In need of a break after The Garden of Eden and The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, two dense, deep, complex books, I pulled down Kim. Really liked that book. Kids. My favorite people, kids. Beautiful, sensuous, beautifully written. Humorous. Like humor. When last read that book? May, 2014 hoo-doggie. So I pulled down Kim.
I began Kim as I always do, re-reads especially, flitting here and there, re-reading the pages I had previously dog-eared and the passages previously underlined. Not as many as in Eden or Ideological Origins. Went back to the Introduction. Kipling under total domination of his wife—Oh! That’s right…American...Vermont? Always tickled me these rugged men of the world pussy-whipped in private.
“’Who is Kim?’ And later ‘What is Kim?’”, underlined from Intro. Didn’t remember what that was about. Flitting, Kim became a spy, didn’t remember. Like Kim Philby! Like Graham Greene! Flitting, I went back to the beginning of the Introduction. Kim and Kipling both born in India. Kipling dreamt, thought and spoke his first words in Hindi. So cool…Kipling sent from India to cruel English boarding school ages 6-12. Kipling had a Dickensian childhood and a Dickens-like childhood. Flitting, Kim/Kipling had feet in two worlds, two main worlds, India and England. India being India there were nested worlds—Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, caste, language, I don’t know what all, at least those. England being England there were also the worlds of Great Britain--Kim=Kendall O’Hara, Irish—and the imperial United Kingdom. That’s a lot of feet, Kipling and Kim had a lot of worlds to have their feet in at one time. Kipling was a rugged imperialist hoo-doggie. Kipling and Kim were therefore master and servant in the same person--But aren’t we all?, to self. Don’t make too much of that; there’s always someone over us, always someone beneath us. From the beginning the claimed uniqueness of America was in the fluidity between the different worlds. Penniless today, millionaire tomorrow; any boy can grow up to be president. Stop. We’re not talking about America here, you swine American; we’re talking about Britain, the UK, about India. Rigid caste system in India to this day! In Britain too! Fiona Hill’s accent would have kept her from the comparable position in Britain she was to achieve in America. Reconsider “But aren’t we all?”.
Anyway. Flitting, Kim’s “frequent shift from the vernacular to English and back again suggests confusion about his racial identity.” Brow furrowing. “…Kim, adept at disguises and pigmentation, dresses alternately as a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Eurasian, as well as British civilian, soldier, and schoolboy, and plays three main roles: disciple, student, and spy.” “Hemingway” in margin.
Never a break. Wasn't Hemingway influenced by Kipling? Getting frustrated, googled Hemingway-Kipling. Yes,"by the good Kipling," Hemingway. Okay fine. Kim is “troubled and confused about his personal identity”…”Kim searches for, yet hides, his true self”…”…lack of fixed identity…many different roles…” Are you fucking kidding me?
Kim: “How can a man follow the Way or the Great Game when he is so-always pestered by women?”…”the subtlest and most elusive part of the novel, that of the pedophile Lurgan…also tries to seduce Kim.” Remembered that scene, it eluded me. “Lurgan, inciting a sexual rivalry between the two boys”…”Kim resists Lurgan’s…attempt…seduce…(since the adventurous hero must remain asexual)…” Kim Philby and the others of the Cambridge Five were not asexual hoo-doggie; they were pestered by and they pestered women and men, sexually. Master and servant in one; male and female in one; the power of sex, the power in sex…The Madison quote! (I was beginning to feel like Wilkins Micawber, I was off the rails.) The thoughts were now coming as quickly and as ephemerally as soap bubbles and I began furiously writing them down before they popped out of consciousness. Put aside Kim...Wait! Kim! Kim O’Hara, Kim Philby, androgynous name, Kim! HEEP! Eden!...Picked up Ideological Origins again..Where is that fucking quote?, frustrated that I couldn’t immediately put my finger on it. Ah!
In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example…of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world may…be...the most consoling presage of its happiness.-Madison 1792
That is such a sexual role reversal! Madison, you perv! HEEP! Eden again! In the Old World the male was on top—in sex, politics, finances—and the woman’s role was to “lie still and think of England.” Of England! Not lie still and think of France or Ireland, of England! Write that down; but not too much, make a note of it before you lose it. Done. In America the roles were reversed, or so Madison envisioned, at least as he envisioned political power; America was to be, politically, in the patois of liquid modernity, a “Female Led” society, led by a feminine conception of power...female POV, FemDom, female on top, female superior position…Christianity a “feminine” religion HEEP!…Kipling pussy-whipped—by an American woman! HEEP! HEEP! Write all that down, I wrote all that down…HEEP!, the sexual imagery in the pamphlets--rape, sado-masochism, I forget all now.
Go back to Kim. Went back to Kim. "Kipling was admired by...the American Ernest Hemingway" footnote 19, read footnote 19 "See Jeffrey Meyers, 'Kipling and Hemingway..." Jeffrey Meyers, wasn't Jeffrey Meyers one of Hem's biographers? Googled, yes. Who wrote this fucking introduction? Jeffrey Meyers.
My back started hurting and I needed a break, needed a break from my break, Kim.
I began Kim as I always do, re-reads especially, flitting here and there, re-reading the pages I had previously dog-eared and the passages previously underlined. Not as many as in Eden or Ideological Origins. Went back to the Introduction. Kipling under total domination of his wife—Oh! That’s right…American...Vermont? Always tickled me these rugged men of the world pussy-whipped in private.
“’Who is Kim?’ And later ‘What is Kim?’”, underlined from Intro. Didn’t remember what that was about. Flitting, Kim became a spy, didn’t remember. Like Kim Philby! Like Graham Greene! Flitting, I went back to the beginning of the Introduction. Kim and Kipling both born in India. Kipling dreamt, thought and spoke his first words in Hindi. So cool…Kipling sent from India to cruel English boarding school ages 6-12. Kipling had a Dickensian childhood and a Dickens-like childhood. Flitting, Kim/Kipling had feet in two worlds, two main worlds, India and England. India being India there were nested worlds—Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, caste, language, I don’t know what all, at least those. England being England there were also the worlds of Great Britain--Kim=Kendall O’Hara, Irish—and the imperial United Kingdom. That’s a lot of feet, Kipling and Kim had a lot of worlds to have their feet in at one time. Kipling was a rugged imperialist hoo-doggie. Kipling and Kim were therefore master and servant in the same person--But aren’t we all?, to self. Don’t make too much of that; there’s always someone over us, always someone beneath us. From the beginning the claimed uniqueness of America was in the fluidity between the different worlds. Penniless today, millionaire tomorrow; any boy can grow up to be president. Stop. We’re not talking about America here, you swine American; we’re talking about Britain, the UK, about India. Rigid caste system in India to this day! In Britain too! Fiona Hill’s accent would have kept her from the comparable position in Britain she was to achieve in America. Reconsider “But aren’t we all?”.
Anyway. Flitting, Kim’s “frequent shift from the vernacular to English and back again suggests confusion about his racial identity.” Brow furrowing. “…Kim, adept at disguises and pigmentation, dresses alternately as a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Eurasian, as well as British civilian, soldier, and schoolboy, and plays three main roles: disciple, student, and spy.” “Hemingway” in margin.
Every time I see that picture I laugh. If that guy didn’t take it up the ass then my gaydar is broken.
Never a break. Wasn't Hemingway influenced by Kipling? Getting frustrated, googled Hemingway-Kipling. Yes,"by the good Kipling," Hemingway. Okay fine. Kim is “troubled and confused about his personal identity”…”Kim searches for, yet hides, his true self”…”…lack of fixed identity…many different roles…” Are you fucking kidding me?
Kim: “How can a man follow the Way or the Great Game when he is so-always pestered by women?”…”the subtlest and most elusive part of the novel, that of the pedophile Lurgan…also tries to seduce Kim.” Remembered that scene, it eluded me. “Lurgan, inciting a sexual rivalry between the two boys”…”Kim resists Lurgan’s…attempt…seduce…(since the adventurous hero must remain asexual)…” Kim Philby and the others of the Cambridge Five were not asexual hoo-doggie; they were pestered by and they pestered women and men, sexually. Master and servant in one; male and female in one; the power of sex, the power in sex…The Madison quote! (I was beginning to feel like Wilkins Micawber, I was off the rails.) The thoughts were now coming as quickly and as ephemerally as soap bubbles and I began furiously writing them down before they popped out of consciousness. Put aside Kim...Wait! Kim! Kim O’Hara, Kim Philby, androgynous name, Kim! HEEP! Eden!...Picked up Ideological Origins again..Where is that fucking quote?, frustrated that I couldn’t immediately put my finger on it. Ah!
In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example…of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world may…be...the most consoling presage of its happiness.-Madison 1792
That is such a sexual role reversal! Madison, you perv! HEEP! Eden again! In the Old World the male was on top—in sex, politics, finances—and the woman’s role was to “lie still and think of England.” Of England! Not lie still and think of France or Ireland, of England! Write that down; but not too much, make a note of it before you lose it. Done. In America the roles were reversed, or so Madison envisioned, at least as he envisioned political power; America was to be, politically, in the patois of liquid modernity, a “Female Led” society, led by a feminine conception of power...female POV, FemDom, female on top, female superior position…Christianity a “feminine” religion HEEP!…Kipling pussy-whipped—by an American woman! HEEP! HEEP! Write all that down, I wrote all that down…HEEP!, the sexual imagery in the pamphlets--rape, sado-masochism, I forget all now.
Go back to Kim. Went back to Kim. "Kipling was admired by...the American Ernest Hemingway" footnote 19, read footnote 19 "See Jeffrey Meyers, 'Kipling and Hemingway..." Jeffrey Meyers, wasn't Jeffrey Meyers one of Hem's biographers? Googled, yes. Who wrote this fucking introduction? Jeffrey Meyers.
My back started hurting and I needed a break, needed a break from my break, Kim.