The Diary of Anaïs Nin Essay -- Sexuality

Sex and desire. Few words evoke such complexity of meaning. For some, it is a sexual act. Whereas one might describe it as the sensual pleasure of two bodies fused into one being, another may describe it as the fulfilment of animalistic desire, an unleashing of the beast. But, beyond an act charged with various meaning, it can also serve as an identityheterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual. Whether act or identity, societal dictates define the norm and the deviant. Because of this, the workman who departs from the acceptable and embraces the aberrant, arouses the consciousness of self and society. In doing so, sex and desire become a vehicle, a means of communication between artist and audience, and an object that demands our attention. Whether it is the subtle and sensual language of Anas Nin in The Diary of Anas Nin (1966), the coarse and explicit vocabulary of Henry Miller in equatorial of Cancer (1934), or the poetic and surrealistic prose of Djuna Barnes in Nightw ood (1934), sex and desire, as a vehicle in the literature of these authors, exposes the chaos and confusion within their human being and suggests the establishment of a new order for self and/or society. Written between 1931 and 1934, The Diary of Anas Nin chronicles one artists psychological journey. neglectful by her father as a girl, Anas experiences an initial shock that leaves her like a shattered mirror (Nin 103). The shards of glass, each developing a bread and butter of their own, come to be the several selves of Anas (103). Through the pages of The Diary, reflecting upon and dissecting these various selves, she concludes, one does not need to remain in bondage to the first wax picture made on childhood sensibilities. One need not be branded by the fir... ...dea briefly has been to present a resurrection of the emotions, to depict the conduct of a human being in the stratosphere of ideas, that is, in the grip of delirium. (243). As an artist, his task has been to over throw existing values, to make of the chaos about him an order which is his own, to sow bout and ferment so that by the emotional release those who are dead may be restored to life (253). While there are those who might take issue with his methods, his language and vivid imagery not only awaken the conscious, but they also provide a much-needed dose of humor in Modernist literature.Works CitedBarnes, Djuna. Nightwood. in the buff York New Directions Books, 2006. Print.Miller, Henry. Tropic of Cancer. New York Grove Press, 1961. Print.Nin, Anas. The Diary of Anas Nin Volume One 1931-1934. San Diego Swallow Press and Harcourt, 1966. Print.