Out of the Ivory Palaces
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.PROVINCETOWN Woodcut by TOD LINDENMUTH AUGUST, 1924 LORELEI AUGUST NUMBER 1 1924 Administration MYRON JEAN PARROT, Editor ASSOCIATE EDITORS Mary Heaton Vorse Susan Glaspell Harry Kemp Maxwell Bodenheim William Gaston Wm. Auerbach-Levy CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Charles W. Hawthorne Tod Lindenmuth Ross Moffett Peter Hunt Lucille Kahn J. H. Creene Abigail Marshall W. H. W. Bicknell Blanche Stillson Coulton Waugh Frank Carson Lulu Merrick Marjorie Austen Ryerson ART CONTENTS COVER. Designed by Peter HUNT. PROVINCETOWN. A Woodcut by TODLindenmuth. JEANNE D’ARC. A Black-and-whiteby Peter Hunt . and suddenly there appeared among them a multitude Of heavenly hosts. (the Bible). A Black-and-white by Peter HUNT . EUGENE O’NEILL. A Caricature by Coulton Waugh . LONG NOOK. Etch W.H.W.Bicknell . “TOILERS OF ”. A Linoleumcutby Frank CARSON . PROVINCETOWN Fisherman. After a Painting by CHARLES W. Hawthorne A MAP OF PROVINCETOWN. Illustrated by Coulton WAUGH. BROTHER AND SISTER. An Etching by Margery Austen RYERSON. WINTER’S HARVEST. After a painting by Ross MOFFETT. THE WHARF. A Woodcut by BLANCHESTILLSON . LITERARY CONTENTS OUT OF THE IVORY PALACES. A Poem by Harry Kemp . AESTHETIC Satyriasis. By J. K. Huysmans. (Englished by Myron Jean Parrot) EUGENE O’NEILL Portrayed in Bold Relief by Maxwell Bodenheim A PIECE of SILVER. A Short Story by Mary HEATONVORSE . GOATS AMONG STONES. A Poem by SUSANGLASPELL . HAWTHORNE, N. A. An Appreciation by LULUMERRICK . CONFESSIONS of a Former Piano Player by M. J. P. GEORGE CRAM COOK and the Provincetown Players. An Article by Harry KEMP {RIEE CHINOISE. A Poem by LucilleKahn . “ . les neiges d’antan.” A Poem by Myron JEANPARROT . A COMEDY OF TERROR#. A Dramatic Criticism by WILLIAMGASTON . THE ART EXHIBIT. A Brief Criticism. TRAMPlNG ON’ IMOORTALITY. A Book Review by L. K. MAKERS OF TEE LORELEI . number, to be ready es of caricatures of well-known Province- WM. auerbach-levy thirteen numbers) Foreign Foreign Unsolicited manuscripts dit be considered only if typewritten and accompanied by a stamped and addressed envelope The contents of theLorelei are protected by copyright and must not be reprinted without permission of the authors, towhom copyrights are transferred on date of publication. au communications concerning contributions, advertisements or subscriptions should be addressed to Myron Jean Parrot, Provincetown, Massachusetts 6 Jeanne d’Arc PETER HUNT among them a multitude of heavenly hosts --the Bible. PETER HUNT OUT OF THE IVORY PALACES “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house.” -Psalms. UT of the ivory palacesshe came And gold of Ophir sat about her brow; Yet her soul in her was a sinking flame. The King spake to her, calling her by name, Bidding her wear for frontlets on her brow Honour and royalty sealed by his vow: “Forget your people and cleave unto me, And princes shall your unborn children be!” A low lute played .and she could not forget! A bird sang she remembered, and, most sad, Her soul was in the Tents of Kedar yet Though all in wrought gold was her body clad! HARRY KEMP. AESTHETIC SATYRIASIS A Free-Translation from the French of J. K. HUYSMANS By Myron Jean Parrot HE contemplation of an erotic ex- fulfillment for which lust cries, of that pression of true genius lures me fulfillment which is the ultimate ectasy to a groping descent into the of physical sensation, and which is only a violation of a more or less prudish con- tenebrous profundities of the artist’s vention. Nor am I speaking of the tem- soul . pestuous passion which provokes and When pornographic literary works or justifies the sexual act, for it betokens indelicately voluptuous paintings possess only an awakening of senses, a pulsing of genuine aesthetic values, I know that T blood, life’s outcry against imprisonment, must dismiss, because of the presence of and death. I speak merely of the spirit, these values, any suspicion of carnality of lust; of isolated erotic images, without in the lives of their creators. No sensi- the representation of flesh and without tively artistic portrayal of a lascivious the desire for physical release. life can be achieved by a man who lives And almost always the artist dreams of lasciviously; for when lust effects a stu- the same elusive, amorous phantoms, pas- pration of the flesh, genius lapses into turing seductively, offering unordinarily senility and dies. Moreover, a man who pleasurable caresses. But the natural act accedes to and accepts the impositions of of lust, the stupration of the body is in- concupiscence, is in no state, mentally or existent-is cast away as denuded of psychologically, to delineate an emotion mystery; as uninteresting; as evoking; a on paper or on canvas. trite turmoil, a cry of banaIity, the dead. I might add that the man who prates ened lyrism of a ludicrously obvious de- of virtue, celebrates maidenly modesty, lusion. And the urge towards a preter- adexalts ingenuous love, will often con- natural defloration, the longing for those ceal under the prudish and chill allure- loftlier, enravishing tumults of which ments of his “art”, elaborate degrada- the flesh is incapable, arises compellingly tions, to which, prostrate, in the silence within him. of secret places, he makes flaccid sur- The depravity of his soul is intensified. render. if you like, but it is refined and ennobled Truly, when you pause to consider the by the ideal with which it intermingles-- matter, only virgins are indecent, only the ideal of superhuman frailties and of chaste persons are obscene. Continence, new magnificent vices to commit. everyone knows, elicits horribly lecher- The presence of a flesh and blood wo- ous mental images; the man who remains man invariably breaks the enchantment : aloof from the flirt of flesh grows hotly the artist becomes embarrassed, resentful, lustful; he becomes hysterical, rampant, cold; and when a violation of the body and finally, in his dreams, he is uplifted occurs he experiences a terrible disillu- to an often orgiastic delirium. sionment . This intellectual hysteria, these dark- The artist who is ferociously salacious in his treatment of Sex is generally, I be- ling pleasures are translated into aesthet- lieve, a chaste man ic creations which shall give life to his . erotic fantasies. He achieves thus a Indeed, all artists, whether or not they spiritual relief, the only one possible for live austerely, are inflamed, more than him, since, as I have already said, the anyone else, with the fervors and furors physical indulgence of a lustful tempern- of lust. I am not speaking now of the ment inevitably destroys art. EUGENE O’NEILL Portrayed in Bold Relief By MAXWELL BODENHEIM UMAN beings are apt to advance The proletariat thrusts the shadow of its the same externals throughout hairy fists upon seven-eighths of his words Hthe years, in spite of the pranks end written activities. A dark oppression and fluctuations in their fortunes. Clowns is forever with him and at times it rives persist in acting like undertakers’ ap- to a visible strain as Be bono somewhat prentices, when not working ; shoe-sales- awkwardly to those civilized trifles known men appear to be moving-picture actors in as manners and tact. The profane eon- search of some peuliarly elusive thought; tempts and straight lines of the gutter and stenographers dress in mysterious merge to a poorly disguised impatience on sables and duvetyns and look like un- his face, and you expect him to overturn scrupulous society-debutantes. In each the table at any moment and concentrate case the bottom desire within each indi- his basic hatred for life into an uppercut vidual refuses to heed the facts and per- to the chin of some stupidly elegant turbations of his daily life and frequently opponent. rules his dress and conduct without his He respects only extremes-the rough conscious knowledge. lurchings of the underdog and gangster, Eugene O’Neill, the playwright, is a or the supreme, airily embellished cruel- man married to a single, tyrannical mood. ties of the bona-fide intellectual. The rec- tion with him six the rendezvous of a New York gang called year ago slides perfectly into this view- the Hudson Dusters (nice, suave-voiced, point (I shall place his remarks in wistful, ephemeral gentlemen), and two of quotations-marks, although, owing to the the members were beside us at the table. lapse of time since their utterance, I At that time O’Neill was unknown and cannot guarantee the accuracy of the savage, with a fathomless capacity for phraseology) : whiskey. He has been forced to abstain “If the proletariat and the intellec- from the latter flirt to save himself from tuals ond artists would only get to- a tombstone, but outside of better clothes gether, they could rule the world. I and a greater silence, and a touch of weary mean the real ones-not the fake slobs calmness, he has not changed. on either side. The gangsters, gun. men, and stokers, joined to. the few, The praise of almost every critic in important rebels among artists and America ; the financial success of his plays ; writers, would make a hot proposition. their reproduction in England and France “They’re all aristocrats in a differ- -these things are negligible jests to him, ent way, and they’re all outcasts from and he probably endures them only be- the upper worlds of society; and if muse they protect the leisure time in which he writes. long, brown face and their eyes ever open up to these resem- His widely sinister eyes have not really de- blances, well, it’ll be goodnight gov- ernment and middle-classes! parted from the rear room of the saloon ‘‘This world will always be ruled in which he once threw his curses and by somebody, and the only trouble is taunts at the cringing, lack-lustre expedi- that the sharpest minds and the ents of life.