北京麻雀 (Sparrows of Beijing)
西 New York 2012 - 9
18
An Apartment on E 102 St, 10 Floor
New York City, 2012
High Above the street, looking down from a window that was from floor to ceiling – it was coated with a novel form of plastic so that from the outside they could not see anything that was going on on the inside. Thus, all one saw was a very high building, sheathed with glass tinted blue, and one did not know what was occurring just a few short meters away. On the inside, there were wooden floors – each one bedecked with different rugs to the tenants like – and furniture that ran the gamut from Georgian furniture, with its long legs with a single twist, to the most contemporary styles that did not as yet have a name. She was looking at the high window, with nothing on but a crystal holding the most delicate of champagne, looking outwards so that he could admire the fact that she had lost a great deal of weight. When he was not around, she had very little to eat and drank only tea with nothing in it. It was her resolve to lose weight because she knew this was one of the hurdles to be crossed – and giving up on these hurdles was her benefaction and duty both.1 Thus, while she wanted more food, it was like a tickling in the gut to want something else instead. That something else was to have him love her back. And was an obsession, as much as the curve of the bedroom chair was. It simply had to be as it was. But she did not just lounge there, but at certain intervals would move her body in the way that is Depicted in both Chinese and Japanese texts such as those written by Chao Yuanfang, and when translated into Japanese was called Ishinpo written by Tamba Yasuyori. Of course, it had become her mission to learn all of the arts of coquettish jouissance, in order to please him. She would never be thin, in that classic Chinese mold, but at least her body was Rubenesque and attractive in that way – with hips leaning out from her side, and in the darkness were illuminated from below with an orange color from the distant lamps, an accident, but planned. Do you have to let it linger?2
Cinematic view, as if by Hiroshi Teshigahara3 illuminating the subtle forms of the female figure in repose by night, there was a question of whether she wanted the man, or detested him for keeping her in a prison of their own design. Indeed, it was not known if she herself wanted to be captured or captive looking out over the bare city, which was once the capital of the world.
It still was – for the moment, though nipped at by the cities of China. This is the politics of life.
Those cities were diseased and depressed by a central government whose only purpose was to enact power for its members – even if Accidents sometimes happened. Of course, the one in Beijing was the first of many, but other Accidents happened – For example at the Three Gorges Dam. What this had to do with her posing is that the very criticisms of the central authority were engaged, somewhat secretly in some cases, in the very fabric. It was not just a sexualized position, but an ornate pattern of criticism – the forms of the woman in the pictures echoed pictures of very different themes that the central party produced. Even as she lifted up her hand and blew a colorless rain of crystals – there was hidden meaning. Though most people would not recognize this – these sensors would end it would drive them crazy until they banned whole books of what seemed like erotic poetry – but the sensors saw criticism of the regime. And they were right, which meant that people would procure illegal copies, and pour over them thus ingratiating a purer form than any that came before. Thus, it was not just a nude woman, but a critique of the Three Gorges Dam – or some other object of the sarcasmer’s directive which took his fancy. And what is more, it was intensely erotic as well. This was known to her as she whined her hips around in enormous desk, copied from an original in the Georgian style. Sweat from her arms and legs, hands and breasts exuded from each and every pour of her being. It was both a sensual and political act at the same time – because after all there had to be procreation – even if just once or twice in a lifetime – but the Central Government could not admit that it was happening. Think of it as the unspoken agreement that every society rests upon – it cannot say that sex is important, but it cannot live without it. Thus, her face was both sublime and with that come hither to me at the same time. In the bed, the firm masculine eyes were drawn to this, and many things were implied by that, it was more intense the stare of Xu Zhimo. The male organ became erect, as it had never done before – in all the moments of earth, this one was the time he would remember. There was both union and disunion when they coupled after he could no longer stand lying in bed, came over to her, and from behind took her with his arms lashing around her torso and feeling that which was not to be discussed in polite company. OK by me in America. Bye-bye.
19
She looked at him as he slept, wanting to leave him at that moment.
This was not the first time, climbing out on Solsbury Hill.4
1 In the fine script, Ardelle Li opined:
Centrist
caucuses that’s all I want
senatorial duties that a whole lot
Presidential goals, sometimes I get frightened
#Klozone Des Moines swoop recumbent
Hamilton shenanigans inauguration
CIA whispery Jamboree calibrated anecdotes
centrist.
2 The Cranberries, “Linger”
3 Hiroshi Teshigahara (1927 – 2001) Woman in the Dunes (砂の女 )
4 Peter Gabriel, “Solsbury Hill”