Myra-Breckinridge-Gore-Vidal

cook for merchant seamen with tattoos! The continualfussing about the house, so reminiscent of the femalepreparing to lay her egg! The humiliating position he wouldput himself in when some piece of trade spurned himbecause he was not able to lay on the requisite bread! Yet,paradoxically, Myron was physically quite strong despitethe seeming fragility of his body and, properly aroused, hecould beat up a man twice his size; unfortunately, he tookno more pleasure in this than he did in the company oflovely girls. He was a tormented creature, similar to HartCrane, except that while it was Crane's kick to blow thosesailors he encountered along the squalid waterfronts of thatvivid never-to-berecaptured prewar world, Myron invariablytook it from behind. But though this was a source of greatconsolation to Myron, Dr. Montag always felt, in hissomewhat nave way, that Myron's obsession involved acertain amount of gratuitous perversity, not to mention justplain waste because Myron's own penis was exceptionallylarge and much admired (it can be seen briefly in theunderground film Lysol). Dr. Montag never understood thatMyron's sexual integrity required him to withhold thatsplendid penis from those who most needed it, thusexerting power over them and what, finally, are humanrelations but the desire in each of us to exercise absolutepower over others? It is my view that the struggle to achievepower is the underlying theme to all of Myron's work, eventhough he never formulated it clearly. Certainly, I was neverable to do so until his death clarified so many things for me.At the time I wanted to die, too. But then I entered the next