My whole life has been a
succession of miserable and unsuccessful denials of feelings or reason (Lermontova A Hero of Our Time)
he could relate
however hed drop the
miserablethere was nothing miserable about trying and failing life was trying and failinglife was few successes and appreciating them (hell professional baseball players are paid millions
of dollars and cant bat .300)not that he paid attention anymore than hed pay attention to
professional golf – hours and hours of televised sky – now if the game were played in rain and lightning
storms tornado funnels leaping around like
mischievous children . . he might watch
it was an interesting house
My
grandfather made it by hand. As he built it he lived in a sod hut beside it.
Once it was erected, the fireplace threw smoke, he rode on a horsedrawn wagon
to the city to fetch my grandmother and my two eldest uncles.
I like it a lot
Thank you. We don’t come out here
much. Only the homestead remains. The family sold off the hundreds of acres by
grandfather acquired.
They’re
wealth.
They agreed to leave me the house,
a bit more than an acre, and water rights, if I’d be willing to forego any
proceeds from the sale of the farm.
This place means more to me than
money can afford.
it was on a high cupboard shelf beside
the large fireplace that he found a mouldy hardbound book Venus im Pelz (Venus
in Furs)
Your
grandfather read German
My grandfather was a polyglot. I
thought it strange, think it even now, that he came to Canada, Saskatchewan, to
be a farmer.
Im familiar with the book in
English
You are? What is it about?
Let me put it this way The author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch an Austrian wrote it in 1870 Sacher-Masoch Ring any bells
Sacher-Masoch? No.
Awright howbout this Masoch
Masoch? Masoch. No. I can’t say that it does.
Awright Howbout this
The German psychiatrist von
Krafft-Ebing who used Sacher-Masochs
name as the root to a particularshall we say condition
No. I’m not following you at all.
Ill have you know that holding
this book in my hands here that I am very fond of your grandfather He did speak English
He was English.
All the more delectable Anyone in the family beside your grandfather
read German
No.
And you have no idea what Im
talking about
I don’t.
Well then first let me say how fortunate
and happy I am to have made your acquaintance and how very much I appreciate your
invitation to stay the night at your grandfathers house though you might eventually find your way to
calling it your houseyour home
Thank you; although I imagine I’ll
always call it my grandfather’s house.
Which is understandable
I am very grateful
And you’ll be more grateful, as
will I, once I get a fire stoked, heat the place up a bit. Care for whiskey in
the meantime?
That would be excellent And while you busy yourself at the fire Ill
share this bit of information about your German edition of Venus in Furs
Thank you he accepted a tumbler of whisky
To our health.
Yes To our health
they tapped glasses and he
admired the moving colour of amber cast in them by the growing fire in the fireplace
Krafft-Ebing was a psychiatrist
as I said
He was notable for naming cerebral
neuroses Gotta love naming thingsmaking
them your own Since theyve been negated by the DSM the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for
Mental Disorders the early Eighties I
believe
His neuroseswhich I remain fond
of are paradoxia sexual excitement independent of I love this the physiological processes of the generative organs
Wanna guess he laughed
Anaesthesia not what you think rather the absence of sexual instinct
Hyperanaesthesia Satyriasis Increased desire The old mans got
money so why not fuck him How long could
he possibly last Or even cum
Sorry I get carried away sometimes An havin a drink and fingerin a German edition
of Venus im Pelz is overwhelming
I am
beside myself
as the fire grew and threw its
heat his host remained seated at the roughhewn table worn smooth by use and time seated in a storebought chair nearest
the flames a matching chair at the other
end of the table he sat near the
fire too on one of the handwrought benches on either length of the table
And paraesthesia Perversion of the sexual instinct
Krafft-Ebings book Psychopathia Sexualis was also one of the first books of sexual
practise and studied homosexuality bisexuality necrophilia anilingus
He derived masochist or masoChrist as I like to call it from Sacher-Masochs name particularly from your grandfathers book
Psychopathia Sexualis was
published in 1886 Krafft-Ebing was
recognised as an authority on sexual deviant behavior If such a thing exists
he took the book from his hands
Well. I suppose I learned . .
something . . . about my grandfather today.
That he was a man I understand he was dead before you were born
Yes.
Well He was out in the open It wasnt like a tardy pamphlet hidden in his
bottom drawer or a stack of Playboys secreted in the garage rafters is it
No. It’s not.
he had finished his whisky it kept his whistle wet Howbout another whisky to celebrate your
grandfather a farmer a polyglot likely an intellect
Youve probably recognised that
all the books on the cupboards top shelf are in foreign languages
Unless of course youre like most people who never look up
1614, Sunday,
5 5. 19
1323
or 123pm, Monday, 6 5.
19
