Page 70 - Studio International - January February 1975

AVEZ VOUS DEJA MIS LA SPIRALE. Throughout ANEMIC-CINEMA is
MOELLE DE L'EPEE DANS LE The sentence is an anagram of this ambivalent perspective present at
POPLE DE L'AIMEE ? syllables centring around ET MOI. The once in the anagram, the mirror, the pun,
Have you ever put the marrow of the first syllable corresponds to the last, and and the revolving spiral. In the tightly
sword into the stove of the loved one ? so on: L'AS :ALE, SPIR:SPIR, wound phrases, horizontal consonance
LA MOELLE is usually part of the ANT:EN, HABITE:HABITE, and vertical dissonance create a unique
idiom, moëlle d'épine 'spinal cord' which JAVEL: J'AVAIS L'. It is appropriate set of linguistic chords which move upon
sounds similar to MOELLE DE L'EPEE. that this mirror pun should be the last one each other in time like the motion of the
LA MOELLE 'the marrow' is the centre of the series in the film ANEMIC- spiral. Each component part of the work
and thus the essential, the main CINEMA. is so thoroughly exploited that its
preoccupation. It is also slang for penis, In the book compiled by Robert Lebel, linearity explodes and it is freed to
and L'EPEE 'the sword' is also a this sentence is copied incorrectly as, operate dynamically to create a multi-
phallic reference. `L'aspirant habite Javel et moij'avais la dimensionality within which reverberates
The pun was later written in 1939 in bite en spirale.' Neither Lebel's la bite nor an elusive infinity.
Morceaux moisis (Written Rotten, a pun Duchamp's l'habite is part of the That Duchamp chooses eroticism as
on Morceaux choisis, Selected Works) as, established French language. Still, the the theme abstract to his work naturally
`. . . dans le poil de l'aimee.' In this pun, sentence may be simply translated as : heightens its impact, for if there is
the homonym of POPLE 'stove', poil The aspiring one lives in Javel and me I anything that does not inspire
`fur; body hair' is common slang for (was living) in the spiral. indifference, but rather arouses and stirs
naked and for cunt. L'AIMEE 'the J'AVAIS L'HABITE is based on the deeply even into myth, it is human
loved one' is in the feminine gender. It is French verb habiter 'to inhabit' and sexuality together with incest and death.
a seldom used, very lyrical word for probably too on the English expression, It seems that Duchamp is researching
lover, so that here again is the mocking to have a habit. It also suggests the within this ambivalent optical linguistic
juxtaposition of vulgar slang and classical English word beat, sexual rhythm motion the representation of a double
language. (gyration) and the motion of the optic sexual identity or even the realization of
`Have you ever put the penis of the spirals; but the most obvious allusion is androgeny which would be absolute
sword into the stove cunt of the loved to la bitte, which is French slang for union and perfection. It is as if he seeks
one ?' penis : `. . . and me I had my penis in the to master and control fleeting orgasm, and
LE POPLE is also a sheet that covers spiral.' through his innovative mechanics to
the dead or the drapery on a coffin. Aspiration (L'ASPIRANT) has to do project this split second of ecstasy into
L'AIMEE sounds like lame 'embroidered with ambition, and with respiration, eternity. This capture the French, both in
in gold' (. . . dans le pale lame 'in the blowing and sucking; hence, it relates to poetry and in idiom, have traditionally
embroidered death-sheet'). Sexual souffler and to the in-out motion of the considered as death (e.g. la petite mort
themes are interwoven with hints of spiral. Inspiration, which is suggested by `the little death' is idiom for orgasm).
death. L'EPEE 'sword' as a weapon consonance from L'ASPIRANT and Such idealism then must remain
reinforces this, and the word also EN SPIRALE, means the same in frustrated, and Duchamp offers us no
suggests the pun, la paix 'peace' (at French as in English, and it is common solution. He freely admits his own sexual
last . . . Requiescat in Pacem). The pun slang for a sexual inspiration. frustration as a major theme for his work,
lame relates also to L'EPEE since lame JAVEL is the place where eau de Javel as in for example his pun on littérature:
means blade. Le poil de lamée, although 'Javel water', a very common product in lits et ratures, 'beds and failures' (rater 'to
not exactly grammatical, may mean the France, comes from. JAVEL can be that fail'). He does not however express his
bladed or stabbed, referring to the loved liquid itself, which is yellowish and cynicism as despair, but rather, by
one, while lame is slang for hussy. caustic and used as we use Clorox. In deliberately creating the amazing illusion
LA MOELLE DE L'EPEE suggests vulgar slang, blanc d'oeuf et Javel 'egg of ANEMIC-CINEMA, he remains in
la moëlle de l'épie, or the penis of the spy white and Javel' refers to cum in a brilliant control as a master of art.
or of the voyeur. That must also refer to scandalously caustic sense. 'The aspiring This film was made in the 'eos, when
the perceiver himself and to the process one lives in Javel' can refer derogatorily to abstinence was the most reliable means of
of watching this film, ANEMIC- sexual activity (or to what Lebel describes contraception and when the double
CINEMA. Too I must call attention to as the 'malic function'). `. . . and me I had standard, both in France and in America,
myself and to the reader, since by now my domicile (my penis) in the spiral' was even more excessive than it is today.
we would qualify as well. seems then onanistic in a drier, intellectual It was also a time when Freud was very
From DEJA MIS comes the pun fashion. influential on the arts, so that while
déjà amis 'already friends' and also the If living in Javel refers to the Duchamp radically allowed for the
forbidding pun, jamais 'never', both of ceaseless physical sexual drives or the mechanics of varying perception, he was
which recall incest. constantly running faucet, then the equally aware of repression and the
In alchemy, L'EPEE is the alchemist's inference is that this entails a dreadful externalization processes of
fire, which burns then in the perpetual suffocation, since the breather, or the psychoanalysis. ANEMIC-CINEMA
revolution of the sexual spiral. aspiring one, lives in Javel. Here again is prescribes a certain set of reactions and at
the theme of asphyxiation. the same time proscribes the traditional
PARMI NOS ARTICLES DE `. . . and me I had my penis in the defences of categorization and control. By
QUINCAILLERIE PARESSEUSE, spiral,' seems therefore an escape (cf. blatantly mocking what is usually called
NOUS RECOMMENDONS ESQUIVONS, p. 2o). In this sentence, perverse, both in terms of sexual mores
LE ROBINET QUI S'ARRETE DE ET MOI is parallel with and therefore and of 'perspective', he has ingeniously
COULER QUAND ON NE L' in contrast to L'ASPIRANT 'the attacked and destroyed these static
ECOUTE PAS. aspiring one, the breather'. If Javel conventions.
This too is worded like a want ad: represents suffocating physicality, the The film discovers the overwhelming
Among our articles of lazy hardware, we spiral could represent specifically the illusions of gyratory movement and
recommend the faucet that stops running artistic and cerebral as an attempt at idealist desire, aroused and unresolved
when no one is listening to it. disdain to the physical. The dichotomy from within the perceiver, and yet these
The allusion is abvious enough. between physical and spiritual would be are denied as it touches and multiplies the
LE ROBINET 'the faucet' refers to the as old and traditional as for instance the perceiver's frustration. The artist himself
penis, and the sentence expresses Catholic Church in France, yet neatly side-steps (cf. ES QUIVER) these
Duchamp's view of the sexual drive as a Duchamp, while indicating such a illusions he creates with his direct and
tiresome function and an organic dichotomy, destroys it by the complex apparently exclusive concern for the
fatality, as an intellectual and physical relationship of the contrasting elements. `optics' and 'consonance' of discs on a
preoccupation which, free will or no, The relationship to the spiral is sexual: 'I turntable.
you can neither escape nor negate. had my penis in the spiral' contrasts with In making such claims, Marcel
the aspirer's drowning in Javel, yet it is Duchamp is simultaneously presenting us
L'ASPIRANT HABITE JAVEL ET not really an escape nor even a separate images and reflections which reject and
MOI J'AVAIS L'HABITE EN alternative, but rather a mirror image. re-create an elusive art of mighty wit. •
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