[<<] January 2006 Jahsonic (01) [>>]
"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show." (Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)
2006, Jan 05; 10:07 ::: Grind House (2006) - Robert Rodriguez, Quentin TarantinoGrind House is a film expected in 2006. As of September, 2005, it is in pre-production. It will consist of two segments, roughly an hour-long each. "Planet Terror" will be a zombie film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. "Death Proof" will be a slasher film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Between the two segments will be trailers advertising fake films. Tarantino has stated that they plan to shoot fake trailers for a blaxploitation movie, a kung-fu movie, a sexploitation movie and a spaghetti western trailer. The only one he has confirmed is the sexploitation, which will be for a film titled Cowgirls in Sweden.
The only actor that has signed on to the project is John Jarrett. The Weinstein Company has slated the film for a September 22, 2006 release date. The film is slated to being production in January 2006, but Rodriguez apparently did three days of shooting to get himself excited about it. He believes much of that footage will be in the finished film . Rodriguez's band Chingon will be doing some music for the film. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind_House_%28film%29 [Jan 2006]
See also: 2006 - grindhouse (film genre) - Quentin Tarantino - American cinema - exploitation film - trailer
2006, Jan 05; 10:07 ::: What was literature?: Class culture and mass society (1982) - Leslie A Fiedler
What was literature?: Class culture and mass society (1982) - Leslie A Fiedler [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Fiedler stimulates controversy by contending that academic critics have made too rigid a distinction between "high culture" and "low culture." Works of genius--such as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Gone with the Wind--in Fiedler's view deserve far more recognition. He says literature itself suffers when it is divided into works for the elite and for the masses. --http://www.answers.com/topic/fiedler-leslie [Jan 2006]
See also: 1982 - Leslie Fiedler - literature - mass society - class - culture
2006, Jan 05; 09:07 ::: Santo Stefano Rotondo"To single out details from the great dream of Roman Churches, would be the wildest occupation in the world. But St. Stefano Rotondo, a damp, mildewed vault of an old church in the outskirts of Rome, will always struggle uppermost in my mind, by reason of the hideous paintings with which its walls are covered. These represent the martyrdoms of saints and early Christians; and such a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep, though he were to eat a whole pig raw, for supper. Grey-bearded men being boiled, fried, grilled, crimped, singed, eaten by wild beasts, worried by dogs, buried alive, torn asunder by horses, chopped up small with hatchets: women having their breasts torn with iron pinchers, their tongues cut out, their ears screwed off, their jaws broken, their bodies stretched upon the rack, or skinned upon the stake, or crackled up and melted in the fire: these are among the mildest subjects. So insisted on, and laboured at, besides, that every sufferer gives you the same occasion for wonder as poor old Duncan awoke, in Lady Macbeth, when she marvelled at his having so much blood in him." --Charles Dickens via Pictures from Italy (1846) http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/churches/S.Stefano_Rotondo/home.html [Jan 2006]What pity it is, that the labours of painting should have been so much employed on the shocking subjects of the martyrology. Besides numberless pictures of the flagellation, crucifixion, and descent from the cross, we have Judith with the head of Holofernes, Herodias with the head of John the Baptist, Jael assassinating Sisera in his sleep, Peter writhing on the cross, Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian stuck full of arrows, Laurence frying upon the coals, Bartholomew flayed alive, and a hundred other pictures equally frightful, which can only serve to fill the mind with gloomy ideas, and encourage a spirit of religious fanaticism, which has always been attended with mischievous consequences to the community where it reigned. --Tobias Smollett via a 1765 letter published in Travels through France and Italy (1765) via http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/_Texts/Smollett/Travels/31.html#churchgore [Jan 2006]
See also: 1840s - Charles Dickens - Italy - martyrs - torture - art horror
2006, Jan 04; 23:07 ::: Theory Of Literature (1949) - Rene Wellek, Austin Warren
Theory Of Literature (1949) - Rene Wellek, Austin Warren [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Literature is "a stratified structure of signs and meanings which is totally distinct from the mental processes of the author at the time of composition." --René Wellek, 1949
René Wellek (1903-1995) was a Czech-German comparative literary critic. Wellek, along with Erich Auerbach, is remembered as an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition.
Born in Prague, Wellek was raised in Vienna speaking Czech and German. He studied literature at the Charles University in Prague. He was active among the Prague School linguists there before moving to teach in London in 1935.
During World War II Wellek relocated to America, first to the University of Iowa and then to Yale University. In the United States, he became a friend and advocate of the New Critics. With the critic Austin Warren, Wellek wrote the landmark volume Theory of Literature, one of the first works which systematized literary theory, rather than approaching criticism in a more ad-hoc fashion. Beginning in the 1960s, Wellek defended the New Critics against the condemnation of their work in the name of a structuralist-influenced literary theory. For this reason, he is sometimes thought of today as a conservative literary scholar. Wellek's final work was a lengthy, multiple-volume history of literary criticism. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Wellek [Jan 2006]
Formalism (literature)
In literary studies, formalism sometimes refers to inquiry into the form (rather than the content) of works of literature, but usually refers broadly to approaches to interpreting or evaluating literary works that focus on features of the text itself (especially properties of its language) rather than on the contexts of its creation (biographical, historical or intellectual) or the contexts of its reception. The term groups together a number of different approaches to literature, many of which seriously diverge from one another. Formalism, in this broad sense, was the dominant mode of academic literary study in the US at least from the end of the Second World War through the 1970s, especially as embodied in René Wellek and Austin Warren's Theory of Literature (1948, 1955, 1962). Beginning in the late 1970s, formalism was substantially displaced by various approaches (often with political aims or assumptions) that were suspicious of the idea that a literary work could be separated from its origins or uses. The term has often had a pejorative cast and has been used by opponents to indicate either aridity or ideological deviance. Some recent trends in academic literary criticism suggest that formalism may be making a comeback. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalism_%28literature%29 [Jan 2006]Formalism (art)
Formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than context and content. Formalism dominated modern art from the late 1800s through the 1960s. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalism_%28art%29 [Jan 2006]See also: form - content - 1949 - literary theory - literature - theory
2006, Jan 04; 17:07 ::: Vincent Price
Vincent Price is the Witchfinder General
Matthew Hopkins's witch hunts were loosely adapted into a horror film starring Vincent Price as Hopkins, under the title Witchfinder General (retitled The Conqueror Worm in the United States). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Hopkins [Jan 2006]
See also: 1600s - inquistion - British cinema - actor - 1968
2006, Jan 04; 17:07 ::: Paperbacks
Paperback edition of Tennessee Williams's Baby Doll
Paperback edition of Octave Mirbeau's Torture Garden (1899)
Images sourced here.See also: paperback - Octave Mirbeau - Baby Doll - pulp
2006, Jan 04; 17:07 ::: Taddeo di Bartolo
Taddeo di Bartolo, Die Hölle - Geiz (1396). Cittá di San Gimignano.
Image sourced here.Taddeo di Bartolo (1362-1422) was an Italian painter of the Sienese School. Vasari claims he is the uncle of Domenico di Bartolo. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taddeo di Bartolo [Jan 2006]
See also: art horror - 1300s - 1400s - Italian art - hell
2006, Jan 04; 17:07 ::: Fra Angelico
The Last Judgement. Detail: The Damned. c.1431. Tempera on wood. 105 x 210 cm. Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy.
Il Beato Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole ("the Beatified Friar John the Angelic of Fiesole") (Vicchio di Mugello (Florence) 1395 – Rome 1455), better known in the English-speaking world as Fra Angelico ("the Angelic Friar"), or in Continental Europe as Beato Angelico ("the Blessed Angelic One") was a famous painter of the Florentine state in the 15th century, the most famous representative of pietistic painting. He is often, but not accurately, termed simply "Fiesole," which is merely the name of the town where he first took the vows. His life was described in Giorgio Vasari's Vite. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Angelico [Jan 2006]
See also: art horror - 1400s - Italian art - hell
2006, Jan 03; 23:07 ::: Beefcake
Unidentified issue of Demi-Gods magazine
Beefcake (1999) - Thom Fitzgerald [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Genres: Drama
Plot Synopsis: This film looks at the 1950's muscle men's magazines and the representative industry that were popular supposedly as health and fitness magazines, but were in reality primarily being purchased by the still underground homosexual community. Chief among the purveyors of this literature was Bob Mizer (Daniel MacIvor), who maintained a magazine and developed sexually inexplicit men's films for over 40 years. Aided by his mother (Carroll Godsman), the two maintained a stable of not so innocent studs. At the end, the film moves into a court room drama as Mizer is tried for running a male-prostitute ring in the early 60's. Clips of Mizer's actual films starring individuals, such as Jack LaLanne and Joe Dallesandro, are included. --via Amazon.com
The Complete Reprint of Physique Pictorial: 1951-1990 (1997 - Taschen Publishing [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Popular demand for these homoerotic images grew, and Mizer looked for another way to distribute them. In 1951, he began publishing Physique Pictorial, a pocket-sized magazine created especially for a gay audience. Eventually there were several dozen physique magazines, serving as many as 70,000 readers by 1958. Many also included illustrations and launched the careers of erotic artists such as Tom of Finland. Gay men signed up for subscriptions or bought the magazines at newsstands, though at that time doing either was considered extremely risky. --http://www.planetout.com/news/history/archive/09271999.html [Jan 2006]
See also: pin-up - gay - homoeroticism - erotica - homosexuality - sex
2006, Jan 03; 12:07 ::: Supernatural Horror in Literature (1924-1927) - Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Supernatural Horror in Literature (1924-1927) - Howard Phillips Lovecraft [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
This is a lively and opinionated historical essay on supernatural literature written during 1924 through 1927. Indispensable to horror fans (even for those uninterested in H. P. Lovecraft's fiction) for its superb plot summaries and subjective assessments, the book is a short history of horror from folk tales, ballads and myths of the Middle Ages, through the Gothic novel, Victorian ghost story, and American "pulp" writers. It is especially good on Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Machen, and William Hope Hodgson, and includes Lovecraft's views on what makes a good horror story. E. F. Bleiler, renowned scholar of supernatural fiction, provides the introduction.Introduction
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all time the genuineness and dignity of the weirdly horrible tale as a literary form. Against it are discharged all the shafts of materialstic sophistication which clings to frequently felt emotions and external events, and of a naively insipid idealism which deprecates the aesthetic motive and calls for a didactic literature to "uplift" the reader toward a suitable degree of smirking optimism. But in spite of all this opposition the weird tale has survived, developed, and attained remarkable heights of perfection; founded as it is on a profound and elementary principle whose appeal, if not always universal, must necessarily be poignant and permanent to minds of the requisite sensitiveness. --H.P. Lovecraft http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Supernatural_Horror_in_Literature/Introduction [Jan 2006]See also: supernatural - horror fiction - H.P. Lovecraft - 1924 - 1925 - 1926 - 1927
2006, Jan 03; 12:07 ::: Sinister Urge (1961) - Ed Wood
Sinister Urge (1961) - Ed Wood
See also: Ed Wood - USA - film - pulp - 1961
2006, Jan 03; 13:07 ::: Mascara (1987) - Patrick Conrad
See also: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093504/combined
Directed by Patrick Conrad, starring Charlotte Rampling, with writing credits by Hugo Claus (former boyfriend of Sylvia Kristel).
2006, Jan 03; 12:07 ::: Death of a Transvestite (1967) - Ed Wood
Death of a Transvestite (1967) - Ed Wood [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Cover image sourced here.Death of a transvestite (1967). Also known as Let Me Die in Drag. This is the sequel novel to 1963’s ‘Black Lace Drag’ and sees Glen Marker on death row. He requests to die in drag. The story is mostly told through documents such as police reports. As with ‘Drag Trade’, Ed Wood features in drag on the cover of some versions of this novel although his anonymity is maintained by a black bar positioned across his eyes. It is sometimes published under the pseudonym of ‘Woodrow Edwards’. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Wood%2C_Jr._bibliography [Jan 2006]
See also: Ed Wood - death - transvestite - USA - paperback - pulp - 1967
2006, Jan 03; 12:07 ::: Bloody Theater or Martyr's Mirror of the Defenseless Christians (1660) - Thieleman Van Bragt
Jan Luyken. Burning in Amsterdam in 1571. Engraving. XVII century.
Image sourced here.Jan Luyken (1649-1712) was a Dutch poet, illlustrator and engraver. He illustrated the 1685 edition of the Martyrs Mirror with 104 copper etchings. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan Luyken [Jan 2006]
Bloody Theater or Martyr's Mirror of the Defenseless Christians (1660) - Thieleman Van Bragt [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Ingram
Here is a collection of accounts of more than 4011 Christians burned at the stake, of countless bodies torn on the rack, torn tongues, ears, hands, feet, gouged eyes, people buried alive, and of many who were willing to bear the cross of persecution and death for the sake of Christ. --via AmazonThe Martyrs Mirror or The Bloody Theater, first published in 1660 in Dutch by Thieleman J. van Braght, documents the stories and testimonies of Christian martyrs, especially Anabaptists. The full title of the book is The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians who baptized only upon confession of faith, and who suffered and died for the testimony of Jesus, their Saviour, from the time of Christ to the year A.D. 1660. The use of the word defenseless in this case refers to the Anabaptist belief in non-resistance. The book includes accounts of the martyrdom of the apostles and the stories of martyrs from previous centuries with beliefs similar to the Anabaptists.
The 1685 edition of the book is illustrated with 104 copper etchings by Jan Luyken. Thirty of these plates survive and are part of the Mirror of the Martyrs exhibit. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_Mirror [Jan 2006]
See also: 1600s - martyr - saint - torture - inquisition - Christianity - The Netherlands
2006, Jan 03; 11:07 ::: Dictionnaire du diable () - Roland Villeneuve
Dictionnaire du diable () - Roland Villeneuve [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See also: Roland Villeneuve - devil - dictionary
2006, Jan 02; 17:07 ::: Desire and Domestic Fiction : A Political History of the Novel (1987) - Nancy Armstrong
Desire and Domestic Fiction : A Political History of the Novel (1987) - Nancy Armstrong [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From Library Journal
Armstrong argues for a causal relationship between the appearance of domestic fiction and the rise of the middle class in 18th- and 19th-century England. As the female-dominated home became the respite from harsh economic realities, powerful middle-class values eventually obliterated those of the aristocracy and the working class. By this time women were achieving power because of, not in spite of, their gender. Rereading Richardson, Fielding, Austen, the Brontes, Eliot, Dickens, and Shelley, among others, and drawing on Marx, Freud, economics, semiotics, and popular culture, Armstrong offers a complicated scholarly feminist view of literary history just when you thought this burgeoning academic industry was running out of steam. For academic libraries. Rhoda Yerburgh, Adult Degree Program, Vermont Coll., Montpelier Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Book Description
Desire and Domestic Fiction argues that far from being removed from historical events, novels by writers from Richardson to Woolf were themselves agents of the rise of the middle class. Drawing on texts that range from 18th-century female conduct books and contract theory to modern psychoanalytic case histories and theories of reading, Armstrong shows that the emergence of a particular form of female subjectivity capable of reigning over the household paved the way for the establishment of institutions which today are accepted centers of political power. Neither passive subjects nor embattled rebels, the middle-class women who were authors and subjects of the major tradition of British fiction were among the forgers of a new form of power that worked in, and through, their writing to replace prevailing notions of "identity" with a gender-determined subjectivity. Examining the works of such novelists as Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, and the Brontes, she reveals the ways in which these authors rewrite the domestic practices and sexual relations of the past to create the historical context through which modern institutional power would seem not only natural but also humane, and therefore to be desired. --via Amazon.comSee also: sentimental novel - novel - desire - 1800s literature
2006, Jan 02; 12:07 ::: William ActonWilliam Acton (1813–1875) was a British medical doctor and book writer. He was known for his books on masturbation.
Acton was a native of Shillingstone, Dorsetshire. The second son of a clergyman, Acton went, in 1831, to London, where he enrolled as a resident apprentice at St Bartholomew's hospital.
In 1836, Acton, by then twenty three years old, moved to Paris, where he met the well known United States doctor, Philippe Ricord. Acton learned about the functions of the generative and urinary organs under Ricord's supervision, and he decided to concentrate on Gynecology. Acton spent some time in Paris working at the women's venereal hospital.
At the age of twenty seven, Acton returned to England, already a recognized expert in the gynecology field. In part because of his previous experience in the field, Acton was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons. At about the same time, Acton began working on his first written work, a book named "A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Urinary and Generative Organs in Both Sexes", where he discussed the relationship between the human brain and children's sexuality.
William Acton dedicated himself exclusively to his practice as a gynecologist for the next seventeen years, until he published another book in 1857. "The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and Advanced Life, Considered in the Physiological, Social, and Moral Relations", discussed, as evidenced by the book's title, physical and pshycological consequences of reproductive organ diseases in human beings.
Acton was also well known for his views on moral issues. An outspoken writer, Acton published his next book, "Prostitution, Considered in its Moral, Social, and Sanitary Aspect, in London and other large cities and Garrison Towns, with Proposals for the Control and Prevention of Attendant Evils", almost immediately after "The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and Advanced Life, Considered in the Physiological, Social, and Moral Relations". Acton's book on prostitution proved controversial: while he meant to expose this profession as a risky one healthwise both for prostitutes and clients alike, and as an inmoral practice, many considered that Acton actually humanized prostitutes by denouncing low wages among women as one of the reasons why they would turn to prostitution as a means of support.
Acton spent the rest of his life trying to teach upper-class English citizens how to manage the idea of child masturbation, which was bothersome to rich British parents. This was referred to as the masturbation hysteria at the time, and people had several beliefs, such as that masturbation could lead to blindness.
William Acton passed away in 1875. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Acton [Jan 2006]
See also: sexology
2006, Jan 02; 11:07 ::: Le pornographe ou la prostitution réformée (1769) - Rétif de la Bretonne
Le pornographe ou la prostitution réformée (1769) - Rétif de la Bretonne [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Le Pornographe (1769), a plan for regulating prostitution which is said to have been actually carried out by the Emperor Joseph II, while not a few detached hints have been adopted by continental nations
Présentation de l'éditeur
Le Pornographe est un projet de règlement des filles de joie : Restif imagine une sorte de phalanstère idéal, le parthénion (proche de l'idée d'une maison close), pour veiller à la " mauvaise " conduite des petites vertus, sous contrôle de l'Etat.L'auteur vu par l'éditeur
Restif de la Bretonne, personnalité complexe et marginale (1734-1806) préfère la vie de bohème et se mêle aux couches les plus basses de la société, mais avec certaines de ses idées réformatrices, il passa pour un débauché en quête de vertu.P.14
« Puisque le mal est fait, il ne s’agit plus que de trouver le remède. De deux moyens qui se présentent, celui de séparer de la société, comme autrefois les lépreux, tous ceux que la contagion a attaqués n’était praticable qu’à l’arrivée du virus d’Haîti en Europe ; le second, qui consisterait à mettre dans un lieu où l’on puisse répondre d’elles toutes les filles publiques, est d’une exécution moins difficile : il est le plus efficace, le plus important, puisque ce serait prendre le mal à sa source. »P.18-25
« Oui, la prostitution est un mal nécessaire partout où il règne quelque pudeur, j’en conviens avec tout l’univers et tous les siècles. (...) Je conclus de là que la prostitution est un mal qui en fait éviter un plus grand. »See also: France - pornography - prostitution - Restif de la Bretonne - 1769
2006, Jan 02; 10:07 ::: Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern Free-Soilers and abolitionists. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Law_of_1850 [Jan 2006]
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes by which African slaves in the 19th century United States attempted to escape to free states, or as far north as Canada, with the aid of abolitionists. Other routes led to Mexico or overseas. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad [Jan 2006]
See also: USA - slave trade - 1850 - 1850s
2006, Jan 01; 23:07 ::: Either/Or : A Fragment of Life (1843) - Soren Kierkegaard
Either/Or : A Fragment of Life (1843) - Soren Kierkegaard [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Synopsis
In Either/Or, using the voices of two characters - the aesthetic young man of part one, called simply 'A', and the ethical Judge Vilhelm of the second section - Kierkegaard reflects upon the search for a meaningful existence, contemplating subjects as diverse as Mozart, drama, boredom, and, in the famous Seducer's Diary, the cynical seduction and ultimate rejection of a young, beautiful woman. A masterpiece of duality, Either/Or is a brilliant exploration of the conflict between the aesthetic and the ethical - both meditating ironically and seductively upon Epicurean pleasures, and eloquently expounding the noble virtues of a morally upstanding life. --via Amazon.deSøren Kierkegaard in 1843, in which he explores the "phases" or "stages" of existence. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Either/Or [Jan 2006]
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (May 5, 1813 – November 11, 1855), a 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian, is generally recognized as the first existentialist philosopher. Philosophically, he bridged the gap that existed between Hegelian philosophy and what was to become Existentialism. Kierkegaard strongly criticised both the Hegelian philosophy of his time, and what he saw as the empty formalities of the Danish church. Much of his work deals with religious problems such as the nature of faith, the institution of the Christian church, Christian ethics and theology, and the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with existential choices. Because of this, Kierkegaard's work is sometimes characterized as Christian existentialism and existential psychology. Kierkegaard's work can resist interpretation, since he wrote most of his early work under various pseudonyms, and often these pseudo-authors will comment on the works of the earlier pseudo-authors. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard [Jan 2006]Angst
is a German, Dutch and nordic word for fear or anxiety. It is used in English to describe a more intense feeling of internal emotional strife.A different but related meaning is attributed to Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). Kierkegaard used the word angst (Danish, meaning "dread") to describe a profound and deep-seated spiritual condition of insecurity and despair in the free human being. Where the animal is a slave to its God-given instincts but always confident in its own actions, Kierkegaard believed that the freedom given to mankind leaves the human in a constant fear of failing its responsibilities to God. Kierkegaard's concept of angst is considered to be an important stepping stone for 20th-century existentialism.
While Kierkegaard's feeling of angst is fear of actual responsibility to God, in modern use, angst is broadened to include general frustration associated with the conflict between actual responsibilities to self, one's principles, and others (possibly including God). Still, the angst in alternative music may be more accessible to most audiences than the esoteric tradition of existentialism. The term "angst" is now widely used with a negative and derisive connotation that mocks the expression of a common adolescent experience of malaise. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angst [Jan 2006]
See also: emotion - Denmark - 1840s - philosophy - existentialism
2006, Jan 01; 21:07 ::: Perversion for Profit (1965)
Perversion for Profit (1965)
Perversion for Profit is a 1965 propaganda film financed by Charles Keating and narrated by George Putnam. A vehement diatribe against pornography, the film attempts to link explicit portrayals of human sexuality to a Communist conspiracy and the subversion of American civilization. The film is in the public domain, and it has become a popular download from the Prelinger Archives. Perversion for Profit illustrates its claims with still images taken from various softcore pornography magazines of the period, though with some portions of human anatomy obscured by colored rectangles. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perversion for Profit [Jan 2006]
"Now, you might ask yourself, why this sudden concern? Pornography and sex deviation have always been with mankind. This is true. But now, consider another fact. Never in the history of the world have the merchants of obscenity, the teachers of unnatural sex acts, had available to them the modern facilities for disseminating this filth. High-speed presses, rapid transportation, mass distribution. All have combined to put the vilest obscenity within reach of every man, woman and child in the country." —George Putnam, narrator
"This same type of rot and decay caused sixteen of the nineteen major civilizations to vanish from the earth. Magnificent Egypt, classical Greece, imperial Rome, all crumbled away. Not because of the strength of the aggressor, but because of moral decay from within. But we are in a unique position to cure our own ills. Our Constitution was written by men who put their trust in God, and founded a government based in His laws. These laws are on our side. We have a constitutional guarantee of protection against obscenity. And in this day especially we must seek to deliver ourselves from this twisting, torturing evil. We must save our nation from decay, and deliver our children from the horrors of perversion. We must make our land, the land of the free, a safe home. Oh God, deliver us Americans from evil." —George Putnam, narrator (closing words)
http://ia200140.eu.archive.org/2/movies/Perversi1965/Perversi1965_edit.mp4 [Jan 2006]
See also: 1965 - American erotica - anti-pornography - film - propaganda - cautionary tale
2006, Jan 01; 20:07 ::: Josefine Mutzenbacher (1906)
Josefine Mutzenbacher (1906) [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The Austrian erotic classic that'll make any parent think twice about taking their young ones to meet a beloved children's book author. Written by Felix Salten (Bambi), The Memoirs of Josephine Mutzenbacher is the story of a young girl and her many amorous encounters, with friends, family, and the local priest, culminating in her establishing a career as a high-priced courtesan.
The author of Bambi first published this work in 1906. --via Amazon.com
Josefine Mutzenbacher is a famous fictional Austrian courtesan in an erotic fictional autobiography novel which was published in Vienna in 1906. The author is anonymous, but it is generally believed that it was Felix Salten, also known for having written Bambi, A Life in the Woods. The novel has become a matter of debate in Germany, because it describes at great length the sexual activities of Josefine when she was a child. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josefine_Mutzenbacher [Jan 2006]
See also: erotic fiction - 1906 - German erotica - Austria
2006, Jan 01; 20:07 ::: Paris Eros: The Imaginary Museum of Eroticism in Paris (2004) - Hans-Jürgen Döpp
Paris Eros: The Imaginary Museum of Eroticism in Paris (2004) - Hans-Jurgen Dopp [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
After The Erotic Museum of Berlin and The Temple of Venus in Amsterdam, a work on Paris was imperative. Rich with six centuries of gallantry and the world capital of fashion and love, Paris is the symbol of eroticism and joyful pleasures. As a matter of fact, Offenbach has written a hymn to the joy of the senses in Parisian life. But this city still does not possess an erotic museum comparable to Berlin’s or Amsterdam’s. The author uses a method comparable to André Malraux’s to construct an imaginary museum in Paris where time and space is infinite, but desires are still present. The exceptional iconography comes from private collections and covers over five centuries of naughty Parisian history. This is accompanied by an academic text, which allows the reader to penetrate a world that is never vulgar, always subtle and never-ending: eroticism. --via Amazon.comSee also: French erotica - Hans-Jürgen Döpp
2006, Jan 01; 18:07 ::: Peter Fendi
Peter Fendi, 1835 - source unknown
Image sourced here. [Jan 2006] [Amazon.com]Presumably taken from
FENDI, (Peter). – Genießet die Liebe. Erotische Bilder aus dem Wiener Biedermeier. Nachwort von Ninguno Nemo. (Dortmund: Harenberg 1981). Sm. 4to. Pp. 95. Forty coloured plates.Fendi, Peter, b. Vienna, Sept. 4, 1796, d. Vienna, Aug. 28, 1842, portraitist, genre painter, water-colourist, lithographer and copperplate engraver. F. was a pupil of J. M. Fischer, H. Maurer and J. B. Lampi and studied the paintings of 17th century Dutch masters. From 1818 worked as a draughtsman and copperplate engraver for the Numismatic and Antiques Cabinet, and from the late 1820s focused on genre painting. one of the main representatives of the Old Vienna School (Altwiener Schule), F. was a popular children's portraitist and gave private drawing lessons at court and to the Viennese aristocracy. His water-colour technique reached a zenith during the Vienna Biedermeier era. He was the teacher of C. Schindler. --http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.f/f228730.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en [Jan 2006]
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter Fendi [Jan 2006]
See also: erotic art - Austria - 1700s
2006, Jan 01; 16:07 ::: Voyeurism and cinema
Rear Window (1954) - Alfred Hitchcock
Since its birth, but most explicitly since the 1950s, the cinema has played with surveillance, voyeurism, and the power of the gaze, often in cautionary tales that conjure up the specter of totalitarianism, and also through meta-references to the movie camera's own complicity with institutional voyeurism. --Andrew Hultkrans via Surveillance in the Cinema via http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/7.1/SurvFilms/SurvFilms.html [Jan 2006]
Voyeurism, by definition, is the obsessive observation of sordid or sensational subjects, often sexual in nature. Renowned director Alfred Hitchcock further popularized voyeurism in what is considered by many to be his greatest film, Rear Window (Paramount, 1954). --Joe Winters via http://www.horror-wood.com/peep.htm [Jan 2006]
Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture (2000) - Clay Calvert [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See also: cinema - voyeurism - the film experience
2006, Jan 01; 15:49 ::: Top 10 Brussels & Antwerp Bruges, Ghent (2004) - DK Publishing
Top 10 Brussels & Antwerp Bruges, Ghent (2004) - DK Publishing [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From the top 10 Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels to the top 10 chocolate shops, Belgian beers and museums - this guide is packed with useful tips to make the most of your time.
