Sinister: on being new to submission and the dominant culture

[carle groome]

hello nister sisters,
i love this. in the morning, like bottles of milk, and each night, like
the daily mail, i'm inundated and i welcome it! and not by glasses of
gas for the lactose intolerant or 4th class bulk junk, but the intimate,
humourous, coy, charming, passionate, eccentric (oh go on!) posts of the
species belle&sebastianus pan globus! privy to the weird thoughts and
odd interests, hinted perversions and (occasionally) pithy wit, i have
found a reason to open my e-mail every day!
(i know what you must say: "i hear that from all the boys!")

so as this comes under the heading of virgin post, thought i'd pose a
puzzler on a subject that pertains to the germaine of this particular plain.

centuries past, when IYFS hit my laser, the title track fascinated me
inordinately. ambiguity being one of my favorite things (esp. in
language), the whole of b&s  catalog keeps hitting me like the old fable
of The Lady Or The Tiger(milk). (oh, incidentally, is there anyone
around who still makes tapes of that august item for us US newbies?) (i
know what you must say: cf.)

but i digress.

the song, IYFS, caught me because of the concepts that seemed to circle
around the word "sinister". as you know, it also means "left-handed."
but, being that the song contains no ref to anything "dexterous", it
stumped me to go further in that direction. then i considered how much
of the the message seemed to involve corrective remedies (?) to
abberrant behaviours and the spiritual realm. (i.e. "she was into s&m
and bible studies", etc.) and the repeated motif of "walking to death"...

and then it hit--big sweaty feller with long pole striking brass Rank
Organisation gong!--and things sort of fell into place. a bright lad
named joseph campbell did these lectures on the comparitive philosophies
of world religions and one of the one's i'd vidd'ied was on the hindu
vedas. (altho' he used that as merely a point of departure to show that
this pervaded native american folklore as well as african, arab,
aborigine and eskimo, i think). there, he was talking about "the left
hand path"--this is the hero's journey made when someone steps outside
of the known realms of the kinship systems and tribal faiths (viz.,
"dexter" or "right-hand" path of the righteous and regular and,
according to the distribution of the global demographic, the dominant
hand) to find a solution to a disasterous situation or to grow beyond
the accepted limits of power and prestige. and that journey has often
been called the "death to the tribe" and also, invariably, begins with a
long walk... then, there's also the question of the shaman's role in
divining whether or not this is a worthy person for the task or,
frequently, trying to dissuade him/her from taking the big leap ("...go
off and see a minister..."). and as for the pervasive background sound
of playgrounds, this isn't too far from, say, socrates at the agora,
cautioning youth against accepting authority, even as he prods them with
another "why".

(perhaps that isn't enough evidence to proceed, but if you wish to put
forward further arguements pro & con, you have the forum before you.)

so then, it comes down to the fact that it would seem that a lot of us
(and i by no means presume to speak for the whole), have, in what could
be called our strange and beautiful (s&b) obsession with b&s, gone far
from where the vendors of pop would have us perchance our purchase (1.
to buy, to pay for; 2. to grab, to get a hold on--see? everything's
subject to interpretation). we are, to one extent or another, following
"the left hand path"/"feeling sinister" and, of course, at odds with the
mass. (i hesitate to call them sheep--or "dolly's kids"--but...N'SYNC?
Britney Spears?? Backstreet Boys??? Christina Aguilera??? did someone
leave the xerox on?)

so there you have it. is it thesis or feces? hope you enjoyed the trip.

carle

ps. sorry about all the parenthetical inclusions. just finished
"infinite jest" and felt the urge to footnote.
pss. oh, and i'm serious about tigermilk. i feel deprived!
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