May. 6th, 2012

monk222: (Strip)
A porn producer and distributor, Mr. Ira Isaacs, was convicted in California for a little known film titled “Hollywood Scat Amateurs #10”. Apparently nine is fine and ten is too much. But all joking aside. I recently mentioned that I do not care for blood-play in sex (nor for blood-play in anything, frankly). I can now happily report that I have even less interest in people playing with feces. I cannot imagine the thrill myself, and I trust that this fascination will forever remain a nauseating mystery to me.

Nevertheless, I do love the argument that Michael Stabile makes on behalf of fetish porn. I know what it is to be on the wrong side of majoritarian tastes. It was a perfect little hell for me back in the early and mid nineties, when rape scenes were effectively verboten in this country. A lot of people may find scenes of forced sex to be as sickening as blood-play or scat-play, perhaps even worse, but that was one ban that I could personally feel the sting of. The authorities have apparently loosened up a bit on that one, thankfully, as a lot of people, both men and women, enjoy rape fantasies, but the experience of that prohibition only strengthened my appreciation for a more absolutist position on free speech. And Stabile makes the case as well as anyone.


_ _ _

Obviously Hollywood Scat Amateurs #10 was never intended to be art, and that’s the real problem with the art argument: it covers up what’s truly valuable about these films, which is that they allow us to critique of the notion of obscenity itself.

The California obscenity statute defines “prurience” as “a morbid, degrading, unhealthy interest in sex.” But this sells all sexual minorities down the river. Is it more degrading to see a representation of your desire, or be deemed “perverted” by the state? In 2012, should the state still be passing judgment on the consensual sex lives of others?

[...]

Isaacs’s attorney, Roger Diamond, may have failed to argue anything other than “artistic value” in his client’s defense, but in his closing argument, he made a point that had barely surfaced in the trial.

“People watch these movies and know that they’re not alone in the world,” Diamond said. “If people want to buy these movies, they ought to be able to.”

This is the community standard that we should be fighting for: a standard that proclaims the “deviant subset” has the same right to watch what it wants as does any average member of the community, as long as the production itself is not crime. It's a recognition that sexual speech is covered by the First Amendment, regardless of whether we think it has “serious” value.

-- Michael Stabile, "If Porn Isn’t Art, Does It Still Have a Right to Exist?" at The Daily Beast
monk222: (Strip)
A porn producer and distributor, Mr. Ira Isaacs, was convicted in California for a little known film titled “Hollywood Scat Amateurs #10”. Apparently nine is fine and ten is too much. But all joking aside. I recently mentioned that I do not care for blood-play in sex (nor for blood-play in anything, frankly). I can now happily report that I have even less interest in people playing with feces. I cannot imagine the thrill myself, and I trust that this fascination will forever remain a nauseating mystery to me.

Nevertheless, I do love the argument that Michael Stabile makes on behalf of fetish porn. I know what it is to be on the wrong side of majoritarian tastes. It was a perfect little hell for me back in the early and mid nineties, when rape scenes were effectively verboten in this country. A lot of people may find scenes of forced sex to be as sickening as blood-play or scat-play, perhaps even worse, but that was one ban that I could personally feel the sting of. The authorities have apparently loosened up a bit on that one, thankfully, as a lot of people, both men and women, enjoy rape fantasies, but the experience of that prohibition only strengthened my appreciation for a more absolutist position on free speech. And Stabile makes the case as well as anyone.


_ _ _

Obviously Hollywood Scat Amateurs #10 was never intended to be art, and that’s the real problem with the art argument: it covers up what’s truly valuable about these films, which is that they allow us to critique of the notion of obscenity itself.

The California obscenity statute defines “prurience” as “a morbid, degrading, unhealthy interest in sex.” But this sells all sexual minorities down the river. Is it more degrading to see a representation of your desire, or be deemed “perverted” by the state? In 2012, should the state still be passing judgment on the consensual sex lives of others?

[...]

Isaacs’s attorney, Roger Diamond, may have failed to argue anything other than “artistic value” in his client’s defense, but in his closing argument, he made a point that had barely surfaced in the trial.

“People watch these movies and know that they’re not alone in the world,” Diamond said. “If people want to buy these movies, they ought to be able to.”

This is the community standard that we should be fighting for: a standard that proclaims the “deviant subset” has the same right to watch what it wants as does any average member of the community, as long as the production itself is not crime. It's a recognition that sexual speech is covered by the First Amendment, regardless of whether we think it has “serious” value.

-- Michael Stabile, "If Porn Isn’t Art, Does It Still Have a Right to Exist?" at The Daily Beast

Rain

May. 6th, 2012 06:40 am
monk222: (Default)
It was about two in the morning when I was stirring in bed to the sound of thunder and getting reading for a bathroom run. I was certain that it was a dry thunder. The possibility of rain didn't even enter my head. However, when I got up, I decided to look out the window for kicks, and sure enough, it was raining. Not hard. But it was definitely more than one of those three-minute semi-showers.

The cats did come inside in pretty quick order, and it was not long afterward that the storm really broke. A good, strong, lasting rain. A rain the region has needed desperately. And I definitely won't be watering on Tuesday.

My sleep was seriously abridged, but as much as I absolutely have to have my sleep, I can sacrifice a couple of hours for the breaking of this drought.
.

Rain

May. 6th, 2012 06:40 am
monk222: (Default)
It was about two in the morning when I was stirring in bed to the sound of thunder and getting reading for a bathroom run. I was certain that it was a dry thunder. The possibility of rain didn't even enter my head. However, when I got up, I decided to look out the window for kicks, and sure enough, it was raining. Not hard. But it was definitely more than one of those three-minute semi-showers.

The cats did come inside in pretty quick order, and it was not long afterward that the storm really broke. A good, strong, lasting rain. A rain the region has needed desperately. And I definitely won't be watering on Tuesday.

My sleep was seriously abridged, but as much as I absolutely have to have my sleep, I can sacrifice a couple of hours for the breaking of this drought.
.
monk222: (Default)
“That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

-- George Carlin

Oh, there are a few who manage to win a piece of the pie. Not me. But it happens. Enough apparently to keep people playing.
monk222: (Default)
“That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

-- George Carlin

Oh, there are a few who manage to win a piece of the pie. Not me. But it happens. Enough apparently to keep people playing.
monk222: (Christmas)
Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and other forms of fiction. Some see this as a positive thing, arguing that made-up stories cultivate our mental and moral development. But others have argued that fiction is mentally and ethically corrosive. It’s an ancient question: Does fiction build the morality of individuals and societies, or does it break it down?

-- Jonathan Gottschall, "Why Fiction Is Good For You" at Boston.com

The argument is that fiction is great in helping us to develop our sense of empathy, to free us a little from the idea that the world revolves around oneself. Yet, the way that Mr. Gottschall lays out the argument, it can sound like fiction does this by making saps out of us, by inducing us to believe in a fairy tale kind of world of happy endings.



_ _ _

Take a study of television viewers by the Austrian psychologist Marcus Appel. Appel points out that, for a society to function properly, people have to believe in justice. They have to believe that there are rewards for doing right and punishments for doing wrong. And, indeed, people generally do believe that life punishes the vicious and rewards the virtuous. But one class of people appear to believe these things in particular: those who consume a lot of fiction.

In Appel’s study, people who mainly watched drama and comedy on TV — as opposed to heavy viewers of news programs and documentaries — had substantially stronger “just-world” beliefs. Appel concludes that fiction, by constantly exposing us to the theme of poetic justice, may be partly responsible for the sense that the world is, on the whole, a just place.

This is despite the fact, as Appel puts it, “that this is patently not the case.” As people who watch the news know very well, bad things happen to good people all the time, and most crimes go unpunished. In other words, fiction seems to teach us to see the world through rose-colored lenses. And the fact that we see the world that way seems to be an important part of what makes human societies work.

-- Jonathan Gottschall at Boston.com

_ _ _

I suppose society needs a lot of such saps in order to work at all. No doubt, religion is a particularly good sort of fiction for this, a fiction enriched unto the level of mythology, so that one hesitates to call it merely fiction, and even cold-hearted skeptics can sometimes wonder if maybe we do live in a blessed world, after all, and you just need to have a little faith.

monk222: (Christmas)
Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and other forms of fiction. Some see this as a positive thing, arguing that made-up stories cultivate our mental and moral development. But others have argued that fiction is mentally and ethically corrosive. It’s an ancient question: Does fiction build the morality of individuals and societies, or does it break it down?

-- Jonathan Gottschall, "Why Fiction Is Good For You" at Boston.com

The argument is that fiction is great in helping us to develop our sense of empathy, to free us a little from the idea that the world revolves around oneself. Yet, the way that Mr. Gottschall lays out the argument, it can sound like fiction does this by making saps out of us, by inducing us to believe in a fairy tale kind of world of happy endings.



_ _ _

Take a study of television viewers by the Austrian psychologist Marcus Appel. Appel points out that, for a society to function properly, people have to believe in justice. They have to believe that there are rewards for doing right and punishments for doing wrong. And, indeed, people generally do believe that life punishes the vicious and rewards the virtuous. But one class of people appear to believe these things in particular: those who consume a lot of fiction.

In Appel’s study, people who mainly watched drama and comedy on TV — as opposed to heavy viewers of news programs and documentaries — had substantially stronger “just-world” beliefs. Appel concludes that fiction, by constantly exposing us to the theme of poetic justice, may be partly responsible for the sense that the world is, on the whole, a just place.

This is despite the fact, as Appel puts it, “that this is patently not the case.” As people who watch the news know very well, bad things happen to good people all the time, and most crimes go unpunished. In other words, fiction seems to teach us to see the world through rose-colored lenses. And the fact that we see the world that way seems to be an important part of what makes human societies work.

-- Jonathan Gottschall at Boston.com

_ _ _

I suppose society needs a lot of such saps in order to work at all. No doubt, religion is a particularly good sort of fiction for this, a fiction enriched unto the level of mythology, so that one hesitates to call it merely fiction, and even cold-hearted skeptics can sometimes wonder if maybe we do live in a blessed world, after all, and you just need to have a little faith.

monk222: (Flight)


"This is Librería Beta in Sierpes street, Sevilla, Spain. It used to be a theatre. It’s one of my favourite places in the city :)"

-- Book Lover
.
monk222: (Flight)


"This is Librería Beta in Sierpes street, Sevilla, Spain. It used to be a theatre. It’s one of my favourite places in the city :)"

-- Book Lover
.
monk222: (Noir Detective)
Here is Voltaire at eight or nine, and we can perhaps already see the spirit of the man. Did I really say Voltaire? Of course, I mean Casanova, who seems to be an interesting thinker, but is no Voltaire. I imagine there is a reason why Voltaire is famous for his wit while Casanova is more reputed for his penis.

_ _ _

One day, about the middle of November, I was with my brother Francois, two years younger than I, in my father’s room, watching him attentively as he was working at optics. A large lump of crystal, round and cut into facets, attracted my attention. I took it up, and having brought it near my eyes I was delighted to see that it multiplied objects. The wish to possess myself of it at once got hold of me, and seeing myself unobserved I took my opportunity and hid it in my pocket.

A few minutes after this my father looked about for his crystal, and unable to find it, he concluded that one of us must have taken it. My brother asserted that he had not touched it, and I, although guilty, said the same; but my father, satisfied that he could not be mistaken, threatened to search us and to thrash the one who had told him a story. I pretended to look for the crystal in every corner of the room, and, watching my opportunity I slyly slipped it in the pocket of my brother’s jacket.

At first I was sorry for what I had done, for I might as well have feigned to find the crystal somewhere about the room; but the evil deed was past recall. My father, seeing that we were looking in vain, lost patience, searched us, found the unlucky ball of crystal in the pocket of the innocent boy, and inflicted upon him the promised thrashing. Three or four years later I was foolish enough to boast before my brother of the trick I had then played on him; he never forgave me, and has never failed to take his revenge whenever the opportunity offered.

-- Casanova, The Memoirs

_ _ _

One suspects that the little brother did not suffer a lack of causes to continue the grudge.
monk222: (Noir Detective)
Here is Voltaire at eight or nine, and we can perhaps already see the spirit of the man. Did I really say Voltaire? Of course, I mean Casanova, who seems to be an interesting thinker, but is no Voltaire. I imagine there is a reason why Voltaire is famous for his wit while Casanova is more reputed for his penis.

_ _ _

One day, about the middle of November, I was with my brother Francois, two years younger than I, in my father’s room, watching him attentively as he was working at optics. A large lump of crystal, round and cut into facets, attracted my attention. I took it up, and having brought it near my eyes I was delighted to see that it multiplied objects. The wish to possess myself of it at once got hold of me, and seeing myself unobserved I took my opportunity and hid it in my pocket.

A few minutes after this my father looked about for his crystal, and unable to find it, he concluded that one of us must have taken it. My brother asserted that he had not touched it, and I, although guilty, said the same; but my father, satisfied that he could not be mistaken, threatened to search us and to thrash the one who had told him a story. I pretended to look for the crystal in every corner of the room, and, watching my opportunity I slyly slipped it in the pocket of my brother’s jacket.

At first I was sorry for what I had done, for I might as well have feigned to find the crystal somewhere about the room; but the evil deed was past recall. My father, seeing that we were looking in vain, lost patience, searched us, found the unlucky ball of crystal in the pocket of the innocent boy, and inflicted upon him the promised thrashing. Three or four years later I was foolish enough to boast before my brother of the trick I had then played on him; he never forgave me, and has never failed to take his revenge whenever the opportunity offered.

-- Casanova, The Memoirs

_ _ _

One suspects that the little brother did not suffer a lack of causes to continue the grudge.
monk222: (Bonobo Thinking)
France—and, along with it, Europe and possibly the global economy—are about to enter a new and uncertain era. The first exit polls in French media have put socialist François Hollande ahead of the center-right incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, with more than 52 percent of the vote.

-- Christopher Dickey at The Daily Beast

I don't suppose the Hollande government will be a re-play of the Mitterand days, but one is tempted to think that we may be seeing the ideological pendelum swinging back to the liberal side, not just in France, but for the West in general. We can only pray that Obama keeps the White House from Romney and the Republicans.
monk222: (Bonobo Thinking)
France—and, along with it, Europe and possibly the global economy—are about to enter a new and uncertain era. The first exit polls in French media have put socialist François Hollande ahead of the center-right incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, with more than 52 percent of the vote.

-- Christopher Dickey at The Daily Beast

I don't suppose the Hollande government will be a re-play of the Mitterand days, but one is tempted to think that we may be seeing the ideological pendelum swinging back to the liberal side, not just in France, but for the West in general. We can only pray that Obama keeps the White House from Romney and the Republicans.
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