Another passage which Waugh revised out in his second edition. What is it about Wine and Sex ...
"So at sunset I took formal possession of her as her lover ... as I was made free of her narrow loins and, it seemed now, in assuaging that fierce appetite, cast a burden which I had borne all my life, toiled under, not knowing its nature -- now, while the waves still broke and thundered on the prow, the act of possession was a symbol, a rite of ancient origin and solemn meaning."
yuck. glad he excised it.
ReplyDeleteWhere is B R (1)?
ReplyDeleteWhen Auberon Waugh and Rhoda Koenig set up the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Awards in the 'Literary Review' in 1993, Waugh cited this as an example.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, whatever can he have meant?
ReplyDelete1. "Narrow" and "skinny" are not words that men should use to describe those slender women whom they love, unless there's a joke involved. Just saying.
ReplyDelete2. Yes, lovers are like Adam and Eve, and that's like joining the Church because she's the Bride. But yeah, you needed to spin it out more or say a lot less.
3. I've never managed to get very far into Waugh or Brideshead. I need to try again sometime. Even audiobooks didn't help last time, though, so it may just be a difference in temperament. I bounce off a lot of twentieth century literary writers.