III

There is a great emptiness since we cannot admire it really. We take this substitute for emotion, since we ourselves are too inept to experience any emotion, real or unreal—it is the same to us, if it is unreal it makes it [unclear: more] easy to follow.

(Les jambes en Pair comme une femme lubrique,
Brulante et suant des poisons
Ouvrait d'une facon nonchalante et cynique
Son ventre pleln d'exnalaisoas.)

We could not understand Baude laire's "Une Charogne"; perhaps his comparison to une femme Iubrique. But what does son ventre plein d'ex-halaisons mean? We can admire female abdomens in "Pix," "Life," "Illustrated," wherever we wish, and of New York ballet girls too—we really cannot comprehend what cruel mystery there could be in this woman suddenly showing her belly. This cruelty is no Victorian conception, a surrender of great horror, danger ously sophisticated, merely not visible to those who enjoy tragedy only in substitutes.