Mina Loy - Stories and Essays of Mina Loy

Before “She stood out” was “Among the”

“her home, husband, children” was “her children”

PAGE 224

“in her plan” reads “in her planned”— ed.

“in her plan one addition to her family” was “one addition to her family”

“broken entirely down” was “broken down”

“the civilised” was “their civilised”

“condition — to. . they clung” was “condition—”

“The husband compliant; under stress of his inhibited electric” was “husband, as a result of the unnatural dam on his electric”—a note at the bottom of the page suggests that Loy also considered writing: “The husband compliant, [being like his wife] holding as she,”— ed .

“confidante, finding her ultimatum of chastity so unprofitable, with” was “my confidante with”

After “ “ it’s ’ wrong” ” reads “It, the”— ed.

CENSOR MORALS SEX.

(6:166)

Loy’s “Censor Morals Sex.” makes brief and oblique reference to John S. Sumner and Owen Reed Smoot. Sumner led the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice, which charged the editors of The Little Review with obscenity for publishing extracts from Joyce’s Ulysses in 1920; Utah Senator Owen Smoot was a well-known campaigner for censorship in this same period. Loy attended The Little Review trial ( BM 287–89), and it is believed that in 1923 her own book, Lunar Baedecker [ sic ], was confiscated at the US border due to its explicit content (see Lost LB 224, and Sandeep Parmar, “Not an Apology: Mina Loy’s Geniuses.” The Wolf (17) 2008).

“Censor Morals Sex.” is a single handwritten page embedded within the manuscript of “Mi & Lo”. Although many of the sentences remain incomplete, the piece is free of Loy’s usual corrections and revisions, and is written in a neat hand. Only four editorial notes apply: firstly, “social morality” reads “social moral”; secondly, a colon has been added after “re,” thirdly, “their neighbours” reads “his neighbour’s,” and lastly, “interchangeable — why not” reads “interchangeable why not”.

CONVERSION

(6:153)

“Conversion” consists of a typescript with numbered pages; after the title reads, in type, “by MINA LOY,” and Loy’s name appears again in capitals at the end. The essay is prefaced with a sheet that reads, in Loy’s hand: “Critique / of D H Lawrence / Psycho-Analysis / & the inconscious [ sic ]”. The script contains three discernible handwritten changes: the “Psychoanalyst” of the first sentence was “Psychoanalyst:?” and “neurotics and it” was “neurotics it”; lastly, “So here we have” was “And here we have”. French words and the title Women in Love are in single quotations in the original. Loy’s numerous spellings of “psychoanalysis” and its variants are preserved, as are the oddities in her punctuation.

Lawrence’s Women in Love was published in 1920, and the film star Mary Pickford was at the height of her fame between 1910 and 1930. In a good article on “Conversion,” Suzanne Hobson contends that it was “probably written between the mid-1920s and 1930s” (“Mina Loy’s ‘Conversion’ and the Profane Religion of her Poetry.” Salt Companion . 248–65, p. 249).

GATE CRASHERS OF OLYMPUS—

(7:188)

There exist half a dozen drafts of “Gate Crashers of Olympus—”. The first is a poem entitled “Review” and dated 1925. The poem begins as follows:

In the beginning Picasso

broke a wine glass—

disrupted a guitar

As his things were very nice

They have now gone up in price—

Thus has the soul of man become a triangle

The next two drafts are rough and incomplete; one is entitled “The Misunderstanding of Picasso”. Included here is a conflation of the fourth and fifth versions. The sixth is written in a truncated telegram style (replete with the word “stop” between phrases), and appears to be an outline for the whole; this version follows the editorial notes below.

PAGE 230

Before “The somersault of society” was “Society turned somer- sault” (note: in alternate version, “The somersault of society” is “The somersault of morality”)

“P.O. Casse ( cf . French breakage)” reads “P.O. Cassse — cf. (French Breakage)”— ed.

“revaluation” was likely “revolutionised” —ed .

“revaluation of values” reads “revaluation values”— ed.

“is the actual cause” was “is responsible”

“is martialised” was “is to”

“to the extent” was “to that extent”

“I have” was “However I have”

“was broken” was “was not broken”

“same day” was “same aftern”

“the dealers” was “the art dealers”

“successively broken a” was “successively broken more”

“and with more” was “and in”

After “with” reads, in the margin: “X Although [they] in every article to which he applied his disruptive ingenuity”— ed .

PAGE 231

Before “disjuncted” reads “disjected?”— ed.

Each “every” in the sentence beginning “This disjuncted” was an “all”—so: “all ‘avant guards,’ in all years, in all land”

“yet bearing” was “but bearing” and “still bearing”

The sentence beginning “No head or tail” follows the first sentence of the text in one draft, but consistent with the telegram- style outline below, is included here at the end— ed .

“to flower—” was “to persist”

The sixth version reads as follows:

Somersault of society dates from day small spaniard PO Casse, cf. french breakage.) inevitably exhibited portrait wine glass looking both ways at once. stop.

Other [New] objects to which Casse applied [his] disruptive aesthetic — had extra crack knocked into [it] by rabid opposers. i.e. disciples. stop. War not responsible [revolutionised] moral revaluation, modern art martialised extent “he who steals stunt originator, does for redemption said art.” stop. Heard original wine-glass broken. Braque or another [one] same day — stop — [prefer] pre- dict P.O. Casse canonised by dealers — [for has] succeeded breaking greater variety objects quicker succession than most ardent opponents. i.e. disciples possible keep up with. stop.

[Perhaps 25 years] [Quarter century] P.O. Casse broke first guitar, prophetic pattern purveyed one [of] aesthetic intimation[s] compare what other areas french call frisson[s]. stop. Found disbanded guitar all years all coun- tries re-re-re-represent latest [aesthetic] intellectual revolt all avant guards during quarter century — stop

— Trace misuse communal guitar instigation new pro- miscuity stop general interchangeability rectangles cir-cles calculus inversion. stop

Blast human limbs preposterous directions created public carelessness as where other portions an along thrown to — stop. May account women now doing duty what hither to [ unclear words —possibly “refill” and “as”] accident and men hurl challenge what formerly submitted [to as] urge stop

No head tail reason this except emancipation conta-gious caught by noncreative finds only un-confines sex [to] [in] [in] where flourish.

GERTRUDE STEIN

(6:156)

Loy and Stein became friends in Florence in the period 1910–1913 ( BM 129–31). Loy is described in Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas as the giver of “a delightful lunch” and as an individual who fully understood Stein’s literary innovations (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1981, pp. 144–45). In 1924, Loy published two articles about Gertrude Stein’s writing in The Transatlantic Review ((2:3) 305–9; (2:4) 427–30). The first of these pieces includes Loy’s poem “Gertrude Stein,” wherein Stein is described as “Curie / of the laboratory / of vocabulary” ( Lost LB 94). In 1927 Loy was invited to introduce Stein’s work to a Paris salon run by the American writer Natalie Barney ( BM 360–61). This short essay is Loy’s introduction, which consists of a typewritten script in French; on the back of page three, in Loy’s hand, reads: “Lecture on Gertrude Stein”. The original text is included below, and was translated for this volume by Martin Crowley.