Free The Great Lover by Rhys Hughes, Michael Cisco Page A

stroboscopic bursts of light and noise.
    “ Forget that I said it.”
    Hulferde really forgets, continuing to look expectantly at me, as though his question had not yet been answered.
    “ I am like a demon, or a mischievous ghost.”
    “ ...I don’t normally discuss personal matters with others, so I may express myself a little awkwardly.”
    The Great Lover’s outline alters slightly — what could this preamble possibly signify?
    “ ...I have a problem that might interest you.”
    “ I’ll listen to what you have to say.”
    “ Bluntly speaking, my problem is sexual.” He folds his arms on his chest and lowers his head. “Frankly, I don’t like women, never have.”
    “ ...And why indeed should a man in your position feel any different?”
    “— I don’t want women around me — I don’t want to be more attractive to them. I want to be released from these ridiculous urges , so I can do my work without this constant distraction.”
    “ You have a strong drive, keeps interrupting.”
    “ Yes. Exactly. I have been actively seeking a solution to this difficulty for some time, and to this end I have contacted and interviewed some of, well of your kind.” He looks up. I do nothing. “—An ordinary seducer is of no use to me, but your talent for nerve projection, as they call it, presents me with an intriguing possibility. If I may explain?”
    “ I’m not doing anything.”
    Hulferde begins to lecture. He speaks quickly, with his chin down.
    “ Civilization removes us from the immediate exigencies of evolution. As Freud explained, the life-energies arise in the libido, and it is only by sublimation that they become available for uses unrelated to reproduction. This requires discipline, for, however thoroughly this redirection is accomplished, the energies in question always retain the essential character of their origin in the sex drive. Maintaining the divorce between drive and goal therefore cannot be achieved without a constant, enervating effort. Among those with weaker libidos this effort is correspondingly less, but so is the productivity of the individual in question. It’s my bad luck that I have a very powerful libido. While this means that I possess considerable vital energy, quite above average, there is a roughly equivalent claim on my self-discipline.”
    Hulferde shruggingly indicates himself.
    “ I have no illusions about my appearance. The trouble and expense intercourse entails seems excessive to me. In every conceivable arrangement, given present conditions, waste is indicated. I have been trying to discover some way to put an end to this waste, and to place all my energies at the disposal of my work. Naturally, I at first considered the possibility of a libidinal suppressant: a drug, or perhaps a simple surgical procedure. However, since the libido is so to speak the ‘engine,’ if mine were to be eliminated or reduced in force, there would necessarily be a corresponding attenuation of my energies overall. I would derive no benefit from these measures.
    “ But then it occurred to me,” and now something faintly glimmers in Hulferde’s eyes, a clammy excitement, “that a prosthesis might be better; I mean a device which would have and suppress my sexual thoughts for me, while transferring their neutered force to me. I could then separate myself from my libido while continuing to derive from it the full streamlined might of my own proper vital principle. And because the negative effects of sex deprivation are a consequence of the stagnation or misflow of the sexual energies from the drive, once the drive is displaced, these negative effects would not be of any concern.”
    He pauses to look at the Great Lover. Hulferde is an intelligent, unfeeling man, but he is not cagey or manipulative.
    “ I needed to understand more about sex transfer, which is why I spoke to the others. But they mentioned you, and your ‘nerve projection.’ This is precisely what I must learn, as I hope you