Smolder

"What is sex, we don't know, but it must be some sort of fire. For it always communicates a sense of warmth, of glow. And when the glow becomes a pur shine, the we feel the sense of beauty.

But the communicating of the warmth, the glow of sex is true sex appeal. We all have the fire of sex slumbering or burning inside us. If we live to be ninety, it is still there. Or, if it dies, we become one of those ghastly living corpses which unfortunately are becoming more numerous in the world. Nothing is more ugly than a human being in whom the fire of sex has gone out. You get a nasty clayey creature whom everyone wants to avoid.

But while we are fully alive, the fire of sex smoulders or burns in us. In youth it flickers and shines, in age it grows softer and stiller, but there it is. We have some control over it; but only partial control. While ever it lives, the fire of sex, which is the source of beauty and anger, burns in us beyond our understanding. "

-- Late Essays and Articles by D.H. Lawrence (1926-1930)

Imagine the time period that Lawrence wrote these kinds of things. It must have been considered scandalous judging by his contemporaries. But here it is the month of February - the month of romance, Valentines days, hearts and flowers and most of the time sex and eroticism is but whispered. Have we changed so much since the early 1900's? I think we have but not in the way Lawrence saw life, love and sex. It is still mostly a closet subject and what interests me about D.H. Lawrence's views were that sex was more than a physical act or state. He believed that sex was about the mind and the body one inseparable from the other. Oh, where are the men like that today?

I started this thread, which I hope meets the approval of the moderators and admins, to begin a discussion on this most important aspect of our lives. This month of Valentines and hearts is about sex as much as love. We honor love I hope we can honor sex too. It is wonderful to be alive. And in love.



Note: many Viggo fans are aware of D.H. Lawrence for Urgayle's reading of one of his poems in G.I. Jane -- I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself...

The Kiss

What can be more intimate than the kiss? It is a joining of two becoming one. The two share each others breath and more. It is the first sharing of the body in its most intimate state. It reveals so much to us the kiss strips away all our pretensions our fears and is one of the most serious acts of seduction. I like how it has been portrayed in art and in film.

“Such kisses that they must kiss each other for ever” D.H. Lawrence

Gustave Klimt's The Kiss



Auguste Rodin's Kiss (note the book in Paolo's hand)



And this hint of 'forever' in Jackson's Lord of the Rings




So beautiful, all of them. The tenderest of moments. Awakening in us our deepest longings -- as Arwen reminds Aragorn in this dream kiss. Reviving him. Breathing life into him.

How many times watching a movie and you see the couple (and in real life too) you see a psychic energy between them -- you feel it -- that they are going to kiss, that they want to kiss. I don't think it is the music surrounding the scene do you? I mean we know it will happen as do the couple. Is it the meeting of the eyes? Magic in the air?It is always in the throes of such a moment that one knows ...but after lost as a breeze on a warm summer night. And is the kiss the first act of seduction?

Ah yes the kiss it made me think of this by Rumi:





Nice idea for a thread Aithne. Very interesting about Lawrence by the way. I had no idea... Keep posting.

Aithne: "And is the kiss the first act of seduction?"

Might the kiss be the first physical and collaborative act of seduction? And I hate to use the word 'act'. Long before the meeting of lips there's been a number of other things going on. Words, gestures, glances, breathing, scent, mirroring - more subconscious yet powerful cues. Mating rituals? The kiss can also be a turning point - one of no return or in some instances a pulling away realizing that it is not to be or not yet time.

Oh yesssssssss that Rumi poem.

I see what you're saying Kaladhar that the giving in to the kiss kind of lets them know they're on the same page. In terms of psychic cues you mean? Okay I can get into that. So should we start before the kiss then?

Aithne wrote:

1907-08 (100 Kb); 180 x 180 cm (71 x 71 in);
Österreichisches Galerie Wien, Vienna

Man leaning over and kissing kneeling woman. All shrouded in symbolically
patterned gold. A bed of flowers below them.


Just as
Munch
can be associated with both Symbolism and
Expressionism,
so the art of the Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918),
is a curious and elegant synthesis of Symbolism and Art Nouveau.
The Austrians responded enthusiastically to the decorative artifice
of Art Nouveau, and Klimt is almost artifice incarnate. He painted
large ornamental friezes of allegorical scenes, and produced fashionable
portraits, uniting the stylized shapes and unnatural colors of Symbolism
with his own essentially harmonious concept of beauty.


The Kiss
is a fascinating icon of the loss of self that lovers experience.
Only the faces and hands of this couple are visible; all the rest is
great swirl of gold, studded with colored rectangles as if to express
visually the emotional and physical explosion of erotic love.

Define:kiss


the act of caressing with the lips (or an instance thereof)
a cookie made of egg whites and sugar
any of several bite-sized candies

touch
with the lips or press the lips (against someone's mouth or other body
part) as an expression of love, greeting, etc.; "The newly married
couple kissed"; "She kissed her grandfather on the forehead when she
entered the room"

a light glancing touch; "there was a brief kiss of their hands in passing"

touch lightly or gently; "the blossoms were kissed by the soft rain"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A
kiss (from Old English cyssan "to kiss," in turn from coss "a kiss,"
perhaps onomatopoeic) is the touching with the lips. The scientific
name for kissing is ''''''.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss

Kiss (sometimes typeset "KISS", to fit the official logo) is an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss (band)

"Kiss" is a 1986 song by Prince and the Revolution, from the album Parade. "Kiss" started as a short acoustic demo, about a
minute in length, with one verse and the chorus. Prince gave the song
to the funk band Mazarati for their debut album. Mazarati and producer
David Z. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss (song)

Kiss
is the self-titled debut album from the American hard rock band Kiss.
When it was released, on February 8, 1974, Kiss had been a band for
little more than one year. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss (album)

KISS is
an early low-level programming language on the IBM 650 business
computer. It was listed in the Communications of the ACM 2(5):16 (May
1959).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS (system)

Kiss
is a black-and-white photograph by Tanya Chalkin. It features two women
lying on a bed kissing each other. It has achieved a level of
iconography, largely due to its popularity as a poster in the college
dorm rooms of North America.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss (photograph)

Kiss
(officially K.I.S.S., as to distinguish it from the rock band), was a
Korean pop female trio. Their first single, "여자 이니까" (Because I'm A
Girl) was a huge hit in 2002, which can be attributed to its
melodramatic video of the sacrifice one can make for love. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss (Korean group)

In
cryptanalysis, a kiss was a term used at Bletchley Park during World
War II for occasions when the enemy sent an identical message twice,
once in a breakable cipher and again in an unbroken cipher. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss (cryptanalysis)

"Kiss (When the Sun Don't Shine)" is a single by the Vengaboys released in 2000.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss (When the Sun Don't Shine)

A touch or caress with the lips . See the entire definition of Kiss
www.onhealth.com/healthy_relationships/glossary.htm

Keep
It Simple Stupid refers mainly to the authoring of electronic books
and/or development of software in which success often depends upon
keeping the learning and usage mindlessly simple. (See also Authoring)
www.translationdirectory.com/glossaries/glossary017_k.htm

An acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid. It calls for a low-level system with no conventions, and is also called Momma-Poppa.
homepage.mac.com/bridgeguys/KGlossary/GlossK.html

Ancient
Teutons believed a kiss had great powers. At times it could place the
recipient in a state of complete forgetfulness or could revive
memories. ...
alandpeters.tripod.com/knightstemplarera1188to1312/id19.html

This
stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. We find this to be self explanatory
and don't want to overcomplicate such an elegant acronym.
www.deltagear.us/Glossary.htm

is a
New York City-based heavy metal band that became famous in the mid- to
late 1970s. Although "Heavy Metal" didn't exist when the band was
formed in 1972 you can say that they inventeda big part of the sound and style which now belong to Heavy Metal. ...
explanation-guide.info/meaning/KISS-(band).html

is
an American glam rock/hard rock band formed in New York City in 1973.
The group has performed and recorded continuously since their
formation. Co-founders Gene Simmons (bass) and Paul Stanley (guitar)
have been the two constant members throughout the band's history. ...
www.tvwiki.tv/wiki/KISS_(band)

generally refers to the object ball light lightly touching another ball on its way to the pocket.
www.ez-shot-ghost-ball.com/pool_billiards_glossary.html

The
kissing of the pope's foot -- the characteristic act of reverence by
which all the faithful do honour to him as the vicar of Christ --is
found as early as the eighth century. We read that Emperor Justinian II
paid this respect to Pope Constantine (708-16) (Anastasius Bibl. ...
bible.tmtm.com/wiki/Pope,_The_(Catholic_Encyclopedia)

That picture reminds of the scene in The Notebook. Former loves, Allie and Noah have been apart for many years. She is engaged to another. The chemistry is still there. In a natural setting, in the rowboat they begin to feel it rise. The sky bursts forth with heavy rain as does thier desire for each other.



Who can forget this dream-like scene in Fellowship of the Ring - the lovers on the bridge. The bridge symbolizing a joining? The setting of the beautiful Rivendell night a romantic landscape one can but smell the forest, feel the sweet night air and the heat coursing between this man and woman. Words barely necessary.


Going back to D.H. Lawrence for a minute I have a theory that he never felt completely satisfied with the words that he used to portray love, passion, eroticism -- finding words rarely adequate to explain what the conscious saw but what the subconscious felt.

I read this somewhere on a blog and found it interesting:

Quote :

Lawrence believed that life had to be lived. He argued that instincts and intuitions are more important than the reason. "Instinct makes me run from little over-earnest ladies; instinct makes me sniff the lime blossom and reach for the darkest cherry. But it is intuition which makes me feel the uncanny glassiness of the lake this afternoon, the sulkiness of the mountains, the vividness of near green in thunder-sun, the young man in bright blue trousers lightly tossing the grass from the scythe, the elderly man in a boater stiffly shoving his scythe strokes, both of them sweating in the silence of the intense light."

Another quote from this same study on Lawrence says:

Quote :

In Anais Nin’s book D.H. Lawrence, an unprofessional study, she writes, Lawrence approaches his characters not in a state of intellectual lucidity but in one of intuitional reasoning. His analysis is not one of the mind alone, but of the senses. He recognized a deep, subterranean connection between what he called the ‘dark gods’ in us, entirely apart from the sophistries of intelligence …Lawrence was patient. He gave his characters time. They are to find their own way and hour of resurrection.

No wonder he could write such beautiful words as these:

Quote :

At last I can throw away world without end, and meet you
Unsheathed and naked and narrow and white;
At last you can throw immortality off, and I see you
Glistening with all the moment and all your beauty.

( from 'Fronleichnam')

And rain....

Quote :

Lawrence believed in the totally spontaneous synthesis of "spiritual" and "sensual" love, indeed, but this love is not based on personalities, on anything personal, on what anyone happens to look like, or to believe, or to be.

D.H. Lawrence quotes:

Pornography is the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it.

Sex and beauty are inseparable, like life and consciousness. And the intelligence which goes with sex and beauty, and arises out of sex and beauty, is intuition.

The profoundest of all sensualities is the sense of truth and the next deepest sensual experience is the sense of justice.

You don't want to love - your eternal and abnormal craving is to be loved. You aren't positive, you're negative. You absorb, absorb, as if you must fill yourself up with love, because you've got a shortage somewhere.