{"id":395,"date":"2015-02-10T15:01:45","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T20:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=395"},"modified":"2015-02-10T15:01:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T20:01:45","slug":"a-rose-by-any-other-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2015\/02\/10\/a-rose-by-any-other-name\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rose by Any Other Name…"},"content":{"rendered":"

She said, \u2018Don\u2019t you know that Renoir claimed he painted with his penis?\u2019\u00a0<\/em>\u2018Don\u2019t worry\u2019, I said, <\/em> \u2018He did. When he died they found nothing between his balls but an old brush.\u2019<\/em> (p. 22)<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes,\u2019 she said. Do you know why Henry Miller said \u201cI write with my prick\u201d?\u2019\u00a0<\/em>\u2018Because he did. When he died they found nothing between his legs but a ballpoint pen.\u2019<\/em> (p.60)<\/p>\n

When I read these two passages, I doubted whether either Renoir or Miller actually made the above statements, so I did a little research, but was not successful in finding anything. So why did Winterson add these words? What meaning is she trying to convey?<\/p>\n

What symbols are the penis and prick intended to represent? Are they more than just a man\u2019s anatomy? When aroused, the organ become engorged with blood, which facilitates penetration and finally results in ejaculation. Semen fertilizes the ovum, thereby creating life. Are these words meant to convey the desire, drive and passion for creative expression? Blood pulses through the organ, giving it a life that is greater than the sum of the mere tissue, cells, and nerve endings it is, in its\u2019 flaccid state.<\/p>\n

The tools of the artists, paintbrush and pen, are filled with creative power when manipulated by the creator of that work. The liquids, ink and paint ejaculate, allow the fertile imagination of the artist to be expressed on mediums, canvas and paper, that bring to life the artists\u2019 vision. Their works then become an entity unto themselves, with a life of their own that even outlive the creator. A work of art, of passion, of love and of life, survives to be greater than the sum of the mere pigments and fibers of the mediums used.<\/p>\n

This use of phallic symbolism brings me to another question. If the Narrator does not want to be identified by gender, and the author is female, why use the artists Renoir and Miller, to represent creative genius? Why not use Georgia O\u2019Keefe and Elizabeth Bishop instead? Is it because the tools of these artists remain the same, regardless of the gender of the creator? Our language lacks the appropriate symbolism for creative artistry through the reproductive powers of women and women\u2019s anatomy. Are not women often only regarded as receptacles of the seed of creative power, and is that why the phallic symbol has no correlate in our vocabulary? This could also be just one more example of the use of clich\u00e9s, put into the mouths of Narrator\u2019s lovers, which the narrator claims to hate the use of.<\/p>\n

But, alas, sometimes a prick is just a prick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She said, \u2018Don\u2019t you know that Renoir claimed he painted with his penis?\u2019\u00a0\u2018Don\u2019t worry\u2019, I said, \u2018He did. When he died they found nothing between his balls but an old brush.\u2019 (p. 22) \u2018Yes,\u2019 she said. Do you know why Henry Miller said \u201cI write with my prick\u201d?\u2019\u00a0\u2018Because he did. When he died they found … Continue reading A Rose by Any Other Name…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2604,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93618],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2604"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}