Wednesday 19 November 2008

Augustine on breaking wind

It's not that they were obsessed with sex in the old days - let's talk Foucault sometime and explain why we're much worse - but it did pose some problems for some theologians. It bothers Augustine that sex requires arousal (at least for the men). You can't get it up until you're turned on. He imagines a pre-Fall Paradise, where men would be able to control their bits freely, without the need for arousal. You know, he says, the sort of perfect control over usually involuntary movements that's displayed by those folks who

"produce at will such musical sounds from their behind (without any stink) that they seem to be singing from that region."
Musical farting: symbol of redeemed humanity. Who knew?

1 comment:

Gabriel Smy said...

I believe Spike Milligan documented such people copiously in 'Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall'. There is also the performer Mr Methane, whose rendition of the Blue Danube from the heart of his bottom certainly moves me nearer to Jesus.