After “of beauty” reads, largely crossed out:
La descent des Ganges
In the divine cascade
of whispering stone
the goddess hostesses—
immutable invitation
to the frail ribbed ascetics—
and holy elephants
“its own impetus” was “its impetus”
“got none” was “got nothing”
“his other contemporary” was “his contemporary”
MY CATHOLICK CONFIDANTE
(6:183)
Like “Havelock Ellis,” this short sketch offers an example of Loy’s fascination with the cultural constraints placed on human sexuality. A title page in Loy’s hand identifies the piece as “Katherine’s Confidences,” but the heading on the manuscript proper reads “My catholick confidante”.
Loy returns to this sketch in a more direct fashion in a set of rough notes that accompany her essay “History of Religion and Eros” (6:158). These notes describe the couple in question as Irish, and very much in love, until the husband begins beating his wife after taking to drink as a “consequence” of the Catholic directive that they abstain from non-procreative sex. Here Loy states that the wife spends the family savings on an abortion at one juncture, and that she eventually leaves her husband.
Loy sets this second version in New York in 1939; it concludes with the following meditation on prostitution, sex, and Christianity:
In an ideal Society prostitutes would be [appreciated] as the kind ladies — — “Sex” would be consecrated by the church— The law [would be on] alert for any resurgence of sadism — –
In an ideal society prostitution might disappear— But the [m] [point] supposition sometimes occurs to me that society pretty much in status quo would be [of] very differently tempered — if our intelligence toward its com-ponent: the human forces — were changed by a christianly clarification — [all the] the primary transformation needed is of our attitude of mind.
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“for most human beings” was “for human beings”
“in regret for having” was “who should having”
The sentence beginning “Confiding to me her own anguish” caused Loy difficulty; she dedicates a whole page to its drafting, which reads as follows:
This woman’s
[The anguish this woman revealed to me — ]
[The confidences of this woman]
Her remark had been made to [in confirmation of the anguish] of her own anguish—
[She had been]
Confiding to me her own anguish her [remark had been made] reference to her neighbours was made to prove she was not the only one — –
Confiding to me her own anguish she had [made] her reference to her neighbours [was offered as proof]
Confiding to me her own anguish, she had offered this picture of her neighbours as proof that “not she alone — –
And listening — was like looking through a microscope revealing [the] a [the] secret world — –
After “secret world” Loy leaves the remaining two thirds of her page blank—ed.
Before “She stood out” was “Among the”
“her home, husband, children” was “her children”
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“in her plan” reads “in her planned”—ed.
“in her plan one addition to her family” was “one addition to her family”
“broken entirely down” was “broken down”
“the civilised” was “their civilised”
“condition — to. . they clung” was “condition—”
“The husband compliant; under stress of his inhibited electric” was “husband, as a result of the unnatural dam on his electric”—a note at the bottom of the page suggests that Loy also considered writing: “The husband compliant, [being like his wife] holding as she,”—ed.
“confidante, finding her ultimatum of chastity so unprofitable, with” was “my confidante with”
After “ “it’s’ wrong” ” reads “It, the”—ed.
CENSOR MORALS SEX.
(6:166)
Loy’s “Censor Morals Sex.” makes brief and oblique reference to John S. Sumner and Owen Reed Smoot. Sumner led the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice, which charged the editors of The Little Review with obscenity for publishing extracts from Joyce’s Ulysses in 1920; Utah Senator Owen Smoot was a well-known campaigner for censorship in this same period. Loy attended The Little Review trial (BM 287–89), and it is believed that in 1923 her own book, Lunar Baedecker [sic], was confiscated at the US border due to its explicit content (see Lost LB 224, and Sandeep Parmar, “Not an Apology: Mina Loy’s Geniuses.” The Wolf (17) 2008).
“Censor Morals Sex.” is a single handwritten page embedded within the manuscript of “Mi & Lo”. Although many of the sentences remain incomplete, the piece is free of Loy’s usual corrections and revisions, and is written in a neat hand. Only four editorial notes apply: firstly, “social morality” reads “social moral”; secondly, a colon has been added after “re,” thirdly, “their neighbours” reads “his neighbour’s,” and lastly, “interchangeable — why not” reads “interchangeable why not”.
CONVERSION
(6:153)
“Conversion” consists of a typescript with numbered pages; after the title reads, in type, “by MINA LOY,” and Loy’s name appears again in capitals at the end. The essay is prefaced with a sheet that reads, in Loy’s hand: “Critique / of D H Lawrence / Psycho-Analysis / & the inconscious [sic]”. The script contains three discernible handwritten changes: the “Psychoanalyst” of the first sentence was “Psychoanalyst:?” and “neurotics and it” was “neurotics it”; lastly, “So here we have” was “And here we have”. French words and the title Women in Love are in single quotations in the original. Loy’s numerous spellings of “psychoanalysis” and its variants are preserved, as are the oddities in her punctuation.
Lawrence’s Women in Love was published in 1920, and the film star Mary Pickford was at the height of her fame between 1910 and 1930. In a good article on “Conversion,” Suzanne Hobson contends that it was “probably written between the mid-1920s and 1930s” (“Mina Loy’s ‘Conversion’ and the Profane Religion of her Poetry.” Salt Companion. 248–65, p. 249).
GATE CRASHERS OF OLYMPUS—
(7:188)
There exist half a dozen drafts of “Gate Crashers of Olympus—”. The first is a poem entitled “Review” and dated 1925. The poem begins as follows:
In the beginning Picasso
broke a wine glass—
disrupted a guitar
As his things were very nice
They have now gone up in price—
Thus has the soul of man become a triangle
The next two drafts are rough and incomplete; one is entitled “The Misunderstanding of Picasso”. Included here is a conflation of the fourth and fifth versions. The sixth is written in a truncated telegram style (replete with the word “stop” between phrases), and appears to be an outline for the whole; this version follows the editorial notes below.
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Before “The somersault of society” was “Society turned somer- sault” (note: in alternate version, “The somersault of society” is “The somersault of morality”)
“P.O. Casse (cf. French breakage)” reads “P.O. Cassse — cf. (French Breakage)”—ed.
“revaluation” was likely “revolutionised”—ed.
“revaluation of values” reads “revaluation values”—ed.