OSCULARE FUNDAMENTUM

I recently learned a new bit of Latin from the wife. Actually I guess it was really through the wife that I found this bit of language not so much that she taught it to me, but let’s not play semantics. The Latin in question is from the medieval morality play Mankind. The vice Nowadays tells the virtue Mercy: “Osculare Fundamentum!” For those of you not up on your Latin slang this translates to “Kiss my Ass!” Nowadays uses the Latin here to mock the Latin of the church – which Mercy represents – insulting not only Mercy, but also the loftiness of the church.

This phrase – “osculare fundementum” – has started me thinking about a more recent manifestation of the phrase, this one being the classic utterance of Polly Holliday as Flo on the classic 70s/80s show Alice. “Kiss my grits.” While Nowadays shifts from English to Latin to insult Mercy, Flo utilizes a southern vernacular – simultaneously maintaining propriety through the substitution of “grits” while asserting her role as the arbitrator of service in the context of the diner. Here – as perhaps it always it – the phrase is fundamentally a declaration of power, often a reversal of accepted or anticipated power structures.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the essential physical implications of the base phrase: kiss my ass. To do so the kisser assumedly must get down on their knees, bow to the other and accept an inferior position. I think we can simply assume the relationship between the beginning and ending orifices in digestion as significant here, along with a nearly endless array of other lines of examination. For the moment I want to focus on this one physical demand: get down on your knees and kiss my ass.

Jump back to Mankind for a moment. Mercy – as a virtue – is esteemed, valued, and culturally ascendant. Nowadays – as a vice – is lowly, to be despised. Yet within the morality play – pause for thanks to the wife for her wonderful mind – Mercy is boring, while the vices are the most interesting parts of the play. Nowadays asserts – at least linguistically – what power he has. While Mercy is his moral superior – as the church is also the economic and political superior to the lowly – Nowadays is physical, carnal, in short, he is interesting. This is the demand of “Osculare fundamentum!” You may be my superior by cultural convention, but I am still here and I demand your respect – or at least a performance of acquiescence.

Cut back to Flo. Flo is a classic example of beauty and potential diminished, left unfulfilled or incomplete. She has accepted her life – in fact has mastered it – but there is a perpetual pathos in watching her. She is neither the dim-witted Vera nor the transitional Alice. Flo is simply where she is and there seems no other possibility. But, there is a line to never be crossed. She has resigned herself to a low-paying job and a string of fruitless relationships, but she demands her dignity; she will not be condescended to nor will she suffer unwanted objectification. Even though others may have economic power over her – most notably the diner owner Mel – she is still resolutely human.

That is the command of “Kiss my grits!” or “Osculare fundamentum!” the other may have the social, cultural, or economic authority, but must still negotiate the presence of the other. It is a cry out in the face of subjugation that the world can only impose so far before the utterer asserts all that they have left, their being. It is the last resort of dignity, even if spoken in an undignified way. It is a protest against reduction: the demands of Diogenes and of Marx. It is a refusal to be regarded as nothing. At the very least the speaker has an ass – or metaphorical grits – and the world can just get down on its knees and kiss it.