Symbols and Sensuality

I've been musing upon the element of symbolism in sensuality.  I see things symbolically: it is the greater challenge for me to see things for what they really are, not for what they represent.  (But seeing things for what they represent is infinitely more rewarding to me!)

Take, for example, this picture.  It's a great house in Second Life built by Pre'Fabulous (it's the Modern house built by Pre'Fabulous!) and the art is beautiful.  The cubist rendering of the woman playing a musical instrument (a modern monument of achievement in art, actually) is so rich with symbolism for me that I want to squeal.  First, the woman is framed; she is on display.  The woman is represented by a man's perspective and a man's touch with brushstrokes.  She is not a free-flowing subject of natural chaos but, instead, a deconstructed and reconstructed system of shapes and lines (with a pleasantly rounded breast, the great untouchable femininity) re-created by an artist to show that there are characteristics there to examine.  There is a hidden side to a woman's face.  There is the ability to capture her and intrude upon her private moments.  The audience examines the painting as a master examines a woman.  The audience examines every line, every crease, every shadow until we know them intimately.  She is there to be examined intimately.  There is colour in a black-and-white rendering.  And the round, sinewy, cuffed and collared woman on the sofa is in a similar state of display and repose.  Life mirroring art, in many ways.  But let there be art, always.

I have devoured the "Fifty Shades" trilogy and long for the fantasy to continue transporting me.  The covers of each book are fetishized, little symbols.  The artwork is so charming... there is a silver tie; there is a silver mask; there is a pair of silver handcuffs.  None of these words -- a tie, a mask, a handcuff set -- can evoke a longing in me simply on their own.  The words are empty.  But I invest meaning in these words, greater than their original birthright even.  The symbolism is born, and suddenly the silver tie is more than fabric around the throat: it is the beginning of love.  The mask is more than an ornament: it is the beginning of a true marriage of souls.  The handcuffs are more than police-issue utilitarian metal: they are the demonstration of trust, the fulfillment of longing.  These symbols are everything to the imagination; and the imagination is the beginning of art; and art is why we love.  How you create makes you different from everybody else.  How you imagine makes you more or less compatible with someone else.  How you inspire with your words makes you compelling to greater or lesser degrees.  I had no idea when I embarked upon this journey to submission that there would be so much room for artistic expression.