{"id":25746,"date":"2012-01-20T15:10:38","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T20:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=25746"},"modified":"2012-01-20T18:31:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-20T23:31:00","slug":"satanic-seduction-dufus-casanovas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/20\/satanic-seduction-dufus-casanovas\/","title":{"rendered":"Satanic Seduction; Dufus Casanovas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3251\" title=\"boyreadingnedanshutzsmall5\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"271\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall5.jpg 271w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall5-211x300.jpg 211w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><em>Dear <\/em>The Paris Review<em>,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Last week\u2019s question on the topic of books you should read when young got me thinking: Can you provide a warning, or cautionary note, to attach to any books that may prove to be catastrophic when read at too young an age?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Thank you for your help.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>All the best,<br \/> Daniel Davies<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fifteen years ago the late Roger Shattuck published a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Forbidden-Knowledge-Pornography-Roger-Shattuck\/dp\/0156005514\">long attack<\/a> on the writings of the Marquis de Sade, arguing that they were overrated as art and dangerous as pornography, especially to young readers. Being a young reader, I sneered at the time. But for all I know Shattuck was right. Kids are mean enough as it is, and too apt to treat each other like crash-test dummies, even without some lunatic marquis egging them on. I might also keep Larry Clark\u2019s books on a high shelf. Drugs are sexy, sure, but the kids don\u2019t need to know that. I sometimes wonder if I should have read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Kafka-Was-Rage-Greenwich-Village\/dp\/0679781269\"><em>Kafka Was the Rage<\/em><\/a> in high school or the memoirs of Andy Warhol, or <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Edie-American-Girl-Jean-Stein\/dp\/0802134106\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1327074787&amp;sr=1-1\">Edie<\/a><\/em>, or quite so much Martin Amis. I\u2019m not sure <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Changing-Light-at-Sandover\/dp\/0375711740\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1327074809&amp;sr=1-1\">The Changing Light at Sandover<\/a><\/em> was such a good idea, either. (Better precious than semiprecious, James Merrill liked to say\u2014but surely there are limits.)<\/p>\n<p>Do teenage boys still need to be warned off Kerouac? A friend of mine, currently in the second grade, has memorized <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Complete-Calvin-Hobbes-v\/dp\/0740748475\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1327074884&amp;sr=1-1\">The Complete Calvin and Hobbes<\/a><\/em> and is in the habit of quoting it at length. It seems to me that this could turn into a problem. I remember the poet Peter Taylor complaining that he was taught <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lighthouse-Oxford-Worlds-Classics\/dp\/0199536619\/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1327074982&amp;sr=1-3\">To the Lighthouse<\/a><\/em> in high school, when he was too young to know what was going on, or even to know that he didn\u2019t know. Maybe the best you can do is to read once in boredom and incomprehension, then go back in protosenility and read everything again.<\/p>\n<p><em>I am juggling lovers, which is no easy task. What are, in your opinion, the great literary love triangles? Which books will guide me in my complicated amorous pursuits?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here at <em>The Paris Review<\/em>, we are of the Liz Lemon school: the word <em>lovers<\/em> bums us out unless it comes between \u201cmeat\u201d and \u201cpizza.\u201d Anyway, how could we choose a favorite triangle? Pretty much every great novel contains one. That said, I\u2019d probably vote for the ur-triangle of Satan, Adam, and Eve in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Paradise-Lost-John-Milton\/dp\/1461120403\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1327075020&amp;sr=1-1\">Paradise Lost<\/a><\/em>. In Book Four, Satan stands there and watches Adam and Eve having paradisical sex, until he can\u2019t stand it anymore and turns away\u2014like Warhol, running out of the room during a porn shoot: \u201cI&#8217;m going to have an organza!\u201d (See \u201ccautionary note,\u201d above.) That\u2019s when Satan cooks up the plan to seduce Eve and ruin things in Eden.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s great about the passage\u2014what makes Satan Satan\u2014is the argument that he\u2019s going to do all of this <em>for Adam and Eve\u2019s own good<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8230; Aside the Devil turnd<br \/> For envie, yet with jealous leer maligne<br \/> Ey&#8217;d them askance, and to himself thus plaind [i.e. complained].<\/p>\n<p>Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two<br \/> Imparadis&#8217;t in one anothers arms<br \/> The happier Eden, shall enjoy thir fill<br \/> Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,<br \/> Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,<br \/> Among our other torments not the least,<br \/> Still unfulfill&#8217;d with pain of longing pines;<br \/> Yet let me not forget what I have gain&#8217;d<br \/> From thir own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:<br \/> One fatal Tree there stands of Knowledge call&#8217;d,<br \/> Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidd&#8217;n?<br \/> Suspicious, reasonless. Why should thir Lord<br \/> Envie them that? can it be sin to know,<br \/> Can it be death? and do they onely stand<br \/> By Ignorance, is that thir happie state,<br \/> The proof of thir obedience and thir faith?<br \/> O fair foundation laid whereon to build<br \/> Thir ruine! Hence I will excite thir minds<br \/> With more desire to know, and to reject<br \/> Envious commands, invented with designe<br \/> To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt<br \/> Equal with Gods &#8230;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If you ask me, that comes pretty close to a triangulator\u2019s credo. Who in a bad mood hasn\u2019t suspected that so-called happy couples \u201cstand\/By ignorance\u201d? And who hasn\u2019t been seduced by \u201cmore desire to know, and to reject \/ Envious commands\u201d? <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019m an idolator of beauty and have trouble falling for any gal not possessing physical charms. Is Wilde right when he says, \u201cThose who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril\u201d? Is the visible world really the mystery, or should I search instead for that amorphous personality everyone goes on about?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Dear Idolator,<\/p>\n<p>Your question reminds me of the song \u201cMedias Negras,\u201d by the Madrile\u00f1o bard Joaqu\u00edn Sabina (a song dramatized in a surprising number of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=b39IqNGF9kM&amp;feature=results_video&amp;playnext=1&amp;list=PL0EDF1DB3B9E4D702g\">homemade videos<\/a>), about a ladies\u2019 man who \u201cthinks he\u2019s Steve McQueen\u201d and who \u201chas no religion \/ besides a woman\u2019s body.\u201d One rainy evening he sees a blonde at a crosswalk, wearing a miniskirt and \u201cusing her handbag to bullfight with a bus.\u201d Overlooking this clear sign of a strong personality, the dufus Casanova lights her cigarette, buys her a drink, and takes her home, they spend the night together, then she vanishes. In Sabina\u2019s words, \u201cshe stole my wallet and my computer \/ but worse, she stole my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You catch my drift.<\/p>\n<p><em>Have a question for the editors of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>? <a href=\"mailto:advice@theparisreview.org\">E-mail<\/a> us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear The Paris Review, Last week\u2019s question on the topic of books you should read when young got me thinking: Can you provide a warning, or cautionary note, to attach to any books that may prove to be catastrophic when read at too young an age? Thank you for your help. All the best, Daniel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[57,922,5820,5816,5814,5813,5819,5812,1268,2914,5811,5815,5817,5818],"class_list":["post-25746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-paris-review","tag-advice","tag-andy-warhol","tag-beauty","tag-james-merrill","tag-kafka-was-the-rage","tag-larry-clark","tag-love-triangles","tag-marquis-de-sade","tag-martin-amis","tag-paradise-lost","tag-roger-shattuck","tag-the-changing-light-at-sandover","tag-the-complete-calvin-and-hobbes","tag-to-the-lighthouse"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Satanic Seduction; Dufus Casanovas by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 20, 2012 \u2013 Dear The Paris Review, Last week\u2019s question on the topic of books you should read when young got me thinking: Can you provide a warning, or cautionary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/20\/satanic-seduction-dufus-casanovas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Satanic Seduction; 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