The Body and Mortality

Where it surfaces

• There Is No Life or Death

  The poem directly challenges the dichotomy of life and death, reframing existence as pure activity without decline or finality.

• Parturition

  The poem centers on the physical agony of childbirth and the brink between life and death, with the body as a site of intense sensation and transformation.

• Italian Pictures

  The chapter dwells on death, invalidism, and the decaying body, from the 'collection of death-beds' to Cesira's fatal illness.

• July in Vallombrosa

  The chapter dwells on invalidism, the body's decay, and the process of dying, treating death as a hobby and Rigor Mortis as a moment of purification.

• The Costa San Giorgio

  Images of a consumptive woman, maimed cat, and broken bodies emphasize physical decay and mortality.

• Costa Magic

  Cesira's physical decline from phthisis and her eventual death are central to the chapter, highlighting the fragility of the body.

• Café du Néant

  The poem centers on decay and death, with imagery of decomposing cherries, putrefaction, and the 'synthetic symbol of life' in a 'chamber of death.'

• Magasins du Louvre

  The dolls' glass eyes and 'composite babies' evoke a lifeless, mechanical body, contrasting with the living but commodified bodies of the cocottes.

• Sketch of a Man on a Platform

  The poem emphasizes the man's physical equilibrium and the location of his genius in his body rather than his brain, reinforcing the vital, bodily qualities of life.

• Babies in Hospital

  The poem dwells on the physicality of sick children—shrunken limbs, tuberculous hands, broken legs—and the tension between fragility and desire, highlighting the body's vulnerability and the clinical gaze.

• I

  The poem dwells on Elena's frail, shrunken body, her illness (tuberculous), and the juxtaposition of her tiny form with the dignity of her suffering, highlighting mortality and physical decay.

• III

  The imagery of 'festering secret' and 'fly-by-nights' evokes decay, hidden corruption, and the mortality inherent in the body.

• At the Door of the House

  Skeletons and mortifications in the card reading evoke themes of bodily decay and the inevitability of death.

• Human Cylinders

  The imagery of 'human cylinders' and 'automatons' reduces people to mechanical, lifeless forms, emphasizing the body's role in the experience of disconnection and the 'sunless afternoon' of existence.

• Ignoramus

  Imagery of 'dust-to-dust', 'heart-beating', and 'martyrdom of morning' ties bodily existence to decay and the passage of time, while the 'accoupling of the masculine and feminine universal principles' suggests generative life.

• Songs to Joannes

  Bodily imagery—saliva, spermatozoa, flesh, tears—is used to evoke the physicality of love and its decay, linking eroticism to death and the ephemeral nature of existence.

• I

  References to 'saliva', 'mucous-membrane', and the 'bellows of Experience' evoke the physical body's fragility and the inevitable decay tied to mortal existence.

• II

  The 'skin-sack' and 'clock-work mechanism' imagery emphasizes the body as a fragile, finite container.

• III

  The imagery of 'broken flesh' and 'profane communion table' evokes the physicality and mortality of human connection.

• IV

  The imagery of 'bird-like abortions' and 'human throats' evokes grotesque bodily transformations and the fragility of life.

• VI

  The possibility of setting 'Time... back' touches on mortality and the desire to reverse or escape temporal decay.

• IX

  References to 'spermatozoa' and 'honey' evoke bodily and mortal imagery, intertwined with cosmic love.

• XI

  The imagery of derobing an onion sheath by sheath evokes the physical body and the process of uncovering a disheartening core, suggesting mortality and the fragility of existence.

• XIV

  The imagery of 'lighted bodies' and 'knocking sparks off each other' evokes physicality and the ephemeral, mortal spark of contact.

• XVII

  The weight of red 'on my knees as a counterpane' and the battlefield imagery tie bodily sensation to mortality.

• XIX

  The imagery of being 'drenched to raylessness' evokes a fading of life force and the body's vulnerability to dissolution.

• XXIII

  Imagery of 'rot', 'bleach', and 'wickedness of pain' ties bodily decay and suffering to the chapter's stark, visceral tone.

• XXIV

  The chapter dwells on bodily decay ('pestilent Tear drops') and the failure of procreative truth, linking physicality to death and disillusionment.

• XXV Licking the Arno

  The melting of some into abysmal pigeon-holes and the cutting of foothold with steel eyes suggest bodily dissolution and the precariousness of life.

• XXVI

  The imagery of 'shedding petty pruderies' and 'slit eyes' evokes bodily exposure and the visceral, mortal aspects of existence.

• XXVII

  References to 'hands of races' dropping off and 'daily deaths' evoke bodily decay and the inescapable presence of mortality.

• XXVIII

  The poem evokes bodily transformation and decay through images of burnt white skin, etiolation, and cymophanous sweat, suggesting a liminal state between life and death.

• Prenatal Plagiarism

  References to 'Foetal buffoons', 'proto-form', and 'blind eyes' suggest the vulnerability and materiality of the body from its earliest formation.

• XXXI Crucifixion

  Crucifixion imagery and references to 'wracked arms' and 'extremities' highlight physical suffering and the body's vulnerability.

• XXXIII

  The reference to 'proto-plasm' evokes the physical, biological basis of life, while 'raving mad' and 'evolving us' hint at the chaotic, mortal process of creation and change.

• The Dead

  The chapter explores the boundary between life and death, the physical body as 'shrivable skin,' and the dead's transcendence of mortal limitations.

• Perlun

  The syphilitic sailor on his 'avoided death bunk' and the physical labor of picking lemons underscore themes of bodily decay and survival.

• Poe

  The chapter is steeped in imagery of death and burial, with 'lyric elixir of death' and 'corpses of poesy' emphasizing the physical end and its poetic transformation.

• Brâncuși’s Golden Bird

  The sculpture's 'naked orientation' and 'breast of revelation' evoke the body as a site of artistic and spiritual transcendence, stripped to its essence.

• Lunar Baedeker

  The poem juxtaposes erotic imagery ('adolescent thighs', 'lunar lusts') with decay and death ('Necropolis', 'fossil virgin', 'mildews'), highlighting the transient nature of physical existence.

• Joyce's Ulysses

  Vivid bodily imagery ('phallus,' 'womb,' 'flesh,' 'offal') intertwines the sacred and the corporeal, exploring mortality and desire.

• Crab-Angel

  The dwarf's body is described as a 'squat body' with 'pygmy arms' and 'bow legs,' and the performance ends with a 'subsides like an ironic sigh,' suggesting mortality.

• Der Blinde Junge

  The blind youth's damaged body and the 'retinal altar' desecrated by black lightning evoke mortality and physical trauma.

• The Starry Sky of Wyndham Lewis

  Imagery of 'human mist,' 'nocturnal heart,' and 'aged radiance' suggests mortality and the physical body's dissolution.

• Exodus

  Exodus discovers his own heart and becomes obsessed with his body, treating it as a target of speculation.

• Ada Gives Birth to Ova

  The chapter graphically describes the physicality of birth—'clotty bulk,' 'lactoid liquids,' 'organic wares'—and the soul apprenticed to the 'butcher business,' linking the body to mortality and materiality.

• Psychic Larva

  The flesh is presented as a living witness of sin, with the mother's blood-relationship indicting the body itself, and the child's skin craving caresses like leaves for rain.

• Contraction

  The 'yellow murder' of the egg and the 'viscous pool' evoke bodily decay and the horror of mortality.

• Ova Accepts the Popular Estimate of Humanity

  The 'vaguely disgusting inquietudes of the flesh' are reframed as hidden immortalities, linking bodily experience to divine destiny and mortality.

• The Social Status of Exodus

  The chapter discusses the body's origin and its concealment through clothing, addressing the tension between physicality and social dignity.