Ever wondered about the political uses of a kiss, the kiss's changing
status or legendary movie kisses? Do you find yourself needing to say
the word in Albanian, Icelandic or even, perchance, Maori?
Fear not. "A Compendium of Kisses," the guide to everything oscular --
that's "of or pertaining to kissing" for the unenlightened -- tells
all about one of the world's most universal gestures, whether simple
greeting or sublime.
"When I came to look at the kiss, the romantic side is such a small
part of it," said British novelist and actress Lana Citron, who
compiled the book.
"I love how when you're born, the first thing is, you're kissed,
you're welcomed into the world. It's this little gesture that follows
you throughout life, through all the most important parts of your
life."
Citron's interest in kisses began with a short story she wrote a
decade ago about a lonely woman who collected kisses in jars -- such
as one for the lover who spurned her, one that was full of yearning --
and labeled them.
That led to her invitation to do an installation of kisses in jars,
all labeled, as part of an art exhibition. The response of viewers
sent her to the internet, searching out books on kisses and deciding
to write her own when nothing seemed just right.
"It was almost like opening a Pandora's chest and just being
overwhelmed by all the different ways a kiss is expressed, the
meanings attached to it and the things it symbolizes," she said.
"I fell in love with it, I really did. I was submerged in the world of
kisses for a year and came out of it with a book."
Her compendium mingles brief kiss anecdotes with kiss factoids and
scraps of poetry to cover evolutionary kisses, bonding kisses, artful
kisses, screen kisses, bike shed kisses or first kisses, passionate
kisses, Kama Sutra kisses, animal kisses and even The Death Kiss, to
name just a few.
She also traces the evolution of kissing through history, from its use
in Christian religious ceremonies -- "greet ye one another with a
kiss" -- to its social role as a greeting on many levels, including
between kings and the vassals they ruled.
"Then the kiss suddenly becomes eroticized, also compounded by
advances made in dentistry. Once it becomes eroticized, it also
becomes highly contentious socially," she said.
