I have commented before (most notably here, on Froogville - but also frequently here on the Barstool) on my weakness for barmaids. It's a common male vice, I know. They're nice to us, they talk to us, they even flirt with us - and they keep us supplied with drink. How can we not love them? Perhaps even the physical barrier between us - the bar acting as a kind of chastity belt - is a strange, perversely alluring provocation. So near and yet so far away......
Yes, I've had it bad for a few barmaids in my time. (I ought to write about The Anchor on Polstead Road sometime.... [done now!])
Luckily, this is one frustration I am spared here in China. Girls are common as waitresses in bars, and sometimes even as spangly-skirted promotional houris plugging some expensive beer or other - but, for some reason, they are just about never seen behind the bar; here, that is a strictly male preserve. (Perhaps it's just that most Chinese girls wouldn't be able to see over the top of a bar?)
No, here the idle infatuations are limited to the waitress, the DJ, that cute girl dancing on her own.....
10 comments:
"houris"??
has that word entered the English language? has it entered common usage among English speakers who are not of an Arabic-source-language heritage? or are you using it just because you are you and you are well-read?
Had you used it in a poem, I would have automatically chalked it up to your literary education. But even, then, would have been a bit surprised. After all, you've so far proven yourself to be literarily-gifted in the Greek, Roman and other Western classics. This is the first hint of a non-western knowledge base.
But you used it in a prose post ... as though all your readers would know what it is. Which leads me back to the questions I asked above.
No, you got me - I was just "showing off".
I think houri does have some currency in (British) English, and is almost certainly featured in the full version of the Oxford English Dictionary, but it's probably not all that widely known or commonly used.
It is, however, a very good word, one that fits the context above very aptly. I don't think we have any English words that serve the purpose. And by the by, I strongly suspect - although I don't have a decent etymological dictionary - that 'whore' is derived from it.
There's long been a strong vein of 'orientalism' in English literature, particularly in the Victorian era (e.g., Fitzgerald's 'translation' of the Rubaiyat or Burton's of the "1,001 Nights"), so I imagine I've picked up a lot of these references from that. "7th Heaven", for example, is a common English expression, but most people don't realise it stems from a Muslim tradition. If you read a lot of 19th (and early 20th Century) literature, however, you start to pick up on the origins of some of these references.
Now I come to think of it, I think P.G. Wodehouse may be responsible for a lot of my arcane knowledge as well; his humour is enormously erudite, stuffed full of (what would today be often hopelessly obscure) Bibilical and Classical references.
The word itself may be non-gender-specific, but in the context of the Islamic Jannah the attributes given to them are mostly very feminine. And since they are supposed to be the (sexual) rewards of righteous men (women can't get into Jannah, can they??), and since homosexuality is a big no-no, then they must be female, surely? As far as I can discover that has been the universal interpretation in the Muslim tradition as well as in the West.
Well, I suppose they could be non-conventionally-sexed, but female in appearance. I don't know if there's any clear tradition on what they are or where they come from - human, jinn, angel? But nobody has ever called a houri male, I don't think.
Ah, I learn from my further researches that apparently women can get in to Jannah.... but The Prophet keeps a modest silence on what kind of sexual rewards might be awaiting them there.... whereas rather a lot has been said about the gorgeousness of the houris awaiting the men.
On a not unrelated note, the film Blade Runner had an enormous cultural impact at the end of my high school days, and continued to resonate through my undergraduate life. One of the great lines in it, describing the specification of the lovely Darryl Hannah's 'replicant' ('biological robots' - genetically engineered humans with superhuman capabilities but sub-human status) prostitute, is: "just your basic pleasure model".
I blush to recall that some of my friends of the time actually used to use the acronym BPM to describe a pretty-but-dim girl they were interested in trying to seduce.
Tulsa, if you're still interested in the 'Are houris necessarily female?' question, you could check out the very thorough discussion in this imam's view.
Well, everything one commonly reads about the Muslim Jannah seems to be directed towards men. And the fact that houris have to be provided for their comfort seems to imply that they won't be accompanied by their earthly wives.
Is there gender segregation in Paradise?? Are women only allowed in at the lowest levels??
If women are there, it just seems to be never discussed. And that leads easily to an assumption that they just aren't allowed in. I think that's an assumption that has been shared and reinforced by some male British Muslims I've known.
Sorry if I was mistaken on that. I did raise it as a question, after all. I don't presume to any great knowledge of the religion. (Well, I did read most of the Quran in an English translation - but that was many years ago, and I've forgotten it all. And I don't really know anything about the hadith.)
I'm not just talking to myself. Really.
But Tulsa decided she didn't want to get into a discussion about religious issues on a public forum, so asked me to remove some of the comments she'd made earlier on the 'houri' question.
She had originally pointed out to me that the Arabic word for this has no gender. And that's just the first step into a highly-charged debate amongst Muslims as to what the notion of 'Paradise' is all about, and whether it's an equal-opportunities prospect for women and men alike.
I think there are a number of interesting issues here - about popular perceptions (or misconceptions) of Islamic culture in the West, about religious concepts of the 'afterlife' in general, about the relative status of men and women in different religions and cultures.... and so much more.
I daresay the discussion will surface on my blogs elsewhere at some point.
In my further researches on this topic this morning, I did find this angry question from a female Muslim about the horrible sexism involved in the promises of multiple 'wives' (sex slaves?) as a 'reward' in Paradise for righteous Muslim men. I found the imam's response to this very unconvincing.
Tulsa, Froog, it actually has entered the English language. Many people have read or are familiar with the 1001 nights, as I see Froog already has mentioned, and this word has been used a lot in the past few years and I think many people know it now.
About the promisses to the men about the houries on the other side, and the lack of advertisment about what women get on the other side; well what else were they going to promiss the men to convince them to do any unthinkable thing in this world and still remain abstinent or faithful to their wives -even if at war for most of their married lives- ??
That is clever marketting!
I've always held to this quaint view that righteousness should be its own reward - that you shouldn't have to 'bribe' people with promises of material rewards.
And if you are going to do that.... well, offer me a good bar and a magic pint of Guinness and I'd ready to consider martyrdom....
Of course, Islam gave up on that inducement, so there's only really sex left.
A marvellously succint, surprisingly cynical observation on the above debate from my pal The Chairman the other day: "It wouldn't be Heaven if your wife was there."
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