A Perilous Advantage_The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney by Natalie Clifford Barney & Anna Livia

Author:Natalie Clifford Barney & Anna Livia [Barney, Natalie Clifford & Livia, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBT, Gay & Lesbian, Women
ISBN: 9780934678452
Publisher: New Victoria Publishers
Published: 2015-11-06T06:00:00+00:00

Illicit Love Defended

Countess G. used to say, "What do I care if they love men, women or canaries!"

The great lady was surely right: only love is important, not the sex to whom it is directed. The rest is merely a question of rearing, selection and segregation of the species—our own faces a danger of quite another kind. Superstition and prejudice weigh love down. Let it be free of them—our only regret that there should be so little in the world.

Since the experiment with earthly paradise didn't work out, and earth became the "vale of tears" we know today, can God have created this world of evil with its system of man eat man, or, as in the Manichean belief, did another Power? Whether our customs derive from the gods, from insects or some other origin, nature which accepts all ways of being, absorbs them and makes them hers. The expression "against nature" has naturally fallen out of use, but we should recognize that nothing could be more unnatural than the uniformity we seek to achieve.

"Boredom was born one day from uniformity."

We have already eliminated many animal species, including the bird of paradise! But what can we do about the high birth rate which threatens the human race? The biblical injunction to "Go forth and multiply" doubtless made sense at a time when there were too few human beings to populate the earth. And now? Since neither wars of extermination nor "birth control" have been sufficient to reduce the population, why does the Host of Hosts not take it upon himself to change his slogan to "Stay home and stop multiplying"? Wouldn't that be the action of a sensible host who is careful not to invite too many people to the banquet of life (a banquet at which the food is getting more and more tasteless!) whom he's unable to receive, feed and lodge properly?

"You will earn your bread by the sweat of your brow."

But what if there are more brows than bread? And if the Creator had his reasons for wanting to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, are those reasons still valid? And didn't he also curse the first couple by throwing them out of paradise and condemning them to reproduce in pain?

Despite its harsh beginnings on earth, the family, which forms the basis of our society, remains an irreplaceable institution, even though it often produces parents and siblings who are each other's enemies. Nevertheless, it survives for better or worse—worse in the case of many poor couples overwhelmed by misery and innumerable children.

If the exhortation to fertility persists, having outlived its usefulness, this is partly due to the prejudices which still blind many worthy people. Reforms and moral injunctions are rarely entirely disinterested. Take those virtuous militants for example who, looking for good works to occupy themselves, rarely tolerant or understanding of anything beyond their own needs, surpassed themselves by wedding social causes (no men being available). If they have failed to wipe out certain practices (despite a recent prison

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