You see the painting,
Olympia, by Edouard Manet.
Pretty brazen, this chick.
Any attempt would require, well, Olympian efforts of seduction.
But is she more brazen than the the Poet?
Manet’s Olympia
By Margaret AtwoodShe reclines, more or less,
Try that posture, it’s hardly languor.
Her right arm sharp angles.
With her left she conceals her ambush.
Shoes but not stockings,
how sinister. the flower
behind her ear is naturally
not real, of a piece
with the sofa’s drapery.
The windows (if any) are shut.
This is indoor sin.
Above the head of the (clothed) maid
is an invisible voice balloon: Slut.But. Consider the body,
unfragile, defiant, the pale nipples
staring you right in the bull’s eye.
Consider also the black ribbon
around the neck. What’s under it?
A fine red threadline, where the head
was taken off and glued back on.
The body’s on offer,
but the neck’s as afar as it goes.This is no morsel.
Put clothes on her and you’d have a schoolteacher,
the kind with the brittle whiphand.There’s someone else in this room.
You, Monsieur Voyeur.
As for that object of yours
she’s seen those before, and better.I, the head, am the only subject
of this picture.
You, Sir, are furniture.
Get stuffed.
Have I had this Olympia?
No matter, Margaret has it in for me.
I, my maleness, my male gaze are the malefactor’s here.
But methinks the room a mite crowded.
The servant, this cold-gazed dame, myself,
Who else?
The painter, of course. No scorn for him. Hell,
If it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t have a poem.
None for Olympia, attended by her maid.
And to think, in this tiny room, with its bed,
Its easel,
Its artist,
His paints,
And a voyeur, no less,
We still have room, packed as we are, cheek by jowl,
For Madame La Poete.
Come in, come in, my dear.
The more the merrier.
Just don’t let on, my dear
That you were there, too.
Tags: edouard manet, margaret atwood
i like the poem, a lot more than the painting; yes, there’s a lot of defiant feel to the lady, her posture is not sexual, its rather austere and not touchable, a kind of guarded, yes, put on her clothes she might be a good librarian, or school teacher, but i like the tone, the kind of frustration of the female sexuality with that period, not a time to be naked for sure, unless there’s a servant in the room. this is not my kind of painting, i guess, i get rather cagey looking at Lady Olympia!!
I’m deeply bothered by the artist’s ‘treatment’ of the black woman, the way she’s scenery and is trying to get the attention of the white woman, who is only interested in the attentions of the artist. The artist has to be a rich white guy. Definitely not Jewish, though.
I, too, am bothered by the painting but maybe that is what it is supposed to do? (BTW…The reclining woman would never be a friend of Chuck’s….too cold and impersonal…I can’t see sharing a bottle of wine with her or talking about sex or acting silly together or putting on our fairy wings and having a grand time of it. Nope, not with her.) I agree about the poem being better than the painting… it was interesting.
This dame is so asexual that she could really be a lesbian nun pretending (on a bet sans doubt) to be Carmen’s great great granddaughter.
She is a great tease, ready for it and very nervous.
She is weary of posing for the artist and wants some reward.
Imagine reclining naked, trying to look disinterested, (but really gobbled up with curiosity) while a black “beau” surveys the scene behind a floral tribute!
Forbidden fruits always taste the sweetest!
(The flower behind the ear denotes availability)