, and great practitioners of yoga can along with countless other ancient Indi- make their bodies do things that most an erotic positions, took them to new of us would not think possible (or even, heights of sexual dissatisfaction.”7 The perhaps, desirable). But just because one authors of these jokes had in mind posi- can do it is no reason that one should do tions like ones that Vatsyayana attributes it. (Or, as Vatsyayana remarks at the end to his rival Suvarnanabha: of his Viagra passage, “The statement that ‘There is a text for this’ does not jus- 5 “The Cosmo Kamasutra,” Cosmopolitan, Sep- tify a practice.” [7.2.55]). I think the an- tember 1998; “The Cosmo Kamasutra, #2,” Cos- swer lies elsewhere: “Vatsyayana says: mopolitan, September 1999, 256–259. Even passion demands variety. And it 6 The New Yorker, September 10, 2001, 78. is through variety that partners inspire passion in one another. It is their in½nite 7 “Tantric Sex Class Opens Up Whole New variety that makes courtesans and their World of Unful½llment for Local Couple,” The lovers remain desirable to one another. Onion, March 30–April 5, 2000, 8.

Dædalus Spring 2007 77 Wendy Even in archery and in other martial Doniger on arts, the textbooks insist on variety. How sex much more is this true of sex!” (2.4.25) The user’s-manual approach does not account for positions that do not invite imitation. These may simply be the art- ist’s free-ranging fantasies on a theme of sexual possibilities: they are not instruc- tive but inspiring, and inspired. They represent a literally no-holds-barred ex- ploration of the theoretical possibilities of human heterosexual coupling, much as the profusion of compound animals– heads of ducks on bodies of lions, or tor- sos of women on the bodies of ½sh, and so forth–pushed back the walls of our imagination of the variety of known and unknown animal species. It is a fantasy literature, an artistic and imaginative, rather than physical or sexual, explora- tion of coupling. Since there is nothing like this in the Western tradition, it strikes us as weird in the same way that the passage about enlarging the penis boggles our imagination. But when compared to European por- nography, this is, after all, mild stuff. There is no discussion of everyday topics of many European publications, such as bondage or golden showers. The text is, rather, a virtual sexual pas de deux as Bal- anchine might have choreographed it, an extended meditation on some of the ways that a naked man and a naked woman (or, rarely, several men and/or women) might move their limbs while making love. It depicts an idealized world of sex that is the antecedent of Erica Jong’s “zipless fuck” or the capi- talist fantasies of Hugh Hefner’s glossy Playboy empire. And though sexual real- ity may in fact be universal–there are, after all, just so many places that you can put your genitals–sexual fantasy seems to be highly cultural. This, then, is what is new to us in the brave new world of these ancient images.

78 Dædalus Spring 2007 Stanley Corngold

Kafka & sex

On one occasion Kafka composed a strangest inspirations, and they disappear story with a sexual intensity that per- in this ½re and rise up again . . . . It is only in haps no other writer has ever experi- this context that writing can be done, only enced. The story is “The Judgment,” with this kind of coherence, with such a which Kafka wrote in one go on the eve complete unfolding of the body and the of Yom Kippur, the Day of Judgment, soul. 1912. He described the event in his diary The story ends with the hero’s leap, the next morning: with gymnastic nimbleness, from a I wrote this story “The Judgment” in a bridge resembling the Charles Bridge single push during the night of the 22nd- into a river resembling the Moldau, obe- 23rd, from ten o’clock until six o’clock in dient to his father’s judgment, which the morning. My legs had grown so stiff sentenced him to death by drowning. from sitting that I could just barely pull The following day, Kafka read the story them out from under the desk. The terri- aloud to a company of friends and rela- ble strain and joy as the story developed in tives and felt the passion again: “Toward front of me, as if I were advancing through the end my hand was moving uncontrol- a body of water. Several times during this lably about and actually before my face. night I carried my own weight on my There were tears in my eyes. The indu- back. How everything can be risked, how bitableness of the story was con½rmed.” a great ½re is ready for everything, for the How might this sort of “indubitable- ness” be illustrated? Kafka’s friend and Stanley Corngold is professor of German and editor, Max Brod, remembered that comparative literature at Princeton University “Franz himself provided three commen- and adjunct professor of law at Columbia Uni- taries to this story, the ½rst in conversa- versity Law School. His numerous publications tion with me. He once said to me, as I include “The Fate of the Self: German Writers recall, quite without provocation, ‘Do and French Theory” (1986), “Borrowed Lives” you know what the concluding sentence (1991), and “Lambent Traces: Franz Kafka” means?’” (It reads, “At this moment the (2004). He is currently at work on a volume en- traf½c going over the bridge was nothing titled “Kafka Before the Law.” short of in½nite.”) “Kafka said, ‘I was thinking here of a strong ejaculation.’” © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts For Kafka, writing, when it went well, & Sciences was fucking, but his remark to Brod ac-

Dædalus Spring 2007 79 Stanley tually channels more than one sexual But Kafka, like a jealous mother, wants Corngold current. In one sense, the process of the pregnancy beyond term. This too, on sex writing the story is the naked metaphor too solid story must not be born, must of fucking: according to his remark, the not break out through the skin of the pa- process ends in an ejaculation. But in a per. It would be stillborn; it must lodge diary entry written early the next year where it has been conceived. –the third commentary to which Brod “The Judgment,” then, represents refers–Kafka raised the stakes of the a leap upward in sexual maturation. metaphor exponentially: “Many emotions carried along in the writing,” the entry of February 11, 1913, February 11, 1913. After correcting proofs continues, “for example, the joy that I of “The Judgment,” I shall write up all shall have something beautiful for Max’s the connections that have dawned on me, Arkadia.” He presents his friend with the as best as I still remember them. This is beautiful baby to which he’s given birth. necessary, because the story came out of Still, the poem as baby is a disturbing me like a regular birth, covered with ½lth metaphor. We have Mallarmé’s account and mucus, and only I have the hand that of an icy, tortured, perfumed night issu- can penetrate to the body of it and the de- ing into the “Don du poème.” There is sire to. Yeats, also stricken, writing in the vein The imagery of penetration persists, but of aut libri aut liberi (“either books or the ejaculation has proved instantly fer- freeborn sons”): tile. In the course of a single night, Kaf- Pardon that for a barren passion’s sake, ka has fertilized the nucleus of a story Although I have come close on forty-nine, and made his words coalesce, grow, and I have no child, I have nothing but a book, force themselves out of him in a violent Nothing but that to prove your blood and thrust. It is a feat even greater than what mine. he had hoped for a year before: Kafka was twenty-nine in 1912. While in If I were ever able to write something large the following twelve years, until his ear- and whole, well shaped from beginning to ly death, he would produce a few small end, then in the end the story would nev- books, he had no children and wrote of- er be able to detach itself from me, and it ten of the anguish of a death without would be possible for me calmly and with true progeny. open eyes, as a blood relation of a healthy story, to hear it read . . . . Ejaculation and birth are the chief At this point, we see him resisting the metaphors of Kafka’s early writing. more frequently heard desire to let the But another motive of great interest story be born. “Go,” wrote Ezra Pound, very likely connects the work of Yom of his “songs,” in “Ité,” in 1913: Kippur eve with a strong ejaculation. In a diary entry in late 1911, the day . . . seek your praise from the young and after Yom Kippur of the year before he from the intolerant, wrote “The Judgment,” Kafka carica- Move among the lovers of perfection tured the Kol Nidre evening service that alone. ushers in the ceremony. “The Altneu Seek ever to stand in the hard Sophoclean Synagogue yesterday. Kol Nidre. Sup- light pressed murmur of the stock market. And take your wounds from it gladly. In the entry, boxes with the inscription:

80 Dædalus Spring 2007 ‘Merciful gifts secretly left assuage the somersaults. From that company I prom- Kafka & sex wrath of the bereft.’” And then he men- ise myself everything that I lack, the or- tions recognizing among the members ganization of my powers, above all, for of the congregation “the family of a which the sort of intensi½cation that is brothel owner.” The brothel is the well- the only possibility for this bachelor on known Salon Suha, the house probably the street is insuf½cient. in question when he wrote the year be- Not all of Kafka’s sexuality was subli- fore, “I passed by the brothel as though mated in literature, but a great deal was past the house of a beloved.” It was in- –and the sublimation was an intense af- dubitably the house he more than passed fair. As a young writer Kafka took Flau- by the very night before Kol Nidre 1912; bert for his master in matters of style; his diary says that he spent his evening afterward, he followed stylistic paths of there. his own, like the animal fable and the So, here, if it were necessary, is further ½vefold allegory, which led him past his proof that with Kafka nothing sexual is master and to greater effect. But Kafka simple (in the sense of being unentan- also took Flaubert as a model of one gled with its opposite). There are no true who ‘became’ literature. Kafka’s Ger- opposites in this domain, certainly not man nonce word for this state of being sex with women and sex with literature. is Schriftstellersein: the condition of be- “My antipathy to antitheses is certain,” ing [nothing but] a writer. Kafka noted in his journal that same In the end, he again went past his year; and as if he were besotted with this master in the inventiveness and extrem- very antithesis of sex with women and ity of his claims to be nothing but litera- sex with literature, he wrote of antithe- ture. Evoking the intensity with which ses in an eye-catching way: he cared for writing, he wrote to his ½- Admittedly, [antitheses] generate thor- ancée Felice Bauer, “Not a bent for writ- oughness, fullness, completeness, but only ing, my dearest Felice, not a bent, but like a ½gure on the “wheel of life” [a toy my entire self. A bent can be uprooted with a revolving wheel]; we have chased and crushed. But this is what I am.” In our little idea around the circle. As differ- acquainting her father with his qualities ent as they can be, they also lack nuance; as a future son-in-law, he wrote, “My they grow under one’s hand as if bloated whole being is directed towards litera- by water, beginning with a prospect onto ture; I have followed this direction un- boundlessness and always ending up the swervingly until my thirtieth year, and same medium size. They curl up, cannot the moment I abandon it I cease to live. be straightened, they offer no leads ...... Literature is not one of my interests, I am literature.” He enjoined himself Whatever agent of antithesis could Kaf- to “live as ascetically as possible, more ka have had in mind? And what house ascetically than a bachelor, that is the was Kafka thinking of when he wrote only possible way for me to endure mar- in an early story, in the voice of a hero riage,” before adding the good question, resembling his own: “But she?” Kafka heard the answer ellip- Certainly I stood here obstinately in front tically in Flaubert’s cry to Louise Colet: of the house but just as obstinately I hesi- “I tried to love you and do love you in a tated to go up . . . . I want to leave, want to way that isn’t the way of lovers.” Kafka mount the steps, if necessary, by turning loved Felice, if that is the word, as an

Dædalus Spring 2007 81 Stanley erotic hitching post of sorts. If he could My talent for portraying my dreamlike Corngold on attach his active sexuality to her as his ½- inner life has thrust all matters into the sex ancée, the woman with whom he would background . . . . ” one day share a bed, then that much of Kafka is gripped by his writing-lust, his drive could be cathected, stilled, ap- even as the devil in it decides it must ex- portioned. The rest would be free for the clude another’s body. Is it sex? There is literature that he was. no better analogy for this pleasure than But what would the reality of domestic the reward for service to the devil–this sex be like? Kafka warns Felice elegantly descent to the dark powers, this unshack- by praising to her the poem “In the Dead ling of spirits bound by nature, these du- of the Night,” by Yüan Tzu-tsai (1716– bious embraces and whatever else may go 1797), not incidentally quoting a biogra- on below, of which one no longer knows phical comment by Yüan’s editor: “Very anything above ground when one writes talented and precocious, had a brilliant one’s stories in the sunshine. career in the civil service. He was un- commonly versatile both as man and What we are dealing with, then, is a artist.” less than harmless sublimation of the sexual drive. Kafka is a great retheorist Bent over my book in the cold night of sublimation: there is nothing clearly I forgot to go to bed in time. ‘sublime’ about it. How could there be? The perfumes of my gold-embroidered The implications of this metamorphosis quilt are not innocent. Certainly they are not have already evaporated, the ½replace is innocent as soon as the body is involved. extinct. For the body of this man, who was al- My beautiful mistress, who hitherto has ways young–he complained that his struggled face did not age, and in actual fact he to control her wrath, snatches away the was never older than forty-one, when he lamp, died–is, not exceptionally, a furnace of And asks: Do you know how late it is? sexual energies. What happens when The poem made a strong impression on this furnace is made to produce script? Kafka, and he analyzed it relentlessly What sort of script comes out of such in the course of their correspondence. unnatural ½re, “a ½re in which every- Meanwhile, it says very plainly all that thing is consumed and everything rises needs to be said about his unmarriage- up again”? We can expect that that ½re ableness, the undomesticable character will be in some sense banked or angled. of the writing he sought to do. The technical word for this event is ‘per- So this oxymoronic process works as version.’ But this term is only a cipher follows: For Kafka, writing excluded for what remains to be observed in Kaf- regulated heterosexual sex. He feared ka and his work. marriage because he could not spend his nights in bed; he needed at least his If sex is a drive, then the drive must be nights for another sort of “nightwork,” ½gured as originally simple. In such a as he put it. But then again–the oxy- state it is called an instinct, on a par moron advances–this writing thing is with the instinct of self-preservation. peculiarly like lust, and it does take place Of course, such an origin, in the human in bed, beginning with a dream: “What infant, is only a gleam in a metaphysi- will be my fate as a writer is very simple. cian’s (no reader’s) eye. But following

82 Dædalus Spring 2007 the point that Jean Laplanche has no- “When you’re in the throes of this ro- Kafka & sex tably elaborated, the infant’s instinct mantic love, it’s overwhelming, you’re to take milk from the breast is exceeded out of control, you’re irrational.”2 Now from the start by the sexual pleasure it consider the reflections of Kafka’s frère gets from the play of its mouth and ½n- semblable, the dog who contemplates the gers with the breast. Thereafter, both history of his ‘researches’: his visions aims are commingled, and infantile sex- “show at least how far we can get when uality is anaclitic, a drive shored up by we are completely out of our senses (bei an instinct. Neither of these pulsions völligem Außer-sich-sein).” takes its way again in separation from “When rejected,” continues Fisher, the other: ‘feeding’ on the other’s body “some people contemplate . . . suicide. in taking pleasure from it is no mere This drive for romantic love can be metaphor. stronger than the will to live.”3 Kafka’s As we see even in Kafka’s sublimated diaries speak often of the suicidal de- –read, scriptive–account of these rela- spair that followed on his being “thrown tions, the sexuality of writing is anaclitic out” of writing. on feeding as well. Consider his fervid “A growing body of literature,” re- desire “to write all my anxiety entirely marks the neurophysiologist Hans out of me, write it into the depths of the Breiter, “puts this intellectual construct paper just as it comes out of the depths of love directly onto the same axis as ho- of me, or write it down in such a way meostatic rewards such as food, warmth, that I could incorporate what I had writ- craving for drugs.”4 The mortal antago- ten into me completely.” nists in “The Burrow,” one of whom The dramatist Kleist, whom Kafka is an architect-builder, confront one adored, is famous for rhyming, in his another “with a new and different sort Penthesilea, the word Küsse (kisses) with of hunger.” Bisse (bites), as his Amazon queen, mad- In Kafka’s case, we can concede a ly in love with Achilles, proceeds literal- second-order sublimation of the sex- ly to tear him into bite-size pieces: ual drive that substitutes the word, the script, the corpus of the letter for the I did not kiss, but tore him? . . . other’s body. It is not only the schizo- So it was a mistake. Kisses, bites, phrenic who plays with language. Kaf- They sound alike, and those who deeply ka’s play is visible at the level of his top- love ics–his stories, which invariably advert Can reach for one as well as for the other to the writing passion, are sex-besotted . . . . In its voraciousness, the writing in- Intense Romantic Love,” The Journal of Neuro- tensity might very well be correlated physiology (2005) 94: 327–337. with love at its highest pitch: “early- 2 Comment cited in Benedict Carey, “Watch- stage intense romantic love.” To the ing New Love as It Sears the Brain,” New York celebrated essay “Reward, Motivation, Times, May 31, 2005, http://www.nytimes. and Emotion Systems Associated with com/2005/05/31/health/psychology/31love. Early-Stage Intense Romantic Love,”1 html?ex=1154577600&en=45b436a5284b877b Helen Fisher, a coauthor, commented: &ei=5070. 3 Ibid. 1 Arthur Aron et al., “Reward, Motivation, and Emotion Systems Associated with Early-Stage 4 Ibid.

Dædalus Spring 2007 83 Stanley –and at the level of the letter. The tor- There [on the floor with Frieda, in a pud- Corngold dle of beer] hours passed, hours of breath- on ture scene in “In the Penal Colony,” in sex which the naked prisoner, lying on his ing together, of hearts beating together, belly, is punctuated by rows of needles, hours in which K. again and again had the then by a “graver,” then by a spike driv- feeling that he was going astray or so deep en into his head, includes the incision in a foreign place as no man ever before into his body of unending “ornaments” him, a foreign place [or a foreign woman] –tropes or perversions. “So the genuine in which even the air had no ingredient of script has to be surrounded by many, the air of home, in which one must suffo- many ornaments,” explains the of½cer; cate on foreignness and in whose absurd “the real script encircles the body only allurements one could still do nothing in a narrow belt; the rest of the body is more than go further, go further astray. meant for adornments.” In the course of A remarkable feature of this passage the punishment, the mortal body of the is the reference to “the foreign element” victim is literally abraded by the incised (die Fremde), which evokes ‘Frieda’ nom- letters–and they are “ornaments,” they inally, and hence is this woman: the out- are beautiful. landish foreignness that K. registers is Through all the letters and stories Kaf- his swoon into the spaces of the wom- ka sent to his ½ancée Felice Bauer, he is an’s body. Here, his skills as land survey- at work offering her a verbal body in or (Vermesser) fail him; all that survives place of his actual, unavailable body. It is his insolence (Vermessenheit). The is like the clothed body the hero Raban in woman in this novel is an adjacent plot the story “Wedding Preparations in the but is connected by quite visible threads Country” sends out to get married in, in to the main topic of the all-encompass- lieu of his own body, which remains in ing ministry. How? bed in the form of “a beautiful beetle.” Everything of importance relates to But the verbal body is not opaque–it is the connection to Klamm that K. seeks transparent to a meaning; in this sense, and thence to the castle. (The word for Kafka sublimates his empirical body to ‘connection,’ which abounds in The Cas- a nakedness of breath and light. Writing tle, is Verbindung, which, in certain cog- to erase the text of desire, Kafka grows nates, also refers to a marriage-engage- beautiful. In an early diary entry, he ment.) We know that K. conceives of speaks of this “I”: Frieda as the connector to this higher Already, what protected me seemed to dis- connector. That association comes about solve here in the city. I was beautiful in the when Frieda is summoned to Klamm early days, for this dissolution takes place by letter, the medial form of the sum- as an apotheosis, in which everything that mons that castle authorities issue to girls holds us to life flies away, but even in fly- whom they mean to rape. Frieda, then, ing away illumines us for the last time as the chosen recipient of a letter from with its human light. Klamm, is the metonymy of that em- powering letter, K.’s summons: when Frieda receives K., he receives, as it were, Readers of Kafka’s masterpiece The a letter from Klamm. Castle have always been taken aback by We will, of course, be immediately the scene of K.’s brutal intercourse with reminded of Kafka’s struggle to remain Frieda. connected, and engaged, to Felice Bauer

84 Dædalus Spring 2007 (Frieda Brandenfeld of “The Judgment”) that Kafka is proof against antithesis, we Kafka & sex –who existed for him chiefly as the re- will rightly assume that these joys were cipient of his letters. And, of course, the not unknown to him, but they had to be entire project of becoming engaged to set into rhetorical opposition with litera- Felice was conceived under the plan of ture. furthering his writing, a goal represent- Toward the end of his life, in letters ed in this novel as ‘entering’ the castle– to his lover Milena Jesenská, Kafka dis- the house of writerly being–Schriftsteller- cussed his exceptional relation to music. sein. Kafka was not the least bit innocent On June 14, 1920, he speaks of his being of the notion that the letter to a wom- “completely unmusical,” indeed, of be- an might keep her engaged: “If it were ing “unmusical with a completeness that true,” he wrote to Max Brod, as early I have never before encountered in the as July 1912, “that one could hold (also: whole of my experience.” A second let- become engaged to) girls by means of ter, written a month later, links his un- writing script?” The mingling of script musicality to his writing: “I have a cer- with the woman’s body comes allusive- tain strength, and if one wanted to des- ly to the fore in the idiom of the castle- ignate it briefly and vaguely, it is my be- world: “Of½cial decisions are shy like ing unmusical.” The renunciation of young girls.” The castle is a single entan- music is complete; being unmusical is glement of visible sex with women and the condition of becoming literature, a sex as script. point beautifully con½rmed by the con- Is such script, with its ‘adornments,’ a text of this last-named letter to Milena. kind of music? In an extraordinary diary Kafka has been imagining Milena’s tor- entry, Kafka speaks of his ability “to ring mented eyes from a photograph of her simple, or contrapuntal, or a whole or- he has seen, and he is ½lled with grief. Of chestration of changes on my theme.” this strength (for literature) that lies in Here, we have the association of writing, his being unmusical, he promptly adds: music, and sex, but what have these cat- “But it is not so great that I at any rate egories to do with one another? now can continue writing . . . . A sort of In a famous passage from the diaries, flood of suffering and love takes me and these terms are connected at the outset, carries me away from writing.” This with music and sex in interesting league brings music closer to a type of bodily against writing: “When it became clear consciousness–an involuntary, emo- in my organism that writing was the tion-laden consciousness that murmurs most productive direction for my being through us every day, the perpetual to take, everything rushed in that direc- swash of sentiment and ressentiment, with tion and left empty all those abilities its occasional peaks of longing and falls which were directed toward the joys of of dread. We are brought closer to that sex, eating, drinking, philosophical re- sense of music as a sort of “emotional flection, and above all music.”5 Knowing state like excitement or affection” that Kafka feared. 5 Recent scholarship would favor a revision But what more does music have to do of this translation in light of an illegitimately with sex? Let us ask the question in a editorially inserted comma in the manuscript. provocative modality–sex with men. The text now reads, at the close: “ . . . foremost toward the joys of sex, eating, drinking, and In one instance, Kafka accuses himself, the philosophical reflection [performed by] through the mask called “He,” of “burst- music.” ing [with his writing] the chain of the

Dædalus Spring 2007 85 Stanley generations, breaking off for the ½rst be the short form of Schmarotzer, which Corngold on time down into all its depths the music means ‘parasite.’ The word abounds in sex of the world . . . . ” According to learned Kafka’s early writings. But Schmarotzer authority–I speak of Günter Mecke, has a code meaning as well in the gay ar- whose Franz Kafkas offenbares Geheimnis got of Prague German at the ½n de siècle. (Franz Kafka’s Open Secret) is something It means ‘gay,’ with a veneer of the nasti- of a revelation–being “unmusical” be- ness that can mask humorous familiarity longs to the argot of gay sex at the turn when exchanged between members of of the century, meaning “incapable of an ostracized group. heterosexual relations.”6 So there is ‘Schmar’ as gay–and Kafka’s ½ction is saturated with homo- ‘Wese’? His name may very well be the erotic images, and Mecke is intent on curt form of Gewesener–‘one who has arguing for more than Kafka’s literary been [one].’ One what? ‘A warm broth- homoeroticism–his homosexuality, his er,’ which in the jargon then and now painfully suppressed homosexuality, means a gay man–in this instance, one with the attendant view that his entire who has been gay and now pretends not corpus is a coded elaboration of this pre- to be and has married Julia. So, with a dicament. This can sound like the thesis sort of knife, a knife with a hot, glowing of a crank–some of its elaborations are ‘shaft,’ one warm brother stabs another far-fetched–but as a working hypothe- who has been, in former times, an ‘old sis it is no less fertile in finding the solu- beer buddy,’ and who now for his betray- tions to particular cruxes than other to- al of his kind, according to a certain mad talizing hypotheses, such as Kafka’s Ju- logic, asks to be raped and killed. daism or socialism or Oedipal neurosis. I know no other reading of this story Consider Kafka’s story “A Fratricide,” that makes so much sense. It picks out in which a ½gure by the odd name of its code, although this code must by no Schmar waits to surprise another, pre- means refer to the behavior of the em- sumably his brother of some sort, with pirical person, the writer Kafka. For the a knife into the belly: gay code, while striking, is one of many cultural allegories that Kafka inscribes “Wese!” screams Schmar, standing on in this story. ‘Schmar’ also points to tiptoe, his arm thrust upward, his knife the word Schmarre, a dueling slash, and sharply lowered, “Wese! Julia waits in hence to the tension between German vain!” And into the throat from the right, and Jew in the dueling fraternities of the and into the throat from the left, and a Prague universities. Or, again, ‘Wese’ is third thrust deep into the belly, Schmar the root of German words that signify sticks his knife. Water rats, slit open, pro- ‘rot’ and ‘decay’ and points ahead to the duce a sound like Wese’s. dilapidated castle in the novel of that This is dreadful, and it is dreadful as name–a castle belonging to the depart- well because it is so hard to understand ed Count Westwest. The story mimics ‘Schmar’ and ‘Wese.’ These are not ordi- the rapidity and violence of the new Ex- nary names. Here, Mecke has a sugges- pressionist ½lm, and so it is a medial al- tion dif½cult to resist. ‘Schmar’ would lusion. The homosexual code belongs to a repertoire of cultural codes that ½ll 6 Günter Mecke, Franz Kafkas offenbares each of Kafka’s stories and novels. Geheimnis. Eine Psychopathographie (Munich: The repertoire is vast: Kafka covers Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1982), 76. the codes of his time with uncanny com-

86 Dædalus Spring 2007 prehensiveness; he embraces them and Kafka & sex plays with them, though with a certain wildness and exhilaration, knowing they are meant to be consumed for his pleas- ure. While writing the ½nale of the “The Judgment”–thinking, as Brod reported, “of a strong ejaculation”–Kafka noted, “How everything can be said, how for everything, for the strangest fancies, there waits a great ½re in which they per- ish and rise up again.” Benno Wagner characterizes this process with quieter words, ½nding in it a feeling for “the risk of the journey, the importance of small differences, oftentimes with laughter.”7 Kafka was aware of his dilettantism, hy- perconscious of the pleasure in the word and in the deed. Writing, for him, was bliss, and because he was a great theorist of writing, he was also a great theorist of sexual pleasure.

7 “‘No One Indicates The Direction’: The Question of Leadership in Kafka’s Later Stories,” Kafka’s Selected Stories, ed. and trans. Stanley Corngold (New York: Norton, 2007), 320.

Dædalus Spring 2007 87 Terry Castle

The lesbianism of Philip Larkin

“Love variously doth various minds inexpressible–so odd and incoherent I inspire,” wrote Dryden, but for many can’t begin to plumb their inner lives. of us true sexual eccentricity remains Greta Garbo, Virginia Woolf, T. E. Law- dif½cult to comprehend. We still don’t rence, the Duke of Windsor, Marlon have the words. Granted, in most mod- Brando, Simone de Beauvoir, Michael ern liberal societies, you can use the Jackson, and Andy Warhol have been on terms gay or straight and people will the list for some time; Condoleeza Rice know (or think they know) what you may join them soon. Futile my attempts mean. But anything more convoluted to pigeonhole such individuals: they than plain old homosexual or heterosexual seem to transcend–if not nullify–con- can be hard to grasp. (Bisexual doesn’t ventional taxonomies. help much: many sensible people re- Pious readers will already be splutter- main unconvinced that this elusive state ing: how presumptuous to ‘label’ someone of being even exists.) For a while I’ve else’s sexual inclinations! The truth is, how- kept a list in my head of famous people ever, Everybody Does It, and when it whose sexual proclivities I myself ½nd comes to understanding the very great- est writers and artists, some empathetic Terry Castle is Walter A. Haas Professor in the conjecture regarding the psychosexual Humanities at Stanford University. She has writ- factors involved in creativity seems to be ten seven books, including “The Apparitional necessary. Would life be better if Wilde Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern had not raised the issue of Shakespeare’s Culture” (1993), “The Female Thermometer: sexuality in “In Praise of Mr. W. H.”? If Eighteenth-Century Culture and the Invention of Freud had not explored the homoerotic the Uncanny” (1995), a runner-up for the pen themes he found in the works of Michel- Spielvogel-Diamondstein Award for the Art of the angelo and Leonardo da Vinci? Essay, “Noel Coward and Radclyffe Hall: Kin- And it is hard to approach the work of dred Spirits” (1996), and “Courage, Mon Amie” Philip Larkin (1922–1985)–considered (2002). She also edited “The Literature of Les- by many the greatest English poet of the bianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to second half of the twentieth century– Stonewall” (2003). without acknowledging his particular brand of sexual eccentricity. The quin- © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts tessential Establishment poet–he was & Sciences offered the Poet Laureateship in 1984–

88 Dædalus Spring 2007 Larkin is usually thought of as a straight, But downright electrifying was the The lesbi- anism of if not blokish, man of letters. He por- news that, after ½nishing his ½nal term Philip trays himself as such in numerous po- at St. John’s College, Oxford, in 1943, the Larkin ems, though not in any vainglorious way. young poet, then twenty-one, had spent On the contrary, the rhetorical pose usu- several months writing such stories him- ally cultivated–indeed now regarded as self, under the pseudonym ‘Brunette typically Larkinesque–is that of shy (if Coleman.’ Brunette was in fact a full- sardonic) English bachelor: reclusive, blown comic persona: the imaginary sis- timid, physically unattractive to women, ter of Blanche Coleman, the platinum- envious of other men’s romantic suc- blonde leader of a 1940s ‘all-girl’ swing cesses. At its most poignant, to be Lark- band in whom the jazz-loving Larkin inesque is to feel excluded from the fam- took both a musical and prurient inter- ily life and ordinary sexual happiness est. Unlike her real-world sister, the ½c- granted to others. (“For Dockery a son, tional Brunette was supposedly tweedy, for me nothing.”) For those who love bookish, and sentimental–a proli½c Larkin, this rueful evocation of sexual author of Angela Brazil–style schoolgirl loneliness, tempered always with subtle novels and one of those mawkish mid- intransigence and a wildly uncensored dle-aged English lesbians whose imper- wit, is just what they love him for: fectly suppressed homosexuality is plain to everyone but themselves. Her works, Sexual intercourse began it seemed, were an odd mixture of the In nineteen sixty-three lecherous and the dotty. Amazingly (Which was rather late for me)– enough, the Brunette manuscripts had Between the end of the Chatterley ban survived, Motion disclosed, and were And the Beatles’ ½rst lp. to be found along with other unpub- Despite tiresome overquotation the lished works in the Larkin archive at the rhymes never go stale, nor do they lose Brynmor Jones Library, Hull University, their odd power to console. Yet, how- where Larkin had served with great dis- ever bleak the (real or imagined) erotic tinction as Head Librarian for almost life, Larkin’s ‘normality’ would seem to thirty years. be a given. As the poet has his frustrated Sensing curiosity–or at least titilla- stand-in say in “Round Another Point” tion–among Larkin readers, Faber, –an unpublished débat between two Larkin’s long-time publisher, made the young men on the subject of women, complete Brunette oeuvre available in sex, and marriage–“I want to screw de- a 2002 volume called Trouble at Willow cent girls of my own sort without being Gables and Other Fiction, edited by James made to feel a criminal about it.” Booth. ‘Brunette’s’ literary corpus con- Since the poet’s death, however, some sisted of ½ve works: Trouble at Willow unexpected kinks in the Larkin persona Gables and Michaelmas Term at St. Bride’s have come to light. Pixillating indeed (two fully elaborated parody-school was the revelation, in Andrew Motion’s stories, full of games mistresses, mash 1993 biography, that the bespectacled notes, and lubricious hijinks after lights author of The Whitsun Weddings was an out); Sugar and Spice (a set of fey sapphic avid, even compulsive, consumer of les- poems modeled–with suitable languor bian porn, especially the kind involving –on the “Femmes damnées” poems in frolicking English schoolgirls in gym Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal); Ante Meri- slips and hockey pads. dien (a fragment of autobiography in

Dædalus Spring 2007 89 Terry which Brunette reminisces about her process by which Philip Larkin became Castle on Cornish childhood in the blowsy she- ‘Larkinesque’–modern English poetry’s sex male manner of Daphne du Maurier); reigning bard of erotic frustration and and “What Are We Writing For?” (an depressive (if verse-enabling) self-dep- artistic manifesto, supposedly composed recation. Homosexual women have long at the instigation of her live-in protégée, been associated with sexual failure and Jacinth, wherein Brunette defends the ½asco: Sappho grieves for her faithless genre of popular girls’ school ½ction girls; Olivia loses Viola; Sister George is against “penny-a-liners” who flout the cuckolded and killed off. In The Well of time-honored rules of the form). In Loneliness, Radclyffe Hall’s classic lesbi- printed form, they run to nearly three an potboiler from 1928–a book I’m con- hundred densely packed pages and, vinced Larkin knew well–the luckless along with his jazz writings, could be heroine, a supposedly famous writer, said to represent, however risibly, the ends up suicidal and alone. Brunette otherwise costive Larkin’s most fluent Coleman, spinster-sapphist-cum-panto- and sustained literary endeavor. dame, no doubt seemed a marvelous It’s hard, of course, to keep the usual comic invention in 1943. Yet by imper- scholarly po-face. Why–at the very sonating her so fully and strangely the outset of Larkin’s estimable career– young Larkin was also plumbing his own this protracted muddy detour across the well of loneliness, gaining imaginative playing ½elds of Lesbos? A postadoles- and emotional purchase on an ever- cent liking for scabrous fun is one thing, deepening sense of sexual alienation. but what inspires an ambitious young The literary results would be beautiful, poet, already sizing up his chances in the witty, and original, but it was a sad busi- great literary game, to impersonate at ness nonetheless. What begins in play such length–and with such conspicuous ends in tristesse, or so the lives of the dedication–a leering, half-mad, sapphis- poets teach us, and the ‘trouble at Wil- tically inclined author of books for girls? low Gables’ was enough to be getting on The editor of the Girls’ Own Paper, last with for a sensitive soul named Larkin. heard from in 1956, has yet to address the question. It seems important to emphasize from Conservative poetry lovers have been the start the lesbianism of the Larkin per- displeased by the whole business. In sona. Unconvincing is the attempt of “Green Self-Conscious Spurts,” a stun- Larkin scholars to explain away the Bru- ningly humorless piece about Larkin’s nette fantasy by associating it (vaguely early work recently in the tls, Adam enough) with male homoeroticism. In Kirsch dismisses the posthumous pub- his introduction to Trouble at Willow lication of Trouble at Willow Gables as Gables, James Booth suggests that when “strictly unnecessary, and potentially Larkin began composing the Brunette damaging to [Larkin’s] reputation.” As material he “was not far from his own punishment for prissiness–not to men- days as a shy ‘homosexual’ schoolboy” tion the frigid little blast of homopho- and still “undirected” in his sexuality. By bia–Kirsch should no doubt be required impersonating Brunette, he was simply to sit on it and rotate. “working out,” even seeking to exorcize, But one also wants to disagree with residual homoerotic feelings for boys, him profoundly. The Brunette phase left over from his experiences at King speaks volumes about the paradoxical Henry VIII School, the Coventry gram-

90 Dædalus Spring 2007 mar school he attended from 1930 to wise men, otherwise seemingly hetero- The lesbi- anism of 1939. The Willow Gables milieu, Booth sexual, who become oddly trans½xed Philip claims, “is not fundamentally different by homosexual women. The sheer con- Larkin from that of the implicitly homosexual noisseurship, even pedantry, that Larkin boys’ school of Isherwood’s Lions and brought to the sapphic theme–not to Shadows or Julian Hall’s The Senior Com- mention the curious crystallization of moner, both of which Larkin read and ad- his own nascent poetic identity around mired at the time.” The last-mentioned that of Brunette–suggests exactly this even contains a scene, he notes, in which sort of unusual yet generative symbolic one senior boy asks another if a report- investment. edly winsome member of the junior Larkin’s preoccupation was from school is “a brunette.” the start a profoundly literary one. The Yet the theory depends–rather too young Larkin was an ardent reader, ½rst patly–on a view that male and female of all, of popular girls’ school ½ction–a homosexuality are, libidinally speaking, genre notorious since the late nineteenth but two sides of the same coin and that century for its barely sublimated sapph- one can automatically stand in for the ic inflections. His knowledge of “this other. The adolescent Larkin may well exciting ½eld of composition” (as Bru- have had feelings for other boys, but the nette calls it) seems to have been freak- somewhat hackneyed biographical sto- ishly extensive, taking in everyone from ry line applied here–After ‘Normal’ Charlotte Brontë to Angela Brazil. How- Schoolboy Crushes British Male Writer ever, not for Larkin was the sophisticat- Goes Straight and Stays Straight (More ed artistry of Brontë, or that of Colette, or Less)–strikes me as a bit cursory and whose cheerfully salacious Claudine nov- cartoonish, and not only because it has els perhaps constituted, around the turn been attributed over the years, with a of the century, the aesthetic apotheosis broad brush, to everybody from Robert of the genre. Larkin’s tastes were at once Graves and Siegfried Sassoon to Evelyn more juvenile and down-market: he pre- Waugh, David Garnett, Cyril Connolly, ferred the ostensibly innocent works Stephen Spender, Graham Greene, and produced by earnest female hacks for (indeed) Larkin’s friend, Kingsley Amis. fourteen- or ½fteen-year-old girls. Thus Larkin himself claimed to be bewildered Dorothy Vicary’s Niece of the Headmistress by his evolving fantasy life: “Homosex- (1939) and Nancy Breary’s Two Thrilling uality,” he wrote to Amis in September Terms (1944) were special favorites; Lark- 1943, “has been completely replaced by in owned copies of both. But to judge by lesbianism in my character at the mo- Brunette’s writings, he was acquainted ment–I don’t know why.” with a truly startling number of other To be interested in lesbianism is, de girls’ school stories: Brazil’s The Jolliest facto, to be interested in women–in lik- Term on Record, The Fortunes of Philippa, ing women and thinking about women, and A Pair of Schoolgirls; Dorita Fairlie in thinking about women liking other Bruce’s popular Dimsie Moves Up (1921) women, and in liking to think about and Dimsie Moves Up Again (1922); Elsie J. women liking other women. And just Oxenham’s The Abbey Girls Win Through as there are women whose particular (1928); Phyllis Matthewman’s The Queer- psychosexual idiosyncrasy is to hanker ness of Rusty: A Dinneswood Book (1941); obscurely after homosexual men–‘fag Joy Francis’s The Girls of the Rose Dormi- hags’ in rude parlance–there are like- tory (1942); and Judith Grey’s Christmas

Dædalus Spring 2007 91 Terry Term at Chillinghurst (1942), among oth- Jill’s publication, in which Amis report- Castle on ers. ed seeing a copy of Jill in a seedy Oxford sex No doubt the ½xation had its lubri- bookshop lodged “between Naked and cious dimension. In a 1945 letter to Amis, Unashamed and High-Heeled Yvonne.” As Larkin describes a conversation in which Larkin explains, it was most likely the he and Bruce Montgomery planned a reputation of his publisher, Reginald fanciful “little library of short novels,” Ashley Caton, that had won Jill its place each of which was to focus on a different on the X-rated shelf. Caton “divided “sexual perversion.” The labors were to his publishing activity between poetry be divided between them according to and what then passed for pornography,” personal preferences. “Dropping onan- Larkin writes, “often of a homosexual ism as too trite,” he writes, “[Mont- tinge,” and Jill’s own dust jacket bore ad- gomery] put in a claim for sadism and verts for such intriguing titles as “Climb- sodomy (male) while I bagged les- ing Boy, Barbarian Boy, A Diary of the Teens bianism and anal eroticism. He by A Boy, and so on.” brought up mixoscopy, and we dis- The image of the chaste Jill indecently cussed for some time paederasty and wedged in between works of a less deco- what I call willowgablismus.” By rous nature no doubt appealed to Lark- willowgablismus Larkin is no doubt in-the-librarian’s subversive side. (One referring to the kinky schoolgirl sex- can’t help thinking how much time he play so often featured in the male por- must have spent reshelving misplaced nographic imagination. Booth suggests books early in his career.) But it also in- that of all the school stories he had read, dicates how permeable the conceptual Larkin especially favored the Vicary boundary between the ‘polite’ and the book, Niece of the Headmistress, because ‘pornographic’ sometimes was for him. it has “an unusually legible erotic sub- The modes were, as it were, thrust up text.” against one another–like two strangers Yet what Larkin appears to have prized in a crowded Underground train–and about the girls’ school story was not so when the action involved schoolgirls, much any outright kink as an odd, over- one kind of writing could all too easily all, seemingly unintended suggestiveness: morph into the other. In fact, the more the comic way that novelists like Vicary sentimental and old-maidish the story and Bruce managed to set up titillating writer’s attitude, the more the ½ctional situations without ever seeming to be mise-en-scène seemed to lend itself to ob- aware that they were doing so. Larkin scene embellishment. took obvious delight in just how easily a prurient reader might convert a suppos- At ½rst glance the Brunette Coleman edly nice story into a naughty one. ‘Nice’ writings might be thought to promote and ‘naughty’ seem to have been curi- exactly this kind of salacious comic dis- ously proximate categories for him, as sonance. The ‘proximity’ ploy works a famous Larkin anecdote suggests. In perhaps most effectively in “What Are the introduction to the 1963 reprint of We Writing For?”–Brunette’s supposed Jill (1946)–the ½rst of the two ‘serious’ artistic manifesto. This Dame-Ednaish novels he published immediately follow- little treatise is a satiric mini-master- ing the Brunette phase (A Girl in Winter piece–in a class with works by Wode- is the other)–Larkin describes a letter house, Waugh, or Grossmith. Ostensib- from Kingsley Amis, written just after ly a call for a more scrupulous regard to

92 Dædalus Spring 2007 craft–Brunette chastises “slovenly” sis- spread slackness through the Hockey xi! The lesbi- anism of ter novelists for dashing off stories “with Let us . . . remember the dictum of Baude- Philip the radio playing and a cigarette in the laire: ‘There are in the young girl all the Larkin mouth”–it exposes, fairly flagrantly, its despicable qualities of the footpad and the spinster-author’s sublimated obsession schoolboy.’ Alas! it is only too true! with the school story’s homoerotic con- Finally, the writer must seek to imbue ventions. Thus Brunette’s quasi-neoclas- her narrative with “body” and “fervour.” sical aesthetic strictures: no stories set in “Vast webs of friendships, hatreds, loy- day schools (scenes of nocturnal conspira- alties, indecisions, schemings, plottings, cy, illicit biscuit-eating, and pajama-clad quarrelings, reconciliations, and adora- hair-stroking are essential, she argues, tions must arise: incredible self-tortur- to the “excitement” of the genre); no epi- ings and divided allegiances must lie be- sodes set outside the school (too reminiscent hind that white, strained little fourth- of tiresome boy-girl “Adventure” sto- form face. And behind all must stand the ries), and, above all, few, if any, male char- school itself–the rooms, the dripping acters: trees, the crumbling stone fountain, the The essence of the story we are writing noise of water in the pipes as the Early is that “our little corner” becomes a mi- Bath List undress.” In the juvenile bos- crocosm. I cannot stress strongly enough om of a Dimsie or Millicent, the emo- the need for the elimination of all irrele- tions of Phèdre or Andromache. vancies. There must be no men, no boy Oddly enough, neither Trouble at cousins, no neighbouring boys’ schools, Willow Gables nor Michaelmas Term at St. no (Oh, Elsie J. Oxenham!) coeducation. Bride’s holds to such Homo-Rhapsodi- Uncles and fathers must be admitted with cal Unities. Like Dorita Fairlie Bruce’s the greatest circumspection. And as for Dimsie novels, Brunette’s ½ctions share ½ancés and husbands (Oh, Elsie J. Oxen- the same dramatis personae: a heroine ham!)–they are so tabu that I hardly dare named Marie Moore, whose older sister mention the matter. Philippa is “Captain of the School” and a leather-belt fetishist; Myfanwy, the Brunette recommends instead a se- devoted “chum” with whom Marie is questered all-girl milieu: “a closed, sin- often seen cuddling; Margaret, a secret gle-sexed world, which Mr. Orwell gambling addict who prefers off-track would doubtless call a womb-replica, or betting to more usual schoolgirl pur- something equally coarse.” A handsome suits; Hilary Russell, aesthete, lesbian “Jehovah”-like headmistress should be seductress-in-training, and supposed in charge–one who delivers awards and “villainess”; and Mary Beech, the hulk- punishments publicly, in accordance ing, slightly moronic captain of the with a clearly de½ned “moral code.” Hockey Second xi who is the principal Head Girls, in turn, are to be “beauti- object of Hilary’s lascivious wiles. In ful, strict and fair”–especially when re- Trouble at Willow Gables, the main action quired to administer “thrashings”– revolves around a mysterious theft: and villainesses demonstrably wicked: someone has stolen ½ve pounds intend- Remember Satan, and Iago, and Lady ed for the new Gymnasium Fund (an Macbeth! Let the villainess be vicious and endowment sponsored by one “Lord savage: let her scheme to overthrow game Amis”). In Michaelmas Term at St. Bride’s captaincies and ½rm friendships, and –a sequel of sorts–Marie, Myfanwy,

Dædalus Spring 2007 93 Terry and the rest are seen adjusting, some- jaded Hilary for example–turn out to be Castle on what imperfectly, to their ½rst term at surprisingly maladroit. In Willow Gables sex St. Bride’s, a ½ctional Oxford women’s the one schoolmate Hilary succeeds in college rather like Somerville or St. bedding (the racing-form addict Mar- Hugh’s. Larkin intriguingly uses differ- garet Tattenham) is hers only through ent surnames in the second tale: “Marie blackmail, and the lovemaking is never Moore” becomes “Marie Woolf,” and described. The overall mood is one of her sister “Philippa Woolf.” tristesse–as when Hilary, oppressed by A certain slapstick porniness surfaces, her inability to land her main prey to be sure, at various points in both sto- (Mary Beech) during an intimate late- ries. When the Fourth Form gets ram- night tutoring session, succumbs to the bunctious while undressing for bed in mopes as soon as Mary leaves her room: Trouble at Willow Gables, a plump prefect Lighting a cigarette, she stretched herself named Ursula restores order by “sweep- on the sofa, rubbing her cheek caressively ing up and down the lines of beds” flick- on the cushion Mary had warmed, and ing offenders with a leather belt– murmuring idiotically to herself: “She She had considerable skill in doing this, was here, and is gone. The young lioness and there was a hasty scuffling and strip- was here and is gone . . . ” After that she ping and knotting of pyjama cords as she undressed slowly, munching a biscuit, and toured from girl to girl like a well-made read Mademoiselle de Maupin in bed till a Nemesis. Myfanwy returned to her bed very late hour. with as much dignity as was compatible The fact that Larkin describes the with a stung bottom: Marie’s head was thwarted prefect as feeling–rather un- buried in the pillow. appetizingly–like a “jelly newly tipped In a later episode, after a wild argument- out onto a plate” adds another element cum-wrestling match with Philippa, the of anticlimax to the scene. belt fetishist, poor Marie ends up “lying In Michaelmas Term at St. Bride’s, the face downwards on Philippa’s silken absence of willowgablismus is even knees,” her “velvet skirt folded neatly more pronounced. Most of the Willow round her waist,” while Philippa admin- Gables characters, it’s true, reappear: isters a dreadful “thrashing” using one Hilary is again on the scene; likewise, of the thirty-seven “exotic” belts in her Mary Beech (now called Burch), who collection–one sporting “a curious discovers to her horror, upon arriving metal buckle, which Philippa rightly ad- for her “fresher” term at St. Bride’s, that judged would add an awful sting to the she will be sharing rooms with her for- lashes.” mer persecutor. Marie, Myfanwy, and Yet such questionable moments apart, Philippa also return, the last-mentioned one can’t help noticing how curiously with collection of leather belts intact. In unerotic the ‘Brunette’ stories are–how the ½ne old nice-turned-naughty tradi- often they seem merely dif½dent and tion of Willow Gables Philippa at one strange. For a would-be pornographer, point even invites her little sister into even a very soft-core one, the young her college rooms clad only in “socks Larkin seems painfully lacking in sei- and nail varnish.” gneurial aplomb. Titillating situations But the Oxford setting changes every- ½zzle; characters who one might expect thing–not least of all because men, odi- to deliver some smutty business–the ous men, now intrude upon the action.

94 Dædalus Spring 2007 In so allowing Brunette necessarily welter of half-hearted ‘meta½ctional’ The lesbi- anism of flouts the very “tabu” marked in “What incidents. (When Marie ½nds Pat–the Philip Are We Writing For?” as fundamental school skivvy from Trouble at Willow Larkin to the girls’ school genre: that no male Gables–tending bar in an Oxford pub character ever penetrate the all-female and asks her why she isn’t still working “womb-replica” of the school. Can the at the school, Pat replies: “That story’s famed university on the Isis in fact be over now, Miss Marie, [. . . ] Willow considered a ‘school’ in the Angela Bra- Gables doesn’t exist anymore.”) Signi½- zil sense? Even the redoubtable Dorothy cantly, the Creature’s love-dream re- Sayers twigged it: Oxford could hardly mains unrequited at the breaking-off be mistaken for a lesbian hothouse. point: we last see him alone in the same Dire and bewildering is Brunette’s pub’s infernal “Smoke Room,” soddenly turn, for the men of Michaelmas Term “picking out in an incompetent fashion are clammy chaps of the sort British a negro twelve-bar blues.” tabloids are wont to refer to as “sex- Much could be said about Michaelmas pests.” Not even hardened tribades like Term at St. Bride’s, but perhaps the tale’s Hilary Russell can avoid them. The per- most immediately striking feature is the plexing relationship Hilary develops transparent, almost algebraic way it an- over the course of the fragment with the nounces Larkin’s poetic identi½cation “Creature”–a tall, weak-eyed, chroni- with what might be called the ‘Sappho- cally doleful male undergraduate who position’–that of sex-starved, ugly, erot- after being “thrashed hollow” by her in ically luckless pseudo-man. One is hard- a game of table tennis becomes her ab- ly surprised to read in Motion’s biogra- ject swain–is emblematic. Despite the phy that as a St. John’s undergraduate abuse heaped on him–Hilary likes to Larkin was himself soundly “thrashed” “minimize his masculine qualities” and in a game of table tennis by an Amazon- make him cry–the Creature pursues ian friend named Hilary; or that in let- her with masochistic ardor, asserting at ters to male friends he referred to the every turn that “in a previous existence young woman to whom he was briefly [she] had been a Roman empress, who and unhappily engaged in 1950–Ruth had personally chastised a Christian Bowman–as the “School Captain.” slave, of whom [he] was a reincarna- (Panic-stricken, he rescinded his propos- tion.” Hilary seems to tolerate his damp- al after three weeks.) palmed presence: not only does she al- Like Brunette, the Creature is no doubt low the Creature to ply her with cock- a self-inscription. In fact the two personae tails, theater tickets, and expensive seem oddly to interact, if not merge, at meals at the Randolph, she’s even will- the end of Michaelmas Term. The same ing on occasion to let him “inspect, rev- pub in which the Creature plays his feck- erently, the strength of her muscles.” less tune–or so the meta½ctional Pat This oddly stagnant relationship–like tells Marie–was once frequented by other boy-girl unions in the sequel– “the woman that writes all these books.” seems to destroy whatever minimal nar- (“Haven’t you ever met her, Miss Marie? rative coherence Michaelmas Term might I saw her once. She used to come in here be said to possess. Larkin-as-Brunette and drink. Very tall she was, and beauti- seems unsure what to do with his rapidly fully dressed.”) The Creature is nothing multiplying quasi-heterosexual couples, less than a quasi-male Brunette–stu- and the story breaks off abruptly in a dious, melancholic, rapidly balding (as

Dædalus Spring 2007 95 Terry Larkin himself was by the mid-1940s), –as in “Peer of the Gods,” the celebrated Castle on partial to alcohol, jazz, and adolescent “Fragment 31”–the poet becomes dizzy, sex girls. breathless, and fears she will expire from Watching the Creature’s slotting into the pain. the Sappho position, one senses, rather The logic of the amor impossibilia op- more ominously than in Trouble at Wil- erates just as harshly elsewhere. When low Gables, the self-critical, even self- the cross-dressing Rosalind is reunited punishing, aspect of Larkin’s cross-sex with her lover Orlando in As You Like It, identi½cation. At the deepest level the Phebe, the gullible shepherdess who has poet’s af½nity with female homosexual- fallen in love with her, is fobbed off on ity was a bleak one, and perhaps could oa½sh Silvius. In Balzac’s The Girl with the not have been otherwise. Love between Golden Eyes, both the wicked Marquise women, after all, is hardly an unexplored de Réal and Paquita, her female lover, or uncontroversial theme in mainstream end up stabbed to death. The epony- Western literature. However harshly or mous heroine of Swinburne’s lurid Les- obliquely, over the centuries a host of bia Brandon (1877) expires in agony, worn writers have approached the topic: not out by unnatural practices. In both Wed- just Sappho, obviously, but also Ovid, ekind’s Lulu and Berg’s opera, the lesbi- Juvenal, Martial, Ariosto, Shakespeare, an Countess Geschwitz, hopelessly be- Ben Jonson, Donne, Dryden, Aphra sotted with the femme fatale of the title, is Behn, Pope, Fielding, John Cleland, Di- murdered by Jack the Ripper in the dra- derot, Sade, Laclos, Maria Edgeworth, ma’s ½nal scene. And in The Fox (1929), Coleridge, Gautier, Baudelaire, Emily one of several campy lucubrations on fe- Dickinson, Balzac, Verlaine, Maupas- male homosexuality by D. H. Lawrence, sant, Zola, Swinburne, Hardy, Henry March, the more childish and charmless James, Wedekind, Proust, Strindberg, member of a quasi-lesbian couple, is Colette, H.D., Ronald Firbank, Amy abandoned by her companion for a man Lowell, Cather, Stein, Woolf, Katherine and crushed by a falling tree. Radclyffe Mans½eld, D. H. Lawrence, Rosamond Hall, as usual, trumps everyone in the Lehmann, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, Utter Misery Department: after four Daphne Du Maurier, Dorothy Sayers, hundred pages of rejection, insult, and Elizabeth Bowen, Wyndham Lewis, sexual frustration, Stephen Gordon– Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, mannish heroine of The Well of Loneliness Lillian Hellman, Graham Greene, Mar- –not only loses her lover to a man, but guerite Yourcenar, Sartre, de Beauvoir, succumbs at novel’s end to “the terrible Elizabeth Bishop, Jane Bowles, Iris Mur- nerves of the invert.” She is last seen doch, et multi alia. lurching suicidally through Paris from However oddly assorted, what almost one squalid dyke bar to another. all of the works in the Western lesbian Nowhere is the doomed nature of fe- canon share–including even the more male same-sex love more explicit, ½nal- worldly or forgiving–is a sense of the ly, than in what one might call (pace Bru- unviability of female same-sex love. To nette) the School Story for Grown-Ups: yearn for a woman, it would seem, is to the explicitly homoerotic tale–often fe- fall victim to an amor impossibilia. Pas- male-authored and autobiographical– sionate Sappho, alas, set the pattern: set in a girls’ boarding school or college. watching her former beloved simper on Enough of these ‘serious’ school ½ctions the wedding dais with her new husband exist to constitute a distinct subgenre of

96 Dædalus Spring 2007 lesbian writing: Colette’s Claudine à sublimated, covered over with misogy- The lesbi- anism of l’école (1900), Gertrude Stein’s Q.E.D. ny and a lot of schoolboy smuttiness; it Philip (1903), Henry Handel Richardson’s would likewise be transformed soon Larkin The Getting of Wisdom (1910), Clemence enough into a matchless poetic endeav- Dane’s Regiment of Women (1915), Chris- or. But however much he intended the ta Winsloe’s The Child Manuela (source Brunette oeuvre as collegiate spoof–an for the classic German cult ½lm Mädchen experiment, egged on by Amis, in the in Uniform [1933]), Antonia White’s Frost higher prurience–he could not help cas- in May (1933), Lillian Hellman’s The Chil- tigating his own deepest longings: You drens’ Hour (1934), Dorothy Strachey’s wish to be loved? Dream on, bloke: you will Olivia (1949), May Sarton’s The Small fail–pathetically–while real men succeed. Room (1961), Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Better not to bother. Drink; listen to jazz; Miss Jean Brodie (1961), and Violette Le- write poems; accept privation as your lot. duc’s Thérèse and Isabelle (1964) are only Pretending to be a middle-aged invert some of many. named Brunette was a bookish young These ‘adult’ school narratives are man’s way of neutering himself at the almost always dysphoric in tendency. starting gate. No Enormous Yes, or even Some, like Dane’s Regiment of Women a tiny yes, in the Larkin love-and-sex and Strachey’s Olivia, are toxic little tales game: sadness, loss, and loneliness–the of female-on-female abuse: a charismat- original Sapphic hat trick–seemed from ic teacher seduces a susceptible young the beginning the main thing on offer. student and then turns on her; an older and more sophisticated girl entangles How far from Brunette, burbling spin- one younger or more naive in an ‘un- ster-sapphist, to the chilled-to-the-bone healthy’ friendship. In other works, the speakers of “Mr. Bleaney” or “The Whit- homoerotic bond between two female sun Weddings”? characters is destroyed by an intruder- In his introduction to Trouble at Wil- male. Thus, in Dorothy Baker’s melodra- low Gables, Booth suggests that the Bau- matic Trio (1948), the student-heroine, delaire knock-offs in Sugar and Spice–the seduced by an unsavory female French “slim sheaf” of verses attributed to Bru- professor–a specialist in nineteenth- nette–are already recognizably Larkin- century “decadent” verse!–is saved esque in mood and manner: “Technical- from a life of Fleurs du mal perversion ly,” he declares, the Brunette poems are by a strapping young fellow who falls “among the ½nest poems Larkin wrote in love with her and threatens the pro- during the decade, with an assured deli- fessor with exposure. The latter, under- cacy of tone far beyond anything in The standably dismayed, shoots herself at North Ship.” He cites the opening lines of novel’s end. “The School in August”– The repetitive, ruthlessly end-stopped pattern is clear, and for Larkin the bad The cloakroom pegs are empty now, news plainly resonated. In the brutal and And locked the classroom door, bittersweet narratives of lesbian desire The hollow desks are dim with dust, Larkin found a doom-laden prediction And slow across the floor of what was to become the central and A sunbeam creeps between the chairs most painful theme of his imaginative Till the sun shines no more. and emotional life: no girls for you. –and notes how closely they anticipate The pain of the discovery was no doubt the “empty rooms” in such characteris-

Dædalus Spring 2007 97 Terry tic Larkin poems as “Home is So Sad,” Another should be read “lingeringly”; and Castle on “Friday Night in the Royal Station Ho- another, “with something of ‘the monstrous sex tel,” and “The Old Fools.” One has to crying of wind’–Yeats, of course.” As for agree: against all expectation, the Bru- the bittersweet envoi, it requires a “rising nette poems are spare, elegiac, ominous- to, and falling from, an ecstasy of nostalgia.” ly good. Above all, somewhat anachro- Yet looming up, too, in silhouette, like nistically, they already display the ma- a tall evening shadow cast forward in ture poet’s weary autumnal sense of Ubi time–the solitary witness of master- sunt: works to come: Who did their hair before this glass? A group of us have flattened the long grass Who scratched “Elaine loves Jill” Where through the day we watched the One drowsy summer sewing class wickets fall With scissors on the sill? Far from the pav. Wenda has left her hat, Who practised this piano And only I remain, now they are gone, Whose notes are now so still? To notice how the evening sun can show The unsuspected hollows in the ½eld, Ah, notices are taken down, When it is all deserted. And scorebooks stowed away, (“Fourth Former Loquitur”) And seniors grow tomorrow From the juniors today, And even swimming groups can fade, One doesn’t want to make the Bru- Games mistresses turn grey. nette oeuvre sound more sanitary than The echo in the last line here of Pope’s it is. Though no Humbert Humbert or Rape of the Lock–“But since, alas! frail Henry Darger, Larkin played his sapphic Beauty must decay, / Curl’d or uncurl’d, game in part to camouflage what many since Locks will turn to grey”–is appo- still regard as an unwholesome prefer- site, for Larkin’s sense of erotic alien- ence for underage girls. In Trouble at ation, of gauche unsuitedness for carnal Willow Gables, when Hilary Russell deli- love, rivals the satirist’s. (Pope was tiny, quesces over Mary Beech’s “shell-like wry-necked, and hunchbacked.) What ears,” “tawny hair,” and “bare white other two English male poets have felt ankles emerging from woolly slippers,” themselves so bitterly excluded from one can’t help but sense–somewhat “sugar and spice and everything nice”? queasily–the storyteller’s own preoc- There’s Amis-style mischief, too, of cupation with the barely pubescent: course–as in “Ballade des Dames du Hilary thought, as so often before she had Temps Jadis,” a Villon pastiche to which thought, that there was nothing so beau- ‘Brunette’ appends instructions for read- tiful in the world as a fourteen-year-old ing the poem aloud. The opening qua- schoolgirl: the uncosmetic’d charm de- train– pended on the early flowering into a quiet beauty of soft, silken skin, ribboned hair, Tell me, into what far lands print dresses, socks and sensible shoes and They are gone, whom once I knew a serious outlook on a world limited by With tennis-racquets in their hands, puppies, horses, a few simple ideas, and And gym-shoes, dabbled with the dew? changing Mummy’s book at Boots. How –is to be delivered, we learn, “with a anyone could regard the version of six sense of ‘old, unhappy, far-off things.’” years later as in any way superior beat Hil-

98 Dædalus Spring 2007 ary to a frazzle: it was preferring a painted recycling (and darkening) of his Wil- The lesbi- savage dressed in bangles and skins, anism of low Gables material. In Jill’s central and Philip chockfull of feminine wiles, dodges, and strangest sequence, the otherwise timid Larkin other dishonesties directed to the same Kemp–hoping to impress Christopher, degrading sexual end, to a being who lived his crass and carousing roommate–tells a life so simple and rounded-off in its puri- him (falsely) that he, Kemp, has an ador- ty that it only remained for it to be shat- able younger sister named Jill. When tered–as it was. Chris expresses mild curiosity, Kemp begins embellishing wildly. Jill and he The mock-heroic rhetoric used to monu- have always been very close, he explains: mentalize such ½xations–“Hilary had a “She’s fond of poetry–that line. And vision of [Mary] embodying the purity it’s funny, she’s very sensitive. She had a of youth, dressed in white tennis things great friend at school called Patsy–Pat- and haloed with a netball stand, sur- sy Hammond. They were really awfully rounded, like a goddess of plenty, with thick. Then a year ago she went back to hockey-sticks, cricket-pads, and other school as usual after the holidays and impedimenta”–does not entirely obvi- found that Patsy had gone to America ate the rather nasty wet-dream quality. with her people and wasn’t coming back That said, for me at least, the lubri- again. She was awfully cut up: hardly ciousness is okay–and stays okay– wrote for weeks.” Chris asks what when I consider what it led to. I don’t school and Kemp promptly fabricates mean only Larkin’s poetry. It would take one: “Willow Gables, the place is called. a far longer essay than this one to begin It’s not very big.” to measure the greatness of Jill (1946), Christopher will evince no further the extraordinary ‘Oxford novel’ Lark- interest in Kemp or his supposed sib- in began writing immediately after jet- ling–he’s cynically pursuing a rather tisoning the Brunette persona. Though fast young woman named Elizabeth– oddly neglected, even by Larkin a½cio- but Kemp, shunned by Chris and his nados, Jill is perhaps the most exquisite friends over the next weeks, becomes and self-lacerating male-authored Eng- increasingly obsessed with his nonex- lish ½ction of the postwar period. But it istent ‘sister’: is also, I’d like to conclude by asserting, the work in which the poet’s sapphic [She] was ½fteen, and slight, her long ½ne identi½cation shows itself most poi- dark honey-coloured hair fell to her shoul- gnantly and irreversibly. ders and was bound by a white ribbon. By self-lacerating I simply mean honest Her dress was white. Her face was not like and self-revealing to a shocking, painful, Elizabeth’s, coarse for all its make-up, but poetic degree. True, Larkin always insist- serious-looking, delicate in shape and ed that the story of John Kemp–a shy beautiful in repose, with high cheekbones: scholarship student from the Midlands when she laughed these cheekbones were who arrives at Oxford in wartime and most noticeable and her expression be- becomes disastrously obsessed with the came almost savage. schoolgirl cousin of his roommate’s girl- friend–had little connection with his The fantasy ‘Jill,’ one can’t help noticing, own university experiences. But the au- is an almost exact replica of the “uncos- tobiographical aspect of Jill is glaring and metic’d” schoolgirl admired by Hilary signaled above all by Larkin’s flagrant Russell in Michaelmas Term. And soon enough, Pygmalion-like, Kemp begins

Dædalus Spring 2007 99 Terry writing a story about her. In this strange is last seen, having succumbed to pneu- Castle on twelve-page tale-within-a-tale, Kemp monia, abject and feverish in the Oxford sex imagines ‘Jill’ at Willow Gables, shortly in½rmary–dimly conscious that “the after the departure of Patsy Hammond. love [he and Jill] had shared was dead.” Jill is lonely and falling in love from a Confused about “whether she had ac- distance, it seems, with another girl, a cepted him or not,” Kemp can see “no tall and introverted prefect named ‘Min- difference”–alarmingly–“between love erva Strachey,’ whose air of digni½ed ful½lled and love unful½lled.” solitude intrigues the heroine. The story Might Kemp’s suffering be construed breaks off abruptly: Jill’s father dies sud- as lesbian in nature? Time and again denly, and when she returns to school Larkin makes the lesbian subtext im- following his funeral, she is met at the possible to miss. The aborted connec- station by Minerva, who has been sent tions in the embedded school tale–Jill by the headmistress to accompany her and Patsy, Jill and Minerva–provide a back in a cab. Minerva is sympathetic homoerotic matrix of course for Kemp’s but reticent: when Jill, sadly over- own doomed infatuation: even before wrought, declares she hates school, has seeing Gillian, he already inhabits his no friends, and wants to be like Minerva own private Willow Gables, a dream- –“able to get on without anyone else”– world of impotence, fear, and imping- the prefect rebuffs the obvious overture. ing loss. (Psychologically speaking, the “[Jill] saw that Minerva had indicated interpolated tale seems at once uncan- that her detachment, even though it was ny and overdetermined: it is as if Kemp admired, must still be respected; that both wants to have Jill and to be Jill.) loneliness was not to be abandoned at Striking, too, are the book’s other invo- the ½rst chance of friendship, but was a cations of amor impossibilia. Sitting im- thing to be cherished in itself.” patiently through a comic ½lm in an Ox- This last appalling notation–that ford cinema because ‘Jill’ is in the the- loneliness is to be cherished in itself– ater across the street with Elizabeth and might be said to encapsulate the zero- Chris, Kemp, like a sort of down-market sum vision of the mature Larkin. For Sidney, experiences precisely those Kemp, of course, solitary fantasy leads symptoms of love-anguish itemized– to a kind of self-obliteration: he sees an so momentously for English poetry–in attractive young schoolgirl in an Oxford Sappho’s “Fragment 31”: bookshop; imagines, uncannily, that she The enormous shadows gesticulated be- is his ‘Jill’ come to life; and starts stalk- fore him and he sat with his eyes shut, ing her in an inept yet sinister fashion. hearing only the intermittent remarks When he ½nds out that she is the ½fteen- of the characters and the sounds of the year-old cousin of Christopher’s girl- action. It was curious how little speech friend Elizabeth and that her name is there was. A squalling childish voice said Gillian he simply becomes all the more something and everyone laughed: this infatuated. At the end of the ½ction, hav- was followed by a long interval of bang- ing drunkenly tried to kiss Jill/Gillian ing, scraping, and rending, interspersed on the stairwell outside a party in some- with studiedly familiar noises–the tin- one’s room, the hapless Kemp is excori- kling of glass against decanter, the slam- ated by Elizabeth, punched in the face by ming of a car door. He opened his eyes Christopher, and thrown into a freezing for a moment, saw a man and a girl driv- fountain by a gang of loutish revelers. He

100 Dædalus Spring 2007 ing through the country, and shut them an Philip Larkin be forgiven? In a The lesbi- C anism of again. When he thought of Jill being so startling rant after Trouble at Willow Philip near, only across the street, with people he Gables was posthumously published in Larkin knew, yet where he was not with her and 2002, a critic for the Guardian sent Lark- could not see her, his breath came faster in to “the back of the class”–½rst for and a curious physical unease affected him writing porn she felt wasn’t “saucy” and he wanted to stretch. enough, and then, somewhat unfairly, for having been glum, bald, and bespec- Nor does Larkin ignore the English tacled. The fact that since his death he Sappho, the lugubrious Radclyffe Hall. had been exposed as a “man with . . . The word ‘loneliness’ resounds through- urges” struck her as “pretty funny,” she out Jill, ever more numbingly. One’s revealed, for sense of the repetition is largely sublimi- nal: one feels it as a sort of low-level tex- after all, with skin the colour of soft curd tual headache. Yet every now and then cheese and his curranty eyes blinking out Larkin sets the word off talismanically– from behind a couple of jam-jar bottoms, as when Kemp watches ‘Jill’ ride away Larkin was hardly made for sex. The ½rst on her bicycle after seeing her for the time Monica Jones clapped eyes on the ½rst time in the bookshop: man who was to be her lover for more than three decades, she turned to her com- He stopped under a tree, looking this way panion and said: “He looks like a snorer.” and that. And if he found her name and address, what then? He would not dare to Now, from what I have written one approach her again after his rudeness that perhaps might conclude–wrongly– afternoon. All that would remain for him that the adult Larkin had no sex life at to do would be to discover her real life, to all. Such was not the case, as Motion’s follow her about and not be noticed, to biography made clear in the 1990s. Yet make lists of the clothes she wore and the the description above of Larkin as the places she went to, to make her the pur- “lover” of Monica Jones for over three pose of his life once more . . . . In this quest decades produces a somewhat distorted his loneliness would be an asset: it would image of both poet and work. Though be mobility and even charm. obviously of long duration, the intimacy with Jones, a lecturer at the University Later, having discovered her identity and of Leicester and subsequently Larkin’s waited in vain to see her, he feels “hol- literary executor, does not strike one as low with grief, as if there were a great well primarily eros-driven. Nor indeed do of aloneness inside him that could never the poet’s other somewhat sketchy af- be ½lled up” (my italics). A case could fairs–including an elderly fling with even be made that Jill’s tragibuffoonish Betty Mackereth, his secretary at the next-to-last scene–the tossing of the Bryn Jones Library in the 1970s. Judg- drunken Kemp into the fountain–is a ing by photographs, none of these girl- kind of mock-heroic literalization of friends was either young or convention- Hall’s title: Kemp ½nds his own well of ally beautiful; not a single ‘Jill’ among loneliness, bathetically, in the middle of them. On the contrary–especially to a college quadrangle, above which “stars the lesbian eye–several have a curiously [march] frostily across the sky.” mannish ‘Brunette’ look. With ½fteen- year-olds out of the running, it would

Dædalus Spring 2007 101 Terry seem, Larkin made do with his own lit- Castle on tle crew of middle-aged spinsters. The sex “loaf-haired” Betty–risibly described as such in the poem “Toads Revisited”– looks like a rangy, somewhat weather- beaten games mistress. And so, one might add, did Larkin’s mother Eva– another Larkinesque brunette to whom he remained devoted all his life. Yet whatever the ‘real’ circumstances, what matters is the inner life. I ½nd the dysphoric sense of self–and of the erot- ic–revealed in Larkin’s poetry rather more sympathetic than the comments of erstwhile critics. Who is to judge who is “made for sex” and who isn’t? A lack of pulchritude does not always spell carnal frustration: Jean-Paul Sartre was pretty hideous–Larkin a George Clooney in comparison–but in Sartre’s case troll- ish looks seem not to have diverted him from a lengthy career as the Casanova of the Left Bank. What differs, obviously, is whether one has the necessary full-for- wardness and esprit–especially when so- cial conventions, rightly or wrongly, set up barriers to ful½llment. Philip Larkin was as “made for sex” as anyone else, which is not to say it came to him easily. In the character of Brunette Coleman he created someone whose loneliness, obliquely observed, mirrored his own– indeed, was his own. Was he entirely aware of what he was doing? Perhaps not. But he knew enough to know he needed her–needed to smoke her ciga- rettes and write her stories, to dream of Willow Gables in her company, and in the waywardness of her desire ½nd a way into his own.

102 Dædalus Spring 2007 Lawrence Cohen

Song for Pushkin

Sitting among wild young men ca, and Russia stood as parallel dream- I am lost in my thoughts. worlds offering a receptive humanity –Aleksandr Pushkin the future. If it is an account of homo- sexuality, it is because homosexuality has come to serve as a privileged marker An imagined Russia–Soviet or other- both of hope and its limit in the after- wise–along with an imagined Amer- math of the three worlds. If it is an ac- ica have at times over the past century count told as a song, it is a song in the served as vehicles of hope in India as sense of the Sanskrit gita and how I elsewhere. The American writer Jhum- would render it, as the recognition of pa Lahiri tells the story of Gogol, the re- an ethical universe one is asked to call sentful son of Bengali migrants to Bos- into being. I sing in the face of Pushkin’s ton named by a father whose copy of death. Ethics as a performative practice the Russian’s works had once saved is offered here as a kind of mourning. him from a train wreck. The story I re- The account: two men, Pushkin count here centers not on an Indian-ori- Chandra and Kuldeep, were found mur- gin Gogol but on an ‘America-returned’ dered on August 14, 2004, in New Delhi, Pushkin. But it, too, is an account of at Chandra’s barsati, a small apartment hope and the limit to hope, set in the adjoining his parents’ residence. The aftermath of a time when India, Ameri- Chandras lived in a gated enclave known as Anand Lok, the Bliss World, in the south of the giant city. Within days, resi- Lawrence Cohen is associate professor of anthro- dents of Delhi, as well as a globally dis- pology and of South & Southeast Asian studies at persed public stitched together through the University of California, Berkeley. He is the the consumption of Delhi-based media, author of “No Aging in India: Alzheimer’s, The were being offered frequent and lurid re- Bad Family and Other Modern Things” (1998). porting on what quickly became known He has also written several articles on homosexu- as the Pushkin Affair. ality and contemporary India; transplantation, The attention was based in part on ethics, and the sale of body parts; and Avuryedic Chandra’s social position; accounts re- medicine in India. ferred to his father’s career in the presti- gious Indian Administrative Service and © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts to the posh surroundings of Anand Lok. & Sciences But the extensive coverage emerged pri-

Dædalus Spring 2007 103 Lawrence marily because Chandra and presumably Video-disc pornography, imported and Cohen Kuldeep were assumed to have enjoyed homegrown, is widely available in Indi- on sex homosexual (or in newspaper Hindi, an cities and towns–not only, as a de- samalaingik) relations, and because they cade earlier, in urban border and transit were from distinct social classes. Kul- zones like bus- or train-station stalls but deep was understood to be a Hindi or also in shops and bazaars at the center. Punjabi speaker of a ‘laboring class’ But the photographs, both mementoes background, and, like at least one of the of parties and more explicitly sexual alleged killers, was noted to be from the shots, were seen by the police as highly uncivil peasant culture of towns domi- suggestive of a nexus linking extramari- nated by the Jat caste in the state of Har- tal sex to traf½cking in poor men’s bod- yana, just to the south of New Delhi. ies. That Chandra, or perhaps Kuldeep, Chandra, scion of the Bliss World, had might have just liked to take sexy photos done his graduate training in manage- was never publicly contemplated. ment in the United States. Soon a wide range of actors now ubiq- This class distinction between the uitous in large Indian cities–in particu- men, registered through what anthro- lar, human-rights activists and represen- pologist Donald Moore has called an tatives of lesbian and gay groups–de- “ethno-spatial ½x” that here stitched cried this near-instant inversion of crim- together Haryana, the presumed incivil- inality, which led to a smaller second ity of Jats, and the inability to speak flu- wave of articles by Delhi media, now ent English, became ipso facto evidence reporting on themselves. When in late that the crime pointed to a ‘nexus’ link- 2004 I interviewed journalists working ing wealthy gay men, poor boys, and for the English news channel of the criminal ma½a. The Hindustan Times ran ndtv cable network, one of the agen- the headline “Pushkin Murder Uncovers cies that more aggressively pursued the Gigolo Trail.” The once-staid Times of story on the homosexuality-traf½cking India was exultant: “Gay Murders Tip nexus, they argued it was their more of Sordid Sleazeberg.” Within hours down-market Hindi news channel col- of the murders, the relation between leagues who were responsible for this Chandra and the killers was inverted new tabloid style. Rereading newspapers in the court of Delhi-based media: suggested otherwise. Chandra became a kingpin of vice, the These accusations and counteraccusa- murderers offered some kind of rough tions were in turn followed by a back- justice, and Kuldeep was as much a vic- lash, a still-smaller third wave of pieces tim of Chandra as of whoever garroted more aggressively condemning Chandra them. An instant ethnography of Del- as representative of the criminal-homo- hi homosexuality–offered as a violent sexual nexus. In an editorial by Swapan and predatory demimonde abetted by Dasgupta slyly entitled, “The Problem the international privilege of jet-setting is Not Homosexuality,” and widely cir- activists–was mobilized on nightly culated on Internet sites targeting the news reports. South Asian infotech diaspora, the au- The primary evidence of Chandra’s thor argues that it is not homosexuality criminal career was a cache of erotic in itself that gives offense but rather the photographs, allegedly of men having politically correct refusal to recognize its sex in Chandra’s flat and elsewhere, persistent af½nity with criminality. The along with pornographic ½lms on disc. problem, in short, is the nexus.

104 Dædalus Spring 2007 The effect of all this publicity was pro- bia, linked to the generation of sexual Song for nounced: many of Chandra’s friends panics by new forms of media. For jour- Pushkin were subjected to intense police interro- nalists like Swapan Dasgupta, what mat- gation; family and friends became guilty tered was India’s ability to resist an in- by association; and the sexual and social authentic and violent cosmopolitanism lives of men having sex with men in Del- centered on the proliferation of non- hi were curtailed. Large gay parties and governmental organizations (ngos) in the gay night at an upscale pub were all the place of a national order of culture shut down; park cruising and sex work and development. ‘Homosexuality,’ for were heavily policed; and aids organi- Dasgupta, stood for the celebration of zations focusing on men having sex with hedonism, the sine qua non of a more men were attacked in the press as abet- general state of sel½shness transform- ting traf½cking. Months went by before ing civil norms into criminality. That the coverage abated. Chandra, fresh on his American training, And just as the cloud of the Pushkin went to work for foreign humanitarian Affair ½nally appeared to be lifting, and agencies, including the United States Chandra’s friends saw a possible end to Agency for International Development the interrogations, the academics ap- (usaid), and that his vocal supporters peared, asking more questions and try- were often tied to ngos based or funded ing to make sense of it all: thus my trip from abroad, only led credence to what to Delhi. seemed an af½nity between global hu- manitarianism and the loss of a local I knew Pushkin; I did not know Kul- moral world. deep. Pushkin was the childhood friend But I want to suggest that what may of a close friend of mine, and I had brief- matter in the Pushkin Affair takes us be- ly met him when he was studying busi- yond an urgent contest between human ness in the United States. We had other rights and the localized invocation of a friends in common through overlapping lost world. It takes us to the contempo- gay and aids-prevention circles in both rary remaking of a persistent sense of Delhi and Bombay. A number of U.S.- ‘India’ as an irrevocably split world. This based academics I know had been close remaking in turn may help us rethink the to Pushkin’s parents. conditions for an ethical life that I, be- Writing this essay reflects my belief ing of my place and time, will call queer. that what was at stake in the moment of Such an ethical life may provisionally the Pushkin Affair demands consider- be framed as standing outside of, and at able reflection. The task for the anthro- times against, the institution of marriage pologist, Arthur Kleinman has persist- or the norm, emergent in India, of the ently argued, is to attend to “what is at modern heterosexual couple. The vari- stake,” or “what really matters.” For the ant of this life that I know best, ½gured many mutual friends of the subject of between men, is often organized around this essay and its author, what mattered the ½gure of the friend, or that of the was the dignity of a man, his family, and teacher or master–and centers on what the world he was taken to stand for. For is alternately a gift or a demand that one the human-rights and queer activists, may variously describe as sex or, in Hin- what mattered in the Pushkin Affair was di, as khel (play, something outside of the the global expansion of an ugly cultural order of duty) and masti (intoxicating, anxiety they could name as homopho- addictive, and carefree pleasure).

Dædalus Spring 2007 105 Lawrence Like the normative forms against my invocation of asli and nakli, not as de- Cohen on which it stands as one kind of margin, nouncing those forms of queer life that sex this claim to an ethical life in the world fail to maintain a counternorm but con- the Delhi journalists attempted to por- stituting the conditions under which tray as criminal and sleazy can become persons craft a relation between norms something else: a lie or an alibi. By ‘ali- and counternorms, seems relevant to a bi’ I am not acceding to the terms of the more capacious engagement with the journalists. Perhaps the best way to hint trouble with gay marriage. at what I mean is by citing the critical The split world I briefly mentioned, language of another, sometimes overlap- and will argue for, is of course a com- ping world, the one occupied by Push- monplace of analyses of both the vio- kin, Kuldeep, their killers, and at times lence and, after Hegel, the insight of a myself: that of the hijras, the ‘eunuchs’ colonized, racial, or postcolonial ‘condi- or ‘third gender’ of South Asia. Hijras tion’–and like all commonplaces risks a often name the stakes in the forms of slide into banality. But the split I register life they craft in terms of what I might in relation to the Pushkin Affair is con- call the double to queer existence: there tingent not axiomatic, an iterated sense are true (asli) hijras, and there are false of a universe cleft into hemispheres of (nakli) ones. The anthropology of hijra violence and of beauty, an entente be- life has tended to portray the relation tween urban administrative and capital- between true hijras (who are intersexed ist elites (the so-called civil or beautiful) or have had the operation, or have been and rural and small-town peasants and accepted into the community by a hijra landlords (the presumptively uncivil or guru) and false hijras (who dress and violent). I turn ½rst to violence, the ½g- dance as women but are not a third gen- uration of incivility. der, or have not been accepted into the community) in terms of denunciation. I have suggested that the key ½gure in But the border between authentic and the accusation against Pushkin, and al- inauthentic hijra embodiment, or be- most immediately against all homosex- longing, is as much an improvisational uals, was the ‘nexus’ between homosex- exercise in creating a form of life under uality and criminality. This ½gure of a varied conditions of patronage and vio- nexus, ubiquitous in political reportage, lence as it is a difference constitutive of suggests an af½nity or attachment in sexual ethnicity. which a civil institution is deformed by In North America, queer debate in the an underlying relation to criminalized ½rst years of the millennium has cen- interest. A brief review of Indian news- tered on the question of ‘gay marriage’ papers and magazines since 2000 offers and its threat as a project to a kind of hundreds of variations on the nexus, queer authenticity rooted in a counter- with innumerable components coupled ethic of sexual generosity and a disrup- together, in themselves operating as tion of normative temporality. The pos- what Lévi-Strauss would term “floating sibility of a differentiation between the signi½ers.” (They include politicians, the counternorm of sexual friendship versus drug trade, the Congress Party, Pakistan, the norm of marriage as the condition ivory smugglers, the Communist parties, and limit, respectively, of an ethical proj- doctors, North Korea, the United States, ect may seem to call for a denunciation ‘insurgents,’ ‘agents,’ ‘terrorists,’ ‘ma- of the latter as inauthentic queer life. But ½as,’ China, the hiv virus, Bollywood,

106 Dædalus Spring 2007 the Reliance Corporation, Israel, build- miasma or plague that ever threatens to Song for ers, the environment, the cia, Al Qaeda, overwhelm the frail tissue of urban civ- Pushkin cricketers, evil, science, ‘anti-peace ele- ility. Such a feudalism is less temporally ments,’ piracy, sex work, the Bangladesh than spatially represented. The plague army, the market, national security, the has a privileged location in much re- aiadmk Party, investment bankers, en- portage: it lies in the hinterland general- ergy, food, marriage, and globalization.) ly, thus the discussion of the Haryanvi Nexuses of all sorts abound, and the Jat villages where Chandra’s lover and sense of a nexus is meaningful indepen- one of his killers came from, and partic- dent of its particular components. ularly in the eastern Indian state of Bi- However, what Dasgupta calls homo- har, fons et origo of the feudal. It lies also sexuality–within the logic of the nexus in that state’s erstwhile Chief Minister, –is not just another entity deformed by the arguable champion of the ‘back- unsavory attachment to corrupting ele- ward’ castes Lallu Prasad Yadav. Hence ments. Rather, it has come to stand met- ‘Lallooization’ and ‘Biharization’ are onymically for the nexus itself, for the familiar terms for feudalization as a pro- threat to civil society, whether that civil- cess and threat. ity is represented as a threatened moder- Backwardness completes the trio of nity, a threatened tradition, or a threat- terms standing at the verge of civility. ened hybrid between the two. The de- Far more than the nexus or the feudal, gradation of Pushkin’s memory, and his the backward is reflexively elaborated friends and family, was propelled by a and enjoys a sort of national conversa- particular collective sense of sublimity tion. India’s most prominent debate on that entrepreneurial media could seize entitlements and distributive justice upon: that even in the gated enclaves of centers on the problem of how many the rich, in the bosom of the civil serv- school admissions, political seats, and ice, in the World of Bliss, corruption state jobs should be ‘reserved’ for per- wildly devastates, producing orgies of sons legally marked as backward. Back- violence. wardness in this context signi½es per- If there is another ubiquitous word for sons belonging to low castes. Since the this threat within dispersed contempo- late 1980s, the question has been wheth- rary discourses on the problem of inci- er or not reservations should be extend- vility, it is an unexpected one: feudalism. ed from so-called Untouchables, or Citations of feudalism dog political re- Scheduled Castes (scs), to the less mar- portage, but these do not refer to speci½c ginal Other Backward Castes (obcs). Indian historiographic debates, such as Fierce debates rage over whether obcs whether European feudalism was excep- are as backward as their classi½cation tional or whether the concept can fruit- suggests, and over the motivation of fully be applied to, say, the India of the politicians in extending reservations. fourth century of the Common Era, or of In reservations debate, backwardness the eighth, or of the tenth through thir- signi½es lack of equal opportunity or a teenth. caste label that allows one to make a pre- Rather, the temporal referent of the tense of such lack. But while the ½ght feudalism I am describing is split–an over who can claim the otherwise igno- era just past, an epoch just dawning. But minious label of backward continues, in general, this ‘feudal’ is less some ante- what backwardness exactly consists of diluvian, or even recent, epoch than a is less clear.

Dædalus Spring 2007 107 Lawrence et me illustrate how backwardness, with the loopholes and turrets of a me- Cohen L on feudalism, and the nexus came to be diaeval castle; Palladian arcades rise to sex attached to dominant understandings Mughal copulas; inside brightly coloured and representations of same-sex desire Nawabi plasterwork enclose Wedgwood toward the end of the twentieth century plaques of classical European Gods and and into the present one. Goddesses . . . . In its willful extravagance In 1997, I was living in the city of Luck- and sheer strangeness, Constantia embod- now, the capital of the populous state ies like no other building the opulence, of Uttar Pradesh to the east of Delhi and restlessness, and open-mindedness of a to the west of that acme of legible back- city which lay on the fault line between wardness, Bihar. U.P., as it is known, is East and West, the old world of the Na- said to take a close second to Bihar in the wabs and the new world of the Raj. rankings of feudal rot, and I have heard Some of this same description reappears journalists in conversation refer to ‘U.P.- in “East of Eton,” another Dalrymple ization’ as an analogue of Biharization. piece on the school and the Gomes mur- The moment I describe has me talking der, in which the oddness of young men with a reporter named Deepak Sharma, trained to recite English poetry and to who had penned a story on the murder take the British side in recitations of the of a local physical education instructor, 1857 “Mutiny” is used to exemplify a mi- Frederic Gomes, at the prestigious La lieu in which time stands still until shat- Martinière School. tered by the violence of a new order. Earlier that summer, Gomes was shot After the murder of Gomes, many to death, apparently while asleep at disparate rumors circulated, several night in his bungalow, behind the main in the tabloid Hindi press: Gomes was complex of school buildings. La Mar- involved in local drug ma½a. Gomes tinière is built around Constantia, the had discovered a student involved in palace and tomb of the Enlightenment the drug ma½a. Gomes was involved mercenary and aesthete Claude Martin, with notorious women. Gomes was who had been under the patronage of involved with a male student. Gomes the ruling dynasty of Awadh at their was involved with a male student and height. The structure, extraordinary in a notorious woman. Sharma, who was its mixing of genres, is frequently de- then writing for the English paper The scribed by British historians and travel Pioneer, wrote a piece summing up all writers as exemplary of some larger of these rumors, which was entitled truth. William Dalrymple writes loving- “Gomes was a gay.” ly of La Martinière as I was in the city working with a new perhaps the most gloriously hybrid build- ‘gay group’ called Friends India, which ing in India, part Nawabi fantasy and part was started by a group of largely ‘mar- Gothic colonial barracks. Just as Martin ried gays’ (to borrow the parlance of himself combined the lifestyle of a Mus- Delhi and Bombay). By the time I met lim prince with the interests of a renais- its leaders, Friends India was run by a sance man–writing Persian couplets and younger idealistic and unmarried Shia maintaining an observatory, experiment- schoolteacher and an older married and ing with map making and botany, hot air retired Hindu military man, one of the balloons and even bladder surgery–so his original founders. Whereas many elite mausoleum mixes Georgian colonnades Anglophone men in Delhi used to refer

108 Dædalus Spring 2007 to gays as other elites who liked sex with about Pathans.” This conversation was Song for men, and to straights as the working- a few years before the post-9/11 Ameri- Pushkin class men they had sex with, the erotic can invasion of Afghanistan had resus- axis of difference in Lucknow seemed citated the colonial ethnography of to be more pederastic. Gays were older Pukhtoon or Pathan proclivities to ped- men who liked chikna boys. A chikna boy erasty and violence. What do you mean, was a ‘smart’ or ‘smooth’ teenager, one I asked, my words and Sharma’s recalled who was thought to cultivate the gaze of some hours later in my notebook. Shar- older interested men for both pleasure ma argued that the Pathan culture of and personal advancement. One day, I Malihabad was taking over places like turned to The Pioneer and saw Sharma’s La Martinière. Malihabad was a town headline, followed by additional infor- not far from Lucknow, long settled by mation: Gomes was not only “a gay,” he Pathans who had migrated into north was a womanizer and in the drug trade, India. Heroin, Sharma told me, is the and so forth. key. Pathans are key players in moving How could Mr. Gomes have been heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan both a womanizer and gay? But even through India. Malihabad is flush with as I asked Sharma this question, I knew new money. The Pathans now are all at least one likely answer: ‘gay’ for men sending their children to places like here and at this time still suggested as La Martinière. Its culture is changing: much a general excess of desire as a spe- drugs, money, guns, and womanizing ci½c object choice–not just a wife but are all part of it. And of course, he con- women, not just women but boys. Shar- tinued sotto voce, Pathans are famous for ma laughed and said pretty much the enjoying homosex. same. I don’t necessarily believe all of Sharma’s account framed Lucknow these rumors, he told me. That’s the through its famed school as a cynosure point: the papers have gone crazy, accus- of the moral world of British liberalism. ing Gomes of every offense in the book. This world faced deformation, here lo- That’s why I wrote the article. But then calized not as Bihar but as a neighboring why, I asked, ½nally ½guring out the town. The illicit connections binding the question, did you summarize “every of- local order to viral influence in this case fense” with “Gomes was a gay”? were not ngos but the older interre- Sharma looked a bit sheepish. I didn’t gional networks of the Pathans. mean that he was a gay, he said to me. Sharma’s editor, a former sociologist, But the poor fellow was murdered, and happened to come in on our conversa- suddenly he was being accused of every- tion near the end. The business about thing. Somehow “Gomes was a gay” Pathans, he told me, is all rot. It is all seemed the best was to say this. about land tenure. I’m from Punjab and Sharma then offered an elaboration my wife is from Bengal, he said by way of the particular nexus connecting Luck- of explanation, regions bordering the now, La Martinière, homosexuality, badlands of U.P. and Bihar to the north- women, and drugs. Again: a crime has west and southeast. We don’t have all been committed in a place that stands this homosex there. But here in U.P. you for all the civil promise of an old order, ½nd it everywhere. revealing secret connections that deform I asked why his homeland and his that promise. “It’s not about homosex- wife’s differed so from the states of U.P. uality itself,” Sharma said, “but it is all and Bihar that they straddled. His re-

Dædalus Spring 2007 109 Lawrence sponse was not ethnos tied to contem- ents that frame it as the condition of Cohen on porary flows (Pathans, heroin, traf½c, somewhere or someone else. But for sex new money, old predilections) but cul- places denigrated as persistently back- tures of discipline and punishment ward, it can mark a form of identi½ca- formed over the longue durée of coloni- tion and ensuing politics. Thus during al and postcolonial infrastructure. The his tenure in the late 1990s Bihar’s for- forms of taxation and land tenure that mer Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav the British established here in the Gan- could patronize the launda nautch, cross- getic plains, he told me, were particular- dressing young men who dance and pro- ly oppressive; they set in motion a cul- vide sex for male guests at weddings, as ture of such extreme oppression that not a ‘populist’ measure to secure his reputa- only women but also men are at risk for tion as a man of the people. In Varanasi, sexual violation at the hands of domi- in the east of Uttar Pradesh near the Bi- nant landholding groups. Rape of male har border, ‘homosex’ (the term that landless laborers and other economical- moves easily between English and Hin- ly marginal men has become a tool fre- di) was frequently described to me as a quently used to discipline them. He de- feature either of Muslim Pathan towns scribed this particularity of “U.P. and Bi- to the north or Hindu dominant-caste har” as a “feudal culture.” landlords in Bihar to the east, but it was The feudal here was not an emergent also claimed by a number of local sati- state but an effect of the colonial period. rists and writers as a distinctive feature The editor’s argument was framed in of the antinomian quality of the city’s secular terms, drawing as much on ex- cultural milieu. Against the pretensions amples from the Hindu ruling cultures of a dominant national order associated of cities like Varanasi and Patna as the with the metropolitan city and its forms Muslim ones of Lucknow and Faizabad. of consumption, backwardness might However, the feudal landlordism he de- mark itself as a state of authenticity set scribed is a particular feature of mod- against a different kind of excess, and ern nationalist critiques of the pederas- the ½gure of homosex could mark some- tic culture of Islamic aristocratic life, thing other than degeneration. where as in the writer Premchand’s fa- But one must immediately qualify the mous short story (and Satyajit Ray’s gender of such homosex. When I asked ½lm), “The Chess Players,” the homo- a senior minister of Laloo’s Rashtriya eroticism may often be an implicit ½g- Janata Dal Party why, despite metropoli- ure of libertinage that is part of a set of tan condemnation, his party had hired excessive attachments including games dancing boys, he told me that the party’s and womanizing. A generation of histo- base respects women, unlike the urban riography framed the erstwhile rulers elites who oppose it. “In orchestra wed- of Lucknow, the navabs of Awadh, as ef- dings,” he said, referring to the usual fete and licentious. The very term navabi wedding bands popular in the state capi- shauk–princely inclination or desire– tal of Patna and elsewhere in the coun- implies a fondness for younger men. try, “ladies dance for the wedding party. The feudal thus carries a double va- But in our rural areas we have the idea lence–an imminent condition of civil that we must respect our daughters. To collapse and an archaic condition of dance is human (nautch to hota hai, is agrarian excess. It draws variously on duniya mein), but boys dance as it is not spatial, temporal, and communal refer- proper for ladies to do so.”

110 Dædalus Spring 2007 This sense that metropolitan culture there were prosecutions of aids activ- Song for challenges the normative order of gen- ists, and later ‘married gays,’ in Luck- Pushkin der and honor may be a commonplace now as violating Section 377 of the Indi- of agrarian social change: in India in an Penal Code prohibiting carnal inter- the period of neoliberal economic and course against the order of nature. A social transformation, one of the more commonplace of postcolonial studies potent vehicles of political theater has frames the cause for sodomitical anxie- been the metropolitan or international ty as a constitutive feature of the sexual challenge to women’s comportment in imaginary of British colonialism, and the form of lesbian rejection of familial yet the danger of arguments that reduce norms. Thus, a local land contractor and the contingency of current sexual poli- gangster in Varanasi who participated tics to the persistence of the colonial avidly in organizing the annual carnival wound is to reduce an engaged diagnosis celebration of Holi, and who spoke ap- of the present to the binarism of Europe provingly of sex between men as a famil- versus an imaginary precolonial world. iar feature of the order of pleasure and The virulence of forensic publicity in the violence that regulates political life in face of the Anand Lok murders demands the city, was outspoken in attacking more. In particular, it demands attention Deepa Mehta, the Indo-Canadian direc- to the other face of homosex’s current tor of what he called the “lesbian ½lm” publicity. Fire. The ½lm was an attack on Indian If the feudal characterizes modernity and particularly Hindu men, he told me, as a fragile temporality ever ready to and he was happy, he said, to orchestrate slide into the life of the nexus, a kind of the protests against her when she ½rst Hobbesian Warre, I want to argue for tried to ½lm Water in Varanasi. Unlike a feudalism’s persistent opposition to a number of other parts of the world be- contrastive state I will term fashion. It is ing transformed in the aftermath of the in the implosion of feudalism and fash- cold war, India did not experience sig- ion as modes of knowing the world that ni½cant political attacks on sex between I want to locate the refusal to mourn for men as part of the challenge to cosmo- Pushkin. politan inauthenticity. Chandra’s guilt was clinched in the court of the media by the presence of The minor backlash, the ‘third wave’ the sexual photographs and the claim of reporting after the deaths of Kuldeep that he was a commercial traf½cker in and Chandra, suggests the possibility images of young men. Though unsub- of a shifting ½eld of sexual publicity. stantiated (and, according to many men Political gain, or national puri½cation, in Delhi and Bombay who were part of through the condemnation or prosecu- his circle of friends and who appeared tion of sex between men is not an entire- in some of the photographs, simply un- ly novel feature of Indian modernity true), the claim resonated because the over the past century. In the 1930s there photographs called to mind a different was controversy over the writer Ugra’s staple of contemporary publicity, that depiction of pederasty (in which M. K. of so-called modeling scams. Gandhi himself intervened to suggest Beginning in the early 1990s, the po- that the predatory violence of such de- tential fungibility of good looks under sire was set against the self-transforming the sign of ‘style’ began to underwrite goals of satyagraha), and more recently the extensive commitment of petty

Dædalus Spring 2007 111 Lawrence bourgeois youth in small towns and poses and other narratives of nakli or Cohen on large cities to modeling as a practice. counterfeit opportunities, i.e., stories of sex News about top models, and the design- casting couches and would-be models ers and impresarios that elevate them to tricked into prostitution. The primary celebrity, became an everyday feature victim of modeling’s counterfeit hope in Hindi and English papers in north In- is usually a young mamuli larki, an ordi- dia, and exemplary stories of fantastic nary or ‘middle-class’ girl much like careers in the new ½eld of fashion prolif- Jassi, the heroine of the top soap opera erated. of 2004, Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. (Jassi was Beauty as a project and demand is based on the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy one way to think about the differential Betty La Fea; an American version, Ugly stakes in futurity. In small towns across Betty, appeared in 2006.) The heroine of the subcontinent, market streets are all three is a young woman of modest now lined with shop fronts offering means who discovers her ‘inner beauty’ hopeful futures. Computer institutes and emerges as an international star of and English-language tutors have been fashion, but the road to fashion’s new joined by fashion and modeling schools. hope is lined with traps. In the Indian On the Internet, dozens of websites fea- soap, Jassi’s photograph–the sign and turing the photos and biodata of many vehicle of what I am calling both the thousands of young women and men fungibility and the hope of fashion–is from India and Pakistan stitch these lo- repeatedly utilized by villains of various calized aspirations into a national and sorts to do her harm. transnational scene of hope. But the exemplary body of fashion’s If any of the pedagogies of hope has hope is as often male as it is female, de- come to stand metonymically for the spite the importance of the beauty queen rest, it is not computers but fashion. as a dominant ½guration of this hope on Fashion designers are avidly followed the national scale. Beauty appears to be in the press, not only on Page Three, the too risky a strategy for mamuli young society news, but even in the reportage women: as in the 2005 Hindi ½lm Bunty of national affairs, as when exchange aur Babli, in which a spunky girl with between India and Pakistan is enhanced dreams of stardom runs away from by the gift of a sherwani coat by Paki- home to try out for a fashion show only stan’s ‘top designer’ to the Indian prime to be told that the price for entry is sex minister. Fashion, like computers, is the with the organizer. entrée into a kind of flexible citizenship. If women are less available than men The National Institute of Fashion Tech- within certain narrative forms to dem- nology (nift) vies with the famed Indi- onstrate fashion’s fungibility, accounts an Institutes of Technology (iits) in the of the transvaluation of ordinary male competitiveness of its entrance exams subjects often distinguish fashion as and the global scale of the future it pro- elite apparatus from style as its creative duces. Even the unlettered can hope to appropriation. Crudely, within the logic become models. of contemporary Hindi ½lm (and the But as fashion has proliferated as a Hindi pulp ‘sexology’ and ‘true crime’ master narrative of hope, hope’s limit magazines studied by scholars like an- has also appeared, as a seamy underside thropologist Sanjay Srivastava), ‘fash- to fashion. With all the new publicity of ion’ is to ‘style’ both as women are to fashion’s possibility come repeated ex- men and as the rich are to the poor.

112 Dædalus Spring 2007 Fashion bespeaks the radical innova- the sexualized deformation of young Song for tion and mastery of codes of distinc- men’s hope. Pushkin tion, as the spectacular order both of From the late 1980s onward, I began the nation (the beauty queen winning to notice references in elite Indian media for India and propelling the national to a ‘new masculinity’ that was globally physiognomy onto the global stage, or competitive, not some hypermasculine the fashion designer as a surprisingly order, as predicted by scholars like Ashis ubiquitous object of exchange in period- Nandy, but a softer and more androgy- ic thaws between India and Pakistan) nous elite form. “The new Indian man is and of the global commodity (Indian unafraid to get a facial” was one of the fashion competing with the best of New sillier variants on the theme. This glob- York or Milan). Within media pitched ally fungible masculinity was of course to imagined mamuli audiences, fashion set against the imagined violence of the has a double edge: it inevitably calls to backward or feudal, and one of its ava- mind a predatory moral economy of tars was the male fashion designer. De- sexual harassment; individualist ‘sel½sh- signers, so the account went, were mas- ness’ and shauk (desire, inclination) set ters of the code of the new global order, against the reproduction of extended but–and here was the full measure of family values; and the fetishization of their heroism–they were also exponents money and other antifamily and antitra- of the particularity and imagined global dition object relations. popularity of Indian fashion, what be- ‘Style,’ as the citation of fashion, al- came known as ‘the ethnic.’ The fashion lows for more comfortable ambivalence. designer thus represented a new kind Many relatively inexpensive commodi- of actor, globally positioned and yet at ties, particularly clothing, are marked by home, in every sense, in the world. the generic brand ‘Style.’ Style, in other But many stories generated by atten- words, carries the expansive equity of tion to this new hero turned out to be the generic, or mamuli, within new sym- grim: again, accounts of fake institutes bolic economies of value. Many of the taking parents’ money and running, of young men I interviewed over the past ‘casting couches’ for aspiring youth, and decade in north Indian towns and the of modeling as a front for luring youth metros of Delhi and Mumbai use style into pornography and prostitution. If to describe a certain kind of hope and popular ½lm featured women as the vic- its actualization. Linked to English-lan- tims of the age of nakli fashion, art ½lm guage and computer skills as much as to with its realism turned as well to the the dance moves or sartorial capital that sexual exploitation of men. Thus in the might land one a career in the evergreen 2005 ½lm Page Three, a reporter asks her world of the cinema, style marks the site gay best friend to help out her aspiring of an actual politics of symbolic and so- actor boyfriend ½nd work in the indus- cial capital as opposed to fashion, its try, only to discover them sleeping to- imagined limit. gether as the price for assistance; and in This distinction helps us understand the 2004 Let’s Enjoy, a Jat and working- the position of one of the most promi- class gym instructor–an ‘ordinary’ man nent culture heroes associated with the and would-be model–sneaks into a fan- new order of the potential, if risky, con- cy Delhi ‘farmhouse party’ (these pri- vertibility of hope and style, and in turn vate estates to the south of the city have the invention of Pushkin as traf½cker in become synonymous with elite parties,

Dædalus Spring 2007 113 Lawrence drugs, and sex) in the hopes of being dis- Pankaj Mishra, and Makarand Paran- Cohen on covered, only to discover that the gay jape, for example) rather than ½lm, tar- sex fashion designer present is only interest- geted to and consumed by a more elite ed in sleeping with him. audience fearing the loss of a well-cir- Much was made in the press of the cumscribed civil society. screenplays for realist ½lms like Page In the wake of the accusations follow- Three and Let’s Enjoy as romans à clef ing the deaths of Chandra and Kuldeep, based on actual events. The predatory I have offered a different mapping of gay fashion designer story was under- ‘the global gay’ than either colleagues stood as a familiar feature of the new who focus on how aids and other vec- economy, with many journalists and tors of globalization produce a transna- screenwriters citing actual cases, to tional gay culture, or those attentive to the extent that their ever more conven- the breaks and disparities between the tional features began constituting a new variously queer practices and identi½- urban legend. But if the ‘gay’ as the rela- cations that have proliferated globally tion and the limit of neoliberal hope fea- from the late 1980s to the present. De- tures heavily as a ½gure of such realism spite the emergence of vigorous social in ½lm, it fails to do so as a ½gure of the movements and a wide range of politi- feudal or backward, the deforming out- cal, humanitarian, and intellectual and side to the civil. When the nexus is treat- expressive projects, neither queer sexu- ed in ½lm–usually staged as stories of al cultures nor institutional or popular crime syndicates or the corruptions of responses to them have been the domi- politics–the narrative is usually offered nant representations of ‘homosex’ or in an epic or tragic mode, and the stock ‘the gay.’ Rather, the elaboration of two scene of the deformation of a heterosex- ½gures–on the one hand, the sodomiti- ual love affair is not, as in Page Three, ac- cal and usually rural threat to civil socie- companied by a gay subplot. In part, this ty, and on the other, the ½gure of the gay may be because the citation of effemi- limit to youthful hope–bracket commit- nate or ‘gay’ characters in cinematic ac- ments to order, or the ordinary, as imag- counts of crime and punishment draws inable norms of an Indian future. The on a long-standing comic convention of violence with which the two young men subverting the claims to authority of the were killed could be immediately invert- police, criminals, or other representa- ed into an account of how Pushkin em- tives of local sovereign power through bodied the corrupt nexus that perverts camp, present in the regional dramatic the hope of ordinary men because the traditions of western and northern In- available forensics superimposed on dia: nautanki, tamasha, and others. One them these two ½gures: the sodomiti- of the more popular of many examples cal nexus, and the gay limit to beauty’s is the 1991 Mast Kalander, featuring both hope. a very swish Pinkoo, the man-crazy son Whatever the relation between Push- of a notorious gangster, and the police kin Chandra and Kuldeep, and between of½cer who is madly, if campily, in love either of them and their two killers, and with him. The homosexually predatory whatever the desires behind the incrim- landlord, gangster, or politician as a dra- inating photos, homosex in Delhi has matic rather than comic ½gure therefore been the vehicle of social mobility, un- moved from the tabloid media into liter- derstanding, pleasure, and love across ature (in the works of Vikram Chandra, the deep sense of a status divide that

114 Dædalus Spring 2007 has led so many sociologists and philos- gaging forms as both asli and nakli, as Song for ophers from abroad to label hierarchy both authentic and somehow not so. It Pushkin India’s preeminent genius or curse. It is not fair to ask any of this of Pushkin: has also been the site of commerce and it may be helpful to ask it of ourselves as exploitation, to the point where I have his survivors. But any such work is hard many times heard elite men in the capi- to entertain when homosex is required tal refers to ‘gays’ as men like themselves to stand for the nexus, and gay life for and ‘straights’ as the working- or serv- the limit to hope. ice-class men they pass around like kula among themselves. Homosex may offer far greater possibilities for the undoing of status exclusions than do the various marriage systems of a twenty-½rst cen- tury society, but it carries no imperative for any such undoing. Status differen- tials, on the contrary, are often the site where erotic attraction as well as oppor- tunity emerges. What might it mean to speak of the ‘ethical,’ then, in the face of the accusa- tions and counteraccusations marking the Pushkin Affair? The task here is nei- ther to secure nor redeem Chandra’s damaged person. Two men are brutally killed, two others await judgment, a family and friends are devastated, and various experts get their twenty minutes. That a well-off young man sought sexu- al connection with working-class Jats and vice versa invokes a moral world in which status differentials are loosened, if not undone, through sexual fellow- ship. It also invokes the shared desire of many elite men for ‘rough trade,’ and the extensive opportunities for enacting violence in either direction across a sta- tus divide. Fetishes, if that is what we have come to, never have politics a pri- ori: heterosexual desire tout court is the most signi½cant example. If the persis- tent desire for the other across a gender, race, or class differential always travers- es the ground of a prior violence, there may be work to be done that neither pre- sumes denunciation nor a commitment to commensurability as the dominant value. This work is what I mean by en-

Dædalus Spring 2007 115 Annals by Greil Marcus

A trip to Hibbing High School

“A s I went out–” Those are the ½rst ber. People were asking questions–or words of “Ain’t Talkin’,” the last song making speeches. The old saw came up: on Bob Dylan’s Modern Times, released “How does someone like Bob Dylan in the fall of 2006. It’s a great opening come out of a place like Hibbing, Min- line for anything: a song, a tall tale, a nesota, a worn-out mining town in the fable, a novel, a soliloquy. The world middle of nowhere?” opens at the feet of that line. How one A woman stood up. She was about gets there–to the point where those thirty-½ve, maybe forty, de½nitely words can take on their true authority, younger than the people who’d been raise suspense like a curtain, and make talking. Her face was dark with indig- anyone want to know what happens nation. “Have any of you ever been to next–is what I want to look for. Hibbing?” she said. There was a gener- For me this road opened in the spring al shaking of heads and murmuring of of 2005, upstairs in the once-famous, no’s–from me and everyone else. “You now-shut Cody’s Books on Telegraph ought to be ashamed of yourselves,” Avenue in Berkeley. I was giving a read- the woman said. “You don’t know what ing from a book about Bob Dylan’s “Like you’re talking about. If you’d been to a Rolling Stone.” Older guys, people my Hibbing, you’d know why Bob Dylan age, were talking about the shows they’d came from there. There’s poetry on the seen in 1965–Dylan had played Berkeley walls. Everywhere you look. There are on his ½rst tour with a band that Decem- bars where arguments between social- ists and the iww, between Communists Greil Marcus is the author of many books, includ- and Trotskyists, arguments that started ing “Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock a hundred years ago, are still going on. ’n’ Roll Music” (1975), “Lipstick Traces: A Secret It’s there–and it was there when Bob Dy- History of the Twentieth Century” (1989), “The lan was there.” Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan’s “I don’t remember the rest of what Basement Tapes” (2001), “Like a Rolling Stone: she said,” my wife said when I asked her Bob Dylan at the Crossroads” (2005), and most about that night. “I was already planning recently “The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy our trip.” in the American Voice” (2006). Along with our younger daughter and © 2007 by Greil Marcus her husband, who live in Minneapolis,

116 Dædalus Spring 2007 we arrived in Hibbing a year later, co- Duluth, or any other city, to be a suburb A trip to Hibbing incidentally during Dylan Days, a now- of anything–he lived some of this life, High School annual weekend celebration of Bob Dy- too. lan’s birthday, in this case his sixty-½fth. Cantwell moves on to talk about how There was a bus trip, the premiere of a the new prosperity of the 1950s was like- new movie, and a sort-of Bob Dylan Idol ly paradise to your parents, how their contest at a restaurant called Zimmy’s. aspirations became your seeming inevi- But we went straight to the high school. tabilities: “Very likely, you saw yourself On the bus tour the next day, we went growing up to be a doctor or a lawyer, back. And that was the shock: Hibbing scientist or engineer, teacher, nurse, High. or mother–pictures held up to you at In his revelatory 1993 essay “When school and at home as pictures of your We Were Good: Class and Culture in special destiny.” And, Cantwell says, the Folk Revival,” the historian Robert You probably attended, too, an over- Cantwell takes you by the hand, guides crowded public school, typically a build- you back, and reveals the new America ing built shortly before World War I . . . that rose up out of World War II. “If you [you] may have had to share a desk with were born between, roughly, 1941 and another student, and in addition to the 1948,” he says–“born, that is, into the normal ½re and tornado drills had from new postwar middle class”– time to time to crawl under your desk in you grew up in a reality perplexingly di- order to shield yourself from the imagined vided by the intermingling of an emerg- explosion of an atomic bomb. ing mass society and a decaying indus- So, Cantwell writes, “in this vision of trial culture . . . . Obscurely taking shape consumer Valhalla there was a lingering around you, of a de½nite order and tex- note of caution, even of dread”–but ture, was an environment of new neigh- let’s go back to the schools. borhoods, new schools, new businesses, The public schools I attended–Eliz- new forms of recreation and entertain- abeth Van Auken Elementary School ment, and new technologies that in the (now Ohlone School) in Palo Alto, and course of the 1950s would virtually abol- Menlo Atherton High School in Menlo ish the world in which your parents had Park–were not built before World War grown up. I. They were built in the early 1950s, That sentence is typical of Cantwell’s part of the world that was already chang- style: apparently obvious social changes ing. The past was still there: Miss Van charted into the realm of familiarity, Auken, a beloved former teacher, was then a hammer coming down–as you always present to celebrate the school’s are feeling your way into your own birthday. When our third-grade class world, your parents’ world is abolished. read the Little House books, we wrote Growing up in the certi½ed postwar Laura Ingalls Wilder and she wrote back. suburban towns of Palo Alto and Menlo But the past was fading as new houses Park in California, I lived some of this went up all around the school. A few life. Though Bob Dylan did not grow up miles away, Menlo Atherton High was in the suburbs–despite David Hajdu’s a sleek, modern plant: one story, flat dismissal of Dylan, in his book Positively roofs, huge banks of windows in every 4th Street, as “a Jewish kid from the sub- classroom, lawns everywhere, and three urbs,” Hibbing is not close enough to parking lots, one reserved strictly for

Dædalus Spring 2007 117 Annals by members of the senior class. The school Hibbing High School was built near Greil Marcus produced Olympic swimmers in the ear- the end of the era when Hibbing was ly 1960s; a few years later Lindsey Buck- known as “the richest village in the ingham and Stevie Nicks would grad- world.” A crusading mayor, Victor Pow- uate and, a few years after that, make er, enforced mineral taxes on U.S. Steel, Fleetwood Mac the biggest band in the operator of the huge iron-ore pit mines world. The school sparkled with subur- that surrounded the original Hibbing. ban money, rock-and-roll cool, surfer Elected after a general strike in 1913, he swagger, and San Francisco ambition– fought off the mine company’s allies in and compared to Hibbing High School the state legislature and the courts in it was a shack. battle after battle. When ore was discov- “I know Hibbing,” Harry Truman said ered under the town itself, Power and in 1947, when he was introduced to Hib- others forced the company to spend six- bing’s John Galeb, the National Com- teen million dollars to move the whole mander of Disabled American Veterans. town–houses, hotels, churches, public “That’s where the high school has gold buildings–four miles south. The big- doorknobs.” Outside of Washington, ger buildings were cut in quarters and D.C., it was the most impressive public reassembled in the new Hibbing like building I’d ever seen. Legos. In aerial photographs, it’s a colossus: Tax revenues had mounted over the four stories, 93 feet high, with wings 180 years in the old north Hibbing; at one feet long flying out from a 416 foot front. point, the story goes, when a social-im- From the ground it is more than any- provement society took up donations thing a monument to benign authority, for poor families, none could be found. a giant hand welcoming the town, all But in the new south Hibbing, in a ma- of its generations, into a cave where the neuver aimed at building support for treasure is buried, all the knowledge of lower corporate tax rates in the future, mankind. It speaks for the community, the mining company offered even more for its faith in education not only as a money in the form of donations, or road to success, wealth, security, reputa- bribes: school-board members directed tion, and honor, but as a good in itself. most of it to what became Hibbing High, This town, the building says, will have which Mayor Power had demanded as the best school in the world. part of the price of moving the town. In the plaza before the building there With prosperity seemingly assured, is a spire, a war memorial. On its four the town turned out Victor Power in fa- sides, as you turn from one panel to vor of a mayor closer to the mines. Soon another, are the names of those students a law was passed limiting public spend- from Hibbing High who died in World ing to a hundred dollars per capita per War I, World War II, the Korean and year; then the limit was lowered, and Vietnam Wars–and, on the last panel, lowered again. The tax base of the town with no names, a commemoration of the began to crumble; with World War II, terrorist attacks of 2001. Past the memo- when the town was not allowed to tax rial are steps worthy of a state capitol mineral production, and after, when the leading to the entrance of the building. mines were nearly played out, the tax It was late Friday afternoon; there were base all but collapsed. Ultimately, the no students around, but the doors were mines shifted from iron ore to taconite, open. low-grade pellets that today ½nd a mar-

118 Dædalus Spring 2007 ket in China, but Hibbing never recov- ries. Seating for eighteen hundred, and A trip to Hibbing ered. In the 1950s it was a dying town, stained glass everywhere, even in the High School the school a seventh wonder of a time form of blazing candles on the ½re box. that had passed, a ziggurat built by a for- In large, gilded paintings in the back, gotten king. Yet it was still a ziggurat. the muses waited; they smiled over the proscenium arch, too, over a stage that, When it opened in 1924, Hibbing High in imitation of thousands of years of School had cost four million dollars, an ancestors, had the weight of immortal- unimaginable sum for the time. At ½rst ity hammered into its boards. “No won- it was the ultimate consolidated school, der he turned into Bob Dylan,” said a from kindergarten through junior col- visitor the next day, when the bus tour lege. There were three gyms, two indoor stopped at the school, speaking of the running tracks, and every kind of shop talent show Dylan played here with his that in the years to come would be com- high-school band the Golden Chords. monplace in American high schools–as No matter that the power was cut on the well as an electronics shop, an auto shop, noise they were making: anybody on a conservatory. There was a full-time that stage could see kingdoms waiting. doctor, dentist, and nurse. There were There were huge chandeliers, import- extensive programs in music, art, and ed from Czechoslovakia, forty thousand theater. But more than eight decades lat- dollars each when they were shipped er, you didn’t have to know any of this to across the Atlantic in the 1920s, a quarter catch the glow of the place. of a million, half-a-million each today: Climbing the enclosed stairway that not merely irreplaceable, but unthink- followed the expanse of outdoor steps, able. We weren’t in Hibbing, a redun- we saw not a hint of graf½ti, not a sign dant mining town in northern Minneso- of deterioration in the intricate colored ta; we were in the opera house in Buenos tile designs on the walls and the ceilings, Aires. Yet we were in Hibbing; there in the curving woodwork. We gazed up were high-school Bob Dylan artifacts at old-fashioned but still majestic mu- in a case just down the hall. There were rals depicting the history of Minnesota, more in the public library some blocks with bold trappers surrounded by sub- away, in a small exhibit in the basement. missive Indians, huge trees and roaming Scattered among commonplace talis- animals, the forest, and the emerging mans, oddities, and revelations were the towns. It was strange, the pristine condi- lyrics to the Golden Chords’ “Big Black tion of the place. It spoke not for empti- Train” from 1958, a rewrite of Elvis’s ness, for Hibbing High as a version of 1954 “Mystery Train,” credited to Monte Pompeii High–though the school, with Edwardson, LeRoy Hoikkala, and Bob a capacity of over two thousand, was Zimmerman: down to six hundred students, up from Well, big black train, coming down the four hundred only a few years before– line and, somehow, you knew the state of the Well, big black train, coming down the building didn’t speak for discipline. You line could sense self-respect, passed down Well, you got my woman, you bring her over the years. back to me We followed the empty corridors in Well, that cute little chick is the girl I want search of the legendary auditorium. A to see custodian let us in and told us the sto-

Dædalus Spring 2007 119 Annals by Well, I’ve been waiting for a long long lifting·the·hidden·iron·that· Greil time glimpses·in·laboured·mines· Marcus Well, I’ve been waiting for a long long undrainable·of·ore time –while over the factory one could read Well, I’ve been looking for my baby Searching down the line they·force·the·burnt·and·yet· unblooded·steel·to·do·their· Well, here comes the train, yeah it’s will coming down the line Well, here comes the train, yeah it’s That was the poetry on the walls–but coming down the line not even this was the real poetry in Hib- Well, you see my baby is ½nally coming bing. The real poetry was in the class- home room.

The next day, walking up and down After stopping by the auditorium and Howard Street, the main street of Hib- the library, the tour made its way up- bing, we looked for the poetry on the stairs to Room 204, where for ½ve years walls. “a new life,” read an ad for in the 1950s B. J. Rolfzen taught English an insurance company–was that it? at Hibbing High–after that, he taught Was there anything in that beer sign for twenty-½ve years at Hibbing Com- that could be twisted into a metaphor? munity College. Eighty-three in May of What was the woman in Berkeley talk- 2006, and slowed down by a stroke, get- ing about? Later we found out that the ting around in a motorized wheelchair, walls with the poetry were in the high Rolfzen sat on the desk in the small, sud- school itself. denly steamy room, as forty or more In the school library there were busts people crowded in. There was a small and chiseled words of wisdom and mu- podium in front of him. Presumably we rals. The murals told the story of the were there to hear his reminiscences mining industry, all in the style of what about the former Bob Zimmerman–or, Daniel Pinkwater, in his young-adult as Rolfzen called him, and never any- novel Young Adults, called “heroic real- thing else, Robert. Rolfzen held up a ism.” There were sixteen life-size work- slate where he’d chalked lines from ers, representing the nationalities that “Floater,” from Dylan’s 2001 “Love and formed Hibbing: native-born Ameri- Theft”: “Gotta sit up near the teacher / cans, Finns, Swedes, Italians, Norwe- If you want to learn anything.” Rolfzen gians, Croatians, Serbs, Slovenians, Aus- pointed to the tour member who was trians, Germans, Jews, French, Poles, sitting in the seat directly in front of Russians, Armenians, Bulgarians, and the desk. “I always stood in front of the more. There was a huge mine on the left, desk, never behind it,” he said. “And a misty steelworks on the right, and, in that’s where Robert always sat.” the middle, to take the fruit of Hibbing He talked about Dylan’s “Not Dark to the corners of the earth, Lake Superi- Yet,” from his 1997 Time Out of Mind: “‘I or. With art-nouveau dots between each was born here and I’ll die here / Against word, the inscription over the mine my will.’” “I’m with him. I’ll stay right quoted Tennyson’s “Oenone”– here. I don’t care what’s on the other side,” Rolfzen said, a teacher thrilled to be learning from a student. With that

120 Dædalus Spring 2007 out of the way, Rolfzen proceeded to next. Rolfzen made the eight lines par- A trip to Hibbing teach a class in poetry. ticular and universal, unlikely and fated; High School He handed out a photocopied book- he made them apply to everyone in the let of poems by Wordsworth, Frost, Car- room, or rather led each person to apply ver, the Minneapolis poet Colleen Shee- them to him or herself. This was not the hy, and himself; moving back and forth sort of teacher you encounter every day for more than half an hour, he returned –or even in a lifetime. again and again to the eight lines of Wil- liam Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheel- Bits and pieces of the Great Depres- barrow.” sion still lie about,” Rolfzen wrote in The Spring of My Life, a memoir of the 1930s so much depends he published himself in 2004–but, he upon said, “one day of the Great Depression a red wheel can never be understood or appreciated barrow by those who have not lived it.”1 Never- glazed with rain theless, he tried to make whoever might water read his book understand. He went back to the village of Melrose, Minnesota, beside the white where he was born and grew up. He chickens spoke quietly, flatly, sardonically of a He kept reading it, changing inflections, family that was poor beyond poverty: until the words seemed to dance out “Life during the Great Depression was of order, shifting their meanings. Each not a complex life. It was a simple one. time, a different word seemed to take No health insurance needed to be paid, over the poem. “Rain,” he would say, no life insurance, no car insurance, no opening up the poem one way; “beside,” savings for a college education or any he’d say, and an entirely different dra- education beyond high school, no sav- ma seemed underway. Finally he came ings account, no automobile needed full circle. “So much depends / upon to be purchased, no gas was necessary a red wheel barrow,” he said. “So much to buy, no utilities beyond the $3.00 depends. This isn’t about rain. It’s not a month my dad paid for six 25 watt about chickens. So much depends on the bulbs.”2 There were eleven children; decisions we make. My decision to en- B. J.–then Boniface–slept in a bed with list in the Navy in 1941, when I was sev- three brothers. enteen. My decision to teach. So much His father was an electrical worker depends on the decisions you’ve made, and a drunk: the “most frightening day,” and will make.” Rolfzen writes, was payday, when his The poem stayed in the air: the loud- father would stagger home, then and ness of the ½rst line faded into “beside every day until the money ran out.3 One the white chickens,” not because they day he tried to kill himself by grabbing were unimportant, but because from “so high-voltage lines; instead he lost both much depends,” from the decision with which the poem began, the poem, like a 1 B. J. Rolfzen, The Spring of My Life (Hibbing, life, could have gone anywhere; it was Minn.: Bang Printing, 2004), 95. simply that in this case the poem hap- 2 Ibid., 93. pened to go toward chickens, before it went off the page, to wherever it went 3 Ibid., 19.

Dædalus Spring 2007 121 Annals by arms just below the elbow, and sent bing, leaving the University of Minne- Greil Marcus the family onto relief. “I never saw my sota, traveling west, trying to learn how mother with a coin in her hand,” Rolf- to live on his own. “I cannot remember zen writes; everything they bought they ever having a conversation with my fa- bought on credit against ½fty dollars a ther about anything,” Rolfzen writes6– month. There was a family of four that but you can imagine him having con- boarded up the windows of its house versations about the thirties with Rob- to keep out the cold, but the Rolfzens ert. Maybe especially about the tramp would not advertise their misery, even armies that passed through Melrose, if the windows sometimes broke and, starting every day at ten when the train before they could be replaced, maybe pulled in, twenty men or more riding on not until winter passed, maybe not for top of the box cars, jumping from the months after that, snow piled up in the doors, men who had abandoned their room where Rolfzen slept. families, who broke into abandoned All through the book, through its con- buildings and knocked on the Rolfzens’ tinual memories of privation and idyll– back door begging for food–“My moth- of catching bullheads, playing marbles, er never refused them,” Rolfzen writes. picking berries, working on a farm for With whatever they could scavenge, three months at the age of sixteen for they headed to a hollow near the tracks, four cents a day, or the toe of a boy’s the place called the Bums’ Nest or the shoe falling off as he walked to school– Jungle. As a boy, Rolfzen was there, one can feel Rolfzen holding his rage in watching and listening, but he will not check. His rage against his father, against allow a moment of romance, freedom, the cold, against the plague that was on or escape: “Theirs was a controlled ca- the land, against the alcoholism that fol- maraderie with limited laughter. Each lowed from his father to his brothers, man was alone on these tracks that led against the Catholic elementary school to nowhere . . . . And so they left. More he was named for, St. Boniface, run by would arrive the next day. One gentle- nuns who “enjoyed causing pain,”4 a man in particular I remember. An old place where students were threatened bent man dressed in a long shabby coat, with hell for every errant act–where a tattered hat on his head and a cane in “religion was a senseless, heartless and his hand. The last time I saw him, he was unforgiving practice. I still bear its headed west along the railroad tracks, scars.”5 headed for an empty world.”7 “In times behind, I too / wished I’d This is not how the song of the open lived / in the hungry Thirties,” Bob road goes–and while Bob Dylan has Dylan wrote in 1964 in “Eleven Outlined sung that song as much as anyone, as the Epitaphs,” his notes to The Times They road opened it also forked, even from Are A-Changin’. “Rode freight trains for the start. “At the end of the great Eng- kicks / Got beat up for laughs / I was lish epic Paradise Lost,” Rolfzen writes, making my own depression,” he wrote “Milton observes the departure of Ad- the year before in “My Life in a Stolen am and Eve from the Garden, and as he Moment”–speaking of leaving Hib-

4 Ibid., 48. 6 Ibid., 18.

5 Ibid., 54. 7 Ibid., 33.

122 Dædalus Spring 2007 observes their leaving by the Eastern For the only time on Modern Times, A trip to Hibbing Gate, he utters these beautiful words: the music doesn’t orchestrate, doesn’t High School ‘The world was all before them.’”8 So pump, doesn’t give itself away with its much depends–think of “Bob Dylan’s ½rst note. Led by Tony Garnier’s cello Dream,” from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and Donnie Herron’s viola, the band in 1963. There he is, twenty-two, “riding curls around the singer’s voice even on a train going west,” dreaming of his as he curls around the band’s quiet, re- true friends, his soul mates–and then treating, resolute sound, as if the whole suddenly he is an old man. He and his song is the opening and closing of a ½st, friends have long since vanished to each over and over again, the slow rhythm other. Their roads haven’t split so much turning lyrics that are pretentious, even as crumbled, disappeared–“shattered,” precious, on the page into a kind of he sings. How was it that, in 1963, his oracular bar talk, the old drunk who’s voice and guitar calling up a smoky, out- there every night and never speaks ½- of-focus portrait, Bob Dylan was already nally telling his story. “I practice a faith looking back, from forty, ½fty, sixty years that’s long abandoned,” he says, and later? that might be the most frightening line Bob Dylan has written in years. “That’s “A s I went out–” With those ½rst been destroyed,” Dylan told Doon Arbus words for “Ain’t Talkin’”–not only in 1997, speaking of “the secret commu- the longest song on Modern Times, and nity” of “like-minded people” he found the strongest, but the only performance in the early sixties, a fellowship of those on the album where you don’t hear cal- who felt themselves “outside and down- culation–Bob Dylan disappears. Some- trodden,” a community that “spread out one other than the singer you think you across America”–“I don’t know who know seems to be singing the song. He destroyed it.” doesn’t seem to know what effects to “I know, in my mind, I’m still a mem- use, what they might even be for. It’s ber of a secret community. I might be the only song on the album, really, with- the only one,” Dylan said then; in “Ain’t out an ending–and with those ½rst four Talkin’” the singer moves down his road words, a cloud is cast. The singer doesn’t of patience and blood. You can sense his know what’s going to happen–and it’s head turning from side to side as he tells the way he expects that nothing will you why his head is bursting: “If I catch happen, the way he communicates an my opponents ever sleeping / I’ll just innocence you instantly don’t trust, that slaughter ’em where they lie.” He snaps steels you for the story that he’s about off the line casually, as if it’s hardly to tell, or that’s about to sweep him up. worth the time it takes to say, as if he’s He walks out into “the mystic garden.” done it before, William Munny in Unfor- He stares at the flowers on the vines. He given killing children on his way to wher- passes a fountain. Someone hits him ever he is–what he’ll do to get wherever from behind. it is he’s going will be nothing to that. This is when the world opens up be- God doesn’t care: “The gardener,” the fore him–because he can’t go back. singer says to a woman he ½nds in the There is only one reason to travel this mystic garden, “is gone.” road: revenge. Now, Bob Dylan didn’t need B. J. Rolf- 8 Ibid., 76–77. zen’s tales of the tramp armies that

Dædalus Spring 2007 123 Annals by passed through Melrose during the student from the way a teacher moved, Greil Marcus Great Depression to catch a feel for hesitated over a word, dropped hints he “tracks that led to nowhere.” Empa- never quite turned into stories–these thy has always been the genie of his soils were not unprepared at all. work, the tones of his voice, his sense of rhythm, his feel for how to ½ll up a line or leave it half empty, his sense of when to ride a melody and when to bury it, so that it might dissolve all of a listener’s defenses–and this is what allowed Dylan, in 1962 at the Gaslight Café in Greenwich Village, at home in that secret community of tradition and mystery, to become not only the pining lover in the old ballad “Handsome Mol- ly,” but also Handsome Molly herself. There’s no tracing that quality of em- pathy to anything–so much depends– but if effects like these had causes, then there would be people doing the same on every corner, in any time. On the way to Hibbing, we stopped at an an- tique store; shoved in among a shelf of children’s books was a small, cracked volume called From Lincoln to Coolidge, published in 1924, a collection of news dispatches, excerpts from Congressional hearings, and speeches, among them the speech Woodrow Wilson gave to dedi- cate Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky, in 1916. “This is the sacred mystery of democracy,” Wil- son said, “that its richest fruits spring up out of soils that no man has prepared and in circumstances amidst which they are least expected.” That is the truth, and that is the mys- tery. In the case of Bob Dylan, as with any person who does things others don’t do, the mystery is always there. But from the overwhelming fact of the pure size of Hibbing High School, from the ambition and vision placed in the murals in its en- tryway, from the poetry on the walls to the poetry in the classroom, perhaps to memories recounted after everyone else had gone–or memories picked up by a

124 Dædalus Spring 2007 Poems by Charles Simic

Darkened Chessboard

With the night already fallen, It’s hard to see who is playing, Who is watching the game At the little table in the park Where no one says a word Engrossed as they are in the next move.

Their dinners are getting cold. The wives they left behind Are worrying themselves sick While they dither here On the lookout for the white Queen Last seen with a black pawn.

Dædalus Spring 2007 125 Secret History

Of the light in my room: Its mood swings, Dark-morning glooms, Summer ecstasies.

Spider on the wall, Lamp burning late, Shoes left by the bed, I’m your humble scribe.

Dust balls, simple souls Conferring in the corner. The pearl earring she lost, Still to be found.

Silence of falling snow, Night vanishing without trace, Only to return. I’m your humble scribe.

Charles Simic, a Fellow of the American Academy since 2002, is professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. He has published more than sixty books, including “Unending Blues” (1986), “The World Doesn’t End: Prose Poems” (1990), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, “A Wedding in Hell” (1994), “Walking the Black Cat” (1996), a ½nalist for the National Book Award, “Jackstraws” (1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, “The Book of Gods and Devils” (2000), and “My Noiseless Entourage” (2005).

© 2007 by Charles Simic

126 Dædalus Spring 2007 Fiction by Peggy Newland

Clowns

When Mama couldn’t have another nobody would jump out, chairs piled in- baby, I knew I could ½nd her one. to a corner, and some stolen jars of pea- “Going out,” I told Mama that ½rst nut butter, jelly, and crackers in my clos- time, but she said nothing as usual, on- et. Because you’d never know what the ly staring out the kitchen window at the kid would want. And I always wanted empty ½eld in the back lot. And Daddy, peanut butter and jelly. But not on crack- he was never home back then. He knew ers. Bread gets black gunk on it once it to stay away until early evening. And gets old so the kid would have to do with then he’d sit in the garage with the ra- crackers until he was ready to be intro- dio turned low until Mama screamed duced to the family. for him. Those stones in my pockets, that sack I ½lled my pockets with stones from under my tee shirt. And soon you’ll be the river, just in case, and then I took happy, I wanted to say to Mama as I one of the burlap sacks from the shed watched her from the shed. But I didn’t. because that’s what I’d seen on televi- I just went. sion shows when you didn’t want the person knowing where he or she was “One, two, three . . . ” I whispered in the going. I even got my room ready. My park. bed shoved away from the window so “Four, ½ve, six.” In the supermarket where Mrs. Johnston told me to go Peggy Newland is the recipient of a 2005 New home, stop hanging around by the shop- Hampshire Council for the Arts Fellowship for ping carts. ½ction and a fellowship at Southern New Hamp- “Seven, eight, nine,” I yelled through shire University’s mfa program. Her short stories an abandoned junkyard where the have appeared in “Conte,” “Chelsea,” “Northern stream ran yellow and purple from the New England Review,” and “Mississippi Review.” paper company. She also coauthored “The Adventure of Two Life- And I picked up one of the dead birds. times” (with Brian Goetz and June Meyer New- And I brought it back and put it in that land, 2001). Currently she is at work on a collec- closet with the peanut butter and jelly, tion entitled “Jesus Girl.” She teaches ½ction at the but then Mama found it a week later University of New Hampshire’s Literacy Institute. and told me no more dead things in the house. Ever. And she stayed in bed for © 2007 by Peggy Newland the next two days so I didn’t even go

Dædalus Spring 2007 127 Fiction by to school at all. I watched more of the I gave him one of my stones from the Peggy crime shows, twisting the antenna my river to suck on. Then his eyes got real Newland way so the fuzz would disappear and big and blue, and he stared at me like I’d see a clear picture. he knew what I was up to. But then Daddy made me go back. “You don’t know,” I whispered to And Jimmy Richards smeared some those eyes of his as I watched the clown dog shit in my hair at recess and no- feet flipping past us in their large painted body did nothing about that. They’re shoes. “Red, blue, yellow,” I told that kid just used to me smelling. as I tried to get him into my burlap sack. But he was strong, that one, pushing at My ½rst sister stayed alive for one me with his arms, kicking me with his day and twelve hours. I saw her once on fat boy legs. So I ½nally just held him Mama’s bed and she had pink lips and tight against my stomach behind those black hair and tiny ½ngers that looked bleachers as the clowns got their unicy- like tiny bicycle spokes. Mama whis- cles ready and the elephants were taken pered to her chest Liza, Liza, Liza, when outside. This shut him up. they took my sister away, because they’d named her after my grandmother Eliza- The worst thing about Mama losing beth. And Daddy drank a full bottle of all those babies was that we had to go whiskey and pulled the refrigerator door to church a lot. I never liked kneeling off of its hinges. on the wood floors or having to wear The second and fourth babies died socks with my shoes. And Mama’s face right in Mama’s belly. always scared me when she bit through And the third was deformed so they the flesh of Christ at communion: it’d had to throw her away. go all waxy and peaceful, and she’d look They only had me. dead like my sisters. Mama didn’t want And that wasn’t a family, my Mama me to pinch her, but I couldn’t help it, told me. I’d pinch her over and over again. And some father, usually a man behind us, I had to look harder. The circus, I would run his hands down my spine thought, all kids love circuses, espe- to calm me and say come on now, son. cially the Tallahassee Shriners Circus, Which I didn’t like. all those clowns on race cars and min- I only have one daddy. iature trucks. All those animals in line. The popcorn, the peanuts. That kid squirmed in my lap so I I saw one easily. Followed him for rolled back and forth behind those a while. Grabbed him just when the bleachers until he lay limp again in my mother had had enough, turning away arms. The elephants still paraded past, to get herself a Coke at the stand. She and the dust rose in that flesh-colored wanted to hit him I could tell. Because light, so I held that baby’s nose closed she’d balled her hands into ½sts just for a minute so he wouldn’t breathe up like Daddy. the dirt. That kid and I scootched under the “There’s nobody coming in here to- circus tent and I covered his ears when day,” one clown said. His painted red his Mama screamed for him. smile couldn’t hide his frown as he He was an ugly kid, real snotty and clicked his teeth and propped his hat blowing bubbles out of his mouth until on his head.

128 Dædalus Spring 2007 “Fuck ‘em,” another said. “We’re still “Yeah,” the girl clown said. “But just Clowns getting paid.” do it fast.” And he pulled off his big “But I like having lots of people,” a girl white gloves and got his hand down her clown said, and she was just in front of shirt, and she let him, and then they us so I gave that baby another stone to were on the ground, her bloomers down suck on because I didn’t want him mak- past her knees; and I had to use the bur- ing any noises. lap sack this time, put it right over the “Yeah, you do,” two of those clowns kid’s head, because I’d only seen this in laughed, and they elbowed each other the magazines my daddy kept behind the and stomped their flapping feet, making workbench in the garage, girls doing all even more dust than the elephants. But sort of things with carrots and others I didn’t hold the kid’s nose closed this girls–never anything like this, that boy time. I didn’t want him to make those clown holding her down and both of buggy eyes again. them with their smeared smiles. “Shhh “Shut up, you,” that girl clown said, . . . ” I said to that kid, and when I tried to and she swished her polka dot skirt put another stone from the river into his around and around until I could see her mouth, he bit me. It hurt so bad. And I red lace bloomers through the slats of couldn’t hold it in any longer. those bleachers; and one of those clowns grabbed her right on the ass, holding his Mama used to let me sleep with her, hand there while she giggled, the others but now she sleeps with her doll that hooting and shouting at them with their the pink ladies at the hospital gave to white faces and orange wigs and open her two months ago. That doll is called red mouths. a Cupie Doll, and it’s naked and has a I covered that kid’s eyes because he dimpled face and a plastic curl on her shouldn’t be seeing stuff like that. forehead, and when you turn her up- “You want to be my baby brother?” I side down, she giggles at you. Almost asked real quiet. like she’s alive but she’s not. They say He chewed on those rocks and didn’t it helps with her memory, makes her answer me. So I told him about Mama quiet in the late afternoons when I go and how lonely she was for another baby out for my walks. But sometimes noth- and how our house was real nice, with a ing helps. backyard and everything but no swing set just yet, and how Mama could make My thumb was bloody when that kid good cookies in the oven when she was got done with me, and he looked all feeling up to it. Which wasn’t often now. proud of himself in the bottom of that If ever. “But maybe that’d change if she burlap sack so I tied it up with my rubber had you,” I whispered because two of band. I also kept those around, too, rub- those clowns were getting closer. I held ber bands, because they are so useful in a my hand over the kid’s mouth. pinch. But then that kid started wailing, “How about it, Lucy?” the boy clown real high and screeching, and there was asked, that girl clown still twirling and no way to shut him up so I screeched then the boy clown coming closer to right along with him. her, pressing her against the squashed And then those dirty clowns found us. bleachers. His black eyebrows arched “Jesus Christ,” the boy clown said, up and down as that kid and I stared up and his teeth were crooked and wrong- at them. looking as he swatted at me. “What the

Dædalus Spring 2007 129 Fiction by hell . . . ” His gloved hand got me, twisted and her face would light up; and then, Peggy my neck around, and I rolled into a tight because she was feeling so good, she Newland ball like I do with Daddy. might make some chocolate chip bars “Stop it, Ray, ” that girl clown said, in celebration, and then Daddy would and she jumped right on his head, which come home because he’d smell that he didn’t like, because he shrugged her sugar and cream from the kitchen, and off and she fell in the dirt, her legs all his stomach would rumble right along akimbo, and there was a rip in her with mine. We’d eat all those choco- striped pantyhose things but no blood. late chip bars in one sitting because we Ray the clown just humping himself up would ½nally be a whole family. And and out of there. Which I was glad at. then we’d get that swing set. He left his gloves though, and I couldn’t But that kid ruined it. He shit himself, stop staring at them even with that kid and it came out the side of his little sail- in the bag rolling around by my feet. or suit onto that girl clown’s polka dot “What are you doing back here?” the skirt, but she didn’t care, her face all girl clown said, and she had kindly eyes puckered up with her smudged eyes as although you couldn’t see them so good she smelled his head. Her not caring that through all the black eyelash stuff. his yellow shit was sliding down her I couldn’t say too much because I clown out½t, and him with his mouth was still crying from that kid biting my wide open like that dead bird’s. thumb so hard. “You can have him,” I told that girl “It’s okay, honey,” that girl clown said clown. as she came close, and when she bent But she wasn’t listening to me. She over, I could see down her clown dress; wasn’t even noticing me. She stood and she had brown nipples like Mama so in that dust and sighed over and over I knew she was probably nice. But also a again as that kid kicked and swatted; little bit sad. The girls in Daddy’s maga- and even when I pulled at her orange zines all have pink ones and they’re smil- clown sleeves, even when I kicked my ing, so I guess if you’ve got pink, you’re boot at her clown foot, she just stayed happy, and if you’re brown, you just get in the broken light of that empty tent sad. and rocked that kid like they were the I showed her my thumb. only things left in the world. “Where’s your family?” she asked. Maybe our family didn’t really need a And her hands were smooth when she baby. held my hand. Maybe someone a little bit older. “I’m looking,” I said, but I was having So instead of bringing home a baby for trouble with my lips as usual. And then Mama that day, I stole that boy clown’s that kid kicked his leg out, and the girl gloves. And kept them underneath my clown touched the bag so I pushed the bed with the bird nests and ½shing lures bag toward her, smiling. “Here,” I said. and a couple of Daddy’s magazines. And she opened the bag. And that kid looked up at us and spit the last of the Our house sits at the end of a dirt road stones from the river out of his mouth. next to the old fairgrounds. Sometimes “Holy . . . ” And that girl clown lifted I run around the track where they used that kid into her arms. And I thought of to have horse races, but usually it’s too how happy my Mama would be holding much for me now because I lose my another baby, how maybe she’d smile breath and I always have to get back to

130 Dædalus Spring 2007 Mama because you never know what she patted my back about the dead ba- Clowns she’ll get into next, turning on the stove, bies, and she liked peanut-butter-and- trying to push her hand through the jelly crackers just as much as me. plate glass. There used to be so many I invited her home one day and Mama cars and trucks and animals coming our tried not to scream, but a little bit came way, up our road, during Kinstown Days, out anyway. but now it’s just brambles and ivy over “It’s okay,” Sherry said, and I was real the oaks and brush mostly hiding our proud of her because Mama settled just little pink house. That’s why I like it. Be- hearing Sherry’s nice voice and poured cause we’re hidden now, Mama and I. her some juice in the Sleeping Beauty No one coming around anymore. cup she kept for just this purpose. But Mama wouldn’t look her in the face. I grabbed a two-year-old from the Sherry stayed for dinner and Daddy Kinstown Days Fair once and kept him even came in from the shed, and it was in our basement for three days. But he like we were a normal family, the table wouldn’t eat the peanut-butter-and- set for four instead of three. jelly crackers, and he cried so much “Sherry’s from Utah,” I told Daddy, Mama thought she was hearing ghosts but he was handing Sherry a napkin, of her dead babies so I had to take him telling her to put it on her lap and smil- back. Because Daddy didn’t like it when ing real big. Mama was still at the table, Mama got that way, scratching at her which was good because usually after face and tearing through the kitchen in Daddy came in, she left for her bed- just her underwear. I gave him a ½shing room. lure, one without a sharp hook and left “Where you from?” Daddy asked him in the oxen barn, sleeping in a pile Sherry even though I just told him. of hay like baby Jesus in the manger. And she explained that they’d moved Only older. And the next day, it was all to be closer to family and that they liked in the news. A miracle had occurred at it here in Florida except for all the trees. Kinstown Days, and that boy was given a “There’s too many here,” Sherry said, parade and everything. But I didn’t care her words so soft that Mama looked up because Mama kept her clothes on and and touched her elbow to go on. “They just got back to staring out the window. almost swallow you up.” And Daddy came back to his shed again. And Daddy laughed at that one, bend- ing down to the ground when Sherry Then I met Sherry. And she was real dropped her napkin on the floor. pretty. Three years younger and new to our school, and no one liked her because Mama likes me to cream her beef and she had half a burned face and had to stew her prunes, and so I do both with wear an eye patch. But she had a nice the clown gloves on. It keeps the heat voice, and she’d tell me her secrets and away and also gives her a little laugh be- so I’d tell her mine, about Mama and all cause I can act the part so well. Being those dead babies and how we didn’t that I’ve had a lot of practice. I take extra have a full family yet, and she told me special care of them, putting them in my that her uncle had three wives and she locked cabinet in Daddy’s old shed. might get to be the fourth if she stayed “Now you see it, now you don’t,” I tell quiet and followed the rules of doctrine. her, hiding a dripping prune inside one I nodded my head along with her, and glove, and she throws her head back be-

Dædalus Spring 2007 131 Fiction by cause she likes it when I make things dis- me, and the sister I found us, but not Peggy appear. Daddy. Then one day she threw it at Newland “Where’d you put it?” Mama asks. me and I don’t know where the pic- But sometimes I don’t show her, like ture went. Mama won’t tell me. Even today, because I’m a little tired of Ma- though I’ve asked her many times. ma’s games, and I have to have my se- And this makes me mad. crets too. I don’t like it when I get mad because “I don’t have nothing,” I tell her. And then I do naughty things. I wave those gloves in her face, and she tries to grab one off of me and so I tell Daddy always wanted to be around her no, Mama, no. Sherry whenever Sherry came over, and “Don’t you do that,” Mama says. he’d drape his arm over her shoulder And our kitchen clock ticks, and the and push her in a new tire swing he’d siren sounds at the mill, and her face is just put up, and he’d take her out for ice wrapped up tight in her bright red lip- cream some nights. Even after Mama stick and pink blush. Then she throws made her chocolate chip layer bars and her plate of beef on the floor so I have her macaroon cookies, Daddy would to get the mop out. take Sherry out for that ice cream. And “Why you’d go on and do that?” I ask. he’d never bring any of it home for Ma- But Mama’s back staring into her ma and I. hands, and it’s almost time for my walk “Mama, when they coming back you to school where I help clean on carnival think?” But Mama just stared off past days. the littered ½elds to the highway and shrugged her shoulders. “When you Sherry let me kiss her on the cheek. think?” She let me touch her kneecap. But she “Hush,” she told me. And she left the wouldn’t let me peel back her eye patch. porch. To throw the cookies away. “No,” she said in that voice of hers. One afternoon, I hid in the back of his So I pressed my face to hers, and she truck, covering myself up with a blan- opened her mouth, and I could feel her ket that smelled of hay and dirt and old tongue on my teeth in tiny circles, and milk, and I heard Sherry singing her it made me have goose bumps down songs. Her voice like some angel’s even my arms and up my legs. “No,” she said with the wind howling and Daddy’s when my hand went down the backside muffler belching out its exhaust as he of her pants, and it ricocheted in echoes drove off down the highway. Her voice down my throat, no, no, no, until it was coming over me so much that I felt like I had part of her inside me. raised up in the sky with the clouds and “I love you,” I told her, and she the sun and trees swishing past, almost kept nodding her head as I walked her like I was in heaven. And then, when I home, trying to hold her hand. But she sat up to sing along with her, I saw Dad- wouldn’t let me. I hugged her tight just dy kissing on Sherry, and Daddy saw before we got to her yard but she whis- me and pulled over and said for me to pered that her daddy would see us so I get out, get out of his truck, and Sherry stopped and watched her walk away. didn’t do anything except stare back at me from the rearview as they drove off There is one picture of me in the house. down the road. For their ice creams to- It used to sit on Mama’s bureau, Mama, gether.

132 Dædalus Spring 2007 They picked me up ½fteen minutes told, as she turned around the mirrors Clowns later, this time with ice cream cones and piled Daddy’s clothes on the porch for Mama and me. But Mama wouldn’t and got her Bible out. I cried for two come out of her room. Even with Dad- hours straight, from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 dy pleading with her. Banging on her p.m., and didn’t even eat the supper Ma- door. And ½nally stomping around the ma set out on the floor of my room. kitchen. Mama’s ice cream melted on “Eat your biscuits,” Mama said when the kitchen table until I licked it up like she came in to kiss me goodnight, and a dog just to make Sherry laugh. her face was raw and pink, her nose es- “What the hells wrong with you,” pecially. She pulled my covers back, and Daddy yelled when Sherry couldn’t we huddled underneath Nana’s quilt. stop laughing at my face covered with Just the two of us. chocolate and fudge ripple. “Fucking “Too old,” she whispered directly into reject . . . ” And he banged the kitchen my ear. door off its hinges, and that’s when And that made sense to me. Sherry started crying. Tears soaking We had to ½nd one just right. Not too that patch. old, not too young. Just right. I chased after her when she ran home And then they’d let Daddy come but she was faster. home.

Mama says the babies are screaming Some days, I walk right past Sherry’s at her again. And that they’re spitting. old house and I see the bush I waited in And taking her food away. And that their for her. Mulberry, and it’s dying now, faces are dirty and that their breath the leaves just falling off on the ground stinks. I tell her that I’m not seeing any around my boots. But I don’t kick at of them, and I hand her that Cupie doll them. I watch them settle on the grass but that’s not working anymore. Just last and think about how her face felt in night, she tore its head off and there was my hands and that she loved my mag- that doll baby head in my closet and Ma- ic tricks, the one with the Queen of ma in the corner, and I tried to comfort Hearts the most. The windows to her her the best I could. But she told me to house boarded over now, and I’m still go away, just get away. And that made sorry I did that back then. With the me cry. rock. Smashing that glass so it fell in “I’m trying, Mama,” I tell her. bright colors around my feet and then And she turns her back on me because running off because Sherry wasn’t it’s been so many years and nothing has there and wasn’t ever coming back changed. We’re still not a family. again.

They came and got Daddy. Three po- I scrubbed the toilet and threw the old licemen and a sheriff, and they locked plates in the backwoods. I hid the news- his hands together and pushed his head papers under the bed and banged on the down when they got him into the flash- couch cushions. I combed back my hair ing cruiser and they drove away. and took down the fly traps from the “Sherry told on him,” Mama whis- kitchen ceiling. Because Mama said a pered. social worker was coming and that social “Where’re they taking him?” I asked, worker was going to take me away if we but Mama just kept saying she told, she didn’t watch ourselves. That I’d have to

Dædalus Spring 2007 133 Fiction by live with the Fosters family if I said one “Here comes that starling again,” I Peggy Newland word about anything bad. told Mama after I’d changed out of my “She’s here,” Mama whispered in church pants. her good red dress with her shoes laced And she took that as a sign. up, but I didn’t want to go answer it. “I’m scared,” I told her, but she They let me volunteer on carnival days pushed me to the door anyway. at the school because I have my clown The social worker was real pretty with out½t and I wear my gloves, which all a yellow skirt and brown shoes and her the kids like. Especially when I do mag- hair in a bun just like Mama’s when she ic tricks on the edge of the playground goes to church. I told her that I liked her and the kids line up, but they’re not pa- hair, and when I reached over to touch tient, no, they scream about being ½rst, her bun she backed away. and hurry up, and they push, they push “I love my Mama,” I said. the ones in front. “Of course you do,” the social worker “Okay, kids,” I say to them, but the said, but she wasn’t smiling any longer, one on my lap pokes his ½nger into and she wasn’t drinking the juice Mama my makeup, and I don’t like it at all. gave her in the Cinderella cup, and she “Stop that.” And I stare into his face wasn’t sitting down on the couch I just and frown, which makes him cry. His dusted off. mother pulls him off my lap, and she’s “I miss my Daddy.” got that look I don’t like, her eyebrows “I’m sure you do,” she said, but then all knitted together, her lips sucked in- the cats started crying in the basement, side her mouth. two of them in heat, and I was afraid “No, I don’t want to go . . . ” that kid she’d look down in there so I clapped screeches, and I cover my ears, which my hands over my head and pointed out makes the other kids laugh. I scoop the window at a starling chasing a band another one into my lap and show him of crows around. the quarter trick. “Watch,” I told her. And soon those “Look, it’s been here the whole time,” oily crows circled around and attacked I mumble, and he doesn’t care what I that tiny starling, and she disappeared say, he just wants my quarter. “Here.” from sight. I threw Mama’s leftover The kid grabs it and runs. When he gets toast out the door, and we all watched far enough away, he sticks his tongue out the crows ½ght over the scraps. at me, but I know enough to look away “It might be better . . . ” the social from him. worker started to say, but Mama told “I’m next,” a little girl says, as she her to get the hell out of her house this stands in front of me with her hand instant, that she would smack the shit open. out of her if she didn’t leave this very in- “Here,” I say as I pat my knee. stant. And that social worker did. Even “Just the quarter.” Her eyes are the with the cats screaming real loud in that color of an abandoned garden, weedy basement and with the crows biting at and yellow, and she balances ½rst on each other over the bread and with Ma- one foot, then the other. ma pulling at my hand, she left, and the She reminds me of my sister. house was quiet and gentle again, Mama “What’s your name?” I ask her, as the even getting back into her bathrobe and other mothers pull their kids away, too, slippers. because a Jesus band is singing on the

134 Dædalus Spring 2007 main stage and there’s soon to be a raf- wore out. The Jesus band is gone and Clowns fle for a homemade quilt and a free roto- the stage is empty. Garbage is every- tilling. where, and I know I have a long night But she just keeps her hand out. ahead of me because the school likes “Sherry?” the ½eld neat for the next day. And I “No, it’s not Sherry.” don’t mind picking up. Because you “Becky?” never know what you’ll ½nd left. You “Give me the fucking quarter, Clown never know what people throw away. Man.” “You like Disney World?” I ask. “How old are you?” I pull out a dol- “Loser World?” lar. And smile at her. Then I pull out “Mickey Mouse is not a loser,” I tell another. her. And she looks sideways toward the “You’re a loser.” And when she laughs crowd before she snatches my money. this time, her face cracks wide open and her braces shine in the late-day sun. “Let’s go to Disney World,” Mama said “You’re pretty,” I say, and this stops that night, and she was already dressed her from laughing, which makes me sad. and holding a suitcase and a big plastic I like it when everyone is smiling and garbage bag. having a fun time. “But . . . ” I was confused. The house “No, I’m not.” And she rubs her el- was dark and my clock said 3:25 a.m., bows with her hands. and that was too early to be getting out of pajamas and heading out the door. Everything was so bright and colorful, “Now.” And Mama’s face meant and there was music coming out from business so I got up and gave Mama the plastic trees and garbage cans and some underwear and some socks and streetlights and even the teacup ride that two shirts and my white gloves, and went around and around and around. she stuffed them into her garbage bag. Mama didn’t want to go on rides any- There were no stars in the sky and the more and just wanted to sit on a bench trees shook their branches when we left with her Sleeping Beauty cup full of in Daddy’s truck. Mama’s mouth stayed soda. closed the whole time, and she didn’t “Please,” I asked her, but she waved once look back to the house. Even when her hand at me and covered her eyes. I told her I’d left my turkey feather and The princesses scared her, Tigger made my ½shing lures in the closet. her scream, and there were too many people in bright tee shirts. Ants, she Her name is Nita and she hates Flori- called them, ants. Mama wasn’t doing da. so well, and we hadn’t even gotten to “Give me another dollar,” she says so I Fantasyland yet. hand her another. She sticks it down her “Go.” And Mama lay herself down pants. on the bench, her drink balanced on “It’s sunny here today,” I tell her, but her belly. she laughs in my face. I drank Coke after Coke and went on “You’re a retard.” ride after ride, especially Space Moun- “I know,” I say as I look down at my tain, which whizzed you around in the flippy shoes, the ones the school donat- dark and shot you through holes in the ed to me last year because my sneakers universe. But soon, I had to pee, and I

Dædalus Spring 2007 135 Fiction by didn’t want to but knew it was a good and all of those princesses in their cas- Peggy idea. tles. “She’s beautiful,” I told her and Newland she nodded right along with me. Nita follows me into the ½eld even “Come on,” her brother said. “Go when I tell her no again and again. But pee.” she thinks she’s so funny, skipping right “I don’t want to.” along with me. “Go or else I’m gonna . . . ” “So you live with your mother?” she Two men flushed and left, and the asks. But I’ve already answered her. bathroom was silent. Except for Alad- Many times. “How old are you?” din’s “A Whole New World” coming “You should go home.” out over the speakers. “My parents suck.” “Gonna what?” “That’s not very nice to say.” And I rub “Gonna . . . ” my eyes until there are spots of white be- “When you go on Space Mountain, hind my eyelids. try to sit in the front because that’s the “I’m not very nice.” She throws a can fastest seat,” I said, standing between toward my garbage bag, but it misses him and his sister because Nate had so she throws another. This one goes in, just balled his ½sts up and he had yel- and I make the mistake of looking up at low eyes that reminded me of a wolf. her to congratulate her basketball shot. “I don’t want to go to Space Moun- Her eyes make my knees tremble. tain. Mom said I didn’t have to and I’m not doing it,” his sister said, banging “You haven’t been on Space Moun- her sneaker down on the floor. tain yet?” I asked that boy, but he was “Yes, you are, Becky.” still pulling at his sister’s hand as she “No.” screamed and hollered about getting “Yes.” an ice cream and wanting to see Snow “Dad said he wasn’t going on with White. you, he told me . . . ” And she smiled a “Snow White will kill you,” he said to pockmarked smile, her eyes swelling his sister, and she glared back at him. up bright blue. “So tough luck.” “Shut up, Nate.” And Nate kicked her in the shin. “Quit being a fucking bitch,” the boy “Screw you,” he said, running out the said. A father coming into the bathroom door. And Becky and I just stood there with his son scowled at me like I’d just waiting for him to come back. But he cussed. never did. “Control that kid,” he said to me as he And so I helped her. pulled his son outside. “Don’t cuss or else I’m telling Dad,” “I have to go home now,” I say. Nate’s sister said. “Back to your Mommy?” She jerks her “He’s not here now, is he?” neck around. But his sister just ignored him and I nod my head yes. asked me, “Snow White’s nice, isn’t “Back to your Daddy?” she?” I shake my head no. And I give her the And of course I said yes. Everyone last of my money. loves Snow White and the Seven “Are you a pervert?” she asks. And Dwarves, and everyone loves Cinder- that’s when I take my hands out of my ella and Sleeping Beauty and Ariel pockets and hold them to my chest.

136 Dædalus Spring 2007 Becky drank all my milk. She ate all When I get home, there’s the nurse Clowns the cereal. She started calling me names and she’s got a policeman with her, and running in circles, hitting me with and they’re standing on the porch, and her wooden spoon, and Mama didn’t do Mama is howling out my name but she anything. Mama clapped her hands and knows I’m not home. She knows I don’t pounded her feet on the floor and urged come back until late because I always Becky to run faster and faster around go for the ½reworks this time of year. me, and Becky did. They’ve started up Kinston Days again, “She’s perfect,” Mama said, and Ma- and I know the place to sit. I told Nita ma would comb her hair and line the all about it, how the colors just explode stuffed animals up for her in our trail- right in front of your eyes and flutter er and they’d have tea parties until all down around you, but still she ran off. hours of the night. She didn’t need They all run off, don’t they, if you let sleep, my sister, and she never tried to them. It’s just a matter of knowing run away. She sat in Mama’s lap and when. And how they’ll do it. But other twirled her ponytail into circles, and times, it’s just being resourceful enough Mama made her chocolate layer bars to keep them. For a while. and vanilla cream pies, and she’d let I walk right past the house and into the my sister eat whatever she wanted. bright lights. When Mama bought Becky a swing And traf½c is lined up both sides of the set, I started looking for Daddy. Every highway. day I’d sit at the window just waiting for him to round the corner, but he nev- er did. “We’re ½nally a family,” Mama said one night. “But Daddy’s not here.” And she looked at me as if I was gray and rot- ten. Something to be thrown away. “He’s not coming back.” And she rocked Becky back and forth. “Not coming back, not coming back . . . ” “But Mama,” I said. “Don’t ‘but Mama’ me,” she said, and Becky nodded her head and sucked on her blanket. “Go.” And she pointed to the screened-in porch. Where the Florida beetles waited and the crickets chirped and the heat came at me all night even with the breeze. There wasn’t room in her bed no more. She wanted to sleep just with Becky. Because I was too big. And when I heard Mama snoring, I got the burlap bag out and some Flori- da seashells. And I took Becky away on a bus. I used my clown gloves.

Dædalus Spring 2007 137 medium in ways that were not previous- ly available to them. It has also called into question some of the most power- fully entrenched conceptual polarities that have traditionally informed literary Samuel Weber studies, and aesthetics more generally: namely, form/content, ½ction/reality, on Benjamin’s author/audience, genre/work. ‘-abilities’ Much of this development, whose im- mediate causes can be retraced to the impact of structuralist semiotics in the 1960s, was already at work long before Saussure’s notion of linguistic value as differential signi½cation was rediscov- ered by Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Jacques Lacan–to name just a few of those whose writings contributed to a new sense of textuality in general, and of One of the most important tendencies literary textuality in particular. to emerge in literary studies over the One of the most prescient of their pre- past few decades has been the extension cursors was Walter Benjamin. Trained in of its techniques–close reading, rhetor- philosophy, literary studies, and art his- ical textual analysis, and, more general- tory, Benjamin articulated an approach ly, analyzing and interpreting so-called to the newer media of photography, ½lm, signifying processes–to nonliterary ob- and radio. These, in turn, have exercised jects and artifacts. The results of this ex- an increasing influence upon a variety of tension have not been one-way. At the ½elds and practices, including those to- same time that techniques of literary day ranged under the general rubric of analysis have re½ned the interpretation ‘cultural studies’ and ‘media studies.’ of nonliterary artifacts, confrontation For many years I have been reading with nonlinguistic, nondiscursive me- Benjamin’s writing with an eye to under- dia has made literary critics aware of the standing just what it was that enabled distinctive characteristics of their own him, a scholar trained in traditional dis- ciplines, to pass so effectively from an analysis of ‘old’ media to an interpreta- Samuel Weber, a Fellow of the American Acade- tion of ‘new’ media. I have become con- my since 2005, is Avalon Foundation Professor of vinced that part of the secret lies in fact Humanities and codirector of the Paris Program that we must include among the ‘old’ in Critical Theory at Northwestern University. media not just those that were institu- His numerous publications include “Unwrapping tion al ized as the objects of academic Balzac” (1979), “Institution and Interpretation” ‘aesthetic’ disciplines–such as litera- (1987), “Theatricality as Medium” (2004), and ture, painting, theater, architecture, and most recently “Targets of Opportunity: On the music–but also, and perhaps above all, Militarization of Thinking” (2005). space, time, and language. (To be sure, the latter three were also studied by disci- © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts plines, namely, geography, geometry, & Sciences history, and linguistics, but they were

138 Dædalus Spring 2007 not instantiated in what might be called cognition, exempli½ed for him in the Crit- Benjamin’s ‘aesthetic objects’ as were the former.) ical Philosophy of Kant. Instead, Benja- ‘-abilities’ When traditional media are de½ned in min held that experience was a function this way, it becomes clear that they are not just of concepts but also, and above not simply wiped away or suspended by all, of language. some radical “epistemological break”– This, in turn, required him to rethink a notion derived from the French histo- traditional conceptions of language in rian of science Georges Canguilhem and order to extricate both the theory and popularized by Michel Foucault. Rather, the practice of language from what he they come to be recon½gured by the so- considered to be the impasse of a cer- called new media. What is ‘new’ about tain humanism, which ultimately sub- these media is thus better understood as ordinated language as a vehicle either of a recombination than as a creatio ex nihilo. meaning or of being–but in both cases of If this conception of the ‘new’ is re- a problematic and unreflected theology, tained, then it would have considerable however ‘secularized’ its form. implications for the construction of the This dual and complementary effort ‘new’ disciplines of ‘media studies.’ For to rethink language, both as theory and instance, the study of language, litera- as practice, impelled Benjamin to devel- ture, art, philosophy, etc.–rather than op an alternative approach that would being simply superseded by that of tele- no longer consider language as either vision, Internet, ½lm, radio, etc.–would an instrument (of designation, expres- have to be integrated into those disci- sion, or meaning) or a self-contained plines. A major task would then become logos (creating or performing that which selecting and organizing rather than puri- it named). The alternative toward which fying the new discipline of all traces of he found himself drawn (although by the older, so-called obsolete ones. This no means in an entirely consistent or would hold true not only for philosophy, deliberate manner) was that of deter- as the study of the history of concepts, mining language as a ‘medium’–but in including those employed in aesthetics, a sense that broke with the traditional but for other disciplines as well, such as denotation of the word. For Benjamin, economics and history (including those language as medium was not simply an of technology, science, military strategy, interval or bridge between ½xed poles etc.). or places: subject and object, man and From this point of view, the study of world, God and the universe. Rather, he Walter Benjamin that I am currently developed a notion of linguistic mediality completing involves more than the ex- as a movement of division and of separa- amination of the work of a single writer tion–of what I call ‘parting with’ as the and critic, however interesting. For the condition of a sharing and imparting. problems that Benjamin’s writing en- All of this, and more, is condensed in gages and articulates concern an unusu- the German word he used, Mitteilbarkeit al yet exemplary experience of the inter- –often translated simply as ‘communi- play between old and new media. Ben- cation.’ Since Benjamin insisted that we jamin, who was extremely attuned to are not to understand language primar- the problem of experience in its relation ily and essentially as a conveyor belt of to media, insisted, from his earliest meanings, this translation is unsatisfac- writings on, that experience could and tory. A more literal rendition is helpful. should not be reduced to a function of When literally rendered in English, the

Dædalus Spring 2007 139 Note by German word says (although does not of mediality as ‘parting with’ implies Samuel Weber obviously mean) something like ‘parting’ change and alteration. It is therefore ap- or ‘partitioning with.’ Teilen means to propriate that this ‘-ability’ articulates divide; and mit- is generally equivalent itself in Benjamin’s writing practice not to ‘with’ (or co-). This suggests that lan- as a noun, but as a suf½x. As a suf½x, it guage divides and divests itself in order stamps the noun with the irreducible to impart. quality of possibility. But translating Mitteilbarkeit as ‘part- Perhaps this is why Benjamin recurs ing with’ brings to the fore something again and again to this suf½x in formu- rather curious in the English expression. lating many of his most decisive con- We normally understand to ‘part with’ cepts. Beginning with ‘impart-ability’ as to separate from something, to give (in German, as we have noted, Mitteil- it up or relinquish it. But if this is the barkeit), Benjamin, throughout his writ- meaning of the expression, then why or ings, develops a series of such ‘-abili- how should it employ the preposition ties,’ or, in German, -barkeiten. These ‘with,’ which usually suggests some kind include: Bestimmbarkeit (determin-abil- of ‘togetherness’–precisely what the ity), Kritisier-barkeit (criticiz-ability), ‘parting’ (or even Teilen, in the sense of Übersetz-barkeit (translat-ability), Zitier- division) seems to exclude? barkeit (cit-ability), Reproduzier-barkeit If imparting, ‘communicating,’ is one (reproduc-ibility), Erkenn-barkeit (know- of language’s essential functions, then ability). As a suf½x, such ‘-abilities’ rel- this can only happen if the medium can ativize the substantive, or noun, that ‘part with’ itself in order to ‘impart.’ In they follow, and on which they, literal- parting with itself, language establishes ly, depend, to which they are appended. a relation to itself–one precisely of sep- What is designated as an -ability is thus aration, division, alteration. As signify- never self-suf½cient or self-subsistent, ing medium, language only ‘is’ in taking never fully realized or realizable: its re- leave of ‘itself.’ That is to say, of its abil- ality depends on the future, but on a ity to stay the same over time, to return to future in which the reader is inevitably its point of departure, and thus to be implicated. self-identical in any given instant. To determine mediality as an -ability But this is tantamount to saying that constitutes therefore not just a consta- language can never be described or tive description of a medium, nor even a pointed to in the present indicative. As performance of it, in the sense of its ac- ‘parting with,’ it is always in the process tualization. Rather, it entails an appeal to of taking leave of whatever ‘state’ it hap- readers or listeners, who ½nd themselves pens to be in. It is a ‘medium,’ not in oc- addressed by this -ability, to participate cupying a middle ground between two in a process of partitioning that involves poles or two presences, but rather in ex- a readiness to take leave of the present posing any present meaning that it seems or, better, to allow what is present to part to articulate as a potentiality forever to with itself and to make room for some- come–in short, as an ‘-ability.’ thing else. As -ability, mediality thus al- It is just this ‘-ability’–which de½nes ways entails the process by which intra- the mediality of the medium, whether mediality becomes intermediality, open- language or other–that orients my study ing itself to the advent of other media. of Benjamin. This ‘orientation’ is, how- From this perspective, the ‘work of ever, forever changing, just as the notion art,’ traditionally understood as the in-

140 Dædalus Spring 2007 dividual instantiation of a genre–a ‘nov- el’ or a ‘tragedy’–tends to appear as the always singular displacement or transla- tion of other media. The “epic theater” of Brecht, for instance, is interpreted by Benjamin as the staging of what he calls William F. Baker –or rather, cites as–“the citability of gesture.” Citability, usually associated on the state of with language and in particular with American television written texts, parts with this medium in order to enter into relation with ‘ges- ture,’ involving a bodily movement that points away from where it is situated. Whether or not this movement is con- summated depends not on itself but on others: audience, readers, or interpret- ers. Benjamin’s -abilities always involve such an appeal to transformative rein- scription on the part of those others who It elects presidents. It wins wars. It is are its destined addressees. both a mirror and an engine of our cul- It is no accident that old and new me- ture. Television is, undeniably, an ex- dia converge in Benjamin’s discussion of tremely influential force in our country. Brecht’s theater. Theater spans the gap And television viewing has never been between old and new media, between more a part of our lives. Last year, Niel- “cult” and “exhibition value,” as Ben- sen Media Research reported that dur- jamin calls it in his essay “The Work of ing the 2004–2005 season, the average Art in the Age of its Technical Reproduc- U.S. household tuned in for eight hours ibility.” For the great resource of theater, and eleven minutes per day. This is 2.7 old as well as new, is, according to Ben- percent higher than the previous season, jamin, that of “exposing the present” 12.5 percent higher than ten years ago, (Exponierung des Anwesenden). And it is and the highest levels since Nielsen Me- such exposure, in which all enclosure be- dia Research began measuring television comes unhinged, that marks Benjamin’s viewing in the 1950s. theory of media no less than the mediali- However, instability, invention, and ty of his writing, which is always expos- revision are now at work in every aspect ing the established sense of the words it of the medium–from content to viewer- uses by turning them inside-out. This is obviously a very different con- ception of ‘medium’ and of ‘mediality’ William F. Baker, a Fellow of the American than those that are familiar to many to- Academy since 2005, is chief executive of Edu- day. But to the extent that they provide cational Broadcasting Corporation, licensee of an alternative scheme for approaching public broadcasters Thirteen/wnet and wliw the instability of representations in the New York. He is the coauthor of “Down the audiovisual media, they will hopefully Tube: An Inside Account of the Failure of Amer- prove useful for a reconsideration of ican Television” (with George Dessart, 1998). those media, including the uses to which they are generally put. © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Dædalus Spring 2007 141 dividual instantiation of a genre–a ‘nov- el’ or a ‘tragedy’–tends to appear as the always singular displacement or transla- tion of other media. The “epic theater” of Brecht, for instance, is interpreted by Benjamin as the staging of what he calls William F. Baker –or rather, cites as–“the citability of gesture.” Citability, usually associated on the state of with language and in particular with American television written texts, parts with this medium in order to enter into relation with ‘ges- ture,’ involving a bodily movement that points away from where it is situated. Whether or not this movement is con- summated depends not on itself but on others: audience, readers, or interpret- ers. Benjamin’s -abilities always involve such an appeal to transformative rein- scription on the part of those others who It elects presidents. It wins wars. It is are its destined addressees. both a mirror and an engine of our cul- It is no accident that old and new me- ture. Television is, undeniably, an ex- dia converge in Benjamin’s discussion of tremely influential force in our country. Brecht’s theater. Theater spans the gap And television viewing has never been between old and new media, between more a part of our lives. Last year, Niel- “cult” and “exhibition value,” as Ben- sen Media Research reported that dur- jamin calls it in his essay “The Work of ing the 2004–2005 season, the average Art in the Age of its Technical Reproduc- U.S. household tuned in for eight hours ibility.” For the great resource of theater, and eleven minutes per day. This is 2.7 old as well as new, is, according to Ben- percent higher than the previous season, jamin, that of “exposing the present” 12.5 percent higher than ten years ago, (Exponierung des Anwesenden). And it is and the highest levels since Nielsen Me- such exposure, in which all enclosure be- dia Research began measuring television comes unhinged, that marks Benjamin’s viewing in the 1950s. theory of media no less than the mediali- However, instability, invention, and ty of his writing, which is always expos- revision are now at work in every aspect ing the established sense of the words it of the medium–from content to viewer- uses by turning them inside-out. This is obviously a very different con- ception of ‘medium’ and of ‘mediality’ William F. Baker, a Fellow of the American than those that are familiar to many to- Academy since 2005, is chief executive of Edu- day. But to the extent that they provide cational Broadcasting Corporation, licensee of an alternative scheme for approaching public broadcasters Thirteen/wnet and wliw the instability of representations in the New York. He is the coauthor of “Down the audiovisual media, they will hopefully Tube: An Inside Account of the Failure of Amer- prove useful for a reconsideration of ican Television” (with George Dessart, 1998). those media, including the uses to which they are generally put. © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Dædalus Spring 2007 141 Note by ship to legislation to, of course, the driv- der the watchful eye of the fcc that they William F. er behind it all, technology. In short, tel- remained in compliance. Baker evision is in a state of revolution. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, that If you are of a certain age, you remem- was largely the story of American tele- ber when American television was de- vision. Three big commercial networks ½ned by three networks (plus public used the public airwaves mostly as a television and a few scratchy channels source of revenue, but offered a unifying that, with luck, you could pick up on national experience and some nominal the uhf band). Those three networks– public-service programming. Public tel- cbs, nbc, and abc–were television. evision, with its independent, communi- They showed us the ½rst moon landing, ty-based stations, offered the only real the Vietnam War, the Kennedy assassi- alternative. nation, the Beatles, the Watergate hear- In the ½nal years of the 1960s, though, ings–the events that de½ned modern moves were being made in Washington America. They offered something unpre- to begin a cycle of deregulation that cedented: a mesmerizing glimpse of his- would eventually reform nearly every tory in the making. We watched them aspect of American industry–including together, free of charge, and they gave us television. This became perfectly clear in a common media ground to stand on; 1984, when fcc Chairman Mark Fowler we were a nation united by a glowing famously declared, “It’s time to move box in the corner of the living room. away from thinking of broadcasters as The monolithic nature of television in trustees and time to treat them the way those years was part of its power and its that everyone else in this society does, value. But it was also a liability. The net- that is, as a business. Television is just works were run by big corporations be- another appliance. It’s a toaster with pic- holden to shareholders who expected a tures.” return on their investments. So they sold Notably, the deregulatory attitude of commercials, and they appealed to the Reaganomics coincided with a techno- largest common denominator. By their logical breakthrough. The introduction very nature, they represented the main- of the personal computer–and its un- stream, the salable, the pro½table. derlying digital technology–would Public television was created precisely transform the media in ways that few as a reaction to the entrenched, corpo- could imagine. rate media establishment. Commercial- The effects of these economic and free, subsidized with government funds, technological forces wouldn’t become and dedicated to the arts, education, and completely clear for another decade or intellectual exploration, public televi- so, but the appearance of cable in the sion was the lone alternative to the Big 1980s was the ½rst sign of what was to Three–and the only television provider come. Because cable emerged under a with a public-service mission. separate regulatory regime, cable oper- Of course, because they used the pub- ators were not–and are not–bound lic airwaves, the networks made some by the same strict rules that governed concession to public service, as required broadcasters. Cable operators are not under the Communications Act of 1934. obliged to devote part of their schedules But because programming like news and to public service; they do not have to public affairs was not pro½table, they of- observe fcc regulations regarding inde- fered it reluctantly, and it was only un- cency; and they are not limited by the

142 Dædalus Spring 2007 ownership caps designed to keep broad- (dvr), which overturned the tradition- The state of American casters from dominating particular mar- al television-scheduling model. No lon- television kets. Consequently, cable channels were ger did viewers have to make appoint- free to expand rapidly and introduce a ments at speci½ed hours to watch their range of programming not generally favorite shows. Armed with a dvr, they available to broadcasters. became the programmers. And on the As cable proliferated, new channels heels of the dvr, the entire world of me- sprang up seemingly overnight. Faced dia seemed to have broken open. with an ever-growing menu of choices, Over the past year, we have seen major American audiences began to splinter. Internet companies like Google and Ya- Channels were targeted to ever-smaller hoo set themselves up as television dis- groups de½ned by demographics or spe- tributors, taking advantage of the web, ci½c interests: mtv for teenagers, a&e the video iPod, and the omnipresent cell for arts lovers, cnn for newshounds. phone to deliver traditional television The dominance of the Big Three net- content. Following their lead, the ‘old’ works slowly began to erode. With the media networks, as well as pbs, have arrival of cable, television would no been moving their content to these new longer unite Americans under a big tent. distribution channels, in what amounts Rather, it would set up scores of smaller to a digital land rush for the new millen- tents catering to narrower sets of tastes. nium. The collateral trends of deregulation Meanwhile, technology is revolution- and the emergence of digital technology izing not only viewing and distribution intersected in the Telecommunications but production as well. Where it used to Act of 1996. The ½rst major telecom act require dozens of technicians to make a in over sixty years, it sought to open television program, now one person can American media to free-market compe- do it all. With an inexpensive camera, tition–a move that many saw as neces- you can capture beautiful digital images sary to enable Americans to take full ad- and sound–even fabulous high-de½ni- vantage of what was becoming known as tion images. With a notebook comput- ‘the information superhighway.’ er and consumer software, you can edit For some years, signi½cant barriers footage. And when you’re done, you can had separated the lanes on this informa- upload your program to the web, where tion superhighway. Television, the Inter- a potentially unlimited number of view- net, and voice and data communications ers can watch it. This has led to the ex- all traveled along their own routes. But plosion of so-called social network sites by the end of the millennium, the lanes –such as YouTube–which build com- began to merge. The Internet increas- munities around shared amateur videos. ingly became a part of our daily lives. But it’s not all just for fun and social- Streaming audio and video clips began izing. Commercial news organizations to appear on web sites. In media circles, across the country are adopting this the word on everyone’s lips was ‘conver- technology to bring new immediacy to gence.’ We started to think less about their programming as well. They are television programs and computer pro- even enlisting citizen correspondents grams–and more in terms of content to submit footage–often captured with and access to that content. the video cameras built into cell phones. The ice really cracked with the intro- So the difference between amateur and duction of the digital video recorder professional is becoming increasingly

Dædalus Spring 2007 143 Note by blurred–yet another wall that the digi- are locked in pitched battles over who William F. tal revolution is tearing down. should control the distribution channels. Baker New developments and innovations And the commercial model is threaten- are emerging on an almost daily basis, ing to collapse in the face of ad-skipping and the traditional notion of television and time-shifting technologies. In short, is quickly taking its place in media his- there are titanic struggles taking place tory alongside vinyl lps and videotapes. in the media today. Pro½ts versus First It’s an exciting time but a problematic, Amendment responsibilities. Viewer and even dangerous, time as well. expectations versus economic realities. It’s clear that the digital revolution is Political forces versus technological in- introducing a democratic potential into novation. American media. More programs are As this chaotic revolution unfolds, we available, and more people can partici- need to exercise caution. Even with all pate in the creation and sharing of tele- its exciting innovations and democratic vision. That’s positive. But the effects promise, American media may be head- of deregulation, if anything, are stron- ing in the wrong direction. What began ger than ever before. The toaster has by adding new sounds to the chorus of become portable and interactive and American media may soon leave us with downloadable, but it’s still a toaster. And little more than unmodulated noise. corporate America is hungry for toast. Given the power and impact of televi- So, even as we experience this democ- sion in our lives, it may be time to step ratization of the media, we are also wit- back and carefully consider, with an eye nessing massive consolidation. News- on the future, the pros and cons of cur- papers, television groups, movie stu- rent developments. dios, and web sites are merging with At this critical moment in the history telephone and wireless companies, In- of American television, we should revisit ternet service providers, and cable com- the regulatory framework that governs panies. Thus, while the public has access providers of television programming in to thousands of channels, the reality is all its forms. Clearly, the various regula- that a few giant companies control the tory regimes that pertain to broadcast, vast majority of information Americans cable, and telephone services no longer consume. The prime objective of big make sense in this era of integrated digi- media continues to be increasing share- tal communications. The legal structure holder value, and the public-service obli- needs to be reconsidered and revised to gation of the commercial media is all but reflect the realities of technology and the nonexistent. Cost cutting at the corpo- marketplace. At the same time, we need rate level has led to staff reductions and to explore the national vision of our me- closings of local newsrooms. Fewer re- dia and promote its potential as a posi- porters and editors mean lower-quality tive force in our culture and society. news, as does the cutthroat race to air Right now, as we spin in the whirlwind with ‘breaking stories’ in a society where of change, a full review and revamping information travels at the speed of light. of the duties of media providers would A whole web of related pressures is be a healthy exercise, and would do at work as American media transforms. much to ensure that the digital revolu- Indecency and political bias have caused tion does not relegate public-service ½restorms in the halls of Congress. In- media to the dustbin of media history. ternet, cable, and phone companies

144 Dædalus Spring 2007 President Emilio Bizzi Chief Executive Of½cer Leslie C. Berlowitz Chair of the Academy Trust and Vice President Louis W. Cabot Treasurer John S. Reed Secretary Jerrold Meinwald Editor Steven Marcus Librarian Robert C. Post Vice President, Midwest John Katzenellenbogen Vice President, West Gordon N. Gill

Dædalus Board of Editors Committee Steven Marcus, Chair, Joyce Appleby, Russell Banks, Stanley Hoffmann, Donald Kennedy, Martha C. Nussbaum, Neil J. Smelser, Rosanna Warren, Steven Weinberg; ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi, Leslie C. Berlowitz

Committee on Publications Jerome Kagan, Chair, Jesse H. Choper, Denis Donoghue, Jerrold Meinwald; ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi, Steven Marcus, Leslie C. Berlowitz

Inside back cover: Cover illustration for the dust jacket of Nancy Breary’s book, It Was Fun in the Fourth, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons in London in 1948, cover design by Joan Mar- tin May. A proli½c author, Breary wrote in a genre notorious since the late nineteenth cen- tury for its barely sublimated Sapphic inflec- tions, churning out popular ½ction about life in imaginary all-girls boarding schools similar to the Kingsdown School in Dorking, where Breary had boarded as a young girl. See Terry Castle on The lesbianism of Philip Larkin, pages 88–102: “In the brutal and bittersweet narra- tives of lesbian desire Larkin found a doom-lad- en prediction of what was to become the cen- tral and most painful theme of his imaginative and emotional life: no girls for you.” Image courtesy of Terry Castle.

Dædalus coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus on capitalism Joyce Appleby, John C. Bogle, Lucian Bebchuk, Robert W. Fogel, & democracy Jerry Z. Muller, Richard Epstein, Benjamin M. Friedman, John Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Dunn, Robin Blackburn, and Gerhard Loewenberg Spring 2007 on the public interest William Galston, E. J. Dionne, Jr., Seyla Benhabib, Jagdish Bhagwati, Adam Wolfson, Lance Taylor, Gary Hart, Nathan Glazer, Robert N. Bellah, Nancy Rosenblum, Amy Gutmann, and Christine Todd Spring 2007:onsex Whitman comment Paul Ehrlich & Marcus W. Feldman The fallacy of genetic reductionism 5 on life Anthony Kenny, Thomas Laqueur, Shai Lavi, Lorraine Daston, Paul Rabinow, Robert P. George, Robert J. Richards, Nikolas Rose, John on Tim Birkhead Promiscuity 13 sex Broome, Jeff McMahan, and Adrian Woolfson Joan Roughgarden Challenging Darwin 23 Brian Charlesworth Why bother? The evolutionary function of sex 37 on nature Leo Marx, William Cronon, Cass Sunstein, Daniel Kevles, Bill McKibben, Harriet Ritvo, Gordon Orians, Camille Parmesan, Anne Fausto-Sterling Frameworks of desire 47 Margaret Schabas, and Philip Tetlock & Michael Oppenheimer Elizabeth Benedict On the Internet 58 Wendy Doniger In the Kamasutra 66 on cosmopolitanism Martha C. Nussbaum, Stanley Hoffmann, Margaret C. Jacob, A. A. Stanley Corngold Franz Kafka & sex 79 Long, Pheng Cheah, Darrin McMahon, Helena Rosenblatt, Samuel Terry Castle The lesbianism of Philip Larkin 88 Scheffler, Arjun Appadurai, Rogers Smith, Peter Brooks, and Craig Lawrence Cohen Homosexuality & hope in India 103 Calhoun

annals Greil Marcus A trip to Hibbing High 116 plus poetry by Lawrence Dugan, Molly McQuade, Ted Richer, C. D. Wright &c.; ½ction by Chris Abani, Nadine Gordimer &c.; and poetry Charles Simic Darkened Chessboard & Secret History 125 notes by Keith T. Poole & Howard Rosenthal, Omer Bartov, Susan ½ction Peggy Newland Clowns 127 Goldin-Meadow, Harriet Ritvo, Phyllis Coley, Don Harrán, Victor Navasky &c. notes Samuel Weber on Walter Benjamin 138 William F. Baker on American television & its future 141

U.S. $13; www.amacad.org