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Norman Brown's Life Against Death was in part argument by analysis, in part argument by metaphor. The present work is primarily an appeal by metaphor. It is composed of Nietzsche-type aphorisms, of brief hortatory pronouncements which, at times, have the temper of prophecy and incantation. The last lines of the book tell us: “Everything is a metaphor; there is only metaphor.” This is followed by a quotation from Gowinda's Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism to the effect that people are not converted by the audible word and that the perfect saint is called the “Silent One.” Such is the rhythm of the book that one gets the feeling that the sole relevant response is to murmur: “The rest is silence.” At the same time, one is impressed with Brown's earnestness and authenticity, by his poetic analogies which he draws from disparate writings in East and West. But, Brown does not try to convince, perhaps only to convert.
If there is an “argument” in Love's Body, it is that logical argumentation is beside the point. Perhaps deliberately (but one is never sure), Brown presents antitheses, oppositions, contraries. It is therefore easy (and quite unfair) to “catch” Brown in contradictions. Possibly, in contradicting himself,