CYCLE
THIRTY-TWO
1. When I wrote, some time ago, about France
being culturally barbarous in its painterly traditions and England, by
comparison, culturally civilized with regard to literature, particularly
theatre, I was effectively distinguishing between countries that share the same
gender bias on dissimilar terms: France in relation to fiery diabolism and
England in relation to watery femininity.
2. One could in fact describe this relationship,
in virtual Nietzschean vein, as one between fiery überweiben and watery unterweiben, or 'overwomen' and 'underwomen',
since it is the objective counterpart, on a European level, to the übermenschen/untermenschen subjective dichotomy
that may be regarded, in general terms, as existing between Germany and Russia,
the former given, in airiness, to a musical tradition commensurate with genuine
culture, and the latter, characterized by vegetation, excelling in sculpture,
not least of all under communism.
3. In fact, Germany, with its airy peaks,
eminently qualifies for an analogy with divinity, since it was there more than
anywhere else that the concept of the superman first arose, and the superman,
as we all know, is the upholder of higher values and the type of the 'overman' who looks down, from his mountainous elevation,
upon the flat planes of the 'undermen' to the East.
4. Be that as it may, the masculinity of Russia,
with its great expanses of vegetative plane, stands in a sinful relationship to
German grace, as sculpture to music, and the Russian holds a position, as untermensch, analogous to that of
the Englishman vis-à-vis the Frenchman, except, that is, for the gender
differential that obliges us to think in terms of unterweib where he is concerned.
5. If the Russians 'look up' to Germany, then it
need not surprise us that the English 'look up' to France, while both the
Germans and the French 'look down' upon their respective gender parallels. They also, as air and fire, 'look askance'
upon one another, since reflective of an east/west axis in
6. Such an axis would not, however, be so
characteristic of England's relationship to, say, Russia, since water and
vegetation, literature and sculpture, woman and man, tend to constitute a
north/south axis, and although England may not hold the most flattering opinion
of Russia, it has been obliged, historically, to concentrate its objective
energies upon constraining Ireland, and the Gaelic countries in general, to its
will, while directing the barbs of its feminine punishment chiefly upon France
in due watery fashion.
7. Despite its vegetative aspect, Ireland also
has a distinct capacity for air, as does Scotland and Wales, bearing in mind
the extent to which mountainous uplands are characteristic of those countries,
and which, certainly in Ireland's case, take it closer in spirit to Germany.
8. On the other hand, the Iberian peninsular and
most of Latin Europe is comparatively flat, with rolling planes, and has more
in common with Russia than with, say, Germany, if, arguably, from a
preponderantly sensual rather than a sensible vegetative standpoint. All that changes, of course, in South
America, especially in the region of the Andes, and the Latin climbs beyond
vegetation to air, joining forces with those Germans who are spiritually drawn
to South America, as, not surprisingly, are many Gaels, including, most
notably, the Welsh.
9. Since the English imported their watery bias
into Ireland, it is no small wonder that Northern Ireland now stands apart from
the South on the basis of a north/south axis in which watery civilization,
remaining loyal to the British mainland, remains aloof from vegetative
naturalism and such aspirations as the latter may have, within circumscribed
bounds determined by Catholicism, to airy culture.
10. Fearing loss of British sovereignty, the North
clings to its female gender bias, and all attempts by the South to woo it into
a united Ireland on the basis of masculine republicanism come to nothing, since
Protestants fear the effect of a Catholic majority, given to male hegemony,
upon themselves, and would rather revert to fire than embrace air.
11. The solution to this predicament is not, of
course, to be found in the abdication of gender sovereignty by either people,
since that would be well-nigh impossible, but in a totally New Order such that
I have been addressing, in my works, for several years now. But that is another story, and I am simply
concerned here to point up the gender differential that characterizes relationships
between the divided parts of the island of Ireland at the present time, and
which can only be ignored at the cost of cant.
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