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Carnal Knowledge
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Carnal Knowledge For the past 15 years, I've taught a course on the American West that draws upon literature, history, politics, music and film to study, among other things, the place of the frontier (and Los Angeles and Hollywood) in the American imagination. Confession: I've always considered myself something of a fraud teaching this course because, except for California, I know little about the American West except through books and film and a four day cross country car trip I took from NJ to northern California in 1978. So it was not entirely a euphemism when I explained to friends in June that I was traveling to the Bitterroot Valley in Montana for 5 days for a "research trip." Well, MadamTori, my native guide to the region, did her part as a contemporary Sacajewea to make sure that my trip was one of discovery, exploration, and adventure. (Oh, yes, we also did visit a campsite used by Lewis & Clark on the way to the airport at the end of my trip....and I did ride a for the first time in 30 years.) I was once told what I believe is a spurious etymology: that the word fuck comes from an abbreviation of the first letter for the term For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (F.U.C.K. being used by priests or some policer of sex to record the sinful act). My visit to Montana reinforced in a beautiful way my conviction, which seems to deepen every year I get older, that while I love the library, the best way to learn and do research about life, the world, history, and culture is through "knowing" a lover intimately. Indeed, I find it telling that we can use the word "to know" as as euphemism for sex, but I would argue that such an expression is no euphemism but a fact of life and love and intimacy. Of course, like any subject of study, more is learned in acts of carnal knowledge when the subject is embraced with passion and curiosity. MadamTori has on a wall as soon as you enter her cabin a map of the USA and one of the world in which she has placed a push pin for each of her friends on FriendFinder-x. She envisions the chance to visit each of these friends, and, given that they are scattered through each region of the country, I love to think what she would learn about the country if she did have a chance to visit each friend and each of them served for her as a native guide to their place as Tori served for me when I visited Montana. I love the way FriendFinder-x and the internet enables us to find and develop friendships with people all around the country and the world, and I love the way Smrtgirl took us on a virtual travelogue through so many states and places in this country, uniting us together in her remarkable sequence of blogs. I love the power of words and I feel we can know each other quite intimately solely through acts of correspondence, but going beyond words and visiting an internet connection in their own ecological niche of a place, a town, a city exposes not just the limits of language but, I'd add, how our our own identity is shaped so much by the places we call home. For me, the best intimate relationships are those where each lover is both a teacher and student of the other, and I love how MadamTori refers to her marriages as "Learner's permits." When I review my life, I love thinking about the best teachers and professors I have had in the classroom and what I learned from each. When I have more time, I will do a Part II to this blog and try to list the things I have learned from my best and favorite teachers among women I have "known" (and this list will not be primarily about learning more about sex and the erotic).  |
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I still hope, one day, to get to know your LA. I, myself, am still getting to know my new hometown. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. For vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish. ~~ from Antony & Cleopatra
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Wonderful post -- and so true. At least in the pools of blogland that ripple past me, it does seem that SmrtGrl has been a catalyst for stepping out and meeting bloggers not to date or have sex but just for the sake of meeting. I have not met Tori in real life, but soon after meeting her on line I knew that she is someone that could inspire a road trip for me to Montana. I am thrilled for both of you that your trip proved such a success.     
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