The Diary of Anaïs Nin Essay -- Sexuality

Sex and desire. Few words evoke such complexity of meaning. For some, it is a sexual make out. Whereas one might describe it as the sulphurous pleasure of two bodies fused into one being, another may trace it as the fulfillment of animalistic desire, an unleashing of the beast. But, beyond an act charged with mixed meaning, it can also serve as an identityheterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual. Whether act or identity, societal dictates define the norm and the deviant. Because of this, the artist who departs from the acceptable and embraces the aberrant, arouses the thought of self and society. In doing so, sex and desire become a fomite, a means of communication mingled with artist and audience, and an object that demands our attention. Whether it is the subtle and imbruted language of Anas Nin in The Diary of Anas Nin (1966), the coarse and unmistakable vocabulary of Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer (1934), or the poetic and surrealistic prose of Djuna Barnes in Nightwood (1934), sex and desire, as a vehicle in the literature of these authors, exposes the cuckoos nest and confusion within their world and suggests the boldness of a new order for self and/or society. Written between 1931 and 1934, The Diary of Anas Nin chronicles one artists psychological journey. run-down by her father as a girl, Anas experiences an initial alarm that leaves her like a shattered mirror (Nin 103). The shards of glass, each developing a behavior of their own, come to be the several selves of Anas (103). Through the pages of The Diary, reflecting upon and dissecting these diverse selves, she concludes, one does not deprivation to remain in bondage to the number 1 wax imprint made on childhood sensibilities. matchless need not be branded by the fir... ...dea briefly has been to present a resurrection of the emotions, to depict the conduct of a human being in the stratosphere of ideas, that is, in the grip of delirium. (243). As an artist, his task has been to overthrow existing values, to make of the chaos about him an order which is his own, to sow strife and ferment so that by the emotional release those who are dead may be restored to life (253). While there are those who might disagree with his methods, his language and graphic imagery not only awaken the conscious, but they also render a much-needed dose of humor in Modernist literature.Works CitedBarnes, Djuna. Nightwood. reinvigorated York New Directions Books, 2006. Print.Miller, Henry. Tropic of Cancer. New York Grove Press, 1961. Print.Nin, Anas. The Diary of Anas Nin Volume One 1931-1934. San Diego Swallow Press and Harcourt, 1966. Print.