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"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)
2005, Jul 07; 12:12 ::: List of film titles by alphabetBrought to you by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary (2002)
Clicking the titles will bring background info and images.
0-9 - 9 songs (2004)
A - Akira (1988) - Audition (1999) - ...And God Created Woman - (1956)
B - Baise-Moi (2000) - Bad Taste (1987) - Ballet Mécanique - (1924) - The Beast / La Bête (1975) - Bedazzled (1967) - Belle de Jour (1967) - Bitter Moon (1992) - Bitter Rice - (1949) - Blind Beast (1969) - Blue Velvet (1986) - Blow Up (1966) - Blood Feast (1963) - Body Double (1984) - Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Boogie Nights (1997) - The Brood (1979)
C - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - (1920) - Cafe Flesh (1982) - Caligula (1979) - Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - Casablanca - (1942) - Chelsea Girls (1966) - Citizen Kane - (1941) - Contempt (1963) - A Clockwork Orange (1971) - The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
D - Damage (1992) - Deep Throat (1972) - La Dolce Vita (1960) - Dracula - (several) - The Dreamers (2003)
E - Easy Rider (1969) - L' Ennui (1998) - Eraserhead (1977) - Extase - (1932) - Evil Dead (1981) - Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Eyes without a Face (1959)
F - Femina Ridens (1969) - Festen (1998) - Five Easy Pieces (1970) - Frankenstein - (several) - Funny Games (1997)
G - Garden of Eden - (1955) - Glen or Glenda? (1953) - (1953) - Going Places (1974) - La Grande Bouffe (1973)
H - The Hands of Orlac - (1925) - Henry & June (1990)
I - I Am Curious ... Blue/Yellow (1967) - I, A Woman (1965) - If.... (1968) - Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS (1974) - The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959) - Inserts (1975) - Intimacy (2000) - Irréversible (2002)
J - Jaws (1975)
K - Kärlekens språk (1969) - King Kong - (several) - The Kiss - (1896)
L - Last Tango in Paris (1972) - Last Year at Marienbad (1961) - Une Liaison Pornographique (1999) - Lolita (1962)
M - Ma Mère (2004) - Maîtresse (1973) - Man Bites Dog (1992) - The Masque of the Red Death (1964) - Midnight Cowboy (1969) - Mom and Dad (1945) - Mommie Dearest (1981) - Mondo Cane (1962) - My Own Private Idaho (1991)
N - Night of the Living Dead (1968) - The Night Porter (1974) - Nosferatu - (1922)
P - Peeping Tom (1960) - Performance (1970) - Persona (1966) - Pickpocket (1959) - Pretty Baby (1978) - Psycho (1960) - Pulp Fiction (1994)
Q - Repulsion (1965)
R - In the Realm of the Senses (1976) - Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980) - La Ricotta (1963) - Ridicule (1996) - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - Romance X (1999)
S - Secretary (2002) - Sex and Lucia (2001) - The Story of O (1975) - Straw Dogs (1971) - Swimming Pool (2003)
T - Taxi Driver (1976) - Tampopo (1985) - Teorema (1968) - Tetsuo (1988) - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Tokyo Decadence (1992) - El Topo (1970) - Twin Peaks (1990)
V - Videodrome (1983) - Le Voyage Dans La Lune - (1902)
W - The Whip and The Body (1963) - Women In Love (1970)
2005, Jul 07; 09:23 ::: Negative visionaryPiranesi's Carceri series was, in Huxley's phrase, the creation of a 'negative visionary'. He explained this concept in one of his appendices to Heaven and Hell, 1956, a section concerning Romantic painter Théodore Géricault.
Appendix VII
Géricault was a negative visionary; for though his art was almost obsessively true to nature, it was true to a nature that had been magically transfigured, in his perceiving and rendering of it, for the worse. 'I start to paint a woman,' he once said, 'but it always ends up as a lion.' More often, indeed, it ended up as something a good deal less amiable than a lion -- as a corpse, for example, or a demon. His masterpiece, the prodigious Raft of the Medusa, was painted not from life but from dissolution and decay -- from bits of cadavers supplied by medical students, from the emaciated torso and jaundiced face of a friend who was suffering from a disease of the liver. Even the waves on which the raft is floating, even the over-arching sky are corpse coloured. It is as though the entire universe had become a dissecting room. And then there are his demonic pictures. The Derby, it is obvious, is being run in hell, against a background fairly blazing with darkness visible. The Horse startled by Lightning in the National Gallery, is the revelation, in a single frozen instant, of the strangeness, the sinister and even infernal otherness that hides in familiar things. In the Metropolitan Museum there is a portrait of a child. And what a child! In his luridly brilliant jacket the little darling is what Baudelaire liked to call 'a budding Satan,' un Satan en herbe. And the study of a naked man, also in the Metropolitan, is none other than the budding Satan grown up.From the accounts which his friends have left of him it is evident that Géricault habitually saw the world about him as a succession of apocalypses. The prancing horse of his early Officer de Chasseurs was seen one morning on the road to Saint-Cloud, in a dusty glare of summer sunshine, rearing and plunging between the shafts of an omnibus. The personages in the Raft of the Medusa were painted in finished detail, one by one, on the virgin canvas. There was no outline drawing of the whole composition, no gradual building up of an over-all harmony of tones and hues. Each particular revelation -- of a body in decay, of a sick man in the ghastly extremity of hepatitis -- was fully rendered as it was seen and artistically realised. By a miracle of genius, every successive apocalypse was made to fit, prophetically, into a harmonious composition which existed, when the first of the appalling visions was transferred to canvas, only in the artist's imagination. -- http://www.cyberzone.it/cyberzone%20n16/prisons.html
see also: Aldous Huxley - Giovanni Piranesi - Théodore Géricault - visionary
2005, Jul 06; 18:26 ::: Aldous Huxley on Salvator RosaAnother more celebrated fantasist was Salvator Rosa -- a man who, for reasons which are now entirely incomprehensible, was regarded by the critics of four and five generations ago as a great artist. But Salvator Rosa's romanticism is pretty cheap and obvious. He is a melodramatist who never penetrates below the surface. If he were alive today, he would be known most probably as the indefatigable author of one of the more bloodthirsty and adventurous comic strips. --Prisons (1949) - Aldous Huxley via http://www.cyberzone.it/cyberzone%20n16/prisons.html
from Prisons (with the Carceri Etchings by Piranesi). Los Angeles, CA: Zeitlin & Van Brugge.
see also: Aldous Huxley - Salvator Rosa
2005, Jul 05; 18:26 ::: The psychology of S&MThe terms sadism and masochism were first used consistently to describe these behaviors by the German psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing in his 1886 compilation of case studies Psychopathia Sexualis, a famous study of sexual perversity. Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst and a contemporary of Krafft-Ebing, noted that both were often found in the same individuals, and combined the two into a single dichotomous entity known as sadomasochism (often abbreviated as S&M or S/M). This observation is commonly verified in both literature and practice; many sadists and masochists define themselves as "switchable"—capable of taking pleasure in either role.
Both Krafft-Ebing and Freud assumed that sadism in men resulted from the distortion of the aggressive component of the male sexual instinct. Masochism in men, however, was seen as a more significant aberration, contrary to the nature of male sexuality. Freud doubted that masochism in men was ever a primary tendency, and speculated that it may exist only as a transformation of sadism. Sadomasochism in women received comparatively little discussion, as it was believed that it occurred primarily in men. Both also assumed that masochism was so inherent to female sexuality that it would be difficult to distinguish as a separate inclination.
Havelock Ellis, in Studies in the Psychology of Sex, argued that there is no clear distinction between the aspects of sadism and masochism, and that they may be regarded as complementary emotional states. He also made the important point that sadomasochism is concerned only with pain in regards to sexual pleasure, and not in regards to cruelty, as Freud had suggested. In other words, the sadomasochist generally desires that the pain be inflicted or received in love, not in abuse, for the pleasure of either one or both participants. This mutual pleasure may even be essential for the satisfaction of those involved.
Here Ellis touches upon the often paradoxical nature of consensual S&M. It is not only pain to initiate pleasure, but violence—or the simulation of violence—to express love. This contradictory character is perhaps most evident in the observation by some that not only are sadomasochistic activities usually done for the benefit of the masochist, but that it is often the masochist that controls them, through subtle emotional cues received by the sadist.
In his essay Coldness and Cruelty, Gilles Deleuze refutes the term 'sadomasochism' as artificial, especially in the context of the prototypical masochistic work, Sacher-Masoch's Venus In Furs. Deleuze instead argues that the tendency toward masochism is based on desire brought on from the delay of gratification. Taken to its extreme, an infinite delay, this is manifested as perpetual coldness. The masochist derives pleasure from, as Deleuze puts it, The Contract: the process by which he can control another individual and turn the individual into someone cold and callous. The Sadist, in contrast, derives pleasure from The Law: the unavoidable power that places one person below another. The sadist attempts to destroy the ego in an effort to unify the id and superego, in effect gratifying the most base desires the sadist can express while ignoring or competely suppressing the will of the ego, or of the conscience. Thus, Deleuze attempts to argue that Masochism and Sadism arise from such different impulses that the combination of the two terms is meaningless and misleading. The perceived sadistic capabilities of masochists are treated by Deleuze as reactions to masochism. Indeed, in the epilogue of Venus In Furs, the character of Severin has become bitter from his experiment in masochism, and advocates instead the domination of women.
Many theorists, particularly feminist theories, have suggested that sadomasochism is an inherent part of modern Western culture. According to their theories, sex and relationships are both consistently taught to be formulated within a framework of male dominance and female submission. Some of them further link this hypothesized framework to inequalities among gender, class, and race which remain a substantial part of society, despite the efforts of the civil rights movement and feminism. However, the degree to which any of these influences actually affect sexuality -- either consciously or unconsciously -- is unknown, and the validity of this theory of socially-conditioned female masochism is questionable.
There are a number of reasons commonly given for why a sadomasochist finds the practice of S&M enjoyable, and the answer is largely dependent on the individual. For some, taking on a role of compliance or helplessness offers a form of therapeutic escape; from the stresses of life, from responsiblity, or from guilt. For others, being under the power of a strong, controlling presence may evoke the feelings of safety and protection associated with childhood. They likewise may derive satisfaction from earning the approval of that figure (see: Servitude (BDSM)). A sadist, on the other hand, may enjoy the feeling of power and authority that comes from playing the dominant role, or receive pleasure vicariously through the suffering of the masochist. It is poorly understood, though, what ultimately connects these emotional experiences to sexual gratification, or how that connection initially forms.
It is usually agreed on by psychologists that experiences during early sexual development can have a profound effect on the character of sexuality later in life. Sadomasochistic desires, however, seem to form at a variety of ages. Some individuals report having had them before puberty, while others do not discover them until well into adulthood. According to one study, the majority of male sadomasochists (53%) developed their interest before the age of 15, while the majority of females (78%) developed their interest afterwards (Breslow, Evans, and Langley 1985). Like sexual fetishes, sadomasochism can be learned through conditioning—in this context, the repeated association of sexual pleasure with an object or stimulus. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadism_and_Masochism [Jul 2005]
see also: sadomasochism
2005, Jul 05; 17:09 ::: ToxicomanieLa toxicomanie est une manie qui a pour origine et/ou conséquence une prise de drogue répétée. Elle se traduit par une addiction à une ou plusieurs substances psychoactives. Cela comprend toutes les addictions comme l'alcoolisme, le tabagisme, la cocaïnomanie, l'héroïnomanie et la morphinomanie en autres.
Effet sur la santé mentale
La toxicomanie touche généralement un sujet ayant une faible estime de soi, une difficulté d'affirmation, un manque récurrent de motivation, une souffrance psychologique ou une la dépression. Pour certains, la prise de drogue constitue une stratégie d'adaptation qui permet d'anesthésier des sentiments d'impuissance, d'échec, d'incompétence, c'est-à-dire un état dépressif qui alimente un désespoir, un mal de vivre ancré parfois au plus profond d'eux-mêmes depuis la petite enfance.Les drogues agissent sur le cerveau, plus précisément sur le néocortex, siège de la pensée consciente et de l'assimilation des expériences, et sur le système limbique, où sont localisés les sentiments, les émotions et les états d'âme. L'usage régulier et excessif de drogues peut induire des troubles du comportement, les toxicomanes peuvent devenir facilement agressifs, violents, ou au contraire apathiques. --http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicomanie [Jul 2005]
2005, Jul 05; 11:32 ::: The myth of mass culture (1977) - Alan Swingewood
The myth of mass culture (1977) - Alan Swingewood [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
[t]he mass media are not above, but dependent on the public. As Alan Swingewood states in The Myth of Mass Culture (1977:84), the ideological messages the mass media receive are already mediated by a complex network of institutions and discourses. The media, themselves divided over innumerable specific discourses, transform them again. And finally the public meaningfully relates those messages to individual existences through the mediation of social groups, family networks, etc., which they belong to. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture_studies#The_possibility_of_a_.22subversive.22_popular_culture [Nov 2004]
2005, Jul 05; 11:32 ::: The Terror of Pleasure (1984) - Tania Modleski
The Terror of Pleasure (1984) - Tania Modleski [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Tania Modleski in "The Terror of Pleasure" (1986:159), for instance, presents exploitation horror films as attacks on the basic aspects of bourgeois culture. Thus a loving father cannibalizes his child, and priests turn into servants of the devil. Other scholars (e.g. Clem Robyns, 1991)claim that, by presenting their perversion as supernatural, or at least pathological, horror films precisely contribute to perpetuating those institutions. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture_studies#The_possibility_of_a_.22subversive.22_popular_culture [Nov 2004]
2005, Jul 05; 11:30 ::: An Aesthetics of Junk Fiction (1990) - Thomas John Roberts
An Aesthetics of Junk Fiction (1990) - Thomas John Roberts [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
[O]n the other hand, Thomas Roberts demonstrates in An Aesthetics of Junk Fiction (1990:173-174), a study of the historical background of the private detective model, how the detective story came into existence in the middle of the 19th century, at the time the institution of state police was developed. This force consisted mainly of lower class people, but nevertheless disposed of a certain authority over the upper class. The fears among the upper classes for this uncontrolled force were eased by domesticating the police in stories explicitly devoted to them. Their inability to pass on correct judgment was amply demonstrated, and forced them to bow for the individual intellect of the detective, who always belonged to the threatened upper class. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture_studies#The_possibility_of_a_.22subversive.22_popular_culture [Nov 2004]
From Book News, Inc.
Roberts (English, U. of Connecticut) approaches popular fiction as an international and legitimate form, rather than as failed literature, and profiles learned readers who choose westerns, romances, and fantasy over the accepted Great Works. He concludes that the popular genres evolve and treat issues in ways that serious literature cannot.
2005, Jul 05; 11:24 ::: Uncommon Cultures: Popular Culture and Post-Modernism (1989) - Jim Collins
Uncommon Cultures: Popular Culture and Post-Modernism (1989) - Jim Collins [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
Jim Collins argues that postmodernism and popular culture have together undermined the master system of "culture." By looking at a wide range of texts and forms he investigates what happens to the notion of culture once different discourses begin to envision that culture in conflicting ways, constructing often contradictory visions of it simultaneously.Similarly, many critics exalt stories which feature a lone hero fighting for his ideals against an inert and amoral system. Thus Jim Collins in Uncommon Cultures (1989:30-31) sees crime fiction opposing a smart private detective and an inefficient police force as a critique of state justice. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture_studies#The_possibility_of_a_.22subversive.22_popular_culture [Nov 2004]
2005, Jul 05; 11:24 ::: Is popular culture conservative?The question whether popular culture or mass culture is inherently conservative, or whether it can be used in a subversive strategy as well, is equally hotly debated. It seems widely accepted that popular culture forms can function at any moment as anti-cultures. "Bad taste" products such as pornography and horror fiction, says for instance Andrew Ross (1989:231), draw their popular appeal precisely from their expressions of disrespect for the imposed lessons of educated taste. They are expressions of social resentment on the part of groups which have been subordinated and excluded by todays "civilized society".
The question whether popular culture can actually resist dominant ideology, or even contribute to social change, is much more difficult to answer. Many critics easily read popular fiction and film as "attacks against the system", neglecting both the exact ways in which the so-called revolutionary message is enacted, and the capacities of dominant doctrines to recuperate critical messages. Tania Modleski in "The Terror of Pleasure" (1986:159), for instance, presents exploitation horror films as attacks on the basic aspects of bourgeois culture. Thus a loving father cannibalizes his child, and priests turn into servants of the devil. Other scholars (e.g. Clem Robyns, 1991)claim that, by presenting their perversion as supernatural, or at least pathological, horror films precisely contribute to perpetuating those institutions.
Similarly, many critics exalt stories which feature a lone hero fighting for his ideals against an inert and amoral system. Thus Jim Collins in Uncommon Cultures (1989:30-31) sees crime fiction opposing a smart private detective and an inefficient police force as a critique of state justice. On the other hand, Thomas Roberts demonstrates in An Aesthetics of Junk Fiction (1990:173-174), a study of the historical background of the private detective model, how the detective story came into existence in the middle of the 19th century, at the time the institution of state police was developed. This force consisted mainly of lower class people, but nevertheless disposed of a certain authority over the upper class. The fears among the upper classes for this uncontrolled force were eased by domesticating the police in stories explicitly devoted to them. Their inability to pass on correct judgment was amply demonstrated, and forced them to bow for the individual intellect of the detective, who always belonged to the threatened upper class.
Finally, Umberto Eco's studies on Superman and James Bond (1988:211-256, 315-362) as myths of a static good-and-evil world view, should be mentioned as very early and lucid examples of a combination of semiotic and political analysis.
Still, there may be ways to wage revolt in an age of mass media. One way could be to introduce small gradual changes in products otherwise conforming to the requirements of a dominant ideology. The problem here, of course, is that isolated messages get drowned in the discourse as a whole, and that they can be used to avoid real changes. Some scholars however describe how opposition forces use the logic of the media to subvert them. In No Respect (1989: 123), Andrew Ross mentions the late sixties Yippie movement. Yippies would stage media events, such as the public burning of dollar bills in Wall Street, thereby drawing heavy media coverage. This politics of the spectacle brought the counterculture right into the conservative media and filled their forms with subversive content.
Whether this strategy is effective or not, it points to an important fact: the mass media are not above, but dependent on the public. As Alan Swingewood states in The Myth of Mass Culture (1977:84), the ideological messages the mass media receive are already mediated by a complex network of institutions and discourses. The media, themselves divided over innumerable specific discourses, transform them again. And finally the public meaningfully relates those messages to individual existences through the mediation of social groups, family networks, etc., which they belong to. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture_studies#The_possibility_of_a_.22subversive.22_popular_culture [Nov 2004]
2005, Jul 04; 21:11 ::: The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities (1997) - Dossie Easton, Catherine A. Liszt
The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities (1997) - Dossie Easton, Catherine A. Liszt [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities (ISBN 1890159018) is a book about the practical aspects of polyamory. It was first published in 1997 by Greenery Press.
Written by Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt, it discusses how to live an active life with multiple concurrent sexual relationships in a fair and honest way, how to deal with the practical difficulties and opportunities in finding and keeping partners, maintaining relationships with others and strategies for personal growth. According to their principles, "a slut is a person of any gender who has the courage to lead life according to the radical proposition that sex is nice and pleasure is good for you."
Where many polyamorists consider the novel Stranger in a Strange Land, by the science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, to be the book that started a movement for open relationships, The Ethical Slut has often been considered as 'the' guidebook to putting it into practice. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ethical_Slut [Jul 2005]
Promiscuity
Promiscuity is the practice of making relatively unselective, casual and indiscriminate choices.The term is most commonly applied to sexual behavior, where it refers to sex that is not in the framework of a steady sexual relationship, or occurs in multiple, simultaneous sexual relationships. A promiscuous person may nevertheless be quite selective in their choice of sexual partners. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promiscuity
2005, Jul 04; 23:08 ::: André Masson (1896 - 1987)
André Masson’s cover for the first issue of Acéphale. (1936)
image sourced here.Under the German occupation of France during World War II, his work was condemned by the Nazis as degenerate. With the assistance of Varian Fry in Marseille, Masson escaped the Nazi regime on a ship to the French island of Martinique from where he went on to the United States. Upon arrival in New York City, U.S. customs officials inspecting Masson's luggage found a cache of his erotic drawings. Denouncing them as pornographic, they ripped them up before the artist's eyes. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%E9_Masson [Jul 2005]
see also: erotic art
2005, Jul 04; 21:11 ::: On Aggression (1966) - Konrad Lorenz
On Aggression (1974) - Konrad Lorenz [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
First sentence:
"My childhood dream of flying is realized: I am floating weightlessly in an invisible medium, gliding without effort over sunlit fields..."The Guardian
"Packed with entrancing detail, profound wisdom and deft humor . The book is a masterpiece." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.Book Description
This work has had significant impact on the social and biological sciences and is now a classic point of reference for investigations of behavioral patterns. Lorenz presents his findings on the mechanism of aggression and how animals control destructive drives in the interest of the species. Translated by Marjorie Kerr Wilson. A Helen and Kurt Wolff BookOn Aggression is a book by ethologist Konrad Lorenz on instinctual aggression within animals and humans. Animals, especially males, are, according to the Lorenz, biologically programmed to fight over resources. And these behaviors must be considered by nature's requirements i.e. natural selection. For example an aggression leading to death or serious injury will eventually become extinct unless it evolves a form of natural negulation. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Aggression [Jul 2005]
Aggression
Aggression is one of the most important and most controversial kinds of motivation. Its use as a category in the psychology of motivation has often been criticised, because it is clear that it encompasses a vast range of phenomena, from modern war to squabbles between individuals, and it is far from clear that these have anything in common other than the risk that someone gets hurt. There is a constant danger that concepts and explanations that are useful in the study of one kind of aggression will be misapplied in a different field. However, it remains one of the most important topics in many areas of psychology and other social sciences, including:--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggression [Jul 2005]
- motivation
- ethology and comparative psychology
- social psychology
- psychoanalysis and other kinds of depth psychology
- game theory
- social anthropology
- criminology
- ethics
- international relations
see also: aggression - motivation - violence - psychology
2005, Jul 04; 21:11 ::: EugenicsIn 1928, Safe Council or Practical Eugenics by Dr. B.G. Jefferis still cautioned:
"Boys are sometimes strongly tempted to buy and to pass around among themselves pictures representing the body without proper clothing or even the relations of sex. You simply cannot afford to let the unclean picture get itself stamped upon your mind. It does not fade away. Long years after you saw it, and probably long after sentences that you have heard on the subject are quite forgotten, you will remember the picture. I have heard men say that they would give any sum of money that they could command if they might wipe off their memory some foul picture that they saw and brooded upon when they were boys."--via http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/excerpts/sex/show/6/118.htm
Eugenics is a social philosophy (sometimes labeled a "science", a "movement", or a "pseudoscience") which advocates to improve human hereditary qualities. Proposed means of doing so have included but are not limited to birth control, selective breeding, genetic engineering, and racial hygiene. Advocates of the approach have said variously that it would lessen human suffering and genetically caused health problems, would save society money, and some have said it would create a new, more intelligent human race. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics [Jul 2005]see also: gene - sociobiology - human
2005, Jul 04; 20:32 ::: La Vie Parisienne
from La Vie Parisienne (1919)
There was considerably more censorship of magazines that admitted their purpose was titillation, but La Vie Parisienne, founded in 1863 and relaunched just before World War I, managed to mix discreet nudes with spicy fiction and humor and still gain widespread acceptance because it was reasonably sophisticated, a quality nearly as respected in France as art. --Dian Hanson via http://www.taschen.de/pages/en/excerpts/sex/show/5/118.htm [Jul 2005]
'La Vie Parisienne' was one of the more famous and well-known of specifically Parisienne magazines. Originally intended as a guide to the privileged social and artistic life in the French capital, it soon evolved into a mildly risqué publication in which illustrations of scantily clad damsels abounded. It was all done in very good taste though it had more than its fair share of detractors. General Pershing for one is said to have personally warned American servicemen against purchasing the magazine - for little good that would have done. 'La Vie Parisienne' was also banned in certain countries such as neighboring Belgium for instance, though in war-time it appeared that such silly regulations were not always adhered to.
The magazine was very popular and spawned a number of pre-war imitators, such as 'Le Sourire', 'Le Rire', 'Le Regiment', 'Fantasio' and others. As a source of erotica, 'la Vie Parisienne' was by far overshadowed by its (foreign) reputation. A reputation that was certainly undeserved, for apart from some slightly revealing drawings of lightly clad ladies or the occasional tastefully executed art-nouveau nude illustration, the magazine was not much more than a high class literary humor magazine. Supposedly infamous for its private advertisements, these small personal ads were seldom much more than classic lonely-hearts or marriage-seeking personals. The French war-time practice of 'Marraines' (Godmothers) 'adopting' soldiers at the front was in the eyes of some cause for potential scandalous behavior. 'La Vie Parinsienne' did indeed carry a disproportionately large number of such requests from lonely soldiers, several pages being regularly devoted to Allied soldiers' search for a French 'Marraine'. --http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Paris_at_War/La_Vie_Parisienne_01.htm [Jul 2005]
see also: erotica - Paris - 1863
2005, Jul 04; 20:32 ::: Lew Rosen"In 1896, The United States Supreme Court reviewed two lower court convictions on obscenity charges. The first involved Lew Rosen, publisher of Broadway, an illustrated paper with no pretenses to classic stature. The special "Tenderloin Issue" had contained patches of lampblack, which could be rubbed off with a piece of bread to reveal 'females in different attitudes of indecency'... The Supreme Court upheld this conviction..."
I tried hard to find this choice example of early American erotica, without luck; but I imagine even when it does show up, finding a copy that hasn't been "breaded" is pretty much impossible. Publisher Rosen was one of the first of what would become an American cliché: the urban Jewish pornographer. Most of these early erotic entrepreneurs were immigrants from Eastern Europe with strong literary backgrounds, limited means of making a living in the new world, and none of the dreary Christian anhedonia that dogged men like Comstock. In time, the American men's magazine industry would be nicknamed "The Jewish Mafia", but in 1900 it was just a handful of New York ghetto dwellers, often helped by their wives and children, making porn to make ends meet. --Diane Hanson via http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/excerpts/sex/show/4/118.htm [Jul 2005]
2005, Jul 04; 20:32 ::: Anthony Comstock on eroticaIn 1883 Comstock writes, ""The effect of this cursed business on our youth and society, no pen can describe. It breeds lust. Lust defiles the body, debauches the imagination, corrupts the mind, deadens the will, destroys the memory, sears the conscience, hardens the heart and damns the soul. It unnerves the arm and steals away the elastic step. It robs the soul of manly virtues, and imprints upon the mind of the youth visions that throughout life curse the man or the woman. Like a panorama, the imagination seems to keep this hated thing before the mind, until it wears its way deeper and deeper, plunging the victim into practices that he loathes. This traffic has made rakes and libertines in society - skeletons in many a household. The family is polluted, the home desecrated, and each generation born into the world is more and more cursed by the inherited weakness, the harvest of this seed-sowing of the Evil One." --http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/excerpts/sex/show/2/118.htm [Jul 2005]
see also: Comstock - erotica [Jul 2005]
2005, Jul 04; 18:37 ::: Collage novelA form of artist's book approaching very closely to (but preceding) the Graphic novel.
Images are selected from other publications and collaged together following a theme or narrative (not necessarily linear).
The Dadaist and surrealist Max Ernst (1891-1976) is generally credited as the inventor of the collage novel. He published the collage novels "Les Malheurs des immortels" (1922), "La Femme 100 T-22tes" (1929), "Rêve d'une petite fille..." (1930) and "Une Semaine de Bont" (1933-1934).
The text for "Les Malheurs des immortels" was written by Paul Éluard.
See also: cut-up technique --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage_novel [Jul 2005]
see also: collage - found - novel - image
2005, Jul 04; 18:17 ::: Rose Hobart (1936) - Joseph Cornell
Rose Hobart (1936) - Joseph Cornell
Rose Hobart (1936) is a short, 19 minute experimental film created by the artist Joseph Cornell, who cut and re-edited the Hollywood film East of Borneo into one of American's most famous surrealist short films. Cornell was fascinated by the star of East of Borneo, an actress named Rose Hobart, and named his short film after her. The piece consists of snippets from East of Borneo combined with shots from a documentary of an eclipse. When Cornell screened the film, he projected it through a piece of blue glass and slowed the speed of projection to that of a silent film. Accompanying the film is music from a recording called "Holiday in Brazil." In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Hobart [Jul 2005]
Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell, (Born in Nyack, New York December 24, 1903 – died December 29, 1972) was an American sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant garde and experimental filmmaker who lived in New York City for most of his life in a frame house on Utopia Parkway in Queens, New York, with his mother and his crippled brother, Robert, who was afflicted with cerebral palsy. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cornell [Jul 2005]Assemblage (art)
Assemblage is an art term used to describe many different art forms, and movements. The most prominent of these is collage, and its close cousin decollage. Collage as a technique was used by many different art groups since the beginning of the modern age. Including cubism, color field, constructivism, and various postmodern disciplines. An assemblage can be made of paper, fabric, photos, or in the case of much of Robert Rauschenberg's work, even 3-dimensional objects. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assemblage_%28art%29 [Jul 2005]see also: 1936 - found - collage - footage - experimental film - surrealist film
2005, Jul 04; 18:03 ::: The White Sheik (1952) -Federico Fellini
The White Sheik (1952) -Federico Fellini [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Amazon.com
Federico Fellini's solo-directing debut seems like a pure excursion into the director's extravagant imagination, but its comedy, alternately ethereal and tumultuous, is grounded in reality. A honeymooning clerk (Leopoldo Trieste) and his big-eyed bride (Brunella Bovo) make a package-tour pilgrimage to Rome to have an audience with the Pope. There are bureaucratic delays, and the couple become separated. The still-virginal husband falls in with prostitutes (including Giulietta Masina's Cabiria, later canonized in Fellini's most enduring masterpiece). The bride finds herself in the world of her favorite fantasy-figure, "the White Sheik"--the hero of the photographic comic books, or fumetti, eagerly followed by the Italian populace. It was Michelangelo Antonioni who proposed the fumetti as a ripe film subject, and the film's central episode--dominated by Alberto Sordi's preposterous fantasy-figure and the Mack Sennett-like production methods of the fumetti company--is the first tour de force of Fellini's spectacular career. --Richard T. Jameson --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.Description
Ivan Cavalli (Leopoldo Trieste) brings his new wife Wanda (Brunella Bovo) to Rome on the least romantic honeymoon in history—a rigid schedule of family meetings and audiences with the Pope. But Wanda, dreaming of the dashing hero of a photo-strip cartoon, drifts off in search of the White Sheik, thus setting off a slapstick comedy worthy of Chaplin. The style and themes which made Federico Fellini world famous are already apparent in this charming comedy (his first solo directorial effort), featuring such long-time collaborators as his wife, actress Giulietta Masina, and composer Nino Rota. --via Amazon.com
2005, Jul 04; 17:25 ::: Photonovel
example of a fotoromanzo, Italian for photonovel, a mix of comics and photography
image sourced here.A little out of topic, but maybe interesting. As you know, there’s a subgenre of comics in which the story is told not by drawings, but by photos. This kind of graphic storytelling - which lovers of “true” comics usually despise and consider a subgenre - is tipically Italian, in the sense that it reached its top popularity in Italian weeklies such as “Grand Hotel” and “Bolero Film” that, in in the late 1940’s, sold by million copies and still sell well; the famous film “The White Sheyk” by Federico Fellini deals with this specific genre of “fumetti”. The “Fotoromanzo” (Photonovel), as it is called in Italian, became popular also in France, Spain and Latin America; in the USA it was never much appreciated. Storytelling by sequential pictures which follow a script was, of course, experimented much before the Italian “boom” of “Fotoromanzi”. In attachment you’ll find, if not the very first, one of the earliest “Fotoromanzo” pages; it comes from N. 36 - Jun, 22, 1899 of the fine French weekly “La vie illustrée” (“Illustrated Life”) which was one of the first European magazine to make large use of photos. “L”apaisement” (“The Pacification”) deals with the Dreyfus case (In 1898 the major document used against Dreyfus was proven a forgery, but Dreyfus was tried again in 1899 and again found guilty. President Emile Loubet pardoned him, however, and in 1906 he was vindicated by a civilian court and readmitted to the army); the two men are an innocentist and a “guiltist” (how do you say “sustainer of the culpability” in English?), and the only way to appaise them is the blind force of the military (the "flic"). -- Alfredo Castelli via http://bugpowder.com/andy/e.photocomics.html [Jul 2005]
Ein Fotoroman ist eine Folge einzelner Fotos, ähnlich den Standfotos eines Filmes, die zusammen eine Geschichte ergeben. Oft sind in die Fotos Dialoge eingefügt. In der Regel handelt es sich um melodramatische Liebesgeschichten. Es gibt zwar kurze Zwischenbemerkungen, die gelegentlich die Bilder verbinden, längere Textpassagen aber kommen nicht vor.
Im Handel sind Fotoromane in Deutschland eher nicht mehr erhältlich und auch in anderen Ländern handelt es sich um eine sterbende Gattung. Fotoromane entstanden zuerst Mitte der 1940er Jahr in Italien und entwickelten sich dort zu einem langjährigen Massenphänomen mit unzähligen Ausformungen. So gab es z.B. literarische Fotoromane, denen Klassiker der Weltliteratur zugrunde lagen wie "Die Brautleute" von Alessandro Manzoni oder "Die Elenden" von Victor Hugo. In Zeitschriften wie "Bravo" finden sich noch heute Fotoromane, gewöhnlicherweise handelt es sich dabei um Herz-Schmerz-Geschichten aus der Teenie-Szene. Auch das Satiremagazin Titanic veröffentlicht solche Fotoromane, in der Regel mit Fotos politischer Prominenz.
Im Zeitalter des Internets lebt der Fotoroman allerdings wieder auf. Oft auch in Form von Schülerarbeiten für eine Website. Gelegentlich werden auch auf privaten Websites allerlei Fotos zu einer mitunter sehr dürftigen Fotoromanstory zusammengefügt. --http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotoroman [Jul 2005]
A subgenre of comics in which the story is told not by drawings, but by photos. This kind of graphic storytelling is tipically Italian, in the sense that it reached its top popularity in Italian weeklies such as “Grand Hotel” and “Bolero Film” that, in in the late 1940’s, sold by million copies and still sell well
The famous film “The White Sheyk” by Federico Fellini deals with this specific genre of “fumetti”. The “Fotoromanzo” (Photonovel), as it is called in Italian, became popular also in France, Spain and Latin America; in the USA it was never much appreciated.
Storytelling by sequential pictures which follow a script was, of course, experimented much before the Italian “boom” of “Fotoromanzi”. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_novel [Jul 2005]
see also: photography - fumetti - comics - novel
2005, Jul 04; 17:02 ::: Roy Stuart vol. 2 (1999) - Roy Stuart
Roy Stuart vol. 2 (1999) - Roy Stuart [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Roy Stuart is an American photographer and director who lives in Paris. His books are published by Taschen.
One of the characteristics of the photographs of Roy Stuart is an astute blending of glamour photography and pornography which puts a strong emphasis on female models. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Stuart [Jul 2005]
Stuart's photographs will satisfy both the connoisseur of the erotic as well as the curious newcomer
In his first book for Taschen, a ground-breaking exploration of 'authentic human passion', Roy Stuart produced photos that were both finely crafted compositions and highly charged representations of desire, without slipping into the tired stereotypes of pornography and the degrading portrayals that genre normally offers up. In his pictorial world, women are potently sexual figures who know what they want and are going to get it. Exploratory, experimental, they hold all the cards in the consensual power plays and fantasy enactments presented.
This collection of narratives and pictorials does not fail to deliver either, with its refreshingly honest and strikingly explicit take on the more creative areas of the sexual psyche. Playing off dream scenarios against shots caught on the run in the street, and portrait style nudes against group love-ins, it will satisfy both the connoisseur of the erotic as well as the curious newcomer. With his trademark interest in the daily rituals of womankind still apparent, and his richly textured appreciation of the garments of seduction, Stuart's work might take a little acclimatisation. But once you let go and enter in, you will find that, along with the loosening of clothing, a little relaxation of one's inhibitions can go a long way. --http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/books/sex/all/facts/00127.htm [Jul 2005]
see also: erotic photography
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