McClure-Merchant

Michael McClure’s Ghost Tantras is a very interesting book to try to read and understand. Each of the Tantras that he writes are a combination of this language that he created—the beast language—and regular English. The relationship he shows in between these two languages is quite interesting. As I was reading individual tantras I noticed that McClure uses a chronological order. I think the beast language he uses is to depict the human race’s primal instincts that early humans—cavemen—had.  In the beginning we see that he uses this beast language almost in every line and as the book progresses normal English is used more and more. I think this symbolizes the evolution and development of the human race and how we developed more sophisticated means of communications. Even though the use of this beast language is lessened over the course of the book McClure never leaves it out of any of his tantras because he wants his readers to remember their “roots” and where they came from. There is a passage towards the end where it almost seems as if the author is telling his reader to stop whatever they are doing and pause to remember and reflect upon their primal instincts and let them emerge and release.  His writing of the beast language and normal English is never consistent in any of tantras because in some places we will see where the two languages are clearly separated whereas in other passages he tries to seamlessly combine the two within the same time. There are also some tantras where he uses a lot of repetition and others where no repetition is used at all. I think he maintains this inconsistency on purpose to relay the fact that human behavior is supposed to be spontaneous and instinctual rather than meticulously calculated. He wanted to show the inner relationship that every person should have with their primal selves. I believe the main connection between the two languages that they portray the two parts of every being—the primal man who acts on instinct and the modern man who actually thinks before he acts.