Perversion the Social Relation

84 Octave Mannoniwho finds himself in the position of the gull, because what induces himto take part in this game are his disavowed beliefs.His first words are a gambit: the knife, he says, is worthless, becausethe stranger does not own the sheath. Christ's words are "sheathe yoursword," gladium in vaginam. Let us not pause to interpret this; it is notwhat matters here. What does Casanova plan to do? For the moment,this remains vague. He has made his first move the way one advances apawn; the combinations will come later. Quite simply, because he haschanced upon a "fool"—that is the word he uses—he must take advantageof him. 13 He spends the night fabricating a sheath out of an old bootsole and making it look ancient. He presents this to himself and to thereader as a tremendous farce.What happens next? In Cesena (near Rimini, about one hundred milesfrom Mantua), lives a peasant, another credulous sort, who imaginesthat there is a treasure buried beneath his cellar. I omit the imposturesand maneuvers that follow: by the time they are over, Casanova has persuadedhis dupe that, with the help of the magic in the knife (and thesheath), gnomes can be made to bring this buried treasure to the surface.For Casanova, there is nothing to be gained from all this beyondthe pleasure, as he puts it, of unearthing, at the expense of one fool, anonexistent treasure that another fool thinks he has in his cellar. Thegain would seem meager if he did not add that he is dying to play themagician, a role he loves past all thinking. It is hardly stretching mattersto translate this as follows: I know well that there is no treasure, but thisis wonderful all the same.Another credulous character makes her appearance in Cesena: Genoveffa,the daughter of a peasant. Casanova sees a potential conquest inher, of course, but not a romantic conquest; he wants to make her submitto him, unconditionally, with nothing but his magician's hocus-pocus.To explain this to himself, he comes up with reasons that are interestingin their absurdity: Genoveffa is a peasant girl, and it would take too longto educate her and awaken her sensibility for love! In fact, possessingGenoveffa will put the crowning touch on his triumph as a magician.This sheds a first ray of light on the reason that our hero loves the magician'srole to excess. Genoveffa is a virgin, and Casanova declares thather virginity is essential to the success of his magic spell. (A study mightwell be made of Casanova and the taboo of virginity, but I can only notethat in passing.)