The metaphor of the body
Poem (The spirit likes to dress up...)
Mary Oliver
The spirit
likes to dress up like this:
ten fingers,
ten toes,
shoulders, and all the rest
at night
in the black branches,
in the morning
in the blue branches
of the world.
It could float, of course,
but would rather
plumb rough matter.
Airy and shapeless thing,
it needs
the metaphor of the body,
lime and appetite,
the oceanic fluids;
it needs the body's world,
instinct
and imagination
and the dark hug of time,
sweetness
and tangibility,
to be understood,
to be more than pure light
that burns
where no one is --
so it enters us --
in the morning
shines from brute comfort
like a stitch of lightning;
and at night
lights up the deep and wondrous
drownings of the body
like a star.
The spirit and the flesh - that's a theme that comes out in a lot of my favorite stories (and poems) and I think it's one of the aspects of the show that tends to catch at my imagination. First we have the Goa'uld, the ultimate violators, who invade other people, stealing the body and trapping the spirit. The show doesn't often follow through on the full horror of that idea, but that makes it creepier in some ways, because so much is left to the imagination. And then we have the Ancients, all spirit and no physical presence, trapped in a state of permanent inaction, cut off willingly from the world of life and touch and blood and passion. I'm never sure that the ones who died didn't get the better deal. The Jaffa are two bodies in one, two minds that can connect but have wildly different priorities. Slave and god, strong host and dependent parasite - isn't that dichotomy fascinating? I tend to forget, because the Jaffa don't often get good storylines. Even the Asgard are part of the theme, having placed so much more value on the brain than on the body that they've stripped themselves of pleasure and fertility.
I've got a particular love for stories about season six and seven Daniel, because it's all there - he *was* pure light that descended and took root. I love the idea of him readjusting to his body and to the physical world (preferably with help). I think those are my favorite fics, even in the wider set of great stories, because the physicality feels important, resonant, even in PWPs. And maybe because as someone who tends to live too much in her own head, it feels like a reminder to me too: touch, taste, feel, connect with the world, because it's important and it's part of who we are.
Mary Oliver
The spirit
likes to dress up like this:
ten fingers,
ten toes,
shoulders, and all the rest
at night
in the black branches,
in the morning
in the blue branches
of the world.
It could float, of course,
but would rather
plumb rough matter.
Airy and shapeless thing,
it needs
the metaphor of the body,
lime and appetite,
the oceanic fluids;
it needs the body's world,
instinct
and imagination
and the dark hug of time,
sweetness
and tangibility,
to be understood,
to be more than pure light
that burns
where no one is --
so it enters us --
in the morning
shines from brute comfort
like a stitch of lightning;
and at night
lights up the deep and wondrous
drownings of the body
like a star.
The spirit and the flesh - that's a theme that comes out in a lot of my favorite stories (and poems) and I think it's one of the aspects of the show that tends to catch at my imagination. First we have the Goa'uld, the ultimate violators, who invade other people, stealing the body and trapping the spirit. The show doesn't often follow through on the full horror of that idea, but that makes it creepier in some ways, because so much is left to the imagination. And then we have the Ancients, all spirit and no physical presence, trapped in a state of permanent inaction, cut off willingly from the world of life and touch and blood and passion. I'm never sure that the ones who died didn't get the better deal. The Jaffa are two bodies in one, two minds that can connect but have wildly different priorities. Slave and god, strong host and dependent parasite - isn't that dichotomy fascinating? I tend to forget, because the Jaffa don't often get good storylines. Even the Asgard are part of the theme, having placed so much more value on the brain than on the body that they've stripped themselves of pleasure and fertility.
I've got a particular love for stories about season six and seven Daniel, because it's all there - he *was* pure light that descended and took root. I love the idea of him readjusting to his body and to the physical world (preferably with help). I think those are my favorite fics, even in the wider set of great stories, because the physicality feels important, resonant, even in PWPs. And maybe because as someone who tends to live too much in her own head, it feels like a reminder to me too: touch, taste, feel, connect with the world, because it's important and it's part of who we are.