
British thinker Adam Phillips, in his wonderful work The Beast in the Nursery, understands well the slow and subtle eros of hints. The artist inside us, he writes, is “all the time on the lookout for material to make a dream with.” In a series of pregnant sentences, Phillips writes, “For Keats, inspiration means being able to take the hint”¦ It is not only a tuned responsiveness; it is also an unconscious radar for affinities; for what speaks to one by calling up one’s own voice.”
There is a self-fulfilling circle: the deeper one enters one’s character and voice, the more whisperings are heard and hints detected. Of course, the wink, the subtle gestures, the tilt of the head, all these are the language of lovers; hints and intimations, the hallmark of intimacy.
Dr. Marc Gafni
The Erotic and the Holy