Mainstream Books of Interest

[bobov (imported)]

Guilt is certainly behind much sadomasochism, but there can be other motives. Simply hypocrisy is one which is especially evident in Victorian pornography. Spanking and similar corporal punishments offered a socially correct screen for physical intimacy. The spanker could pretend to have no interest in seeing and touching beautiful bottoms; the spanked could pretend to have no interest in having his or her beautiful bottom seen and touched.

Beyond the need to conceal one's erotic interests in a strait-laced society, there is the matter of enacting roles of dominance and submission. These are, I believe, primary modes of human life, which can be found across all boundaries of time and place. There is pleasure in asserting one's wishes and being indulged (just like an infant), and also pleasure in being taken in hand by a superior authority (just like an infant). A book might be written about these twin themes of human psychology (The sort of thing Foucault might have done.) All of this is played out in S&M. Then, I remember a remark by Gore Vidal to the effect that, in the United States, all pornography was eventually about status. This seems particularly true of S&M, where the drama of high and low, master and slave, is so important. In S&M, the parties can purge their emotions regarding their social positions by means of a little playacting. I have often heard it said that those who are powerful in life prefer to be masochists, while the reverse is true of the weak in life.

Finally, there is, as de Sade understood, a pure joy in the untrammeled expression of ferocity. The beast that dwells within rejoices in the occasional excursion from behind the bars of social restraint and conscience. By containing this ferocity within the rules of a ritual, S&M offers a brief vacation from civilization. Even the masochist participates: he gets to experience the primary and unmediated victimization of the beast's prey, surviving within the relative safety of S&M ritual to be a victim again some other day.

A frequent sexual fantasy of mine is one of erotic combat: three strong and beautiful naked men wrestle one another until two gang up on the third; while one holds the victim, the other forces him to experience a powerful orgasm, leaving him limp and helpless for the others to kiss and caress as they choose. The combat may continue until all three have been the "victim." Ah, if only I were the victim in such a fight! My fantasy combines elements of hypocrisy ("we're not having sex, we're fighting"), dominance and submission, and ferocity unleashed. Oh, and yes, there's also sex.

I saw Pasolini's Salo twice, the last time about ten years ago. (I just checked, and it's available on both VHS and DVD.) All of Pasolini's work is fascinating, though Salo is certainly the most extreme. Pasolini died as he lived - he was fond of "rough trade" and picking up young straight men. His body was found in the street, beaten to death, most assume by an intended pick-up. As I remember the film, it stuck faithfully to de Sade's original, differing only in being much shorter (and in using a contemporary setting - Nazis in 1944). De Sade's work consists largely of long lists describing a thousand or more unusual sexual practices (what a prodigy of imagination!). Pasolini picked a few that appealed to him, by no means the most violent. Pasolini also follows de Sade's approach of placing sexual practices into graduated categories, from the venial to the savagely murderous. A powerful work that was too much for most people to take. There's less force, usually, in reading about something than in seeing it. Now that you remind me of it, I'm tempted to rent the DVD.

[bobov (imported)]

Guilt is certainly behind much sadomasochism, but there can be other motives. Simply hypocrisy is one which is especially evident in Victorian pornography. Spanking and similar corporal punishments offered a socially correct screen for physical intimacy. The spanker could pretend to have no interest in seeing and touching beautiful bottoms; the spanked could pretend to have no interest in having his or her beautiful bottom seen and touched.

Beyond the need to conceal one's erotic interests in a strait-laced society, there is the matter of enacting roles of dominance and submission. These are, I believe, primary modes of human life, which can be found across all boundaries of time and place. There is pleasure in asserting one's wishes and being indulged (just like an infant), and also pleasure in being taken in hand by a superior authority (just like an infant). A book might be written about these twin themes of human psychology (The sort of thing Foucault might have done.) All of this is played out in S&M. Then, I remember a remark by Gore Vidal to the effect that, in the United States, all pornography was eventually about status. This seems particularly true of S&M, where the drama of high and low, master and slave, is so important. In S&M, the parties can purge their emotions regarding their social positions by means of a little playacting. I have often heard it said that those who are powerful in life prefer to be masochists, while the reverse is true of the weak in life.

Finally, there is, as de Sade understood, a pure joy in the untrammeled expression of ferocity. The beast that dwells within rejoices in the occasional excursion from behind the bars of social restraint and conscience. By containing this ferocity within the rules of a ritual, S&M offers a brief vacation from civilization. Even the masochist participates: he gets to experience the primary and unmediated victimization of the beast's prey, surviving within the relative safety of S&M ritual to be a victim again some other day.

A frequent sexual fantasy of mine is one of erotic combat: three strong and beautiful naked men wrestle one another until two gang up on the third; while one holds the victim, the other forces him to experience a powerful orgasm, leaving him limp and helpless for the others to kiss and caress as they choose. The combat may continue until all three have been the "victim." Ah, if only I were the victim in such a fight! My fantasy combines elements of hypocrisy ("we're not having sex, we're fighting"), dominance and submission, and ferocity unleashed. Oh, and yes, there's also sex.

I saw Pasolini's Salo twice, the last time about ten years ago. (I just checked, and it's available on both VHS and DVD.) All of Pasolini's work is fascinating, though Salo is certainly the most extreme. Pasolini died as he lived - he was fond of "rough trade" and picking up young straight men. His body was found in the street, beaten to death, most assume by an intended pick-up. As I remember the film, it stuck faithfully to de Sade's original, differing only in being much shorter (and in using a contemporary setting - Nazis in 1944). De Sade's work consists largely of long lists describing a thousand or more unusual sexual practices (what a prodigy of imagination!). Pasolini picked a few that appealed to him, by no means the most violent. Pasolini also follows de Sade's approach of placing sexual practices into graduated categories, from the venial to the savagely murderous. A powerful work that was too much for most people to take. There's less force, usually, in reading about something than in seeing it. Now that you remind me of it, I'm tempted to rent the DVD.

[Charlieje (imported)]

I just finished "The Persian Boy." I have to admit there were times I felt torn because I was working very hard, trying to get my own book ready for publication, but the more I got into Bagoas and his troubles, the more I felt compelled to read at least a few pages every day.

I think it gave me a new perspective of eunuchs: Obviously Bagoas was closer to Alexander than anyone, including his first love; yet as a eunuch he had to remember his place. It must have been horribly heartbreaking for him!

It was a good read. Thanks for recommending it, Yankee!

I am now off to order "Funeral Games."

[yankee masha (imported)]

I'm glad Mary renault has held up over teh years. She was always at ther best in the ancient world.

I just remembered another one she wrote The King Must Die -- which has a scene where the women return after the night where they sacrifice the young king and one of them is asleep, drunk, in the cart, and clutching in her hand the penis of the king, held there by the congealed blood. So you see even mainstream books get into this. It is an interesting book for visitors to this site because the young king, who is doomed, is set up to be a pampered sacrifice all year, then is taken to the fields with the women, who use him for fertility and then slaughter him. He is given everything, even young male companions, but on his mind all year is his final fate in the fields.

[Tomas (imported)]

Earlier I mentioned Steel Beach by John Varley, and just the other day I took it down from it's shelf and peeked inside once again.

I decided that the first line of the book is one of the most outrageous ones in popular literature.

Here's the start of the book:

====

"In five years the penis wiil be obsolete," said the salesman.

He paused to let this planet-shattering information sink into our amazed brains. Personally, I didn't know how many more wonders I could absorb before lunch.

"With the right promotional campaign," he went on, breathlessly, "it might take as little as two years."

He might even have been right. Stranger things have happened in my lifetime.

====

Tom

[bobov (imported)]

It is Osiris. Others, however, say that his name is Ra, and that the god who dwelleth in Amentet is the phallus of Ra, wherewith he had union with himself.

From the Book of the Dead

Translated by E.A.Wallis Budge

A primary myth of ancient Egypt was that of the king Osiris, his sister-wife Isis, and their son Horus. Osiris was cut into 14 pieces by his brother Set, who cast the pieces into the Nile. Isis wept and searched for Osiris. She found him again after the annual flood of the Nile, his body transmuted into the growing crops. Osiris, Isis, and Horus joined the most powerful of the gods. Osiris was one of the first gods in the world to be resurrected from the dead. He was the god of the penis, fertility, and the crops, as well as a funerary god, who gave agriculture to the people. The women of ancient Egypt enacted fertility rituals that included the dismemberment/castration of the god, and his eventual rebirth. Goes to show you can't keep a good penis down. There are many versions of the myth, but this is my favorite.

More contemporary is the annual celebration of the Shiite Muslims in which they practice public self-mutilation as a form of asceticism showing their devotion to God. This always includes several men who castrate themselves or perform self-penectomies. These men, or the faithful who accompany them, then run through the streets holding the severed organs aloft and proclaim their love of God. The crowd chants "Oh, Hassan, Oh, Hussein." (Hassan and Hussein were the two sons of Muhammed, and the first leaders of Islam, along with Muhammed's daughter Fatima and son-in-law Ali.) This still happens today; self-punishment and martyrdom are important parts of Shia Islam. You can find this described in Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti.

[bobov (imported)]

I don't know if this counts as "mainstream" literature, but is anyone else out there a fan of the late Gene Bilbrew, who often published under the name Eneg (Gene backwards) and several other pseudonyms? Bilbrew was both an artist and a writer. He authored a prolific stream of pornographic novels until his death in 1974, most of them featuring extreme genital torture and castration, and all of them illustrated by his strong drawings. Bilbrew was really a brilliant talent, but his unconventional subject matter marginalized him, and he did not lead a happy life. His writing was marked by an equivalence between the language of agony and the language of ecstasy. He could describe someone being tortured to death and castrated as if it were the tenderest lovemaking. He exploited the ambiguity in the meaning of screams, and groans, and shudders to create a fantasia of pain. With this extraordinary trick of eroticizing the physical and emotional responses to pain, Bilbrew made himself unique among erotic artists, so far as I know. I cherish my yellowing copies of his original paperbacks, sorry that I was picky enough to buy only the few that I thought best. Today, there are a few collections that contain several of his short novels between two covers.

[Moreschi (imported)]

Supposedly there is a book called "Farinelli"- a biography about him, but I haven't read it. I'd like to, though. Then there is the fiction by Anne Rice, "Cry to Heaven".

[bobov (imported)]

Farinelli is apparently a movie made in 1994, and highly regarded by critics. It tells the story of Carlo Broschi, stage name Farinelli, who was a castrato opera singer and star of the eighteenth century. See this link for details: http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/fa ... nelli.html

I had never heard of this film before, but will see it as soon as I can. It's available on both VHS and DVD. Thanks for sharing this!

[Moreschi (imported)]

Yes, I have seen the movie. I really did not like it! Basically because I have heard "The Last Castrato" (which has more than just Moreschi on it- has the whole choir which was 16 castrati, in several pieces) and what they tried to do in the movie with his voice is NOTHING like the real thing! I'm a singer, so I am very attuned to voices and YUCK on the movie! Basically, I guess they blended the voice of a woman and a man singing high- but not a castrato. I think we all know that hormonally a woman is not the same and neither is a man so they bombed out on that idea! And besides, in the movie, Farinelli had a 5:00 shadow. Come on now.....