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old art

"[…] I loved blood since I had tasted yours."

⁠— Marguerite Duras, from ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, tr. Richard Seaver

"I beg you, eat me up. Want me down to the marrow."

⁠— Hélène Cixous, Stigmata; from ‘Love of the Wolf’, tr. Keith Cohen

"What a man. You could drink his blood."

⁠— Linda Gates on Ted Hughes, quoted in ‘Red Comet; The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath’ by Heather Clarke

"She feels savage, she could eat a heart."

⁠— Margaret Atwood, from ‘Life Before Man’

"He is part of me now. We cannot go back. He is in my bones; in my blood."

⁠— Katherine Clements, from ’The Coffin Path’

"You’ll think it’s love, while he dines on your heart. And maybe it will be. But he’s so hungry, he’ll eat you all in one sitting, and you’ll be in his belly, and what will you do then? Hear me say it, because I know. I ate all of my husbands."

⁠— Catherynne M. Valente, from ‘Deathless’

"How they’d loved to cut themselves on each other, taste their own blood."

⁠— Margaret Atwood, from ‘The Blind Assassin’

"For us, eating and being eaten belong to the terrible secret of love."

⁠— Hélène Cixous, Stigmata; from ‘Love of the Wolf’, tr. Keith Cohen

"I drink your blood / and I split your heart."

⁠— Olga Orozco, Torn: Engravings of Insomnia; from 'To Destroy The Enemy'

"She bit him she gnawed him she sucked / She wanted him complete inside her"

⁠— Ted Hughes, Crow; from ‘Lovesong’

“There’s blood between us, love, my love,”

⁠— Christina Rossetti, Poems; from 'The Convent Threshold'

"[...] I could be a wolf for you. I could put my teeth on your throat. I could growl. I could eat you whole."

⁠— Catherynne M. Valente, The Bread We Eat in Dreams; from 'The Red Girl'

"I want / to mix your name with stars / with blood / to be inside, you"

⁠— Halina Poświatowska, from ‘Indeed I love’, tr. Maya Peretz

"Simone Weil says that when you really love you are able to look at / someone you want to eat and not eat them."

⁠— Marie Howe, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time; from 'After the Movie'

"Know this: / I live beast days. I am a water hour. / At night my eyelids droop like forest and sky. / My love knows few words: / I like it in your blood."

⁠— Gottfried Benn, ‘Threat’ tr. Michael Hofmann

⁠"Please," she said, "you're so beautiful. You may eat me if you like. I'd sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else."

⁠— C.S. Lewis, from 'The Horse and His Boy'

"I thought I breathed the perfume in your blood."

— Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil; from 'The Balcony', tr. William Aggeler

"Love is when you suddenly wake up as a cannibal, and not just any old cannibal, or else wake up destined for devourment."

⁠— Hélène Cixous, Stigmata; from ‘Love of the Wolf’, tr. Keith Cohen

"if I’ve dreamt or thought you / a pack of blood fresh-drawn / hanging darkred from a hook / higher than my heart"

— Adrienne Rich, Fox: Poems 1998-2000; from ‘For This’

"Give me a pot and let me turn cannibal. I will feast on her with greater delight than he. If she is his titbit then I will gourmet her. Come here and discover what it is to be spiced, racked and savoured. I will eat her slowly to make her last longer. Whatever he has done I will do. Did he eat her? Then so will I. And spit her out."

⁠— Jeanette Winterson, from ‘Gut Symmetries’

"He bit her shoulder / & entered her blood forever."

MARGARET ATWOOD x WALTON FORD

‘Let Us Now Praise Stupid Women’, Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994);

Level 2: I’m saving your life to repay a debt.

Level 3: I’m saving your life to spite a third party.

Level 4: I’m saving your life to make a philosophical point.