ellauri048.html on line 1076: EITHER they had to knuckle under and settle for a "sublimated", more-or-less disembodied, spiritualized passion . . . . OR they could plunge and risk martyrdom. They must have agreed that they had no taste for martyrdom — or even Byronic exile. . . . It is clear they both knew, in their heart of hearts, they wanted to express their love for each other in a physical way; yes, even in a sexual way — Love and Duty is eloquent testimony to that. But both of them knew in the prevailing moral climate . . . there seemed to be no possibility of love between males that would not incur hysterical opposition. . . . There is not much doubt, had they wanted to take the sexual path and do so openly, they would only have wanted the kind of sex which they felt about each other.
ellauri048.html on line 1078: Given that no one has ever doubted that Tennyson had some sort of "disembodied, spiritualized passion" for Hallam, this conclusion comes as rather a painful anticlimax. Admittedly, Alf named his son Hallam after Hallam, the one who went to Australia. Of course, the fact that members of Tennyson´s family succumbed to madness, alcoholism, and drug addiction already has made some readers aware that, like so many other Victorians, he should be taken down from a pedestal and join the rest of us. But think of the stir if one the greatest poems of the nineteenth century, one which has major influence on poets as different as Whitman and Eliot, turned out to be chiefly a gay lover's lament! (What's wrong with that? There are zillions of others, better yet.) Tän apologian kirjoitti on George P. Landow, Professor of English and the History of Art, (fittingly) from Brown University.
ellauri052.html on line 778: He still heard as if it were his own disembodied spirit hearing, standing at some distance behind him. It drew nearer however, his spirit. And the violent striking of blood in his chest was sinking quieter, allowing his mind to come back. He realised that he was leaning with all his weight on the soft body of the other man. It startled him, because he thought he had withdrawn. He recovered himself, and sat up. But he was still vague and unestablished. He put out his hand to steady himself. It touched the hand of Gerald, that was lying out on the floor. And Gerald's hand closed warm and sudden over Birkin's, they remained exhausted and breathless, the one hand clasped closely over the other. It was Birkin whose hand, in swift response, had closed in a strong, warm clasp over the hand of the other. Gerald´s clasp had been sudden and momentaneous.
ellauri117.html on line 275: He still heard as if it were his own disembodied spirit hearing, standing at some distance behind him. It drew nearer however, his spirit. And the violent striking of blood in his chest was sinking quieter, allowing his mind to come back. He realised that he was leaning with all his weight on the soft body of the other man. It startled him, because he thought he had withdrawn. He recovered himself, and sat up. But he was still vague and unestablished. He put out his hand to steady himself. It touched the hand of Gerald, that was lying out on the floor. And Gerald's hand closed warm and sudden over Birkin's, they remained exhausted and breathless, the one hand clasped closely over the other. It was Birkin whose hand, in swift response, had closed in a strong, warm clasp over the hand of the other. Gerald´s clasp had been sudden and momentaneous.
ellauri384.html on line 229: Frankly, Hell sounds like a more tolerable place, but even there, it’s full of absurdities. As Terry Pratchett pointed out, in order to cause someone physical pain, they have to have the attributes of a physical body, such as nerve endings. There’s little point in throwing a disembodied spirit into a lake of fire. They don’t have the hardware to FEEL anything. For that you need a body. So it would appear that the most prominent features of both Heaven and Hell is utterly crushing, eternal, pointless BOREDOM. Both places would be eternal torture to the human mind.
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