Perversion the Social Relation

"As If Set Free into Another Land" 169a breath of wind upon the cheek. It was almost as if God hoveredin the shimmering waves of heat above the trees, His tongue andHis almighty voice trembling at the edge of speech, ready to makeknown His actual presence to me as I stood penitent and prayerfulwith Willis ankle-deep in the muddy waters. Through and beyondthe distant roaring of the mill I thought I heard a murmuration andanother roaring far up in the heavens, as if from the throats of archangels.Was the Lord going to speak to me? I waited faint with longing,clutching Willis tightly by the arm, but no words came fromabove—only the sudden presence of God poised to shower Himselfdown like summer rain For an instant indeed I thought Hespoke but it was only the rushing of the wind high in the treetops.My heart pounded wildly. (205-6)The language of this passage repeats much of the same anxious phrasingandMiction that describe his encounter with Willis, transposing the"throb" and "pulse" of Willis's throat to the "shimmering," "trembling,"and "rushing" of the Lord's "tongue" and the archangels' "throats."The rhythm in the passage builds intensely as Nat waits for the ejaculatorymoment in which God will "reveal himself" and "shower Himselfdown like summer rain." And, as Nat becomes "faint with longing," he"clutches" Willis "by the arm" and infects him with his own ecstaticspirit, until Willis himself seems about to climax again: " 'Amen!' Willissaid. Beneath my fingers I could feel him begin to stir and shudder andanother 'Amen!' came from him in a gasp. 'Das right, Lawd!' " (206).By including Willis in this scene, Nat makes the act of baptism apowerfully communal event whose purpose fulfills more than a selfishneed to eliminate his own personal guilt or sin. The sexualized descriptionproves that Nat is not turning away from his homosexualencounter, but rather capitalizing on his newfound recognition of homorelationalityto bring Christianity more powerfully into his life. Natchooses a verse for baptism that stresses the fundamental equality ofevery baptized person: " 'For by one Spirit are we all baptized into onebody! I said, ''whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or freeand have been made all to drink into one Spirit 9 " (206). This quotationinvokes a kind of spiritual homo-ness that is intrinsic to Christian beliefand that exposes the thematic connection between his baptism andhis homosexual encounter. With the power to unite all people into "one