sex and brains

THE UNREPENTANT NECROPHILE: Excerpts from an Interview with Karen Greenlee

Thu, 23 May 2013 23:00:49 -0400

The question I am most often asked is, “How does she do it?”

Yes, that’s the question! People ask questions like that— even people who seem pretty cool, seem to have open minds— then when you tell them, they say, “That’s very interesting,” then don’t want to have much to do with me. I don’t mind telling people how I do it. It doesn’t matter to me, but anyone adept sexually shouldn’t have to ask. People have this misconception that there has to be penetration for sexual gratification, which is bull! The most sensitive part of a woman is the front area anyway and that is what needs to be stimulated.

Besides, there are different aspects of sexual expression: touchy-feely, 69, even holding hands. That body is just lying there, but it has what it takes to make me happy. The cold, the aura of death, the smell of death, the funereal surroundings, it all contributes.

The smell of death?

Sure, I find the odor of death very erotic. There are death odors and there are death odors. Now you get your body that’s been floating in the bay for two weeks, or a burn victim, that doesn’t attract me much, but a freshly embalmed corpse is something else.

There is also this attraction to blood. When you’re on top of a body it tends to purge blood out of its mouth, while you’re making passionate love… You’d have to be there, I guess.

Did any [morticians] ever testify for or against you at the trial?

One funeral director testified on behalf of funeral practices. He was asked how often necrophilia occurs. He said, “It’s almost unheard of in this profession.”

That’s a major lie!

Yes, definitely … necrophilia is more prevalent than most people imagine. Funeral homes just don’t report it. There was one place that I broke into, and I know that they knew something was wrong. They actually caught me in the act and let me get away.

At another place I was working, this guy came up to me and said, “Someone’s been messin’ with the body. It looks like they were trying to fuck the body!” I said, “Oh my goodness! Really?” I think they figured it out later. I know they know now.

One mortician I worked with used to like to take a trocar [a large hollow needle used to suction fluids from corpses] and push it up inside any male cadaver’s dick. He’d say, “Oh look, the corpse has got a boner.” This guy was really weird. He looked like Larry of the Three Stooges. I think he had some necrophilic tendencies. He’d get real upset if there weren’t any female bodies to work on. He’d start pacing. I caught him one time in the prep room. He said he was just taking a pee in the hopper at the end of the table. He was just pulling up his pants when I walked in. I said, “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

(full text)

Two films by Robbe-Grillet—coming to region 2 DVD in...

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:28:00 -0400

Two films by Robbe-Grillet—coming to region 2 DVD in December.

"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:32:48 -0400

“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable. Youth! There is nothing like it. It’s absurd to talk of the ignorance of youth. The only people to whose opinions I listen now with any respect are people much younger than myself. They seem in front of me. Life has revealed to them her latest wonder. As for the aged, I always contradict the aged. I do it on principle.”

- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

[source]

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:10:00 -0400

[source]

Photo

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:05:00 -0400

Isabel took a drive alone that afternoon; she wished to be far...

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:55:35 -0400

Isabel took a drive alone that afternoon; she wished to be far away, under the sky, where she could descend from her carriage and tread upon the daisies.

Image: Maîtresse (Barbet Schroeder, 1976)
Text: Portrait of a Lady (Henry James, 1881)

Investigating Sex: Surrealist Research 1928 - 1932

Sun, 05 May 2013 20:23:44 -0400

From the Eleventh Session. 26 January 1931

ANDRE BRETON: Valentin, what do you think of the idea of masturbating and coming in a woman’s ear?

ALBERT VALENTIN: I wouldn’t dream of it.

ANDRE BRETON: A purely surrealist question.

PAUL ELUARD: I’ve already done it. It’s very good… No, not very good, it depends.

GEORGES SADOUL: I’ve never done it, but it appeals to me.

ANDRE BRETON: It would only satisfy one side of the woman. The world is badly made.

PIERRE UNIK: The ear is made for the tongue, not for the cock.

ANDRE BRETON: See Moliere…

GEORGES SADOUL: And in the nose?

PAUL ELUARD: I wouldn’t like that. I hate noses. A complex. I’m against.

PIERRE UNIK: See Courteline.

PAUL ELUARD: Does Breton enjoy licking a woman’s eyeball?

ANDRE BRETON: I would very much like to be a vampire, an incubus, etc. But life doesn’t leave me enough time to lick eyeballs.

PAUL ELUARD: It’s not a matter of having time, but it’s something I’ve always done and which is remarkably enjoyable.

GEORGES SADOUL: It’s absolutely disgusting.

PAUL ELUARD: It’s absolutely admirable.

Image: Marlo Pascual

Asia Argento in The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

Fri, 03 May 2013 16:51:00 -0400

Asia Argento in The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

Surviving Life (Jan Svankmajer, 2010)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:39:04 -0400

Surviving Life (Jan Svankmajer, 2010)

Glenn Gould's unpublished personal ad

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 10:04:00 -0400

Wanted: Friendly, companionably reclusive, socially unacceptable, alcoholically abstemious, tirelessly talkative, zealously unjealous, spiritually intense, minimally turquoise, maximally ecstatic, loon seeks moth or moths with similar qualities for purposes of telephonic seduction, Tristanesqeue trip-taking and permanent flame-fluttering. No photos required, financial status immaterial, all ages and non-competitive vocations considered. Applicants should furnish cassette of sample conversation, notarized certification of marital disinclination, references re. low-decibel vocal consistency, itineraries and sample receipts from previous, successfully completed out-of-town (moth) flights. All submissions treated confidentially… Auditions for all promising candidates will be conducted to, and on, Avalon Peninsula, Nfld. [source]

Top: [source]Bottom: Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, 1958)Not...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:44:00 -0400

Top: [source]
Bottom: Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, 1958)

Not that the concept of knife-as-phallic-symbol needs any more support or explanation, but it’s relevant to note that the word vagina derives from the Latin for “sheath” or “scabbard.”

Blissfully Yours (Weerasethakul, 2002)

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:52:42 -0400

Blissfully Yours (Weerasethakul, 2002)

"A widespread taste for pornography means that nature is alerting us to some threat of extinction."

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:15:12 -0400

“A widespread taste for pornography means that nature is alerting us to some threat of extinction.”

- J.G. Ballard

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:40:00 -0400

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)
Marcel Duchamp

“The Large Glass looks like a highly complex machine, and it illustrates the desire between a bride and her bachelor’s in a mechanical process. The work consists of an upper area, called the Bride’s domain, and a lower area, called the Bachelor’s domain. The cloud in the Bride’s domain is a telegraph system through which the Bride sends her sexual desires to the bachelors, thus setting in motion the machinery of love-making. The bachelors, located at the left side of the Bachelor’s domain, are working to turn the water mill to make the chocolate grinder, in the middle of the Bachelor’s domain, turn. The chocolate grinder then grinds out an imaginary milky substance: semen. This substance then shoots up towards the Bride’s domain through the various rings on the right side. This projection is, however, blocked by the metal bar which separates the upper and lower domain (The Shock of the New World). This results in the bride being condemned to always tease the bachelors who are trapped by the metal bar. The bachelor’s fate is said to be a state of “endless masturbation” because the bride is desirable but unattainable (The Shock of the New World). The bachelors are wholly passive, ‘[waiting] stupidly for the signal to perform the basic male function that is required of them here.’ ” [source]

In other words, to those who can’t be bothered with text, the bride is performing a cam show. (The “metal bar” is therefore a computer screen.) Hot, no?

Kenneth Anger, Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:42:22 -0400

Kenneth Anger, Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)

The Absurd Myths Porn Teaches [Some of] Us About Sex

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:36:13 -0400

” ‘I had a boyfriend who didn’t realize that women had pubic hair,’ she tells us in an interview. ‘Because he had only watched porn, he had never seen a naked woman outside of porn, so he just sort of failed to realize they had pubic hair.’

‘This came up somewhat before my pants came off,’ she added, ‘so you can realize how awkward this was.’ She paused. ‘His face was memorable. In an ‘oh God, what is wrong with me, I am never taking my pants off in front of anyone ever again’ way.’ ” [full article]

Does this matter?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:54:25 -0400

Is the disappearance of underarm hair in the above cut from Martin Scorsese’s Hugo a continuity error or a decision? If purposeful, does it matter? Is it reasonable to believe that the people in the makeup and costume departments who worked on this scene didn’t notice the hair in Méliès original film? Why should they care about continuity at all if they’re not going to attempt to match everything? Who decides which details matter and which ones don’t? Does it matter if a shadow was used in an attempt to cleverly mask the break in continuity? Is it unreasonable to ask for underarm hair to be applied to an actor lacking underarm hair for the sake of continuity and historical accuracy? Did someone subconsciously think the close up might offend or confuse the film’s primary audience if the hair wasn’t removed? Was underarm hair deemed unsafe for children? Did the MPAA threaten to give the film an R rating if the underarm hair wasn’t removed? What’s with all the promotion of hairlessness anyway? Do we detest hair because it reminds us that we’re animals? Are we going to keep shaving areas where we have hair until there’s no hair left to shave? Is this why people have shaved heads in futuristic films? Is it wrong to talk about underarm hair and expect to be taken seriously? Am I even being serious? Does it matter? Was I inspired to write in this style after reading Crispin Glover’s humorous and apt take down of Spielberg? (Why is Spielberg in Blogger’s spell check but Tarkovsky isn’t?)

I once let a friend borrow Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us. He pointed out a continuity error in the film as an example why the film wasn’t a masterpiece. I told him he cared about all the wrong things. I told him Kiarostami (also not in spell check) probably wouldn’t have done anything about it even if he had noticed. And why assume he hadn’t noticed?

Am I now caring about all the wrong things?

Hollywood is obsessed with continuity. It teaches others to obsess over continuity—not just in films, but also with matching socks and clear skin. At first glance, this cut from Hugo might seem to be an example of the opposite—a disdain for continuity. But looking closer one can see that it’s also an example of a much larger kind of continuity.

Through its images, America’s conception of beauty has come to dominate much of the world. Is this cut in Hugo a form of cultural sanitation that attempts to render everything American? Is it an example of a kind of retroactive domination that denies the spectator any history of alternatives? In other words, an uninterrupted continuation of American culture through all time.

* * *

“In current television and popular culture, there is a significant division between connotative imagery, as in the photos above of actors and public figures, and the televisual narrativization of plastic surgery and other personal ‘makeovers.’ On the one hand, we have that which is merely suggested. On the other, we have shows such as Extreme Makeover, The Biggest Loser, or What Not to Wear which depict how people, often lower middle class or working class, submit to regimens of authority dictated by experts in the fields of fashion, personal appearance, and physical culture. These are disciplinary regimes, as described by Michel Foucault; the shows’ participants are expected to internalize the experts’ norms. Both within the shows and in the eyes of viewers, all the minute aspects of the participants’ bodies are judged, evaluated, objectified, and constantly measured for deviation and conformity. Those on the makeover shows are rehabilitated through monitoring and regulation—both the authorities’ taste and their own internalization of the authorities’ norms.” —Julia Lesage, “Watching for Botox”

[Source: The Tarpeian Rock]

“The classic props of the music-hall, which are invariably...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:18:00 -0400

“The classic props of the music-hall, which are invariably rounded up here, constantly make the unveiled body more remote, and force it back into the all-pervading ease of a well known rite: the furs, the fans, the gloves, the feathers, the fishnet stockings, in short the whole spectrum of adornment, constantly makes the living body return to the category of luxurious objects which surround man with a magical decor. Covered with feathers or gloved, the woman identifies herself here as a stereotyped element of music-hall, and to shed objects as ritualistic as these is no longer a part of a further, genuine undressing. Feathers, furs and gloves go on pervading the woman with their magical virtue even once removed, and give her something like the enveloping memory of a luxurious shell, for it is a self-evident law that the whole of striptease is given in the very nature of the initial garment: if the latter is improbable, as in the case of the Chinese woman or the woman in furs, the nakedness which follows remains itself unreal, smooth and enclosed like a beautiful slippery object, withdrawn by its very extravagance from human use: this is the underlying significance of the G-String covered with diamonds or sequins which is the very end of striptease. This ultimate triangle, by its pure and geometrical shape, by its hard and shiny material, bars the way to the sexual parts like a sword of purity, and definitively drives the woman back into a mineral world, the (precious) stone being here the irrefutable symbol of the absolute object, that which serves no purpose.” —Barthes, Mythologies (1957)

From Albert Nobbs (2011). I’ll spare you a pun—not...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:07:00 -0400

From Albert Nobbs (2011). I’ll spare you a pun—not because I’m kind but because there are too many to choose from.

Who’ll Stop the Rain (Reisz, 1978)Look Closely and...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:02:39 -0400

Who’ll Stop the Rain (Reisz, 1978)
Look Closely and See (#5)