THE BODY'S CONTRACT OR REALISM'S REVENGE : PETER GREENAWAY'S THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT
"Attempts to write about Rome made writers rhetorical, platitudinous, abstract, ornate, theoretical, polysyllabic, pompous, furious" (Elizabeth Bowen)1
"Les cinq couleurs aveuglent l'oeil Les cinq tons assourdissent l'ouïe Les cinq saveurs gâtent le palais La course et la chasse étourdissent Les biens rares poussent au mal Aussi le sage
S'occupe-t-il de son ventre et non pas de son oeil Il préfère l'interne à l'externe"
(Lao-tzu).2
In Paul Valéry's dialogue "Eupalinos ou l'Architecte", Phèdre reports his conversation with Eupalinos to Socrate.3 Eupalinos concluded with an ecstatic daily oration to his body ; the role of the body is also made explicit in the passage in which Eupalinos describes how he senses the approach of creative inspiration and illumination,
1 E. Bowen, A Time in Rome, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1989 (1959), p. 50.
2 Cited by J. M. Rabaté, La Beauté Amère, Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 1986, p. 53.
3 P. Valéry, "Eupalinos ou l'Architecte" (1921), Eupalinos — LAme et la Danse — Dialogue de VArbre, Paris, Gallimard, coll. "Poésie", 1989 (1945), pp. 37-38.
