Daniel Gilbert - The Lawless Onion

While reading the fascinating work of Jane Ellen Harrison, Art and Ancient Ritual, I came across a fascinating quip that has confused me since lunch yesterday. To provide some context, Harrison is discussing the relationship between primitive man and the moon. The actuation of this discussion is brought about by the assumed precept that primitive man, and even man today, has two basic desires that drive them in their pursuits; food and children. Each is dependent on the other, as food allows for the survival of man and the better chance of him to reproduce and continue his species. These biological drives are natural to every man and laid aside as simply instinct. Though very interesting and might I dare say even enlightening, a small bit of what followed bothered me deeply. One can observe the beginning of what I can only describe as a personal hell of wonderment and fear in the following quote:

“The moon, as it were, practises magic herself; she waxes and wanes, and with her, man thinks, all the vegetable kingdom waxes and wanes too, all but the lawless onion.” (Parenthesis added for dangerous emphasis)

I can only hope that any fellow human being with any inkling of sensibility be as bewildered as I am about the mention of this “lawless onion”. To be frank, I am rather distraught as to what this “lawless onion” could possibly have to do with a fascinating albeit seemingly unrelated work on the origins of art and ritual. So began my journey to discover what the “lawless onion” was. At the outset I was rather curious and adopted a, shall we say, premature view of what the “lawless onion” could represent. This is what I came up with at the outset. (Please refer to fig. 1A for a regular onion and fig. 1B for a representation of a “lawless onion.”)

As any rational man can plainly see, the “lawless onion” looks rather dangerous, and may I dare go so far as to suggest... sinister. If we could look into the eyes of the onion I have no doubt we would see nothing but a bottomless pit of depravity and hatred, but in trying to do so we would see how minacious the lawless onion really is; it does not have eyes. The lawless onion exists on different terms than the rest of life as we know it as described by Ms. Harrison. One could say it would draw you close to tears.

After a spell, I attempted to approach the subject rationally. I did some research into the growing times of onions. Depending on the region they are grown during the summer or the type of onion desired they are harvested in both winter and summer. A summer onion produces an onion with thinner layers and of a lighter complexion, while winters of the winter are thicker and appear darker. My initial hypothesis was that onions do not obey seasonal tendencies and are therefore “lawless”, but I fear this is not true. Though they grow in all seasons, they are still seasonal and fairly different from each season to next. After scouring the internet and looking into the origins of the onion, nothing seemed to emerge on what made onions so lawless. I digress.

The “lawless onion” remains shrouded in mystery. I know not what it could mean or what it is up to. I believe that this seemingly offhand mention of the “lawless onion” should be heeded as a warning. No one is safe and nothing is certain. Anything may be permitted. I will continue my search but I don't believe I will ever find out what the lawless onion might be. Though I have set aside my endless pursuit of discovering what it may be, my fear I cannot so easily ignore. My pursuit of beauty has become much more as it seems that instead of me being the hunter, I have become... the hunted.