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Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Inscription of the Body, Anal Eroticism, and Freud



Modern society is perverse, not because it has tried to repress sex and succeeded only  in producing deformed expressions of the sexual instinct, but because of the type of power it has brought to bear on the body. Far from limiting sexuality, it has extended its various forms, penetrating it with its power..... those identified with certain places (the home, the school, the prison - (my addition:Hollywood producers and actors) - all correspond to precise procedures of power. They are extracted from people's bodies, from the infinite possibilities of their pleasures, and frozen into a particular rigid stance (read Taylor Lautner). (Michel Foucault The Will to Truth-Alan Sheridan p. 175-6)












CaraNo's Bella in Soulmates feels marked, inscribed by Edward, and, as a virgin she is indeed imprinted. But Edward also thinks in terms of marking her, making her his, owning her, taking her, requiring her obedience. But more about that in another place. Meyer's Bella also feels the same, and becomes acutely aware of it when Edward leaves her in New Moon.
(On the left are anal toys from a very funny woman blogger on all things erotic. She lives in China and is Canadian. She blogs encouraging all women to try it with their partners and tells them there is a relationship with lower incidence of prostate cancer, but the real reason she is for it is it 























is great fun. So this post begins with Gentlemen... let a woman meet your rear ...  http://theworldaccordingtowoman.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/gentlemen-let-a-woman-meet-your-rear/As you read in CaraNo's  Isla de Cullen (Bella's initiation to anal sex) and especially in  CaraNo's Soulmates, Feeling, Belonging the bi-sexual Edward (with Jasper) and the porno writer Bella indulge with great pleasure.)












Gentlemen… let a Woman meet your rear…



In Civilization and Its Discontents Freud here and elsewhere has deconstructed toilet training, one of the basic requirements for a civilization, and what the child must sacrifice to attain it. I am sure people reading the above fanfics will get curious, want to try anal fucking, which is why I am linking you to well thought out sites for it.
Before you go out and spend a few hundred dollars in toys before you know what you want, go to the grocery store instead. This is the season for cucumbers and Zuchini and you get get bags full at a neighborhood stand for a couple of dollars. Go home and experiment before indulging with your partner. 
As a child you gave up all your sensuousness in your nether parts (they are dirty, bad you know) and you are going to find out just what you gave up in order to shit in the right place. In order to be civilized. In order to be normal. In order to be organized. It was painful for you to learn and it can be painful to unlearn. So go slow, prepare to spend days or weeks unlearning and dealing with what was done to you. If you go fast and furious with a partner first, you will not be able to do this, and your partner will re-inscribe you. Of course that's going to happen anyway, but know yourself first and deal with the feelings. They are early and deep. And it will take awhile for the pleasure to mirror the deeply sensuous being you really are that you were forced to give up. So check out the veggies, pick some sizes. Carrots are OK because you can scrape them and contour them. Cucumbers are soothing. Choose a water based lubricant and be generous with it but not overly so. You want to feel the resistance of your body, and you want to work and play gently with this resistance. Your tissues are fragile and narrowly separated from your bloodstream. Wash the veggies carefully, buy organic if you can. This is NOT about producing pleasure. It IS about surrendering to it.
And then you can introduce your partner when you feel secure. Men particularly are opposed as that means they are gay or bi and not me they say, not me. So go slow with him or her. And undo the damage that was done to you to "make you clean". It could have been accomplished otherwise, just as horse whisperers know that you don't have to jump on a virgin horse and BREAK it.  








                                      








The Album: Two Virgins
Remember John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Neither were virgins when they met, but they produced an album born of their meeting and their collaboration and marriage. The name: Two Virgins.
As Foucault demonstrated at length in "Surveiller et Punir" it is these micro-mechanisms of power that, since the late 18th century, have played an increasing part in the management of people's lives through direct action on their bodies: they operate not through a code of law, but through a technology of normalization, not by punishment, but by control, at levels and in forms that go beyond the state and its machinery.... We must free ourselves from this image of power as law and sovereignty, says Foucault, if we are to understand how power actually operates  in our technologically advanced societies. Foucault has two aims in this proposed series of studies: to show that sex - an area where, above all others, power seems to function in terms of prohibition - is not, in fact, subjected to power in this way and, second, to formulate an alternative theory of power, 'another grid for deciphering history'. 'We must at the same time conceive of sex without the law and power without the king.'(Sheridan MFTWTT 183)
An so the Foucauldian grid of power/knowledge came into existence
Power is everywhere: not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere...One should probably be a nominalist in this matter:  power is not an institution, nor a structure, nor a possession. It is the name we give to a complex situation in a particular society. (Foucault's History of Sexuality 93)
This inscription of the body penetrates the organs, the muscles, tendons, cellular structure, skin, blood flow, heart rate, in fact, the entire body outside and in.
Reading Bel Ami Through Marx, Foucault, Baudrillard and The Inscription of the Body another blog at focus free - The Inscription of the body here is horrible and it is one of the last pics. De Maupassant has described it perfectly in his description of Duroy's mother.
Stephenie Meyer has fictionalized it through Bella. She hypervenilates, her heart beats faster, she swoons, her stomach tightens, her legs tremble and she collapses, she blushes, she trembles, she shakes. And then in New Moon she shuts down and becomes a "zombie". And in the character of Bella you read perfect understanding of Freud's Studies in Hysteria, so if you are studying Freud, read Twilight and Meyer's Bella.
And in the fanfic Isla de Cullen we see a different Bella. A Bella who is a virgin, who has surrendered her will to an Edward who is dominant and in control of her sexuality as he initiates her in all different ways, including ass fucking. Which is why the butt plugs above. And below (no pun intended).
The Sensuality of Butt Plug Design part 1
I refer you to this blog by ScottA as it is very tech savvy on this subject. He is personally well informed and says when he is not. 

Postscript 5-24-2012: The mind's real power (what else can we call it?) is its ability to distinguish a particular nerve, fibre or infinitesimal articulation of the body and invest or disinvest it at will (a sudden thought produces pain in an unknown muscle, or makes a particular line of the face smile, but not some other). The mind can exert itself upon a particular fraction of the body which cannot be located anatomically, as it can on a particular particle of language which cannot be located linguistically, or a particular fraction of time which cannot be located chronologically. 

And if one ever saw a performance by Grotokwski or Yoshi Oida, then you will know this to be true.
Yoshi Oida











Friday, August 19, 2011

Slavoj Žižek: Shoplifters of the World Unite; The London Riots


From the London Review of Books 


Shoplifters of the World Unite

Slavoj Žižek on the meaning of the riots



.... Zygmunt Bauman characterised the riots as acts of ‘defective and disqualified consumers’: more than anything else, they were a manifestation of a consumerist desire violently enacted when unable to realise itself in the ‘proper’ way – by shopping. As such, they also contain a moment of genuine protest, in the form of an ironic response to consumerist ideology: ‘You call on us to consume while simultaneously depriving us of the means to do it properly – so here we are doing it the only way we can!’ The riots are a demonstration of the material force of ideology – so much, perhaps, for the ‘post-ideological society’. From a revolutionary point of view, the problem with the riots is not the violence as such, but the fact that the violence is not truly self-assertive. It is impotent rage and despair masked as a display of force; it is envy masked as triumphant carnival.....
Zizek takes no prisoners in his analysis. If you want to understand it then read him.



Thursday, August 18, 2011

Kristen Stewart: Vogue 2-11 and W 9-11 Using a Variation of William Burroughs Cut Up Technique

There is seduction and then there is the production of seduction which = provacative, NOT seductive
Which is glam???

 Vogue February 2011                                                   W September 2011
Photographed by Mario Testino for Vogue                                                               
               W  September 2011                                                         Vogue February 2011                        

W September 2011                                                            Vogue February 2011


                                                                               W September 2011                          
                             Vogue February 2011                                    


         Vogue February 2011                                                                          W  September 2011



 The actress posed for the Vogue February cover with Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez in a deserted L.A. warehouse


                                                                Vogue February 2011

Kristen Stewart as Tracy in Into The Wild
Of all my hundreds of pics on all my blogs, this is the pic that has by far the most hits
W  Hey! Amy Winehouse  is hot right now! Now that she just died. Let's recycle her LOOK and paste it on Kristen Stewart! Great! HIGH - FIVE  for you! (My imagined fantasy photo spread planning conversation.)

VOGUE VIDEO LINK HERE.... she talked exclusively to Vogue.com about how she got her start in the business, the strangest part about being thrust under microscope, and where she sees herself in ten years.   (Do go there as it's a lovely video of Kristen.)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Breaking Dawn Poster: McLuhan: The Medium Is The Message Folks

The Medium Is The Message Folks


Great! I get to give a rant on McLuhan.


All over the fandom are the rants on this poster! As usual the twihards are right. It is awful. They are analyzing it in hundreds of comments. And some of them get damn close. So go over to robsessed and read them.

Here is part of the best one by nikola6

nikola6 6 hours ago
This is in response to RobFanAlways, but disqus tossed me up here...

I may come off a little cyptic here, but this is a public blog...It's complicated. While both are ambitious, they've opted for different avenues to fulfill those ambitions. One is a team player and the other understands the bullshit of the playing field. Not that he doesn't do his job in the selling of this franchise. He absolutely does. But he knows what it is and tho approaches it as a professional, also keeps a healthy distance from it. The other embraces it. Whole heartedly. One is seeking mainstream Hollywood stardom. The other wants to mix it up a bit. Neither is wrong. Just different approaches. End of cryptic. Now comes opinion...

I think there is a very good possibility that there will be more Twilight films (even if there aren't any more books) continuing the story of Jacob and Renesmee because there's a fortune to be made from them. Or so they think. I'm not so sure as I believe the success of these movies lies upon one thing...the kind of chemistry that comes along only a handful of times in a generation (like Bogart and Bacall), the kind of chemistry shared between Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Now if they can find an actress who'll pair up as equally well with Taylor...then maybe. But the thing is, you cannot manufacture chemistry (produce seduction)between human beings. Either it's there or it's not. And the odds that S-c-ummit could strike lightning twice is a long shot. But once the first saga concludes, that will be the end of Rob's participation here. So if they are indeed looking to Taylor as the future of the franchise, then it makes sense to continue to build his stardom. .... But yeah, I think Summit is looking to the future here and Rob will not be a part of that. Not that he wouldn't work for Summit again, but not in a future Twilight film ....
Edward (Pattinson) looks like a staid, kind of bored married husband and Bella (Stewart) looks as if she spends a lot of time with the hair police getting just the right look NOT of bouffant.

Now Jacob! Wow! He's got his six-pack like the good ol boy to come American male is supposed to have, eh? All well fed on good red beef, tanned, and buff, man, buff. The image that Scummit wants to portray in their male stars. (Jake in Source Code was all buff.) Scummit wants to continue being a playa after Twilight is over. Reminder: Scummit was on the abyss of bankruptcy when they got and did Twilight.  It was just about their swan song. And then! Rob and Kristen built the house that is now called Scummit! What do ya know!

The poster is ostensibly about promoting Breaking Dawn. The message is that we are gonna continue with Taylor and the real American male films for swooning girls. Yes Taylor is the most savvy of the three. The most financial short term savvy one of the three. But he has cloned himself from the spontaneous, adorable boy into a handsome version of Stallone. It won't work Taylor. Not for very long. That day is over now. You are too late to the party. And Scummit is woefully lacking in any kind of vision or real artistic talent spotters on anything to do more than use up their cachet from Twilight and disappear.

Who from the 40's and 50's would ever have thought MGM would go on the block, or WB or Paramount? Hollywood as it was known is over folks. Over. As in O - V - E - R!
   

Monday, August 15, 2011

JOHN AND YOKO BED IN FOR PEACE

Lots More Pics



Yoko has put this up on youtube until August 21 so watch while you can.  It's a 1 1/2 hour documentary


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mRjjiOV003Q

This is parrhesia!!

The risk was that Lennon faced deportation for a long time and had to fight that  




Caption wouldn't work
Pic is from Vivian Was Here
Her blog on the famous Bed In

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Colbert Our Voltaire: Foucault and Parrhesia - Fearless Speech - Speaking Truth to Power

Stephen Colbert - White House Correspondents Dinner 2006
Watch on youtube by clicking link above or paste in your browser below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MoGi4AHpn0  (in case the link goes bad) -- 27 minutes short


Full Transcript:  http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/stephencolbert/a/colbertbush.htm


Some Excerpts:






Mark Smith, ladies and gentlemen of the press corps, Madame First Lady, Mr. President, my name is Stephen Colbert, and tonight it is my privilege to celebrate this president, ‘cause we're not so different, he and I. We both get it. Guys like us, we're not some brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We're not members of the factinista. We go straight from the gut. Right, sir? 






The point is it is the heart-warming story of a man who was repeatedly punched in the face, so don't pay attention to the approval ratings that say that 68% of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68% approve of the job he's not doing? Think about it. I haven't...

I stand by this man. I stand by this man, because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things, things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo-ops in the world. 

The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs never will. 




And as excited as I am to be here with the President, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of FOX News. FOX News gives you both sides of every story: the President's side, and the Vice President's side.

But the rest of you, what are you thinking? Reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason: they're super-depressing. And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished.

Over the last five years you people were so good, over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew. 
But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The President makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction! 
And so much more:


My intention was not to deal with the problem of truth, but with the problem of the truth-teller, or of truth-telling as an activity....  who is able to tell the truth, about what, with what consequences, and with what relations to power.... With the intention  of the importance of telling the truth, knowing who is able to tell the truth, and knowing why we should tell the truth, we have the roots of what we could call the "critical"tradition of the West. - Michel Foucault


This night Colbert became a parrhesiastes was an electric night. I was at dailykos.com when the news came out. Youtube had the audios, the videos in multiple places immediately, servers were crashing all over, everyone was blogging about it, and the mass media? Well its coverage was announcing this special event and the chosen speaker and a clip of Colbert saying good evening ladies and gentlemen or something similarly innocuous.  By morning youtube, crooks and liars etc had gotten a million hits and the Bush presidency was finally confronted for the empty balloon it was and the media's conspiracy in that empty balloon charade was laid out on the operating table. The Dominating Discourse of the media was challenged by the blogosphere and the mass media lost, hands down. Its ghost is still around of course, much like Nietzsche's god but its power is broken and it is now routinely laughed at. It was a heady night and we all knew exactly what was happening. At last, someone had spoken the truth to the king and to the sitting press right there, in their faces, and their uncomfortableness was evident to all. Bush squirmed, the press squirmed, and faces turned to stone.


So click on the links and watch. It was 27 minutes that changed the world. Not that its gotten any better, just worse in different ways.