In the years preceding World War I, Loy grew interested in the burgeoning field of sexology, or the scientific study of sexuality of which Freud remains the most famous proponent. Loy’s reading included the work of British sexologist Havelock Ellis, who attempted to objectively interrogate, among many other topics, homosexuality (Sexual Inversion, 1896) and women’s sexuality (The Sexual Impulse in Women, 1903). In the incomplete paragraph preceding this fragment, Loy describes Ellis as a “towering authority on sex.” Alongside this paragraph, Loy writes “Sex / Havelock Ellis / Lady Howard Ellis de Walden”. By the time Loy wrote “Havelock Ellis,” there had been three Barons Howard de Walden with the surname “Ellis”; it seems likely that Loy refers to the wife of Thomas Evelyn-Scott Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden (1880–1946), who may be the unidentified “Lord” of this piece.
In the notes for Loy’s “History of Religion and Eros” (6:158) there exist two alternate versions of “Havelock Ellis,” one of which is titled “Eros”; both are included below. A brief reference to Loy’s conversation with Ellis arises also in “The Library of the Sphinx.”
For more information on Loy and sexology, see chapter four of Cristanne Miller’s Cultures of Modernism: Marianne Moore, Mina Loy, & Else Lasker-Schüler (U of Michigan P, 2005); Paul Peppis, “Rewriting Sex: Mina Loy, Marie Stopes, and Sexology” (Modernism/Modernity (9:4) 2002, 561–79), and Rowan Harris, “FUTURISM Fashion, and the Feminine: Forms of Repudiation and Affiliation in the Early Writing of Mina Loy” (Salt Companion, 17–46).
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Alongside the first paragraph, in the margin, reads the following:
We were becoming quite good friends when I mentioned a propos of I forget what — when one thinks of when they succeed in releas- ing atomic energy — there’s enough in one’s little finger to blow up the dome. (opposite the dome?) [The blue] clear blue young eyes of Havelock hardened—“You’re mad,” he hissed and spoke to me no more.
“suspect marriage” was “shy clear of marriage”
“they had enquired” was “they had discovered that what [unclear word] to”
“ ‘was nothing’ ” was “ ‘was zer’ ”
“a British ‘beauty’ ” was “a famous British ‘beauty’ ”
“she alone among” was “she among”
“was not incommoded” reads “were not incommoded”—ed.
“her marital duty” reads “their marital duty”—ed.
“duty; they tried every” reads “duty and tried [unclear word] every”—ed.
The quotations around “ ‘and they’re in love. . men in England’ ” are not in original—ed.
After “ ‘men in England’ ” reads “From this same super-privileged set I got the story”—ed.
“That on Lord” was “When”
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“he actually assured her” was “he assured her”
“ ‘common people?’ ” was “ ‘common people?’ she enquired.”
“ ‘Even the common people—’ ” is followed by “he” and the whole is crossed out—ed.
Under “ ‘Well all I can say’ ” reads “in 1915”—ed.
“ ‘them’ ” is underscored twice and reads “ ‘them?’ ”—ed.
“A woman told me” was “A woman who returned from the Maremma told me”
“who did housework” was “who earned her”
Eros
Of all rackets arising from the [ unclear writing]
in the racket of Eros the greatest is the invitation of the printed page.
Compare this hospitality to chance illustrations popping up from the Book of Life
A charming Catholick woman describes to me how the wives in the tenements can be seen to run[ning] screaming out on to the landings of the stairway in terror of their husbands’ natural insistence on conjugal rights.
– — only less boisterous was the aversion of two British society women circa 1912. In both cases these women adored their handsome and distinguished husbands.
A strange gamble — — Eros. At this same time it was reported to me, that among the (I gathered otherwise rather miserably situated Italians living in the Marremma the perfect consummation of Eros was almost 100 per cent.
At the very same time — [Lady X] An english woman on the morn of her honeymoon enquired of her husband Lord X,
“Does everybody experience such divine pleasure when they marry?” “Everybody” he answered. “Well all I can say is, it’s much too good for the common people.”
On a separate, single sheet of paper:
Havelock Ellis told me that, in England “women were suspicious of marriage (2) they asked what their moth- ers had got out of marriage — (1) and where their moth- ers had put up with it in silence — what they got out of it” said Ellis, “was nothing.” 90 per cent of the women in England found no pleasure in marriage to offset the pain of childbirth, “and when I put it at ninety per cent” he assured me “I’m putting it low.” We were getting along so well when apropos of “what” I cannot remember I alluded to an article [beneath “an article” reads “a statement”] I had read — on atomic theory [that] there is enough atomic energy in one’s little finger — that if re- leased could blow up the whole of the Boulevard Montpar- nasse. The clear blue “youthful” eyes of Havelock hard- ened “You’re mad!” he hissed and spoke to me no more—
HISTORY OF RELIGION AND EROS
(6:159)
There are two folders of handwritten notes entitled “History of Religion and Eros”; one contains the twenty-page-long, typed essay included here. The manuscript has very occasional amendments in Loy’s hand, and the footnotes are Loy’s own. The final footnote refers to Sándor Radó (1890–1972), an influential psychoanalyist who moved from his native Hungary to the United States in the thirties.
A statement that appears midway through “History of Reglion and Eros,” namely “MAN IS A COVERED-ENTRANCE TO INFINITY,” echoes a line from Loy’s poem “O Hell,” which was first published in Contact in 1920, and reads: “Our person is a covered entrance to infinity / Choked with the tatters of tradition” (Lost LB 71). The essay also explores many of the same themes as “Mi & Lo,” Loy’s philosophical dialogue believed to have been written in the thirties. Burke dates “History” as a product of Loy’s years in New York’s Bowery District, 1948–1953 (BM 422–23).
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“i.e., enjoyment of surprising” reads “ enjoyment of surprising”; “i.e.” is drawn from a handwritten draft — ed.
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“these systems:” reads “these systems”—ed.
“The Asiatic mystic-scientist” was “The Asiatic-mystic-scientist”
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“that increments” reads “that increment”—ed.
“it aerates to” reads “it aerates? to”—ed.
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“this etheric” was “this ethenic”
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“a fine line” was “a five line”
“through increasing” reads “though increasing”—ed.
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“our impossible” was “the impossible”
“the POSSIBLE” was “the POSSIBLE”
“impartation” was “importation”
“attraction: a gravitation” reads “attractio a gravitation”—ed.