“Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 267 “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt.” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology Stefan Breitrück Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen Abstract: The paper argues that the erotology within Hubert Fichte’s novels, as it has been formulated by Gert Mattenklott, can be complemented by a bi-orgasmology� On the basis of selected passages, it shows how Fichte’s bisexual protagonist, the writer and ethnographer Jäcki, stylizes the orgasmic moment as a state of distinguished epistemic quality with regard to the world and the other, being characterized by, first, a partial suspension of the I and, second, a specific epistemic double rhythm, oscillating between consciousness and unconsciousness, reflexivity and irreflexivity. As an ideal, the female orgasm scintillates on the epistemological firmament, as it is described by Jäcki’s lifelong partner Irma in Hotel Garni ; an orgasmic form of perception which Jäcki approximates in the course of an orgy in Eine Glückliche Liebe , precisely because he simultaneously adopts penetration roles that are conventionally encoded as male and female within the heteronormative matrix� The forms of perception in this decidedly bisexual scene eventually become the blueprint for how Jäcki wants to conduct his research in the field of the syncretistic religions of the Americas: reflexive-irreflexive, both a registrar and a participant, balancing between the own and the other� Keywords: Hubert Fichte, erotology, orgasm, bisexuality, epistemology Just shortly after Hubert Fichte’s death and the posthumous publication of the largest part of his multivolume and autofictional roman-fleuve Die Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit or The History of Sensibility , respectively, 1 Gert Mattenklott has argued that, first, the significance attributed to sexuality within this monumental literary work and, second, the histoire and discours in Fichte’s novels are to be understood against the background of what he calls “Erotologie“ (70) or erotology, respectively� Whenever topics and concepts such as sensitivity, perception, and recognition arise in Fichte’s novels - a corpus that further- 268 Stefan Breitrück more comprises the texts published in Fichte’s lifetime, Das Waisenhaus (2005 [1965]), Die Palette (2010 [1968]), Detlevs Imitationen “Grünspan” (2005 [1971]), and Versuch über die Pubertät (2005 [1974]), i�e�, novels that are usually summarized as “Hamburger Tetralogie“ in Fichte research 2 -, it is first and foremost sexuality that is at stake� However, although the close and intricate connection between eros and episteme in Fichte’s work is well-known and can be regarded a commonplace in Fichte research, the most important landmarks in the sexual development of Fichte’s autofictional protagonist complex, consisting of the literary figures of, first, the child Detlev and, second, the adolescent and adult “gay-identified bisexual“ (Gillett, “Writing queer performance” 43) Jäcki, are quite often somewhat neglected with regard to their erotological implications and are seldom subject to close reading� 3 The paper at hand focuses on three of these landmarks. First, on Jäcki’s first analsexual experiences in puberty with his acquaintance Klaus Hanft as depicted in two paragraphs of Versuch über die Pubertät , which appear to be Jäcki’s first sexual experiences with another man at all. Second, on Jäcki’s night with his lifelong partner Irma in the first novel of Fichte’s Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit , Hotel Garni (1988 [1987]), which represents his first night with a woman. Here, the essay concentrates on Irma’s description of her orgasmic sensations and perception during sex with Jäcki, a description that corresponds with both Jäcki’s erotic and epistemic ideals. And finally, third, on the narration of Jäcki’s first orgy with three other men in the final chapter of Eine Glückliche Liebe (2005 [1988]), the fourth part of the Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit � The sensations and perceptions experienced in the course of this orgy are to be understood as an approximation of the orgasmic ideal described by Irma in Hotel Garni � Furthermore, they prove to be an epistemological blueprint for the cautious, sensitive, and self-reflexive ethnological viewpoint taken by Jäcki in the context of his studies of the syncretistic religions in the Americas that make up a huge part of the later volumes of the Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit , such as Explosion (2006 [1993]) or Forschungsbericht (1989)� On the basis of these passages, the paper at hand arrives at the conclusion that the central aspects of Fichte’s erotology - Mattenklott names, first, a poetology under the sign of the coming out (71—72), second, the poetic leitmotif of the sexual act (75), and, third, an epistemology of the ever-eluding desired (79—80) - can be complemented by a so-called bi-orgasmology� In an interview with the Australian literary scholar James Wafer from 1973, Hubert Fichte once remarked that his adolescent expectations towards sexuality were those of a certain “Bewußtlosigkeit, eines Lösens der Glieder, Rasens, Tanzens” (Wafer 306—07); a condition similar to the phenomenon of ritual “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 269 trance that Fichte or Jäcki, respectively, observe in the course of their studies of the syncretistic religions in the Americas� 4 Yet, Fichte adds, “[d]as Erlebnis der Sexualität in der Pubertät war für mich tatsächlich das Erlebnis eines Betruges, als Beschissenwerden� Es wird hingeführt bis zu einer bestimmten Art der Erfüllung, und kurz davor bricht es ab” (307)� This profound disappointment has led Martin Dannecker to the conclusion that, in Fichte’s work, sexuality is only “als zu verwirklichende Möglichkeit bedeutsam und nur als vorenthaltenes Glück groß“ (146)� Sexuality as, first, a possibility only ever to be realized and a fortune continuously withheld, and, second, a sobering experience of a deception, a “Beschissenwerden,” as Fichte drastically put it, is the dominant topos in the depiction of Jäcki’s first analsexual experiences with his adolesecent acquaintance Klaus Hanft in the coal cellar of Klaus’s parents� Two paragraphs from Fichte’s Versuch über die Pubertät , published one year after the Wafer interview, are devoted to the narration of these experiences; it is not completely clear whether these paragraphs tell the story of one meeting or of two separate occasions, and one could put forth good arguments for both readings. That said, the first paragraph from Versuch über die Pubertät reads as follows: Klaus klaut den Kellerschlüssel� Wir haken die Kette von einem Lattenverschlag ab und dringen in den Geruch von Braunkohle ein� Küssen nicht� Man küßt nur, wenn man liebt� Und er läßt es sich gefallen, daß ich ihn nicht küssen will; wenn er sich nicht zufrieden gegeben hätte, müßte ich ihn küssen� Wir ziehen die Hosen herunter� Er zählt die Stöße nicht� Seiner ist ganz dick und stumpf� Es geht nicht richtig� Er nimmt meinen in die Hand� Jetzt ist es da� Es tut nicht weh� Aber es ist kein angenehmes Gefühl� Es hört nicht wieder auf� Klaus knipst das Licht an� Er ist nicht fertig geworden� Bei mir ist was geplatzt und seine Hand ist voll Blut und Schleim� Klaus sieht nach, ob auf seiner Hose keine Spritzer sind� (92—93) The second passage, then, continues or renarrates, respectively: 270 Stefan Breitrück Ich, ich, ich, ich� Das allzufeste Fleisch ist geschmolzen und härter� Töten das hassenswerte Ich! Ich hatte geglaubt, ich würde bewußtlos dabei werden, anfangen zu brüllen, Schmerz und Rücksicht bedeuteten nichts mehr, wir würden aufreißen dabei, unsere Organe lägen einsehbar, wir würden uns aushöhlen gegenseitig und ineinander hineinschlüpfen� Die gewohnten Gerüche nicht, nicht die gewohnten Lichtreflexe, Töne, Berührungen, Sensationen - all das nicht� Bevor es soweit ist, werden die Empfindungen abgebogen und es kommen ein paar Tropfen und dann ist es schon zuende und es riecht nach Brikett und die Sehnsucht nach Aufgabe bleibt jetzt als Strafe, als Todesurteil, das ich voll Entsetzen an mir selbst vollstrecken will� (93—94) The main focus of the second passage lies on the orgasm and the anticipation of special forms of perception and recognition accompanying it� Simultaneously, the orgasm figures as both a big promise and an equally big disappointment. From his first time with Klaus, the Jäcki-focalized narrator expected nothing less than an ecstatic condition and an epiphanous awareness� During the intercourse, he works towards a distinguished perception and apperception, that is, towards a form of a conscious unconsciousness or an unconscious consciousness, respectively� More precisely, he seeks for a non-egocentric self-conception and a non-egocentric experience and perception of the world and the other, for, in Fichte’s oeuvre, the egocentric approach to the world is understood as world-obstructing, as is emphasized, for instance, elsewhere in Versuch über die Pubertät : “Mit dem Ich kommt alles auf mich zu und verschließt sich mir und geht weg und wird zur Vergangenheit” (36)� The conscious unconsciousness targeted by Jäcki finds its correlate in a figurative emancipation of the organs, in a fantastic dis-organ-ization of the body� 5 Jäcki anticipated that he and Klaus would tear open during intercourse, leaving their organs laid open� He envisioned them as hollowing out and reciprocally slipping into each other, thereby reaching a higher form of life, a higher form of consciousness to fully unfold hitherto unexploited epistemic potentials� Given Fichte’s preoccupation with and in-depth knowledge of Sigmund Freud’s writings, 6 this idea might point at Freud’s remarks on the concept of eros in “Beyond the Pleasure Principle�” The rational and somatic disorganization would lead - that is the idea, at least - to an unconventional, counter-habitual, more intense, and therefore more meaningful perception of the world, distinguishing itself through different odors, light reflexes, sounds, and touches. “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 271 Alas, it remains a pipe dream: “Bevor es soweit ist, werden die Empfindungen abgebogen und es kommen ein paar” - mundane, all too mundane - “Tropfen und dann ist es schon zuende�” It is not completely clear what these few drops refer to. The most obvious reading, of course, identifies them as ejaculate, which, however, raises the next question, whose ejaculate. The ejaculate of Klaus, who leaves behind an unsatisfied Jäcki, or the ejaculate of Jäcki himself, which would mean that Jäcki is even dissatisfied with the orgasmic moment itself ? There is, however, another and admittedly somewhat euphemistic way to interpret these “paar Tropfen” once you refer to the first paragraph of Versuch über die Pubertät describing Jäcki’s experiences with Klaus, thereby assuming that both segments address the same event. In this first paragraph, Jäcki’s and Klaus’s intercourse comes to an abrupt end: something “was geplatzt” in Jäcki, as the narrator so eloquently puts it, leaving Klaus with “Blut und Schleim“ in his hands. In this reading, which identifies the drops from the second paragraph with the blood and phlegm from the first one, neither Klaus nor Jäcki get their money’s worth. Either way, in these segments from Versuch über die Pubertät , the coitus and the male orgasm are sketched as absolute deprivations and disappointments� Either the epiphanously and ecstatically imagined orgasmic moment is not reached, or the orgasmic moment is reached but turns out to be a climax all too volatile, making it impossible to actually savor the extraordinary sensations and perceptions provided. Or, finally, the orgasm figures as a libidinous event horizon, if you will, behind which the actual epistemic climax is to be found, so that it can never actually be reached� With that in mind, the “Blut und Schleim” or blood and phlegm, respectively, from the second coal cellar paragraph deserve a closer look, for, especially in this exact combination, they point towards the ancient theory of four humours, prominently canonized by Galenus in the second century A�D�, yet tracing even further back to the Pythagorean Alkmaion and the Hippocratic Nature of Man , where one reads in the translation of W� H� S� Jones: The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile; these make up the nature of his body, and through these he feels pain or enjoys health� Now he enjoys the most perfect health when these elements are duly proportioned to one another in respect of compounding, power and bulk, and when they are perfectly mingled� Pain is felt when one of these elements is in defect or excess, or is isolated in the body without being compounded with all the others� (11—13) The desperate condition of the Jäcki-focalized narrator during the sex scene with Klaus, his disappointment from sexuality, and his incongruence with himself are explained para-physiologically through the theory of four humours� In the course of the sexual act, the four humours or temperaments, respectively, 272 Stefan Breitrück make their appearance in two groups of two, one melancholic-choleric and one sanguine-phlegmatic� Jäcki’s emotional state oscillates between a suicidal furor on the one hand and a passionate desire for insight on the other� He wants to kill “das hassenswerte Ich” in order to attain an epiphanous and ecstatic condition� However, just “[b]evor es soweit ist,” Jäcki either suffers a wound, from which flow out blood and phlegm, or he ejaculates. The libidinous and epistemic climax targeted eludes, precisely because of this loss of “ein paar Tropfen,” or blood and phlegm, respectively� Jäcki’s humour household, as one could call it, has suffered a sanguin-phlegmatic drop in pressure� In this context, the loss of phlegm weighs particularly heavy, for, within the theory of four humours, phlegm is basically understood as a form of fluid ratio being produced in the brain. It is not easy to find a more concise trope for the intricate connection between eros and episteme in Fichte’s novels than this “Schleim�” And it is even harder to find an even more trenchant image for the erotological dilemma that accompanies and drives Jäcki’s one-night stands and affairs with other men over the course of the whole Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit � From sex, Jäcki expects nothing less than epiphanous spheres and a stimulus for the cerebral phlegm production site, so to say, yet it is exactly this very sexuality and this very climax targeted that lead to phlegm ejaculations elsewhere� Sex becomes a Sisyphean task, condemning Jäcki, as it says hyperbolically in the second volume of Die Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit , Der Kleine Hauptbahnhof oder Lob des Strichs (1988), to sleep “mit allen Männern der Welt” (212), in order to reach some form of libidinous and epistemic fulfilment. The leitmotif of the sexual act, identified by Gert Mattenklott as one of the main features of the erotology within Fichte’s novels, finds its primal scene(s) in the coal cellar of Klaus Hanft’s parents in Versuch über die Pubertät � On the erotological and poetological firmament of Fichte’s novels scintillates the world of experience, perception, and recognition of the female orgasm� That is, at least, in the way how Irma describes it in a - in Fichte research hitherto neglected - dialogue with Jäcki approximately in the middle of Hotel Garni , following what appears to be their first night together and Jäcki’s first night with a woman at all� In Irma’s orgasm, the way how Jäcki would like to perceive himself, the world, and the other is actually realized: - Es ist wahnsinnig schön, sagte Irma� Eine völlige Entspannung� Wie soll ich das sagen? Ich kann nicht reden� Es gibt darüber hinaus nichts weiter� Es ist wahnsinnig schwer auszudrücken� Wie ein Ende, das man gern hat� Wenn man sterben würde und es wäre so angenehm, dann hätte man auch kein Bewußtsein davon� Eine Bewußt- “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 273 losigkeit, die einem bewußt wird, oder umgekehrt� Besser kann ich das nicht ausdrücken� Das Gefühl ist so angenehm, daß man nicht möchte, daß es wieder aufhört� - Was für ein Gefühl? - Wie Gerüche� - Verändern sich die Gerüche? - Das Gehör wird so geschärft, daß ich Dinge höre, die ich noch nie hören konnte� […] Man riecht den anderen und der riecht anders� Aber das ist keine Wahrnehmung am eigenen Körper� Das ist was andres� Und dann das Zusammenziehen� - Drinnen oder draußen? - Von außen nach innen und dann nach oben und die Geruchseindrücke� Der Körpergeruch� Man weiß nicht mehr, ob es der eigene ist oder der des anderen� Man weiß nicht, welches Herz klopft� Farbvorhänge� - Fühlt es eine Frau, wenn es bei dem Mann kommt? - Ja� Die Eindrücke beschleunigen sich� Das Ziehen bis zum Platzen� Man denkt, man wird ohnmächtig� In dem Moment hat sich das Zimmer so gedreht, daß ich dachte, ich müßte aus dem Fenster fliegen. […] Die Fähigkeit nichts mehr zu denken� (124—25) “Ich kann nicht reden,” Irma notes at the beginning of her depiction� And this does not so much mean that she fails to put her perception during orgasm into words because she is not as talented a wordsmith as Jäcki� Rather, this sentence is to be understood as a figure of correspondence to the orgasmic moment itself, which generates a form of thorough evidence, leaving nothing behind to say� “Es gibt darüber nichts weiter,” Irma notes in this regard� To her, the female orgasm figures as a form of lived significance, in comparison to which any word performs short as a signifier, but not so much in the sense that language reaches its limits, but, in the very sense of the word, that it finally comes to an end. The orgasm appears as, first, a distinguished epistemic condition and produces, second, a fulfilled, not a resigning aphasia. It is “ein Ende, das man gern hat.” And it is exactly this, the coincidence of, first, an absolute perception of the world, second, a perfect evocation of this world with, third, a complete exhaustion of language, which is also the ideal and the vanishing point of Hubert Fichte’s poetics, which aims at a “Verwörterung der Welt“ (413), as it is called in Fichte’s brief Herodotus “excursus” “Mittelmeer und Golf von Benin” from 274 Stefan Breitrück the essay collection Homosexualität und Literatur , the first of the paralipomena to the Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit 7 : a “Verwörterung der Welt” which ideally even transcends the poetic and referential fate of différance itself and gets to the “things themselves” through words, to pick up and adapt Edmund Husserl’s famous phenomenological shibboleth� In addition, Irma describes her orgasm as a state of “völlige Entspannung,” furthermore as a form of “Bewußtlosigkeit, die einem bewußt wird, oder umgekehrt.” The first characterization contrasts sharply with Jäcki’s orgasmic experience as described in the second coal cellar passage of Versuch über die Pubertät , where instead it figures as a regrettable loss of tension or pressure, respectively. For Jäcki, the climax - if it is him reaching it at all - is not a condition of a “völlige“ but of, quite the opposite, a disappointing and sobering “Entspannung”; a void which transforms the passionately pursued program of self-abandonment into a suicidal program under the banner of shame� In retrospect, one could argue that, in a way, Jäcki experienced the highest form of fulfilment and came closest to the different odors, sounds, touches, and sensations in a state of utmost tension, just before the orgasm, in the orgasmic forecourt, if you will� The second figure applied by Irma to sketch her orgasmic perception is the one of a conscious unconsciousness or an unconscious consciousness, respectively� The parallel to the state of mind referred to and envisioned by Fichte in his interview with James Wafer, when he talks about sexuality as a “gewisse Bewußtlosigkeit,” is evident; even more so once you do not read the adjective “gewiss” as communicating indifference, ambiguity, and uncertainty, but as, in the actual sense of the words “gewiss” and “Gewissheit,” communicating certainty, to which certainty, in turn, consciousness is an absolute precondition� The female orgasm fascinates Jäcki; his comprehensive, lengthy, and pages-long questionnaire for Irma in Hotel Garni bears impressive witness to that (123—27)� Enviously he glances at the actual simultaneity of a reflexive and an irreflexive perception of the world, the other and the I, which simultaneity leads to a more intense experience of them� He himself, in contrast, can only shorten the intervals from consciousness to unconsciousness back to consciousness and so forth by amassing one-night stands� He is only able to, so to speak, intensify the frequency and sleep with more and more men - ideally “mit allen Männern der Welt,” as cited above - up to the point where a downright oscillation between consciousness and unconsciousness sets in; an oscillation, however, which is only able to simulate and asymptotically approximate the forms of perception Irma already experiences in the course of just one orgasm� Finally, Irma describes her orgasms as an intense intersubjective experience� Prima facie, her explanation “Man riecht den anderen und der riecht anders� / Aber das ist keine Wahrnehmung am eigenen Körper� / Das ist was andres,” “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 275 reads as if, in the very moment of orgasm, her olfactory impression of the other changes, maybe because of hormone releases or whatever reason phantasy might find. In the context of this reading, then, the sentence “Aber das ist keine Wahrnehmung am eigenen Körper” would serve the function of forestalling the objection that her altered perception of the other might have its reason in a mixture of her and the other’s smells on her skin� At second glance, however, it becomes clear that the sentence “Aber das ist keine Wahrnehmung am eigenen Körper” describes an alteration of her olfactory sense as the direct result or symptom, respectively, of an ecstatic self-perception during orgasm; an ecstatic self-perception which is stressed further in the following sentences of the paragraph from Hotel Garni , when Irma notes with regard to her heartbeat in the orgasmic moment: “Man weiß nicht mehr, ob es der eigene ist oder der des anderen� Man weiß nicht, welches Herz klopft�” The positions of the own and the other intermingle, they become undistinguishable; a constellation, then, which is of the utmost importance with regard to Jäcki’s point of view in the context of his ethnological fieldwork. 8 More on this in the following, final reading. In the final chapter of the fourth volume of Die Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit , Eine Glückliche Liebe , Jäcki experiences a condition that comes very close to the orgasmic state described by Irma in Hotel Garni , precisely because it encompasses a female principle, if you will� After having spent several weeks together with her in Portugal, Jäcki decides to travel back to Germany alone and to make a short trip to Paris� A bookseller slipped him the address of a steam bath in Rue Penthièvre, an equally famous and infamous, almost venerable homosexual hot spot of the city, which he now plans to visit: “Es gab Besucher, die behaupteten, Oscar Wilde sei Stammgast gewesen, Proust habe es mit den Möbeln seiner Mutter ausstaffiert, Cocteau beschrieb es im Livre Blanc, und Marcel Jouhandeau, ein Kollege von André Malraux, besuche es noch heute” (105). Here, Jäcki makes his first orgiastic experience, which holds hitherto unknown forms of perception and insight for him� After becoming familiar with his surroundings for a few minutes, he makes the acquaintance of an “Araber”: Jäcki fühlte unter dem Tuch das Wüstenglied des Dürren und faßte dem Araber an den Hottentottensteiß� Der Araber wollte Jäcki küssen� Er leckte Jäcki an den Ohren� Er sagte: - Da nicht� - Hinten nicht� - Vorne� 276 Stefan Breitrück - Alles was du willst� Der Araber drängelte, biß, spuckte, kitzelte mit dem Finger, hängte seinen Umhang über den Steifen und schob Jäckis Umhang hoch� Jäcki schrie� Jäcki hatte die Vorstellung, er sollte ausgeweidet werden� Mit dem Dürren verkeilt stolperte er aus der Kabine� Die Greise rückten gegen sie beide an� Der Araber hielt ihn umzingelt� Ein mürber Mann kniete vor Jäcki nieder� Die letzte Flamme von Oscar Wilde� Prousts Flieger� Cocteaus de Max� Er fing an, an Jäcki zu lutschen. Ein kurzer Algerier rannte mit einem dritten Bein in der Hand immer um Jäcki und den Dürren und den Pensionär der Comédie Française herum� Als die Schmerzen nachließen, drehte Jäcki das Mitglied des Théâtre Molière dem Bein des kurzen Algeriers hin� Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt� Jäcki merkte, wie seine Empfindungen von einem Ort zu einem anderen geschwemmt wurden, sosehr der geschulte Mund des greisen Schauspielers an ihm auch saugte� Jäcki hatte das Gefühl, doppelt zu existieren� Jäcki kam sich wie eine Hohlform vor, die ihn selbst noch einmal wahrnahm� Als er merkte, daß der dürre Araber in ihm zu zucken begann, zuckte er auch auf im Mund des Théâtre Molière� Jäcki bemerkte etwas Neues in sich […] - Jetzt lasse ich mich� Es schien Jäcki die einzige Veränderung zu sein, außer der Geburt, welche die Natur hergab� Das war das ganz Andre� […] Jäcki verwandelte sich noch einmal� (106—08) Before discussing this paragraph in detail, it might be useful to shortly unravel in plain words the chaotic scenario depicted, for the passage causes confusion through underdetermined formulations, misleading parallelizations, and ambiguous and ambivalent rhetorics, which mirror the confusion and deconstruction of, amongst other, sexual and gender roles that take place in this scene, rendering it a decidedly bisexual one, in the proto-queer and utopian sense ascribed to the concept of bisexuality within Fichte’s oeuvre� 9 Jäcki is simultaneously penetrated anally by the aforementioned Arab, further characterized as “dürr[],” and stimulated orally by an elderly “Schauspieler[],” somewhat boldly declared “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 277 a “Pensionär der Comédie Française” and a “Mitglied des Théâtre Molière” because of his advanced age� At the same time, simultaneous to the fellatio he performs on Jäcki, this elderly man is penetrated anally by an “Algerier,” characterized as “kurz[]�” Altogether, the reader deals with a constellation of four� The ambiguous and ambivalent signals mentioned above already set in at the beginning of the passage, in the dialogue between the Arab and Jäcki, for it is not completely clear who is actually speaking in direct speech marked by dashes� On the one hand, it could be the Arab� Jäcki touches him at his so-called “Hottentottensteiß” to test whether or not he is open to anal adventures� The Arab refuses, making clear, “- Da nicht� / - Hinten nicht,” however, not without proposing alternatives: “- Vorne� / - Alles was du willst�” A reading which attributes the direct speech to the Arab is further supported by the anaphoric composition of the phrases “Er leckte […]” and “Er sagte […].” In the first case, the pronoun “[e]r” definitely refers to the Arab, so, prima facie, there is no reason for the reader to assume why this should change in the second case, precisely because of the sentences’ parallelism� Then again, however, “[e]r” is an undifferentiated and unspecific personal pronoun after all, which, in this situation, could easily be referring to Jäcki as well� This view is supported by the fact that the dominant topic of the passage from Eine Glückliche Liebe is Jäcki’s reluctance hitherto to “let” himself, as the narrator codes the willingness to get penetrated anally, even though this only becomes clear at the end of the paragraph (which, by the way, marks the ending of the whole novel). As a matter of fact, Jäcki does not take into account his first experiences with Klaus Hanft in this regard, as described in Versuch über die Pubertät � Maybe because, in retrospect, they merely appear as clumsy adolescent tryouts, maybe because they were such a big disappointment� Anyway, they do not seem worth mentioning� A reading of the passage from Eine Glückliche Liebe , in which it is Jäcki communicating his reluctance, is furthermore supported by the scenes of overpowering that follow� To call a spade a spade, Jäcki is raped, and in this paragraph, nothing else than rape culture narratives are applied� For what else is described here than Jäcki being violently pushed to anal sex and, so to speak, to take his epistemic chance? The passage reports screams, pain, and a fixation without Jäcki’s consent, furthermore the “Vorstellung, […] ausgeweidet [zu] werden�” The rape scene in Eine Glückliche Liebe and the formulae applied therein recall the account of the second coal cellar passage from Versuch über die Pubertät , in which Jäcki erroneously anticipated the sexual act as something in the course of which he would have to “brüllen” and become “bewußtlos”: “Schmerz und Rücksicht bedeuteten nichts mehr, wir würden aufreißen dabei, unsere Organe lägen einsehbar, wir würden uns aushöhlen gegenseitig und ineinander hinein- 278 Stefan Breitrück schlüpfen”� It was a big disappointment that all of this did not happen� Neither did Jäcki become unconscious nor did he have to scream nor did he have to suffer pain, for Klaus still did exercise too much caution. With disillusionment, Jäcki found that he himself and Klaus did not tear apart and that all of his organs were still in place� Neither did Jäcki and Klaus hollow out nor did they slip into each other� Klaus did not know how to satisfy Jäcki’s masochistic and ecstatic desire� In the Parisian steam bath, though, Jäcki’s adolescent ideas, anticipations, and desires are met. Here, the violence that he looked for, but did not find in the coal cellar, befalls him� One cannot completely rule out the possibility that Jäcki could only yearn for the death of the “hassenswerte Ich” so passionately in the coal cellar passages because it was never actually to be feared� Jäcki still had too much agency, which hindered the desired to happen� Only by actually being overpowered, against the will of the body, against the will of the I, the ecstatic and epiphanous state of mind, as described in the second part of the passage from Eine Glückliche Liebe , could occur� Jäcki’s renaissance as and metamorphosis to somebody who “lets” himself demanded the actual suffering of birth pains, so to speak� Jäcki’s first orgy and his final readiness to “let” himself provide a hitherto unknown form of perception, characterized by an ambiguous or oscillating point of perspective, respectively� His experience is precisely the result of the sexual double rhythm of him penetrating and him being penetrated at the same time; that is, by simultaneously assuming the penetration roles conventionally ascribed to men and women within the heteronormative discourse, as Benedikt Wolf has pointed out recently in his erudite monograph Penetrierte Männlichkeit (79)� It is in this sense a decidedly bisexual scene and experience, describing a bi-orgasm, which lends the title to the paper at hand� The parallel stimulation of penis and anus lets Jäckis “Empfindungen” float “von einem Ort zu einem anderen,” so that he gets the impression of a double existence, as the narrator puts it� The world-obstructing concentration on the I or egocentrism, respectively, that were lamented in Versuch über die Pubertät , are not possible any longer� Jäcki’s I and his body are decentered, they are hollowed out, at last: “Jäcki kam sich wie eine Hohlform vor, die ihn selbst noch einmal wahrnahm�” This decentration takes place on two axes� First, on a horizontal axis insofar Jäcki perceives himself as a presence both in the phallic and in the anal area� And, second, on a vertical axis insofar Jäcki, on the one hand, experiences himself in his doubly stimulated corporeality and, on the other hand, observes the scenario in the steam bath from a higher viewpoint� The double stimulation leads to a condition, in which he is, with regard to himself, his surroundings, and “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 279 himself within these surroundings, both medium and registrar, both participant and reflector. With regard to the further course of the Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit , Jäcki’s double or ambiguous perception, respectively, in the Parisian steam bath formulates the epistemic and methodological ideal for his ethnological studies and fieldwork; against this background, one simply cannot overestimate the importance of this scene in Eine Glückliche Liebe � Therein, it is precisely the formula of the “ganz Andre” which links the narration of the orgy with Jäcki’s cultural studies, for, in Fichte’s novels, this formula is usually reserved for marking and ciphering Jäcki’s exotism and curiosity that interested him in social and cultural anthropology in general, that brought him to his ritual studies in particular, and that lead him into the ethnological field in the first place, as Jan-Frederik Bandel has pointed out (“Messer und Scheide” 206)� On the one hand, Jäcki wants to conduct participant observation and delve into the world and culture of the other. On the other hand, he feels obliged to constantly reflect his movements in the field, as well as the concepts, theorems, models etc. he brings to the field and applies to the other and culturally different. It is precisely this very combination of participation and reflection which marks and characterizes Jäcki’s position on the border between the own and the other, “on the fence,” sufficiently assessed by Fichte research� 10 That being said, it is not so much Jäcki’s aim to oscillate between the own and the other - to leave behind the own cultural sphere and to go native, even for a short period of time, is tantamount to losing the scientific distance in Jäcki’s or Fichte’s eyes, respectively, and therefore not at all desirable 11 - but to set himself up in an intermediate sphere, to maximize the critical distance to the own and to approximate the other as close as possible without actually becoming the other, to find a form of “Empfindlichkeit” without “Anpassung,” as it says in the Haiti part of his documentary feature Xango (119); in short, to actually “balance” on the aforementioned border in the very sense of the word� It is here, on the border, where intercultural correspondences, anthropological commonalities, and practices of syncretization and hybridization, that is, the very points and aspects that spark Jäcki’s ethnological interest, become most apparent and visible� Moreover, the Parisian orgy advertises Jäcki not only as an ethnological equilibrist balancing on the border between the own and the other, but also as a diaphanous medium� As such, he would like to register and eventually transcribe - he is a writer, reporter, and ethnographer, after all - the world and the other� Needless to say, being an equilibrist in the aforementioned sense and being a world-recording medium are ultimately two sides of the same coin� The epiphanous state of mind and the diaphanous movement within the world and towards the other are effects correlating with each other. The central reference, then, 280 Stefan Breitrück where Jäcki’s program of transforming himself to, first, a diaphanous membrane and, second, a poetic and ethnographic catalyst becomes most apparent, can be found in Der Platz der Gehenkten , the sixth volume of Die Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit , thematically dedicated to the central marketplace of the Moroccan metropole Marrakesh: Ich� Jäcki� Verwandelt sich in Lettern� Gebrannte Wolle� Geschabte Tintenpaste� Die Djemma el Fna geht durch mich hindurch� Wie die Tinte das Bibelpapier des Koran durchdringt� Er steht auf dem Platz der Gehenkten als der Bleiche� (85) In the steam bath in the Parisian Rue Penthièvre, this diaphanous figure finds its erot(olog)ical correspondance in Jäcki’s orgasm being insinuated and suggested as a reaction to, basically even a redirection of, the orgasm of the other: “Als er merkte, daß der dürre Araber in ihm zu zucken begann, zuckte er auch auf im Mund des Théâtre Molière�” What is expressed here is not a mere synchrony of events, but nothing else than a causal link� In Eine Glückliche Liebe , the ecstatic and epiphanous state of the orgasm is, more or less explicitly, cross-faded with the diaphanous condition� Rightly, Gert Mattenklott (80—81) has juxtaposed Jäcki’s perception of the other within Fichte’s works with the conception of the other in the 118 th aphorism of Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Dawn of Day under the title “What is our Neighbour? ,” where it says in the translation of J� M� Kennedy: What do we conceive of our neighbour except his limits: I mean that whereby he, as it were, engraves and stamps himself in and upon us? We can understand nothing of him except the changes which take place upon our own person and of which he is the cause, what we know of him is like a hollow, modelled space� We impute to him the feelings which his acts arouse in us, and thus give him a wrong and inverted postivity [sic]� We form him after our knowledge of ourselves into a satellite of our own system, and if he shines upon us, or grows dark, and we in any case are the ultimate cause of his doing so, we nevertheless still believe the contrary! O world of phantoms in which we live! O world so perverted, topsy-turvy and empty, and yet dreamt of as full and upright! (123—24) Most certainly, Jäcki does not dream this dream “full and upright”; quite the opposite, he is very much aware of the fact that the indirect recognition of the other in the form of the changes caused by him are the highest of highs when “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 281 it comes to ethnological studies. Stylizing himself as an equilibrist and ideally transforming himself into a diaphanous medium concretely means to put away the ego, the I, and to reduce the resistance, in order to maximize the possibility of the other to “engrave[] and stamp[] himself into and upon” Jäcki, to pick up Nietzsche’s model� In Eine Glückliche Liebe , the strategy by which this decrease of resistance, this figurative “[T]öt[ung] d[e]s hassenswerte[n] Ich[s],” as the program was called in Versuch über die Pubertät , is facilitated, is one of self-alienation; a strategy that can be understood, in turn, as an inverse figure to Nietzsche’s inversion model, that is, as an inversion of the second order, if you will� Where Nietzsche states in The Dawn of Day that the other actually is nothing else than a hollow body, but that, nevertheless, we ascribe a false positivity to him and make him a satellite of our own system, Jäcki, on the contrary, makes himself or rather lets the others make himself, first, a “Hohlform” and, second, a satellite to his own system� Nietzsche’s constellation is reversed once more, the others are handed the control over how Jäcki perceives himself� With regard to himself, his perspective does not differ from the perspective of the other; with regard to himself, he occupies the same position as the other, which - and that is the whole point - might bring him closer to the other and may facilitate a better understanding of him� At least, that is the bet� In conclusion, I would like to succinctly summarize once more the central theses of the paper at hand� Against the background of the close connection between eros and episteme in Fichte’s novels, the orgasm figures both as a libidinous and epistemic climax of epiphanous and ecstatic quality, promising a special perception and recognition of the I, the other, and the world. In Fichte’s autofictional works, the orgasm is imagined and aimed at as a condition of an unconscious consciousness, in which one experiences the world and the other more intensely by giving up, at least to a certain degree, the self-organization under the banner of the I� At the same time, however, sexuality, that is, sexuality with one other man, and the orgasm are characterized as disillusioning, disappointing, and sobering, which has led Martin Dannecker to the argument that, in Fichte’s works, sexuality is of significance only as a possibility to be realized and as a fortune withheld� The orgasm - insofar it is reached at all - is either characterized as a moment all too volatile, so that one is not capable of actually savoring and reflecting upon the distinguished epistemic moment just experienced; or it is presented as a libidinous event horizon, behind which the actual epistemic fulfilment lies. An epistemic and libidinous ideal appears, on the contrary, in the form of the female orgasm, as it is described by Irma in Hotel Garni � In the female orgasm, a double rhythm of consciousness and unconsciousness, a simultaneity of reflexivity and irreflexivity, and the transfer of the I into ecstatic 282 Stefan Breitrück and intersubjective spheres are actually realized. Jäcki then finds a form of erotic and epistemic fulfilment in the course of his first orgy with three other men, as depicted in the final chapter of Eine Glückliche Liebe � Here, he experiences something that comes very close to Irma’s sensations and perceptions during orgasm, precisely because he simultaneously assumes a male and female penetration role, thereby combining a male and female principle, if you will, which makes the scene a decidedly bisexual one� Jäcki’s state of mind in the steam bath is, at the same time, reflexive and irreflexive, conscious and unconscious. Moreover, his orgasm renders him a diaphanous medium, which simultaneously experiences and registers the I, the world, and the other� Finally, this orgasmic condition as a medium and a registrator, as a participant and a reflector in or of the world, respectively, advertises the conception of the ideal ethnological viewpoint in Fichte’s works� Notes 1 For a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Hubert Fichte’s poetic practices and techniques with special regard to the autofictional character of his novels, see Bandel, Nachwörter � For the publication history of Fichte’s Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit and the problems accompanying this publication, see the contributions in Bandel, ed� 2 For a critical voice against subsuming these four novels under the banner “Hamburger Tetralogie,“ see Böhme (“Bertil Madsen” 119—20)� 3 A welcome exception to this observation is Benedikt Wolf ’s (228—69) recent reading of Detlev’s first, proto-sexual experience in the form of a so-called “flicken“ with his friend Sepp, as depicted in Fichte’s Waisenhaus (47—48)� 4 In an interview with Hubert Fichte, which can be found in Fichte’s documentary feature Petersilie (2010 [1980]), the ethnologist Angelika Pollatz-Eltz remarked straightforwardly with regard to the role of the “Sexus“ within the “Trancereligionen“ of the Americas: “Die Trance kann ein Substitut für den Orgasmus sein” (121)� 5 The motive of the dis-organ-ized body as a provider of a distinguished and more intense perception of the I, the world, and the I within this very world tentatively points at Gilles Deleuze’s and Félix Guattari’s remarks in their essay “November 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs? ” from A Thousand Plateaus � In general, a study devoted to the numerous and striking conceptual parallels between Hubert Fichte’s fictional and non-fictional texts on the one hand and Deleuze’s philosophy on the other would be a worthwhile endeavor, to say the least� “Der Mime wurde doppelt erfüllt�” On Hubert Fichte’s Bi-Orgasmology 283 6 Amongst others, Fichte’s early and posthumously published “Schauspiel” Ödipus auf Håknäss (1992) bears literary witness to this preoccupation with Freud’s writings� For comprehensive readings of this play with special regard to its psychoanalytical dimension, see Böhme ( Riten des Autors 299—326) and Breitrück� For Fichte’s rather unsuccessful beginnings as a playwright in the 1950s and early 1960s and for, again, predominantly psychoanalytically inspired readings of his early plays, see Bandel ( Hotel Garni, Doppelzimmer 49—68)� 7 For shrewd remarks on Fichte’s program of a “Verwörterung der Welt,” especially in comparison and in sharp contrast to a reverse “Weltverwörterung,” see Trzaskalik (161—64)� 8 For an application of the heartbeat motive in a decidedly ethnological surrounding, marking the idea or ideal, respectively, of a diffusion of the positions of the own and the other in the sense described by Irma, see Fichte’s note in the Venezuela chapter of Petersilie : “Trommeln vom Berg her� / Herzschlag aussen� Die Welt als Herz um mich herum” (73)� 9 For the proto-queer conceptualization of bisexuality in Fichte’s Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit and for its bisexual telos, see Fichte‘s remarks in an interview with Gisela Lindemann in 1981: “Ich sprach von Homosexualität� Tatsächlich wird die Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit homosexuelle Verhaltensweisen zu dokumentieren versuchen� Der Fluchtpunkt, von dem man nicht wegflieht, sondern auf den man hinflieht - oder sagen wir besser: die Perspektive - ist ganz sicher, und das versteht sich ja von selbst: raus aus dem closet� / Darauf können wir uns aber nicht einschränken lassen� Ich glaube, es geht darum, nicht mehr zu diskriminieren, weder so noch so� Auch der Homosexuelle darf nicht, wie der Neger jetzt, in der Reaktion auf den Rassismus in einen neuen Rassismus verfallen� Es ist überhaupt nichts damit getan, daß Homosexuelle jetzt als Homosexuelle anerkannt werden� Damit leistet sich die Welt, die normale Welt, ein neues Ghetto, und auf eine ganz verdrehte schlimme Weise akzeptiert der Homosexuelle damit wieder ein neues Ghetto� Wenn Rosa von Praunheim mir vorwirft - was er getan hat -, Du verrätst die schwule Sache, indem du mit einer Frau zusammenlebst, akzeptieren wir auf eine fast nationalsozialistische Art das Ghetto, in das wir hineingestoßen worden sind� Ich glaube, die Perspektive kann nur sein die der Bisexualität, überspitzt ausgedrückt� […] Die Perspektive muß sein: jeder sei das, was er sei, ohne eine sexuelle Spezifizierung” (Lindemann 313—14)� For Fichte’s bisexual telos and utopia, see concisely Gillett ( Aber eines lügt er nicht 244—47)� 284 Stefan Breitrück 10 For Fichte’s or Jäcki’s position, respectively, “auf dem Zaun,” that is - amongst others - on the border between the own and the other, see paradigmatically Härle� 11 For Fichte’s insistence on preserving scientific distance, see, for example, his refusal to get himself inducted into the very religions and rituals he did research on, even though that might have helped him to better understand them, as expressed in his documentary feature Lazarus und die Waschmaschine (1985): “Der andre Weg, sich einweihen zu lassen, erscheint, wenn nicht überhaupt unmöglich, so doch fragwürdig� Wird ein Neophyt noch wissenschaftlich vorgehen mögen? Außerdem schlösse die Einweihung ja gerade diejenigen Veränderungen des Bewußtseins ein, die es ungetrübt zu beobachten gilt” (165)� Works Cited Bandel, Jan-Frederik� Hubert Fichte. Hotel Garni, Doppelzimmer � Aachen: Rimbaud, 2004� ---� “Messer und Scheide� Androgynie, Bisexualität und Gewalt bei Hubert Fichte�” Neue Rundschau 4 (2010): 205—16� ---� Nachwörter. Zum poetischen Verfahren Hubert Fichtes � Aachen: Rimbaud, 2008� ---, ed� Tage des Lesens. Hubert Fichtes Geschichte der Empfindlichkeit � Aachen: Rimbaud, 2006� Böhme, Hartmut� “Bertil Madsen: Auf der Suche nach einer Identität� Studien zu Hubert Fichtes Romantetralogie Das Waisenhaus , Die Palette , Detlevs Imitationen ‘Grünspan’ und Versuch über die Pubertät [Review]�” Forum Homosexualität und Literatur 11 (1991): 117—26� ---� Hubert Fichte. 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