The Erotic Comedies (Vassi Collection Volume XI) (20 page)

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a pyramid with a triangular base. To answer the question as to what makes the difference in any given group of four between a plane with four sides and this pyramid is outside the scope of this article. But one can see that the reality of a metasexual fourth dimension, a spacetime of Einsteinian eroticism, would be the next step in this direction.

I am not personally qualified to discuss the numbers from five upward since I have not experienced them, except in gatherings of swingers who had not yet realized their metasexual nature and were piling on bodies without changing the essential consciousness of the act.

It is also fascinating to wonder at zero, or metacel-ibacy seen not as a renunciation, but as an embrace of, all metasex.

V

There was a time when it seemed to people that the sun revolved around the earth, a view enshrined in the Ptolemaic model of the solar system. Now, with a less parochial view, we have developed a new understanding, signalled by the introduction of the Copernican model.

The introduction of the metasexual paradigm is no less a shift in the history of our evolving understanding. The vast majority of the species has not seen past the conditioned strictures of the number
two
. And even those in the vanguard, having their orgies, still operate from the standpoint of a male-female dualism. The most sophisticated among them proclaim themselves bisexuals, not aware that this is the dead-end of that particular tunnel vision. The only way out is to go within to heal the internal split. A monad has no gender.

The question now presents itself: what form does the metasexual life style take?

I won't presume an answer. As for myself, I currently allow circumstances to guide me. Having no prejudices, no preconceptions, I am open to whatever is possible, to whoever wants to dance with me. Yet, if this is a genuine satori, as I practice the living awareness of it, a specific form may evolve. It is possible that I might one day accept a simple pattern to express my true nature: perhaps an uncomplicated heterosexual linear bond, or perhaps a gay threesome, or a life of introspective masturbation. For, if one has subsumed all forms, then one is free to manifest in any form whatsoever.

Beyond bisexuality, externals take on a different meaning than when one is caught in the male-female duality. Even the most stereotyped act is permeated with a brilliant awareness that transforms the perception of reality. To paraphrase the Zen masters:

Sucking cock,

Fucking cunt,

Empty and marvelous!

The Metasexual Manifesto

I

Metasexuality, as a concept, was first used to describe the condition of a person who had subsumed the fragmentary aspects of the erotic manifestation into a unitary appreciation. Since coining the term, however, I have come to view it rather as a category of behavior, to delineate erotic activity as such, irregardless of the consciousness of those involved. Metasexuality, properly understood, is the shadow of sexuality, a distinct modality of being not to be confused with sex per se.

Sex is, as the traditionalists have it, a vehicle for making babies, and nothing else. Sex, qua sex, is for the propogation of the species, and for no other reason. I hold this definition to be correct. However, there is a vast realm of erotic behavior which falls outside this stricture, and for that I have designated the term
metasex
.

This birfurcation in terminology, which reflects a real split in the use of our energy, requires a third term to connote the matrix which embraces both sex and metasex, and for this I employ the word
eroticum
. The eroticum is divided into two categories, sex and metasex, the distinction between which is crucial to a sane understanding of our erotic deportment.

Sex is biological; metasex is psychophysical. Sex, the biological eroticum, is for procreation and for no other reason; metasex, the psychophysical eroticum, is for any other reason whatsoever. Sex involves the continuation of the species, and is a relatively rare activity; it has to do with the entire problem of culture and civilization, and might be labelled "work eroticum". Metasex is for pleasure, for expressing affection, for exchanging energy, for money, for communication and explotation, for meditation, etc., and it might be labelled "play eroticum".

The conditions of sex are imposed by the requirements of biology; it involves a male and a female, penetration by penis into vagina, and ejaculation at the period of fertility. The conditions of metasex, on the other hand, are widely variegated, and are not concerned with the details of the act, whether it be among men and women, among men, among women, or whether it is among people who have known one another for some time or among strangers, or whether it is a function of mutual caring or done dispassionately, or whether it involves more or less than two people, or whether it is physically conventional or partakes of extreme forms.

Sex and metasex also each have a different quality of tone or texture. With sex, reverence and responsibility are the guiding attitudes; for not only the act itself is relevant, but one must be aware of the full dimension of the consequences. To create another human being is the highest act we are capable of and to engage in it lightly is, unfortunately, a malpractice of epidemic proportions. Also, through sex, one's vision extends to questions of survival, relationship, culture, education; for these are the legacies we bequeath to our children. With metasex, the necessary quality is compassion. Since the circumstances of metasex are so flexible and range over the full spectrum of human behavior, it is all the more essential that the participants do not lose sight of one another's humanity. This means that there be no exploitation, no lying, no damage.

Making proper distinctions has been called the first step in wisdom, and Confucius has stressed the importance of "rectifying the names". It soon became obvious to me that the failure to distinguish between sex and metasex lay at the very core of all our erotic difficulties, and by extension, into the trenchant problems of our civilization.
The basic error in all erotic thinking lies in muddying the aesthetic of metasex with the moral contingencies of sex, and of subverting the mystery and grandeur of sex with the relativistic values of metasex.

Using this method of differentiation, we come upon an immediate difficulty. How are we to think and talk about the eroticum if our entire vocabulary is based on the failure to make the distinction between sex and metasex? Our terms are based on outmoded models, and we are burdened with concepts such as homosexual, bisexual, perversion, and all the lists of anatomical details. This is the result of viewing metasex from the standpoint of sexual requirements. Sexually, of course, there is only one way to do it: male and female in genital intercourse; and from that perspective the index of Krafft-Ebing makes sense. But once we see that within the metasexual purview these sub-categories are meaningless, we must find a new way to articulate our erotic experiences.

One may ask: why talk about the eroticum at all? And from an ideal aspect, we ought not to talk at all. Yet, until the time when we are all so enlightened that there is nothing more to say, sex and metasex will form a part of our discourse. To provide a vehicle for grasping and communicating erotic behavior and feeling, then, I came to the concept of
mode
, which is the paradigmatic mood within which the activity takes place. It is intended to displace all questions of detail, number, and gender, and put sex and metasex in a more fluid context.

Using this model, we will more closely approximate the reality of the erotic condition. For with the rubric of mode, sex finds its proper tone, and metasex is given its full freedom of expression. Metasexually. There is no real difference between what two men do in bed, from what three women might do in bed, nor from what a man and a woman do in bed. To label the action homosexual or bisexual or heterosexual is divisive, alienating us from one another as human beings first and foremost. The old criteria, seen in the light of the new paradigm, are primitive and wasteful. We should be adult enough to discard false standards of categorization, no matter how historically hallowed they are.

Before going into a description of the modes and of the specific quality of sexual and metasexual dynamics, I would like to put all the information constituting the model into schematic form, to use as a diagram to refer to.

THE EROTICUM

SEX // METASEX

Biological, “work” // Psychophysical, “play”

A Function of Responsibility // A Function of Compassion

Reverential Mode // Procreative Mode, Theatrical Mode, Therapeutic Mode, Romantic Mode, Masturbatory Mode, Zen Mode

Number: Two // Number: Any

Type: Male and Female // Type: Any Mixture of Gender

Activity: Penetration by penis into vagina followed by ejaculation, during a period of fertility // Activity: Anything desired by the Participants

This covers any possible erotic activity for any reason whatsoever, clearly distinguishes between sex and metasex, provides a new means with which to discuss and think about the erotic, and makes obsolete practically our entire "sexual" vocabulary. Through this paradigm, it is possible to arrive at a place through linguistic means which the liberation groups are attempting to reach through political means. For if we change the way we think and speak about the eroticum, the social manifestations of confusion and hostility will more easily disappear.

II

The modes of sex and metasex are my own rationalizations. I offer them as private considerations which may have universal application. I feel that if this paradigm is accepted, others will add new modes to the list, and a new erotic language be born, one which includes the mathematics of metasex.

1. The Procreative Mode: derives, or borrows, from the conditions of sex. Through it one appropriates the ambience of baby-making-sex to a form of metasexual interaction. The feelings and attitudes of sex can take place where reproduction is not the issue, between two men, for example, or between a man and a woman where birth control measures have been taken. To operate in this mode it is only necessary not to throw out the bath water with the baby. In our era of general superficiality, and under the spectre of overpopulation, the experience of procreative fucking has diminished drastically.

The most distinctive quality of this mode is a kind of urgency. By which I don't mean frenzy. There is, in the black culture, a term which captures its texture perfectly: it is called "rooting." It refers to lodging the penis deep inside the vagina and then "rooting around" as though a stick were being dug into the earth. If we remember that the word fuck derives from the idea of planting, and cunt means to hollow out, then it is clear that rooting is simply preparing the ground for the implantation of the seed. With this mode there is a quality of silence which has nothing to do with whether the participants make sounds or not. There is an almost holy intimacy which is unmistakable, an in-folding, a profound taking-in that does not appear elsewhere.

Although there is no plan to produce a flesh-and-blood child, the procreative mode does allow a birth to take place, for it involves a peculiar energy bond that is highly vitalizing. Those using it give birth to an awareness which strengthens the body and exalts the soul. What is born is a vibration of goodness that is a real force in the overall evolution of the species. Those who fuck in this mode are simply made better by the experience, and to the degree that it fecundates their lives, they have brought virtue into being.

It is obvious that two men having anal intercourse, and a man and a woman in oral intercourse, for example, can experience the vibration of the procreative mode. Sexually, this is a heretical notion; but metasexually, it is part of understanding that the mythic structures through which we apprehend reality are within our power to formulate, once we know what it is that we are doing.

2. The Theatrical Mode: is a function of psychic distance, and entails the notion of performance. In this mode, there is always an audience, which may consist of actual onlookers, or may be the projected awareness of the participants viewing the act as though from the outside.

The theatrical mode requires a lightness of touch, a deftness. This refers not to the activity but to a quality of mind. The participants may be involved in something as "heavy" as flagellation, but the psychological set within which they amuse themselves must not grow ponderous. Taken literally, this mode may generate costuming and the explicit assumption of roles, e.g. virgin and debauchee, prostitute and client. It is interesting that, existentially, there is no difference between a couple's playing a game of prostitution and a person's paying a stranger to have intercourse.

The major danger of the theatrical mode is solipsism, which has a tendency to cut the circuits of energy flow between the actors and actresses. The acting-out of fantasy requires steady attention. Here the importance of compassion is clear, for it spells the difference between people's using and abusing one another. To have two or more fantasies brought to life through the eroticum without the entire affair's degenerating into confusion requires the skill of acrobats. And to maintain the "act" as an
act
, at the level of good theatre, without the admixture of psychopathy, presupposes soundness on the part of those involved.

The style may vary widely, ranging from classical through improvisatory approaches. There may be a script or the scene can begin with no more than roughly defined characters. There may be dialogue and costume, or not. Above all else, it is a
play
, both in the sense of a theatre piece and in the sense of a child-like activity. It is both sophisticated and innocent. Like dance, it sculpts contours in time and space, using only the body as a medium. One can perform either tragedy or comedy or drift deliciously into irony.

Still, this is but the literal aspect of the mode. There is another form which might be called the-theatre-as-the-real, or in eastern semantic, dharma drama. Here, there is no specific content, but only an awareness of the mode itself. The participants communicate telepathically and infuse their condition with full consciousness of the psychic structure. They take themselves to the limits of the conceptual artifact and enter the awareness of the voidness of existence. They then fuck in emptiness.