which with its erotic imagery reveals the mythical form he now inhabits:
“In this nocturnal hour I do not see ghosts, I do not see what has been, but
what is to come, in the bosom of the lake, in the kiss of the dew, in the fog
that spreads over the earth, concealing its fruitful embrace .Everything is a
metaphor .I myself am a myth about myself, for is it not as a myth that I
hasten to this tryst? Who I am is of no importance .Everything finite and
temporal is forgotten, only the eternal remains, the power of love, its long-
ing, its bliss.”
We hear nothing about how things go on the night of love itself, so we
may think what we please .The editor of the diary does tell us, however,
that is obviously a well-read woman who understands how to express herself
symbolically .Her words about embracing a cloud allude to the Greek myth
about King Ixion who had been invited to the table of the gods, but who
became so excited that he attempted to violate his hostess, Hera .Tactfully,
Zeus, the host, delivered Ixion from this embarrassing situation by creating
a cloud that was indistinguishable from Hera, and Ixion had intercourse
with this cloud .Thus Cordelia did not involve herself with an actual body;
rather it was a cloud, a parastatic body.
The next day, September 25, Johannes has left his mysterious hideout
and is back in Copenhagen, where he concludes his diary in the persona of
a reflective seducer: “Why cannot such a night last longer?.. .I do not wish
to be reminded of my relationship with her, she has lost her fragrance... .I
will not say farewell to her .Nothing disgusts me more than women’s tears
and women’s pleas, which change everything but do not really mean any-
thing .I have loved her, but from now on she cannot engage my soul .If I
were a god, then I would do for her what Neptune did for a nymph—I
would transform her into a man.”
The last lines contain two striking—and apparently unfulfillable—wishes.
And yet .Johannes has in fact not accomplished much besides showing that
if he is not exactly able to create Cordelia, as could a god, then he is at any
rate capable of shaping her .And if one reexamines Cordelia’s actual share
in the seduction story, there is perhaps a bit more of a man in her than
Johannes has imagined.
The Seduction’s Diary
“Her development was my handiwork.” Thus writes Johannes a few hours
before the night of love, and though the remark might seem a bit of casual
cynicism, it nonetheless contains a great truth, both aesthetic and psycho-
logical:aestheticinsofar as the work, the diary itself, takes shape at the same