┐ Raquel Mendes └

How often do we speak of nakedness as if it were a kind of truth, the naked truth? “Why do those who abandon clothes to pursue their leisure and recreation call themselves naturists? Are nakedness, nature and truth inseparable? Stripping naked, Georges Bataille wrote, “offers a contrast to self-possession, to discontinuous existence, in other words. It is a state of communication revealing a quest for a possible continuance of being beyond the confines of the self. Bodies open out to a state of continuity through secret channels ….” In nakedness we dream of reunion with all that is non-self. You and I and nature will fuse into a singular truth. Paradise Regained.

pre·lap·sar·i·an (prē’lăp-sâr’ē-ən) adj. Of or relating to the period before the fall of Adam and Eve. Nakedness here is self-consciousness, and the penalty is human conflict. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Paradise Lost. Let’s not pretend that we know and understand each other’s needs, wants and desires, but let’s live with the consequences of our distance and differences. It’s all we have.

If paradise is half as nice as heaven that you take me to
Who needs paradise, I’d rather have you.

excerpt from John Calcutt’s text

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