Little Birds by
Little Birds is Anaïs Nin's second published work of erotica, which appeared in 1979 two years after her death,
but was apparently written in the early 1940s when she was part of a group "writing pornography for a dollar a day."
The book is a collection of thirteen short stories. The sexual topics covered are quite varied, ranging from pedophilia to lesbianism, but linked by an interest in female subjectivity and in the dialectic of discourse and intercourse. Many of the same characters that appear in Delta of Venus, her first published book of erotica, re-occur here.
Title and themes
The 'little birds' of the title story refer both to the actual birds used by its exhibitionist protagonist to attract young schoolgirls to his attic, and (metaphorically) to the girls' flight when he finally exposes himself.
In other stories, Nin calls into question the objectifying tendencies of the male gaze; both male and female complicity in masochism; and the pornographic genre itself through her subtle subversion.
Conditions of writing
While writing her erotica, and organising that of her fellow writers such as George Barker,
Nin referred to herself jokingly as the "madam of this snobbish
literary house of prostitution" for a client who examined sexual
activity "to the exclusion of aspects which are the fuel that ignites
it. Intellectual, imaginative, romantic, emotional." In her 1976 preface to Delta of Venus
she said "I had a feeling that Pandora's box contained the mysteries of
woman's sensuality, so different from man's and for which man's
language was inadequate.... Here in the erotica I was writing to
entertain, under pressure from a client who wanted me to 'leave out the
poetry.' I believed that my style was derived from a reading of men's
works. For this reason I long felt that I had compromised my feminine
self. I put the erotica aside. Rereading it these many years later, I
see that my own voice was not completely suppressed. In numerous
passages I was intuitively using a woman's language, seeing sexual
experience from a woman's point of view. I finally decided to release
the erotica for publication because it shows the beginning efforts of a
woman in a world that had been the domain of men."
Susie Bright saw the results as forming part of a pioneering feminist erotica.
Uccellini (Little Birds) è la seconda opera di letteratura erotica prodotta da Anaïs Nin (dopo Il delta di Venere)
e data alle stampe nel 1979, due anni dopo la morte dell'autrice,
sebbene siano stati scritti per lo più durante i primi anni '40 del XX
secolo. Molti degli stessi personaggi che erano comparsi nel primo libro
si ripresentano qui.
Il libro è una raccolta di 13 racconti; gli argomenti sessuali trattati sono abbastanza variegati e vanno dalla pedofilia al lesbismo,
ma legati tutti da un interesse profondo per la soggettività femminile,
sia nel rapporti tra i personaggi sia nella dialettica discorsiva.
Titolo e temi trattati
I piccoli uccelli del titolo si riferiscono sia ai volatili utilizzati da uno dei protagonisti affetto da esibizionismo
per attirare giovani studentesse nella sua soffitta, sia
(metaforicamente) agli organi sessuali maschili quando finalmente hanno
raggiunto lo stato di erezione.
In alcune delle storie l'autrice sembra voler mettere in
discussione la tendenza oggettivante dello sguardo maschile per giungere
a una complicità, sia maschile che femminile, di tendenza masochista. Utilizza inoltre il genere pornografico stesso come sottile atto di sovversione.
“We don't see people as they are. We see people as we are.”
―
Little Birds
“With her eyes alone she could give this response, this absolutely
erotic response, as if febrile waves were trembling there, pools of
madness... something devouring that could lick a man all over like a
flame, annihilate him, with a pleasure never known before.”
―
Little Birds
“Every gesture was one of disorder and violence, as if a lioness had come into the room.”
―
Little Birds
“He had never seen her body so abandoned, so unconscious of all
but the desire to be taken and satisfied. She bloomed under his
caresses, no longer the girl but the woman already being born.”
―
Little Birds
“That night Fay became a woman, making a secret of her pain,
intent on saving her happiness with Albert, on showing wisdom and
subtlety.”
―
Little Birds
“He was whispering over and over again the same phrase, “You have
the body of an angel. It is impossible that such a body should have a
sex. You have the body of an angel.” The anger swept over Fay like a
fever, an anger at his moving his penis away from her hand. She sat up,
her hair wild about her shoulders, and said, “I am not an angel, Albert.
I am a woman. I want you to love me as a woman.”
―
Little Birds
“am discovering her pretenses. She is always smiling, gay, but
underneath she feels unreal, remote, detached from experience. She acts
as if she were asleep. She is trying to awaken by falling into bed with
anyone who invites her.”
―
Little Birds
“No, this was a melting together, a vanishing together into a soft, dark womb of warmth.”
―
Little Birds
“They smiled at each other. His smile, even at night was dazzling;
hers, too. They could scarcely distinguish anything but the brilliant
smiles and the outlines of their perfect bodies.”
―
Little Birds
“There are women’s voices that sound like poetic, unearthly
echoes. Then they change. The eyes change. I believe that all these
legends about people changing into animals at night – like the stories
of the werewolf, for instance – were invented by men who saw women
transformed at night – from idealized, worshipful creatures into animals
and thought that they were possessed.”
―
Little Birds
“The more hunger, the greater the desires, like those of men in
prison, wild and haunting. So we had here a perfect world in which to
grow the flower of eroticism. Of course, if you get too hungry, too
continuously, you become a bum, a tramp.”
―
Little Birds
“¡Los ángeles del sexo! Son maravillosos precisamente por lo mucho
que sorprenden, por lo mucho que cambian. Tú por ejemplo, con tu
aspecto de que nunca te han tocado, puedo imaginarte mordiendo y
arañando. Estoy seguro que te cambiaría hasta la voz. He visto cambiar
tanto... Hay voces de mujer que suenan como ecos poéticos y
sobrenaturales. Luego, cambian. Los ojos cambian. Creo que todas esas
leyendas sobre personas que por la noche se transforman en animales
-como la historia del hombre lobo, por ejemplo- fueron inventadas por
hombres que vieron transformarse por la noche a las mujeres, a las
criaturas idealizadas y veneradas, en animales, y las creyeron
endemoniadas.”
―
Pájaros de fuego
“what she hated above all was that most men in her presence
wilted, grew small and feeble. only the timid ones approached her, as if
to seek her strength.”
―
Little Birds
"Il
pittore Novalis si era appena sposato con Maria, una donna spagnola di
cui si era innamorato perché assomigliava al suo quadro preferito: la
Maya Desnuda di Goya.Andarono
a vivere a Roma. Maria battè le mani con gioia quando vide la stanza da
letto, ammirando i sontuosi mobili laccati veneziani.Quella
prima notte Maria, giacendo sul monumentale letto fatto per la moglie
di un doge, tremò di piacere, stirandosi prima di nascondersi sotto le
lussuose lenzuola. Il dito rosa del suo piccolo piede paffuto si muoveva
come per chiamare Novalis.Ma
non si era ancora fatta vedere completamente nuda dal marito. Prima di
tutto era spagnola, poi cattolica e totalmente borghese. Prima di fare
l'amore bisognava spegnere la luce.In
piedi vicino al letto, Novalis la guardava con le sopracciglia
aggrottate, dominato da un desiderio che esitava ad esprimere; voleva
vederla, ammirarla".
Livre de commande au départ, il prend peu à peu beaucoup d'importance dans son univers littéraire, car précise-telle, « j'ai
voulu réunir l'érotisme et les sentiments, qu'ils soient d'amour tendre
ou de violence. J'ai voulu aussi montrer comment les mêmes gestes, les
mêmes mots, peuvent être tour à tour triviaux ou sublimes selon le jour,
l'homme, l'humeur ou la couleur du temps. Et combien le désir, si
fugace, si joyeux, si magique, peut érotiser chaque instant de vie. »
Les pages érotiques qui émaillent son texte ne tombent pas dans
la vulgarité. Les portraits masculins qu'elle campe dans un style précis
sont toujours pudiques tout en pouvant paraître assez crus dans
l'expression du désir, tandis que les portraits féminins sont
particulièrement sensuels dans leurs élans de tendresse et de sincérité.
Édition
Réédition en collection de poche chez Hachette, 2 juin 1982, 160 pages, (ISBN 9782253027478), traduction française Béatrice Commengé.
Lui n’avait jamais vu son corps si abandonné, habité seulement du désir
d’être pris et comblé. Elle s’épanouit sous ses caresses – l’adolescente
avait disparu, la femme naissait.
Vous, par exemple, avec votre air de vierge, (…) je suis sûr que même
votre voix change - j’ai déjà observé de telles transformations. Il y a
des voix de femmes, qui résonnent comme des poèmes, comme des échos
venus d’ailleurs. Puis elles changent. Les yeux changent aussi. Je crois
que toutes ces légendes sur ces gens qui, la nuit, se transforment en
animaux - comme les histoires du loup-garou, par exemple - ont été
inventées par des hommes qui ont vu les femmes se transformer la nuit,
qui ont vu ces créatures idéalisées, objets de toutes les vénérations,
devenir de véritables bêtes - et ils ont dû croire qu’elles étaient
possédées.
Mes mains se promènent sur ses seins lourds, les caressent. Elle se met à
gémir faiblement. Maintenant, elle fait glisser ses mains vers son sexe
qu'elle caresse en même temps de moi. Elle aime que je la touche à
l'orifice du sexe, juste sous le clitoris. Elle me le montre de son
doigt. C'est là que j'aimerais enfoncer un pénis et le remuer jusqu'à ce
qu'elle hurle de plaisir
Oh! celle-ci! celle-ci a besoin de romantisme. C'est la seule façon de
l'approcher. C'est une Européenne; elle aime qu'on lui fasse une cour
raffinée. J'ai renoncé à mi-chemin. C'était trop épuisant. Cependant
elle était très belle, et il y a toujours quelque chose de merveilleux à
mettre une femme comme elle dans son lit.
A la fin il lui dit, rayonnant de joie:
"Tu as l'odeur des femmes de couleur." Le charme était rompu. (L'odeur de safran)
Le contact du crayon sur mes seins en avait durci le bout, ce qui me
contrariait car je n'avais pas éprouvé le moindre plaisir. Pourquoi mes
seins étaient-ils aussi sensibles et l'avait-il remarqué ?
Little Birds is Anaïs Nin's second published work of erotica, which appeared in 1979 two years after her death, but was apparently written in the early 1940s when she was part of a group "writing pornography for a dollar a day."
The book is a collection of thirteen short stories. The sexual topics covered are quite varied, ranging from pedophilia to lesbianism, but linked by an interest in female subjectivity and in the dialectic of discourse and intercourse. Many of the same characters that appear in Delta of Venus, her first published book of erotica, re-occur here.
Title and themes
The 'little birds' of the title story refer both to the actual birds used by its exhibitionist protagonist to attract young schoolgirls to his attic, and (metaphorically) to the girls' flight when he finally exposes himself.In other stories, Nin calls into question the objectifying tendencies of the male gaze; both male and female complicity in masochism; and the pornographic genre itself through her subtle subversion.
Conditions of writing
While writing her erotica, and organising that of her fellow writers such as George Barker, Nin referred to herself jokingly as the "madam of this snobbish literary house of prostitution" for a client who examined sexual activity "to the exclusion of aspects which are the fuel that ignites it. Intellectual, imaginative, romantic, emotional." In her 1976 preface to Delta of Venus she said "I had a feeling that Pandora's box contained the mysteries of woman's sensuality, so different from man's and for which man's language was inadequate.... Here in the erotica I was writing to entertain, under pressure from a client who wanted me to 'leave out the poetry.' I believed that my style was derived from a reading of men's works. For this reason I long felt that I had compromised my feminine self. I put the erotica aside. Rereading it these many years later, I see that my own voice was not completely suppressed. In numerous passages I was intuitively using a woman's language, seeing sexual experience from a woman's point of view. I finally decided to release the erotica for publication because it shows the beginning efforts of a woman in a world that had been the domain of men."Susie Bright saw the results as forming part of a pioneering feminist erotica.
Il libro è una raccolta di 13 racconti; gli argomenti sessuali trattati sono abbastanza variegati e vanno dalla pedofilia al lesbismo, ma legati tutti da un interesse profondo per la soggettività femminile, sia nel rapporti tra i personaggi sia nella dialettica discorsiva.
Titolo e temi trattati
I piccoli uccelli del titolo si riferiscono sia ai volatili utilizzati da uno dei protagonisti affetto da esibizionismo per attirare giovani studentesse nella sua soffitta, sia (metaforicamente) agli organi sessuali maschili quando finalmente hanno raggiunto lo stato di erezione.In alcune delle storie l'autrice sembra voler mettere in discussione la tendenza oggettivante dello sguardo maschile per giungere a una complicità, sia maschile che femminile, di tendenza masochista. Utilizza inoltre il genere pornografico stesso come sottile atto di sovversione.
“We don't see people as they are. We see people as we are.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“With her eyes alone she could give this response, this absolutely
erotic response, as if febrile waves were trembling there, pools of
madness... something devouring that could lick a man all over like a
flame, annihilate him, with a pleasure never known before.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“Every gesture was one of disorder and violence, as if a lioness had come into the room.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“He had never seen her body so abandoned, so unconscious of all
but the desire to be taken and satisfied. She bloomed under his
caresses, no longer the girl but the woman already being born.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“That night Fay became a woman, making a secret of her pain,
intent on saving her happiness with Albert, on showing wisdom and
subtlety.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“He was whispering over and over again the same phrase, “You have
the body of an angel. It is impossible that such a body should have a
sex. You have the body of an angel.” The anger swept over Fay like a
fever, an anger at his moving his penis away from her hand. She sat up,
her hair wild about her shoulders, and said, “I am not an angel, Albert.
I am a woman. I want you to love me as a woman.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“am discovering her pretenses. She is always smiling, gay, but
underneath she feels unreal, remote, detached from experience. She acts
as if she were asleep. She is trying to awaken by falling into bed with
anyone who invites her.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“No, this was a melting together, a vanishing together into a soft, dark womb of warmth.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“They smiled at each other. His smile, even at night was dazzling;
hers, too. They could scarcely distinguish anything but the brilliant
smiles and the outlines of their perfect bodies.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“There are women’s voices that sound like poetic, unearthly
echoes. Then they change. The eyes change. I believe that all these
legends about people changing into animals at night – like the stories
of the werewolf, for instance – were invented by men who saw women
transformed at night – from idealized, worshipful creatures into animals
and thought that they were possessed.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“The more hunger, the greater the desires, like those of men in
prison, wild and haunting. So we had here a perfect world in which to
grow the flower of eroticism. Of course, if you get too hungry, too
continuously, you become a bum, a tramp.”
― Little Birds
― Little Birds
“¡Los ángeles del sexo! Son maravillosos precisamente por lo mucho
que sorprenden, por lo mucho que cambian. Tú por ejemplo, con tu
aspecto de que nunca te han tocado, puedo imaginarte mordiendo y
arañando. Estoy seguro que te cambiaría hasta la voz. He visto cambiar
tanto... Hay voces de mujer que suenan como ecos poéticos y
sobrenaturales. Luego, cambian. Los ojos cambian. Creo que todas esas
leyendas sobre personas que por la noche se transforman en animales
-como la historia del hombre lobo, por ejemplo- fueron inventadas por
hombres que vieron transformarse por la noche a las mujeres, a las
criaturas idealizadas y veneradas, en animales, y las creyeron
endemoniadas.”
― Pájaros de fuego
― Pájaros de fuego
― Little Birds
"Il pittore Novalis si era appena sposato con Maria, una donna spagnola di cui si era innamorato perché assomigliava al suo quadro preferito: la Maya Desnuda di Goya.Andarono a vivere a Roma. Maria battè le mani con gioia quando vide la stanza da letto, ammirando i sontuosi mobili laccati veneziani.Quella prima notte Maria, giacendo sul monumentale letto fatto per la moglie di un doge, tremò di piacere, stirandosi prima di nascondersi sotto le lussuose lenzuola. Il dito rosa del suo piccolo piede paffuto si muoveva come per chiamare Novalis.Ma non si era ancora fatta vedere completamente nuda dal marito. Prima di tutto era spagnola, poi cattolica e totalmente borghese. Prima di fare l'amore bisognava spegnere la luce.In piedi vicino al letto, Novalis la guardava con le sopracciglia aggrottate, dominato da un desiderio che esitava ad esprimere; voleva vederla, ammirarla".
Les pages érotiques qui émaillent son texte ne tombent pas dans la vulgarité. Les portraits masculins qu'elle campe dans un style précis sont toujours pudiques tout en pouvant paraître assez crus dans l'expression du désir, tandis que les portraits féminins sont particulièrement sensuels dans leurs élans de tendresse et de sincérité.
Édition
Réédition en collection de poche chez Hachette, 2 juin 1982, 160 pages, (ISBN 9782253027478), traduction française Béatrice Commengé.
Lui n’avait jamais vu son corps si abandonné, habité seulement du désir d’être pris et comblé. Elle s’épanouit sous ses caresses – l’adolescente avait disparu, la femme naissait.
Vous, par exemple, avec votre air de vierge, (…) je suis sûr que même votre voix change - j’ai déjà observé de telles transformations. Il y a des voix de femmes, qui résonnent comme des poèmes, comme des échos venus d’ailleurs. Puis elles changent. Les yeux changent aussi. Je crois que toutes ces légendes sur ces gens qui, la nuit, se transforment en animaux - comme les histoires du loup-garou, par exemple - ont été inventées par des hommes qui ont vu les femmes se transformer la nuit, qui ont vu ces créatures idéalisées, objets de toutes les vénérations, devenir de véritables bêtes - et ils ont dû croire qu’elles étaient possédées.
Mes mains se promènent sur ses seins lourds, les caressent. Elle se met à gémir faiblement. Maintenant, elle fait glisser ses mains vers son sexe qu'elle caresse en même temps de moi. Elle aime que je la touche à l'orifice du sexe, juste sous le clitoris. Elle me le montre de son doigt. C'est là que j'aimerais enfoncer un pénis et le remuer jusqu'à ce qu'elle hurle de plaisir
Oh! celle-ci! celle-ci a besoin de romantisme. C'est la seule façon de l'approcher. C'est une Européenne; elle aime qu'on lui fasse une cour raffinée. J'ai renoncé à mi-chemin. C'était trop épuisant. Cependant elle était très belle, et il y a toujours quelque chose de merveilleux à mettre une femme comme elle dans son lit.
A la fin il lui dit, rayonnant de joie:
"Tu as l'odeur des femmes de couleur." Le charme était rompu. (L'odeur de safran)
Le contact du crayon sur mes seins en avait durci le bout, ce qui me contrariait car je n'avais pas éprouvé le moindre plaisir. Pourquoi mes seins étaient-ils aussi sensibles et l'avait-il remarqué ?
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