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The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism

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The big bang of my holiday reading began with ever-enigmatic Octavio Paz's another master piece, "The Double Flame". A three hundred sixty degree recount of history and genre of Love & Eroticism. During his diplomatic job at India, being inspired by the Buddhist erotic statues of Karli (alas the other Mecca of history & culture that I never had a chance to visit), Octavio wanted to write a 100 page polemic on this subject. He waited almost 15 years. Finally in 1993, wrote this 276 page authoritative, eclectic, mesmerizing and fascinating book. I found Paz always dwells on this interesting issue. In his poems about India such as Mathura and Vridabaan, Octavio brings the erotic images of ancient India as living objects. But through this book only I discovered the depth and breath of his reading on this occult issue. Beginning with Plato's Symposium, Paz gives us a short history of love and eroticism in literature throughout the ages. From Greeko-Alexandria to Roman-Europe to Tantrik Bengal, Octavio swims us through every current and under current of human sexuality. To him, eroticism to sexuality is same as poetry to language. The courtly love in Heian Japan to twelfth century amorous lit of France, Paz is everywhere. It helped me understand Baudelaire better. It explains the erotic nuances of Madame Bovary and Ulysses. The Double Flame is translated to English by Helen Lane and published by Harcourt Brace & Company.

"The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism," by Octavio Paz, is an impressive prose exploration of the title subject. The book has been translated from Spanish into English by Helen Lane.

In this extended multi-part essay, Paz considers the presence of love, eroticism, and related phenomena in literary works that span many cultures and centuries: the biblical Song of Songs, the writings of the Marquis de Sade, Joyce's "Ulysses," Murasaki Shikubu's "Tale of Genji," Mohammed Ibn Dawud's "Book of the Flower," the poems of Sappho, and much more. Paz also considers a wide range of other social and scientific phenomena that are relevant to his project: the "Big Bang" theory, the AIDS crisis, artificial intelligence, the Buddhist concept of Nirvana, the "Luciferian" movement in art, and more.

Occasionally, Paz seems to be a little too full of himself; he sometimes issues pronouncements on highly debatable points as if they were undebatable facts. But his overall passion and intelligence make these occasional lapses forgivable.

"The Double Flame" is also rich in what I call "Pazisms": characteristically witty, wise, and highly quotable statements. Here's one of my favorite Pazisms: "Love has been and is still the great act of subversion in the West" (from the 5th chapter, "A Solar System"). If you are interested in love and eroticism, in the art of nonfiction prose, or in Latin American literature, check out this book.

Spellbinding in its scope, the Double Flame strips humanity of every tradition and circumstance and presents it at its most ritual level, which is the act of love itself. In a nutshell, sex is the root, eroticism is the stem, and love is the flower that blooms as a result of the two. Octavio Paz simply gives it a soul, injecting new life into an entity that seems to grow more trivial as nature succumbs to change. Its a definite shot in the arm for an increasingly technocratic society.

love is a wonderful mystery and this book takes a good love at all sides, from chinese and budhism, to western society and courtly love. this collection of essays is spellbounding and magnificent. it is reallly the work of a master at his best. this is the first time i read a book by him , but it certainly won't be the last. the scope of this book is enormous and it makes us feel that we are not alone in feeling a sensation we cannot fully account for. i recommend it for everybody, specially for the people who want to learn something in the art of living.

I read this book slowly, underlining passages, re-reading certain passages to fully absorb the text. Paz is a passionate poet/thinker and his passionate prose is translated well into English by Helen Lane. He knows what he loves and his ability to both entertain and edify is outstanding.

Like most surveys of Western Culture/History, he begins in Greece and traverses the centuries by exploring the trends, ideas and influences that resonate with love and eros from throughout the world. Plato's discussion on the love of beauty is here as is India's Kama Sutra and so forth. He discusses the role of the Troubadours in Provence, Courtly Love, Medieval Love, Dante, all the way up to the modern psychology of Freud and beyond.

He is both a historian and interpreter, a critic and a specialist. In discussing our modern understanding of love, he too comments on 'eros' being prostituted by the mass market world we live in. Pornography is put under the mental microscope as is the abuse of sexual images used in advertising. The greatest present threat to eros and love is not the Church, Paz claims but promiscuity itself, turning 'love into a pastime, and money'. I am in complete agreement. The sacred, which was once so much a part of eros has been slackened and taken away. There is great truth in this book and beauty and a call to everyone to strive towards learning, not only about the world but about one's self.

Paz reminds the reader of how greatly cultured our world is, how we are indebted to the minds of past artists and thinkers, how love and eros have benefited from mythology and the cultivation of narration and poetry. It is up to us to make sure we don't take for granted this great bounty of works and ideas.

Love is a mistery. As well as Poetry. Octavio Paz wrote in justa few months a book that had been haunting him for years. Sex,erotism, love;they are similar but not equal. Paz shows us a different,beautiful and enlightning view of human most powerful energy.When Paz, surely the biggest poet of the xx century, writes about love, he also writes about his one obsession: the place and meaning of poetry in our century. He is after the "real reality", because Poetry and love both, are a central part of something we call our Soul. In the other hand, Paz is always enjoyble and provocative but elegant and wise.It's a privilege reading it.

Paz presents in this work wonderful insights about love and eros in modern life. From the antiquity to the modern period, he studies the themes from the literary and philosophical aspects.
He takes up Plato's discussion about the love of beauty, India's Kama Sutra, the role of the Troubadours in Provence, the courtly Love, the medieval Love, Dante, Freud's modern psychology, etc.
Paz emphasizes that love and eros are spiritual and give meaning to our lives and civilizations.
The writing is very enjoyable, thought-provoking and wise.

A powerful tale of life, love , perplexing yet unifying emotions in beings from different times and different cultures. Masterful. A must read.

Reviewer: luismendez@codetel.net.do from DOMINICAN REPUBLIC love is a wonderful mystery and this book takes a good love at all sides, from chinese and budhism, to western society and courtly love. this collection of essays is spellbounding and magnificent. it is reallly the work of a master at his best. this is the first time i read a book by him , but it certainly won't be the last. the scope of this book is enormous and it makes us feel that we are not alone in feeling a sensation we cannot fully account for. i recommend it for everybody, specially for the people who want to learn something in the art of living. --

LUIS MENDEZ crazzyteacher@hotmail.com

This book is wonderful because Paz goes over all the different forms and practices of love and relationships over time and cultures. It is profound and provocative. He initially began this book many years ago and didn't finish it until the end of his life. His poetry, for me, is difficult to understand, although I should revisit it, but his essays are fantastic and I love most of his books. I am a native Spanish speaker, and I was impressed at how well the English translation is for this book. I still read them in Spanish, but for English speakers, it's just as poetic and profound to read.