I continue to support and defend pornography, which I believe exposes the deepest, darkest truths about sexuality. As an industry, pornography also helps to rebalance the modern psyche: middle-class workers are trapped with their tyrannical machines at home and office. Pornography, with its surging animal energies and guiltless display of the body, brings the flame of organic nature into that mineral wasteland.
~ Camille Paglia writing in SalonWhat struck me is how she skillfully juxtaposed organic with inorganic -- "mineral wasteland" being another name for "inorganic." This is an old archetypical dichotomy in chemistry.
________________________
* The title is a hat tip to a certain Trooper York reader for complaining that Lem blogpost titles were too cryptic.
74 comments:
I love Paglia. She and I have similar tastes in women.
Cinematic copulation as Prometheus.
Cute.
Are we talking about boobs again??
*folds arms tightly around chest*
Talking about a crazy brilliant lesbian professor and her love for porn, actually.
Boobs is kinda tangential to the discussion.
Ah Paglia. Loves cigars, Rush Limbaugh, football and real figured brunette women. And apparently porn. Plus she's really, really smart. And funny.
Have I mentioned I love her?
Darcy said...
Are we talking about boobs again??
There's always room for jello!
Paglia makes sense some times.
This ain't one of them.
ed doesn't like porn.
Paglia's respect for men goes back to the good men in her family growing up. There are 2 basic types of lesbians, those who love women, and those who hate men. Paglia is the former.
So am I.
That surprises no one.
Without porn there would not be an internet.
Porn is why Al Gore invented it in the first place.
I like Paglia, but she's crazy.
complaining that Lem blogpost titles were too cryptic.
The cryptic post the commenter might be referring to is called "Lean In". I'm guessing.
"Lean In" is something I picked up at TOP. Its about a book that some babe wrote. no disrespect to the babes here.
"Leaning in" is familiar to boxing, cycling and if you count the woman that wrote the book Lean In is also apparently a feminist thing, ie Oprah.
Too cryptic.
Lean In.
edutcher said...
That surprises no one.
I really do like you, eduardo. You make this worth doing.
Thank you.
Sounds like the priest doesn't care for porn either.
(all due respect, Father).
The internet informs me that a great many ostensibly heterosexual males want to put their penis into a rectum.
Ms. Paglia probably knows better than I what to make of that "deepest, darkest trut[h] about sexuality."
In any event, there seems to be a great deal of rebalancing of the modern psyche going on.
LOL, El Pollo.
Re Paglia's opinion, I'm torn. I think porn is - well, the arguments against are persuasive to me, the Christian perspective, in particular.
The torn part is the sinner in me, I'm convinced.
I like Paglia, but she's crazy.
Being an earnest disciple of Marshall McLuhan will do that to you. Sometimes I think there ought to be a postmodern theory of psychological humors, one of which is perversity or contradiction; if so, Paglia has a severe overbalance of that humor. She takes positions for their deliberate incoherence with her current gestalt, as if she were cultivating her public personality into a perfected cultural absurdity so pure as to be impervious to analysis or prediction.
What would those postmodern humors be? Perversity, for one. Trollery, Irony, obsessiveness?
"Pornography, with its surging animal energies and guiltless display of the body, brings the flame of organic nature into that mineral wasteland."
Oh, bullshit.
It's pure narcissism, where images are preferred over real humans because the pictures don't know you, and you can pretend to be who you imagine yourself to be.
It's certainly guiltless,as narcissists cannot feel guilt, only shame.
That's not a plus.
The words "the flame of organic nature into that mineral wasteland" are mere academic nonsense, polysyllabic masturbation, professor porn.
MH:
"What would those postmodern humors be? Perversity, for one. Trollery, Irony, obsessiveness?"
Are we limited to four?
Paglia has had bascially one great idea...that women are goddesses that men seek after, or some such.
It is her endless talking, and loving the sound of her own annoying voice that I find off-putting.
Her analyses of Palin during the '08 election were fabulous.
Porn is okay and necessary, and even art, but I wish it could be confined to non-perverse, non mind-staining themes, which child porn and themes like women with mouths sewn shut, are.
non mind-staining themes, which child porn and themes like women with mouths sewn shut, are.
Good Lord, which websites are you going to?
Not sure about Paglia, but I'm inclined to think she's a very accomplished huckster.
For instance, during the first year or so of Obama's first term, while she was still writing semi-regularly for Salon, she was quite critical of him. But then she got very quiet and didn't appear on the scene again until a year or so ago when she had a new book out. Heard her say anything political lately?
I like Paglia too, and I agree she is crazy. But so was Hunter S. Thompson and I liked him too.
She and her partner have had a child. She took time off from all work to spend time at home with said child, and I think to work on the book during the child-slack time.
"non-perverse, non mind-staining themes, which child porn and themes like women with mouths sewn shut"
Bizarre porn heralds the end of a society, the fin de siècle.
deborah said...
Porn is okay and necessary, and even art
Art???
I didn't know art was supposed to be brain-dead.
There is artistic porn, ed.
Broaden your mind once. Put away all those pictures of Madame and live a little.
"Art???"
Yes???
"So what did you do today?"
"Well, I re-stacked the old hay so I could stack new hay, cleaned up the barn after, did the chores, did some business stuff and talked about porn with eddie utcher, a priest and a woman with retinal rage.
How about you?"
Oy.
Isn't Ars gratuitous artis the logo of some Hollywood studio?
LOL (but his name is Ed, a pal of mine) You're not Penelope Trunk's husband, are you?
To be completely honest I'm not sure I could pick Penelope Trunk out of a line up. I'm probably going to have to google her in a minute just to see who she is.
He says his name is edutcher. People call him ed. Should we capitalize it if they don't? I used to get in trouble at Jeralyn's Zimmerman site cuz there's a guy calls himself 'unitron' and if you ever type 'Unitron' he'll get mad and correct you.
So I never know anymore.
But I like eddie. Even though he doesn't believe it.
Crap. Stupid brain. Yeah, Penelope Trunk. Cool lady. Slightly autistic IIRC. Read about her first in one of James Altucher's books.
She learned to be able to talk to people by memorizing cues that would tip her off as to how to respond.
Sadly--I've never mastered that.
I always mean to read her blog but always forget.
Me 'n Palladian are holding hands down on the autism scale I think.
Melanie Griffith lashes out at 'superficial' Hollywood machine
I definitely try to stick to the capitalizations or non, as people have their names written, but I started calling him Ed once we emailed about some of his ideas for
"edutcher was wondering..."
If I get to know you better, I'll call you cody, natch, lol
You really on the autism scale?
Yeah, Penelope's kind of cool, but in small doses. She's so full of energy.
@Lem: "Superficial" means skin deep. You caught the irony too?
I've never asked anyone to diagnose it, but I'm fairly sure of it.
Either that or I was raised in a cave by wolves.
So Paglia thinks that Porn is the anti-thesis of the middle-class cog machine. That pr0n gives the prols something to do in alleviating their pent up animal urges while they commit acts of prosperity at the behest of their oligarch taskmasters?
Meth, I'd guess she means that porn helps alleviate lives of quiet desperation. Or is that what you just said :)
Cody, Tyler Cowen said in a Econtalk interview that self-diagnosed autism is often misdiagnosed, sometimes based on magazine article like 'take this test to see if you're autistic.'
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/09/cowen_on_cultur.html
I say it because I don't pick up on a lot of cues and so forth. I'm not trying to say I'm an undiagnosed asperger's victim really. It's just that it fits well. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it or anything.
To be perfectly honest I think a lot of the higher functioning autism stuff is hogwash.
It's just awkward people. There have always been awkward people. In past times they went and got jobs where it didn't matter, or they were taught.
Neither of those really happens any more.
But what do I know. I'm just an aging gangster that blew himself up in a refinery.
deborah said...
Art???
Yes???
"Clair de Lune" is art, "Anna Karenina" is art, "The Adoration of the Magi" (even "The Little Fur") is art.
"Debbie Does Dallas"?
I don't think so.
The John Tierney NYT article on NYC strip clubs covers one aspect
Tierney 11/9/1998.
I can access it but maybe not everybody can? I paid for the article once years ago and maybe that sticks.
Anyway the point is that you get a testerone boost, which raises your spirits after a morning of defeat at work, if you're a guy.
My own take on porn is that guys are attracted to female genitals, as they are wired to. This makes no sense to guys. Paglia comes in somewhere in Sexual Personae with the astute observation that the guy in the adult bookstore staring at the magazines isn't look for gratification but for answers.
Of which there aren't any, unless you outgrow the wiring.
It's like being unchained from a maniac, Aristotle said.
And Picasso suddenly lost interest in his models at age 80.
That neuron stopped firing.
The point of porn is getting rid of an obsession for a while, for a guy. A hormone flood takes care of it, wiringwise.
That's a public good, at least for guys. It lowers the leverage of girls with guys, since the guys aren't obsessed all the time.
They have time for football and commenting.
So if you're a woman you should be against porn, not for objectification but as competition.
To me, Paglia is better if read, than viewed. I can handle her on video, but I prefer to read her. She did an extended interview w/ Brian Lamb, the best interviewer I've ever seen. Just Lamb's demeanor kept Paglia down a gear. She would gear up @ times but he kept her focused. I'll say she's eccentric, but I'm not going to argue w/ those who say crazy.
"Clair de Lune" is art
Get the right Clair de Lune Fauré.
The Debussy one is crap.
rhardin w/ a comment worthy of a prize. Bravo, sir.
Victor Borge was so sick of Clair de Lune he called it Clear the Room.
He was correct. Maudlin, but treacly.
Obviously, many disagree.
And a lot of people just heard the mention of Borge's name and flipped the channel.
So if you're a woman you should be against porn, not for objectification but as competition.
Some women also enjoy porn, which, if I agreed with your suggestion, would work out well for the guys as well. Win-win.
Some women also enjoy porn, which, if I agreed with your suggestion, would work out well for the guys as well.
I can't judge the women's point of view. Paglia is supposed to be the point of view virtuoso on orientations.
To be parallel, the porn would have to turn off an obsession. Do women watch longer than seven minutes?
Special Ed - you do realize this is the comment section of a blog, right? Not some channel on television. You can't change the channel, there is no tuner associated with this blog.
That also means that you won't be able to watch your favorite porn movie here - you know the one I mean "Annie Gets Paddled in Shorts".
Victor Borge's a damn genius. One of my best memories as a kid was watching one of his specials with my grandfather--it was the first time he'd ever seen him and the old man laughed himself silly. So sod off if you don't like Borge.
Notice I said "sod" instead of "fuck". I'm trying to be nice.
Oh damn. I guess I ruined that. Oh well. You get my point.
Sixty...LMAO. Annie Gets Paddled In Shorts. That's brilliant. Fucking brilliant.
please, madame...may I snuffle and suckle your hobbit feet? I promise to be ever so gentle...
Seven minutes? That doesn't include cuddling, I gather.
What do you do with a guy who doesn't like John Ford, doesn't like porn, doesn't like Victor Borge? Good grief.
Max and dismissive 99 flying to Russia :
00:23:35 Max: Since we are going to be portraying husband and wife...
00:23:38 Max: ...maybe we should get our story set.
00:23:41 99: Okay, good idea.
00:23:44 99: We met at a marketing convention in Vegas. Married a year later. No kids.
00:23:49 99: I like your parents, but you hate mine.
00:23:51 Max: Do we want kids?
00:23:52 99: Well, you do, but I'm concentrating on my career.
00:23:56 Max: I don't know if that's fair. I mean, I'm older than you are.
00:23:58 99: - Well, not by much. - Max: Really?
00:24:03 99: When they gave me a new face, I had them...
00:24:07 99: ...take a couple years off.
00:24:09 99: You know, why not?
00:24:12 Max: Well, if that's the case, then you are at an advanced age, and you should be...
00:24:17 99: Well, no. I was never...
00:24:19 Max: I'm just saying that your eggs could dry up and fall out of your uterus.
00:24:23 Max: So time is of the essence.
00:24:26 99: - That's your opinion. Max: - No, that is a medical fact.
00:24:30 99: There is a lot of time for me to make this decision.
00:24:33 99: I will not be rushed into it by you or my mother.
00:24:35 Max: - You don't have much time. - Where is the drink cart?
Get Smart (2008)
Seven minutes? That doesn't include cuddling, I gather.
If there's cuddling, there's no need for porn.
By the way, Eddie, my biz partner in TX is a dues paying member of the Texas Nationalist Movement.
He says there's no talk of breaking Texas into 5 states. Nowhere in any of the meetings, mailings, blogs, tweets, nothing.
He says the only 5 states they talk about are LA, OK, KS, AR and possibly NM which would come along if Texas secedes.
Ed, when I said art I was speaking of photographic art, though I guess there would naturally be cinematic pornography that is art. Not talking about Debbie Does Dallas type stuff or Hustler.
Debussy's Clair de Lune is absolutely lovely.
As far as Faure's, I prefer the Panzera version.
Wait a second. Darcy enjoys Porn?
Good to know.
Debbie does Dallas was a classic. Right up there with "New Wave Hookers" "Country Girl" "Taboo" "The Graffenburg Spot" and "Hannah Does Her Sisters."
Not that I know anything about it so to speak.
Sixty Grit said...
Special Ed - you do realize this is the comment section of a blog, right? Not some channel on television. You can't change the channel, there is no tuner associated with this blog.
I was speaking in the past tense, dear.
I know time is rough concept for some, but Borge's been dead how long?
deborah said...
Ed, when I said art I was speaking of photographic art, though I guess there would naturally be cinematic pornography that is art. Not talking about Debbie Does Dallas type stuff or Hustler.
OK, then.
Nick, thanks for the Brian Lamb tip. It is sure to be hilarious, what with him playing it cool. I adore him.
Trooper York said...
Wait a second. Darcy enjoys Porn?
Good to know.
She didn't actually say that.
I read it several times just to be sure.
Gee, I guess this is where I get to natter some Lefty about reading comprehension.
Oh, joy!
Seven minutes? That doesn't include cuddling, I gather.
If you regularly cuddle your porn, you've weirder than I.
Dutch wives and dakimakura and the like don't count as porn, right? Dakimakura have always freaked me out - it's this creepy mix of infantilism and otaku sleaze that I just find unsettling.
You missed my meaning, Mitch. As far as dakimakura, live and let live. Sounds like something a culture that has deified Hello Kitty would naturally do. Over here, we have something similar called body pillows that are generally used for support of the arms and legs during sleep. Especially helpful for arthritic joints, etc. And for security, too, I do not doubt.
Yeah, but rational & respectable people don't buy body pillows with nubile (or worse, pre-nubile) cartoon girls printed on them. ^_^
Or, I suppose, for the fujoshi/fudanshi set, ikemen or shota.
Mitch, you have increased my knowledge of Japanese culture. Do you consider yourself a Japanophile?
Nah, just a fanboy - er, make that otaku, I think I'm too old and too Northern to refer to myself as "boy" anymore. "Japanophile" suggests a certain partisanship, and I honestly think Japanese culture is hopelessly, fatally damaged. Their culture is broken, and I watch, horrified, as the national equivalent of a schoolbus full of children teeters on the edge of a cliff, swaying back-and-forth, inching its way ever further over the abyss.
But Japan is *interesting* in a way that Germany, with which I actually have some genetic relation, just isn't. Japan is a hot mess, a funhouse mirror, and a social trainwreck of epic proportions, rich enough to not evoke pity or the sort of shame which one might properly feel at gawking at the myriad social and cultural failures of, oh, say - Bolivia or Burkina Faso.
It helps that I am personally screwed-up in many of the same ways as my doomed Japanese contemporaries.
Cool post. You're otaku?...that's not good :( lol
Yeah, Japan comes across as crazy. I thought the movie Lost in Translation was a neat look at Tokyo(?)
Then there's the Fukushima mess.
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