Provocations
Page 61
Third, religion is a psychology, encouraging vital attributes of candor and resilience through unsparing self-scrutiny. The diaries of New England Puritans, with their stark clarity and precision, are considered by many to be the first great works of American literature. Self-examination is intrinsic to Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, and the holy month of Muslim Ramadan, as well as the Roman Catholic sacrament of confession and penance.
Although he did not write extensively about religion, Karl Marx made a famous remark in an early book where he called religion “the opium of the masses”—by which he meant that Christianity’s promise of salvation and resurrection in a heavenly afterlife were “illusions” that kept the working class from revolting against an unjust social system in the here and now. State atheism would become official in the twentieth century for Communist regimes from the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin to China under Mao Zedong.
Marx’s unqualified materialism, which depicts human life as entirely determined by social and economic conditions, was a reaction against what he perceived as the excessive idealism of German philosophy of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. That the exclusive Marxist focus on society and politics is not in fact psychologically sustaining seems suggested by the astonishing wave of hysteria, rage, and depression that has been reported among many of my fellow Democrats after the last national election—reactions which we are still told have failed to subside in some quarters even after the passage of six months.
Social reform is an ethical imperative, but society itself, in any form, can never be the whole picture of human life and thought. If Marxism continues to be the ghost haunting the current campus creed of political correctness, then the only way to achieve balance is by building world religions into the curriculum, so that Marxist materialism can be countered by alternative historical designs of spirituality.
The Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was a radical whose 1811 pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, led to his expulsion from Oxford University. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Oxford and Cambridge Universities required undergraduates at both matriculation and graduation to sign formal assent to the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church. In his great sonnet, “Ozymandias,” Shelley prophesies the fall of all European tyrants, prefigured in the ruined colossus of the imperialist pharaoh, Rameses II. But Shelley’s radicalism was maturely backed by a vision of a force much larger than politics—nature, expressed by the infinite, grinding sands of time—and by his supreme faith in the human power of art, signified by the capable hand and discerning eye of the anonymous slave artisan who sculpted the statue of arrogant pharaoh. But both nature and art are missing from the modern Marxist world-view, which reflexively and outrageously subordinates art to ideology.
In conclusion, Madame Speaker, there are five points that support my defense of the resolution:
By juxtaposing multiple belief systems, comparative religion is the true multiculturalism, demonstrating the range and complexity of human societies through history.
By presenting traditions of disputation of religious law and precept, comparative religion demonstrates and teaches powerful analytic techniques of interpretation and argument.
By its expansive metaphysics, comparative religion frees the mind from parochial entrapment in the immediate social environment.
By its allusive use of symbol and poetry, comparative religion develops artistic imagination and responsiveness.
By its stress on personal responsibility for the condition of the soul, comparative religion confers a balanced and emotionally sustaining perspective on life that releases the individual from irrational blame of others.
Madame Speaker, I thank the Yale Political Union for its fourth invitation and the opportunity to participate in this important debate.
* [Opening Statement for the Resolution, Yale Political Union, Sudler Hall Auditorium, William L. Harkness Hall, Yale University, April 11, 2017.]
74
ST. TERESA OF AVILA*
There have been two St. Teresas in my life.
The first, Thérèse of Lisieux, a sweet-tempered nineteenth-century French nun who died at age 24, was to my dismay hugely popular in the American Catholic Church of my youth, and she remains so. Pretty statues of her as the Little Flower of Jesus, meekly standing with her arms full of roses, are everywhere.
I was introduced to another St. Teresa and quite another kind of statue in college. Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St. Teresa is a canonical masterwork of the flamboyant Baroque.
It shows Teresa of Avila, the formidable sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite nun, lofted by an orgasmic cloud while a flirtatious angel pierces her through the heart. The sculpture’s fusion of spiritual and carnal love draws on erotic metaphors from the Song of Solomon.
St. Teresa of Avila, the first woman ever made by papal decree a Doctor of the Church, has been a tremendous role model for me.
Born to wealth, Teresa defied her father by running away to join a convent. Though troubled by illness, she became renowned for her mystic visions, so frequent and powerful that some accused her of satanism.
Teresa was a prolific author and reformer whose influence spread far beyond Spain. As a leader of the Discalced or Barefoot Carmelites, she called for a return to piety and ascetism. With modern managerial skill, she founded a chain of convents and friaries, despite bitter opposition from the church hierarchy.
Ultimately, she triumphed over derision and defamation to become one of the giants of the Counter-Reformation.
Thérèse of Lisieux, modest, feminine, and obedient, was pre-feminist woman. But Teresa of Avila, bold, fiery, and tenacious, is for me a woman of the future, blending practical realism with passionate idealism.
* [Recorded on December 2, 1999, at WHYY studios in Philadelphia and broadcast at 11:00 PM on New Year’s Eve as the final broadcast of the year by BBC Radio 4 in the U.K.]
APPENDICES
ILLUSTRATIONS
A MEDIA CHRONICLE
Slide of Camille Paglia at age 8 in her Napoleon Bonaparte costume for Halloween, 1955, in Oxford, New York. She was obsessed with Jacques-Louis David’s paintings of Napoleon in Courvoisier ads for Napoleon Cognac in Time magazine. All of her flamboyant Halloween costumes were sewn and constructed by her parents from pictures she found in books and magazines. The costume consisted of a black frock coat crossed by a red sash; red knee breeches; a lace jabot above a white vest; and a bicorne hat (black fabric over cardboard) adorned with a tricolor cockade. Gold ribbon was used for the hat trim and epaulets. The plastic sword with its brilliant ruby pommel was a Prince Valiant medieval two-edged short sword in a red metal scabbard, ecstatically purchased by her on the boardwalk in Atlantic City.
Poster for appearance by Camille Paglia at the Yale Political Union, Law School Auditorium, Yale University, October 10, 1996. She gave the keynote address supporting the resolution, “Resolved: America Needs a Female President.” The debate was taped for TV by C-SPAN and broadcast nationally.
A MEDIA CHRONICLE
“Camille Paglia Speaks on the Image of the Androgyne,” Quadrille, Winter 1976 (quarterly of Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont). Report of September 21, 1976, lecture in Usdan Gallery by Literature and Languages faculty member Camille Paglia, discussing her research into the androgyne in literature and art (the theme of Sexual Personae, her doctoral dissertation at Yale University). “In her prefatory remarks Ms. Paglia stated: ‘As a feminist scholar I use the androgyne as a kind of lens through which to examine masculinity and femininity in a condensed way.” She described her method as “experimental” and “interdisciplinary,” combining psychology, art history, and anthropology. Paglia analyzed examples of the androgyne from classical antiquity and the Renaissance and ended with figures from popular culture: Yul Brynner, Diana Ross, Gracie Allen, and Fr
ench actress Stéphane Audran. Paglia showed rare Parisian color film stills of Audran and analyzed her make-up, couture, speech, and body language to demonstrate that “she is the objet d’art which has no sex.”
* * *
Paglia, review, “The Way She Was: My night with Streisand,” The New Republic, July 18 and 25, 1994. Barbra Streisand’s concert at Madison Square Garden, her first live performance in New York City in 27 years.
* * *
Paglia, “The Stones,” cover story, The Boston Phoenix, August 26, 1994. Review of the Rolling Stones’ second show (at RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C.), launching their 1994–95 world tour. “Keith Richards is the modern Coleridge, an authentic tormented genius whose blues-based influence on modern music has been incalculable….Fundamentally a rhythm guitarist, Richards specializes in the resonant deep structure of rock. His characteristic sound is a thick central texture of strummed, synchronized riffs, tightly oriented toward Charlie Watts’ crisp, slamming drum shot and Bill Wyman’s swift, rumbling, ringing bass line.”
* * *
Variety, Film Reviews, August 29–September 4, 1994. It’s Pat (spin-off from Saturday Night Live): “In the pic’s only really funny bit, Sexual Personae author Camille Paglia deftly playing (and parodying) herself, appears on camera to comment on the significance of Pat’s androgyny.” [Paglia rewrote her dialogue in the original shooting script by Julia Sweeney, Jim Emerson, and Stephen Hibbert. In the film, Paglia’s Sexual Personae is brandished by a gang leader who accosts Pat on the street.]
* * *
Suzanne Ramljak, interview on gender and art, Sculpture magazine, September–October 1994. SR: “You have managed to challenge and offend both the right and left factions. That’s quite an achievement.” CP: “I do that deliberately. An intellectual should be challenging: otherwise you are simply partisan. An intellectual cannot belong to any one thing. People from Europe always understand this: they find me interesting and stimulating because I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind. I’m just trying to make everyone conscious of their own assumptions. I’m forcing people to examine the process of their own decision-making. People aren’t very comfortable with this. People don’t want to think for themselves. That was the whole thing in the ’60s: think for yourself.”
* * *
Melanie Wells, “Woman as Goddess: Camille Paglia Celebrates the Return of Striptease,” Penthouse, October 1994. Paglia takes a woman reporter on a tour of three Manhattan strip clubs to demonstrate the inaccuracy of Hollywood movies about the behavior of male patrons: the Paradise Club (cheap beer); Flash Dancers (a “middle-of-the-road topless bar”); and Stringfellow’s Pure Platinum (high-end with men in Armani suits). Pull quote: “The feminist line is, strippers are victims. But women are far from that. Women rule.” Photo of Paglia amid a bevy of strippers in the Stringfellow’s dressing room. At Paglia’s suggestion, Penthouse faxed and mailed the article plus a letter from her (“Hey, ladies! Wake up to the real world!”) to the directors of women’s studies programs at eight elite schools, including Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. A cover letter from Penthouse editor-in-chief Peter Bloch said the material “calls your attention to dramatic changes in the approach young women are taking to feminism in the 1990s.” The Penthouse press release from Markham/Novell Communications was headlined: “Feminist Author Camille Paglia Chides Women’s Studies Leaders; Urges Them to Visit Strip Clubs.”
* * *
John Gallagher, “Attack of the 50-Foot Lesbian: Camille Paglia reigns as America’s most controversial, intellectual, and intimidating gay woman,” cover story, The Advocate, October 18, 1994.
* * *
“O.J.: Has the Trial Become a Way of Life?” Roundtable, The Boston Phoenix, October 28, 1994. Paglia (“Nicole as Objet d’Art”) criticizes censored reporting of the trial of O. J. Simpson for the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman: “Early on, the major media made the mistake of taking the feminist high road….But the tabloids went right to the heart of it. They went for the sex, while the major media did a lot of hand-wringing….The tabloids were truer to Nicole’s essence, to her personality. We have the tabloids to thank for the fact that Nicole has emerged as such a strong presence. The tabloids bought up every available photograph of her. Those incredible [Mexican beach and Los Angeles party] pictures!…I’d never heard of Nicole Simpson before she was dead, but suddenly she emerged as a charismatic figure….The tabloids are gaining enormous power in this country because they tell the truth.”
* * *
Paglia, interviewer, “The Sex Symbol and the Feminist,” in-depth interview with Raquel Welch at her Beverly Hills home, cover story, Tatler (U.K.), November 1994. Welch had requested Paglia’s assignment.
* * *
Leslie Stackel, interview, High Times, November 1994. Paglia criticizes “yuppie feminism”: “We’re rising on the career track. But the whole insight of the Sixties has been lost here. Ultimately, the social identity of people seeking status, money, and position is a false identity.” About the legalization of drugs: “I am totally a radical libertarian. I believe the government has no right to ban any drug and that every single person has the right to decide what he or she wants to put into his or her body….I never took LSD, but my worldview is that of the psychedelic era. What I do is psychedelic. There’s something very lurid about my writing. It’s hallucinatory.”
* * *
Colin Richardson, interview with Paglia, “My Life as a Drag Queen,” Gay Times (U.K.), November 1994.
* * *
Paglia, “The Real Lesson of Oleanna: David Mamet’s play is now a film, and while deftly exposing the complexity of sexual harassment cases, it also takes on another subject long overdue for study: education,” The Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1994.
* * *
James Martin, S.J., “An Interview: Camille Paglia,” cover story, America (published by the Jesuits of the U.S. and Canada), November 12, 1994. “I feel very Italian Catholic. But I don’t feel Christian, I have to say that.” [Paglia may be the only person to have ever been featured in both Penthouse and a national Jesuit magazine—within a month of each other.]
* * *
Stewart Brand, interview with Paglia, “Scream of Consciousness,” Utne Reader, November/December 1994. Reprint from premiere issue of Wired, March/April 1993. Brand’s first question is about Marshall McLuhan, whom Paglia calls “one of the great prophets of our time.”
* * *
Sarah Mowen, “Who’d Be a Bond Girl?,” Harper’s Bazaar (U.K.), December 1994. Paglia lauds the Bond girls (long condemned as sexist by feminists) as “fantastic images of women very powerful, physically active, and very sexy,” showing “the limits of current feminist rhetoric.”
* * *
Paglia, review of Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II, The New Republic, December 26, 1994.
* * *
Jeannie Williams, News & Views, USA Today, January 24, 1995. On the New York Film Critics Circle Awards dinner: “Two big talkers met their matches as author Camille Paglia gave Quentin Tarantino his Pulp Fiction screenplay award. ‘I’m the bad girl of letters, he’s the bad boy of cinema,’ Paglia said.”
* * *
Paglia, interviewer, “When Camille Met Tim,” cover story, Esquire, February 1995. Cover line: “Tim Allen Talks Tough with Camille Paglia.” Paglia visits Allen on the set of Home Improvement, his ABC TV show, at Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
* * *
@times Auditorium event, sponsored by The New York Times from Times Square, February 9, 1995, moderated by David Rampe, new media editor at @times. Paglia (at home) replies to live online questions. “Juanabee asks: Camille, have you always had an opinion on everything?” Paglia replies: “As my friends and students know, I have been opinionated my whole life. When such people are young, we are an annoyance, big pains in the behind. But as we age, like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn, we become beloved cranks
—dotty old ladies. Such is my fate.”
* * *
Paglia, “Annie Oakley,” for The New York Times Syndication Special for Women’s History Month, March 1995. “In our troubled era of seething office politics and grim sexual-harassment tribunals, Annie Oakley remains a great liberating archetype from America’s pioneer past. She had the practicality and blunt realism of working-class life, unpretentious and close to nature….Oakley showed that female pride and self-definition can be achieved in harmonious partnership with men, whom we must stop treating as the enemy.”
* * *
Paglia article, “Dear Mr. Data, You Made Me Love You: An appreciation of the almost-human android and the actor who made him simply irresistible,” large-format special Star Trek collector’s issue of TV Guide, Spring 1995. At Paglia’s suggestion, her mistily atmospheric photo by Kate Swan and Jason Beaupre imitates Judy Garland mooning over a photo of Clark Gable (“Dear Mr. Gable/You Made Me Love You”) in Broadway Melody of 1938.