Seduction Of The Minotaur (1961) - Plot & Excerpts
Nin has a way of capturing people through their relationships, making them fluid, as we all are, in their travels with one another. This is a narrative quality I have always found brilliant, and it allows the characters in the work to become recognizable, almost as if they were written from one's own memories and encounters."An airline’s beauty queen arrived at the beach. She walked and carried herself as if she knew she were on display and should hold herself as still as possible, arranged for other’s eyes as if to allow them to photograph her. The way she held herself and did not look at others, made her seem an image cut out of a poster which incited young men to go to war. A surface unblurred, unruffled, no frown of thought to mar the brow, she exposed herself to other’s eyes with no sign of recognition She neither transmitted nor received messages to and from the nerves and senses. She walked toward others without emitting any vibrations of warmth or cold. She was a plastic perfection of hair, skin, teeth, body, and form which could not rust, or wrinkle, or cry. It was as if only synthetic elements had been used to create her."Nin's descriptive skill spills from people into the place, a mythic Mexican town called Golconda, giving the environment the same depth and texture as the characters. "Just as music was an unbroken chain in Golconda, so were the synchronizations of colour. Where the flowers ended their jeweled displays, their pagan illuminated manuscripts, fruits took up the gradations. Once or twice, her mouth full of fruit, she stopped. She had the feeling that she was eating the dawn.""In the car, driving back in the violent sun, no one talked. The light filled the eyes, the mind, the nerves, the bones, and it was only when they drove through shade that they came out of this anesthesia of sunlight. In the shade they would find woman washing clothes in the river, children swimming naked, old men sitting on fences, and the younger men being the plough, or diving huge wheeled carts pulled by white Brahma bulls."The main protagonist, Lillian, is a continuation of a small character found near the end of her previous work. She now travels to forget, she travels for the chance to lose her history in the warmth of a different place. I found the journey just as invigorating, forgetting my own past and returning in a moment of self-reflection that which spilled from Lillian into myself in the same way that Nin's descriptions spilled over to make the hot weight of wet air and sun on my skin. The reflections of people I have known echoed through the pages."Archeologists of the soul never return empty handed."
This was one of those books that I found myself identifying with the writer and largely relating to the book as a craft rather than getting pulled into the imagery and losing myself in the story. While miss Nin definitely has the gift of language and the ability to move you with her words and immerse you in the world she creates, this is much more evident in her diaries for me than in this story. This book felt forced. It seemed that she was trying so hard to make the psychological points that the flow of the story suffered. There were times that I was fully in the world of Golconda, but overall my reading of this book was clinical.
What do You think about Seduction Of The Minotaur (1961)?
A lyrical medication on traveling to a new place to lose yourself. Here Anais Nin is evoking an exotic interior landscape where her protagonist searches for the forgetfulness of adventure. The Minotaur of the title likely relates to the unconscious keeper of our personal labyrinths, where we often recreate the same behavioral maze with new people wherever we go. The last section of the book recalls the milieu of Henry & June and Anais's relationship with both Henry Miller and his wife, June. A welcome surprise of impressions and exploration of the inner working of the characters but not recommended if you are looking for major plot development.
—Juju
