LIVES AND WIVES OF A GENIUS
155
some connections he had found between the ideas of this author
and certain seventeenth-century motifs. When questioned about
this he replied that he was not interested in the poet he had re–
viewed, except as an occasion for some generalizations. But why,
then, he was asked, did he undertake to write the review, to which
he answered, "I could write a review of a dog."
Stanley Green was not especially interested in women, though
he did talk a great deal to them. It was mainly to their ears that
he addressed himself, and
if
he made any distinction in this re–
spect between men and women, it was because he had found that
women, especially under thirty, would listen to
him
more avidly
and for longer stretches. Most women could not explain their inter–
est in him, for though they thought him sexless they found them–
selves drawn to him.
As
one woman put it, "It's not that he is
physically attractive. But he excites you-like a runaway horse.
And nobody asks the sex of the horse-he might even be castrated."
Men could not at all understand his appeal, which didn't pre–
vent them from having theories about it, mostly malicious ones
that did not conceal their envy. The most satisfying theory was that
men, unlike women, did not have to be attractive, and while it did
not explain very much it did at least correspond to some of the facts.
For Stanley was quite short and bony, his hips and shoulders stick–
ing out awkwardly, while his large head, carrying a wild mustache
and dark, bulging eyes, rested heavily on his body as though it had
been added as an afterthought. He had a kind of nervous mobility,
especially when he was talking, as every part of him seemed to par–
ticipate in what he was saying, like some physical inflection to his
voice. All his movements were coordinated, except for a tic that
made
him
blink his eyes and turn up one corner of his mouth every
few seconds, and continued to animate his face even when he was
not talking.
Despite his detachment, Stanley was always involved in some
way with a woman. He was either being pursued by, or leaving, or
being left by one. But he had also had several wives, though nobody
could remember any more than three. Everybody, however, re–
membered his first wife, Sue, perhaps because she was so wholesome
and trusting, and because they were sorry for her.
