It's a slippery slope
Oct. 13th, 2009 12:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusFrance continues to suffer aftershocks from the Polanski case, as culture minister Frédéric Mitterand clings, in a climate of "ethical turbulence", to his job. After Mitterand (the gay nephew of the former socialist president, better known as a presenter of cultural TV before Sarkozy catapulted him into his current post) protested the Polanski arrest particularly vehemently, right-wingers including Le Pen's daughter Marine pointed out that in a memoir published in 2005 Mitterand had volunteered the information that he'd paid for sex with "kids" in Thailand. This wasn't confessed happily; Mitterand presents it as part of his "bad life", and has since clarified that the "kids" were all over the age of consent.
Now the spotlight is being shone on Mitterand's appearance -- reading a passage from Camus' Noces -- at the beginning of a short film about underage gay (and multi-cultural) sex, La Bite de Rachid (click the second picture from the left to watch it). "There are words which I never understood," says Camus, as read by Mitterand, "like the word 'sin'. I believe I know, however, that these men have not sinned against life, because if there is such a thing as 'sin against life' it consists in trying to turn one's back on life's implacable grandeur."
Bernard Henri-Levy, supporting Mitterand as he supported Polanski a couple of weeks ago (this time against an unholy alliance of the Front National and the French Socialists), published a piece in yesterday's Libération which pointed out that many of France's most-cherished cultural figures would fail by the standards of this "new moral brigade": André Malraux, Leon Blum, André Gide, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, they'd all be out of a job in the current climate. As for Jean Genet's Thief's Journal, says Levy, it wouldn't find a publisher.
One writer who went far, far further beyond the pale than any of the names on Levy's list -- further even than Bataille in his Story of the Eye -- is Blaise Cendrars, the one-armed half-Scottish, half-French poet who wrote the fabulously transgressive, terrifying novel Moravagine, described on the cover of the 1970 Doubleday translation as "a raw, stinking, crawling hunk of fantasy" (just in case we thought it was clean, and just in case we thought it was real).
Moravagine, like Apollinaire's Les Onze Mille Verges, Diderot's Les Bijoux Indiscrets, and the works of the divine Marquis, falls into a particularly french tradition of aristocratic, libertine disdain for bourgeois morality, with its insistence on the normality of normality and the lawfulness of law. The book was certainly an influence on my own Book of Jokes, in which little girls are snuffed out as often as Kenny in South Park: "On our way back to the harbour we passed the flattened corpse of the little girl, lying on the roadway. A car must have passed over her in some kind of roadkill episode. Wolves had then, said my father, probably licked dry the juiciest parts of her remains."
Writing about my novel, one french blogger mentioned a painter I hadn't heard of before, but whose work catches this element of the novel well. He's called Stu Mead, and he's a disabled American, born in 1955, currently living in Berlin. His paintings take up where Balthus left off, and as such they're either deeply unfashionable in the current climate, or totally relevant. Take your pick.
Here a few of the images (not at all safe for work) a Google image search threw up when I typed Mead's name in. A penetrating devil assisted by three handmaidens. Some little girls at a party shooting a clown. A devil being fellated by two girls.
Something here reminds me of Tomomi Adachi's perverse "edible girls" images. This pissing girl has something of Yoshitomo Nara's grumpy, demonic girls in it, too. Happy Meal sees Ronald McDonald about to enjoy a different kind of lunchbox. Here's an interview with Mead in which he says "I do think I am a pervert".
[Error: unknown template video]
This Mead image of a dog sniffing a girl's skirt up reminds me of PUFF!, a new iPhone app which allows users to blow women's skirts up, eliciting a series of delightful squeals. Okay, it's not quite Blaise Cendrars. It's not even the french culture minister on holiday. But no doubt someone out there will find -- or make -- these girls' thighs a slippery slope.
Now the spotlight is being shone on Mitterand's appearance -- reading a passage from Camus' Noces -- at the beginning of a short film about underage gay (and multi-cultural) sex, La Bite de Rachid (click the second picture from the left to watch it). "There are words which I never understood," says Camus, as read by Mitterand, "like the word 'sin'. I believe I know, however, that these men have not sinned against life, because if there is such a thing as 'sin against life' it consists in trying to turn one's back on life's implacable grandeur."
Bernard Henri-Levy, supporting Mitterand as he supported Polanski a couple of weeks ago (this time against an unholy alliance of the Front National and the French Socialists), published a piece in yesterday's Libération which pointed out that many of France's most-cherished cultural figures would fail by the standards of this "new moral brigade": André Malraux, Leon Blum, André Gide, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, they'd all be out of a job in the current climate. As for Jean Genet's Thief's Journal, says Levy, it wouldn't find a publisher.
One writer who went far, far further beyond the pale than any of the names on Levy's list -- further even than Bataille in his Story of the Eye -- is Blaise Cendrars, the one-armed half-Scottish, half-French poet who wrote the fabulously transgressive, terrifying novel Moravagine, described on the cover of the 1970 Doubleday translation as "a raw, stinking, crawling hunk of fantasy" (just in case we thought it was clean, and just in case we thought it was real).Moravagine, like Apollinaire's Les Onze Mille Verges, Diderot's Les Bijoux Indiscrets, and the works of the divine Marquis, falls into a particularly french tradition of aristocratic, libertine disdain for bourgeois morality, with its insistence on the normality of normality and the lawfulness of law. The book was certainly an influence on my own Book of Jokes, in which little girls are snuffed out as often as Kenny in South Park: "On our way back to the harbour we passed the flattened corpse of the little girl, lying on the roadway. A car must have passed over her in some kind of roadkill episode. Wolves had then, said my father, probably licked dry the juiciest parts of her remains."
Writing about my novel, one french blogger mentioned a painter I hadn't heard of before, but whose work catches this element of the novel well. He's called Stu Mead, and he's a disabled American, born in 1955, currently living in Berlin. His paintings take up where Balthus left off, and as such they're either deeply unfashionable in the current climate, or totally relevant. Take your pick.
Here a few of the images (not at all safe for work) a Google image search threw up when I typed Mead's name in. A penetrating devil assisted by three handmaidens. Some little girls at a party shooting a clown. A devil being fellated by two girls.
Something here reminds me of Tomomi Adachi's perverse "edible girls" images. This pissing girl has something of Yoshitomo Nara's grumpy, demonic girls in it, too. Happy Meal sees Ronald McDonald about to enjoy a different kind of lunchbox. Here's an interview with Mead in which he says "I do think I am a pervert".
[Error: unknown template video]
This Mead image of a dog sniffing a girl's skirt up reminds me of PUFF!, a new iPhone app which allows users to blow women's skirts up, eliciting a series of delightful squeals. Okay, it's not quite Blaise Cendrars. It's not even the french culture minister on holiday. But no doubt someone out there will find -- or make -- these girls' thighs a slippery slope.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 12:16 am (UTC)It's been several centuries since this kind of transgression has been needed though. Unless an author genuinely advocates sex with children, who or what institutions is he hoping to undermine parading the same stuff again? In 19th France it was the censorious Catholic church - today's equivalent is censorious Islam, no?
Bernard Henri-Levy thinks there is some "new moral brigade" who would've okayed child abuse a few years ago, but suddenly changed their mind? Riight.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 12:30 am (UTC)at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-13 01:14 am (UTC)I've got no problem with that.
But rape? No matter the age of the victim, that's a problem.
It's not an issue of puritanism. Rape is a crime in any civilized culture.
Greetings from 55416
Date: 2009-10-13 02:07 am (UTC)Re: at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-13 02:26 am (UTC)Regardless: the fact is, the girl in question did not want to have sex with Polanski, resisted, said no, etc. Which means Polanski raped her.
That's entirely different from artistic descriptions of the same (and I'm strongly against the conflation of art with real life in that way). That Polanski is an artist is, here, utterly irrelevant: he could be a scientist or a mechanic or an unemployed insurance claims adjuster: the fact is, he raped the girl.
This isn't about "puritanism" - unless the opposite of puritanism shrugs at rape.
Re: at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-13 03:26 am (UTC)that's liberalism for you
Date: 2009-10-13 04:05 am (UTC)really, it's a classic case of why hollywood liberalism is a laughing stock....
adorno
Date: 2009-10-13 05:49 am (UTC)please
Date: 2009-10-13 06:27 am (UTC)Go smoke a pole... you can"t argue when you paint a black and white picture like that. So why bother posting the obvious.
anyways... back to possibly more interesting discourse...
I tried to wiki "Blaise Cendrars" and his page is very bare... almost no description. Maybe just linking him to other more famous writers. Wonder why that is.
Story of the Eye... is one of my favorite books I always am looking for other books of the same caliber.... but ah, they seem to be very rare.
Something so poetic, sexy, other-worldly, etc.... so, if you recommend Moravagine I'll give it a try.
"Story of O" Is another I really enjoyed....
Anyone else... not wanting to ramble on and on and on about rape being wrong want to add books to the list?
Re: Greetings from 55416
Date: 2009-10-13 06:58 am (UTC)Hurry back to WC1, Suzy, the namedropping opportunities are much better there, and the postcode so much swisher!
Re: Greetings from 55416
Date: 2009-10-13 08:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 08:54 am (UTC)all the little friends of henry darger
Date: 2009-10-13 08:57 am (UTC)"Written in the wake of May ’68 and Deleuze/Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus,
Duvert’s Bon sexe illustre partakes in this miraculous moment when
sexuality could turn the world upside down, revealing social hypocrisy
for what it is. Bitterly funny and unabashedly anarchistic, Duvert
openly declares war on mothers, family, psychoanalysis, morality, the
entire social construct through a close reading of sex manuals for children.
Published in 1973, one year after Duvert won the prestigious Prix Medicis,
it proved that accolades had not tempered his scathing wit or his approach
to such taboo topics as pedophilia."
and of course stu meads 'partner in crime' henry darger
erik
the netherlands
Re: please
Date: 2009-10-13 09:02 am (UTC)http://www.semiotexte.com/authors/tonyDuvert.html
hogg by sci-fi writer samuel delany, about a serial rapist on the road with his young boy accomplice. a lot of pissing involved too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogg_%28novel%29
Re: at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-13 09:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 09:59 am (UTC)Re: at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-13 10:13 am (UTC)Stu Mead
Date: 2009-10-13 10:26 am (UTC)Stephen Parkin
Re: Greetings from 55416
Date: 2009-10-13 11:07 am (UTC)Re: Stu Mead
Date: 2009-10-13 11:30 am (UTC)Re: Greetings from 55416
Date: 2009-10-13 11:59 am (UTC)Re: Greetings from 55416
Date: 2009-10-13 12:40 pm (UTC)Re: at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-13 02:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 02:38 pm (UTC)Re: please
Date: 2009-10-13 06:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 06:27 pm (UTC)Re: all the little friends of henry darger
Date: 2009-10-13 06:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 06:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 08:01 pm (UTC)http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/29/roman-polanski-whoopi-goldberg
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 08:07 pm (UTC)http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7464/
Re: all the little friends of henry darger
Date: 2009-10-13 10:29 pm (UTC)Open you anal mind to the true love of jesus.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 10:38 pm (UTC)Re: all the little friends of henry darger
Date: 2009-10-13 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-13 10:43 pm (UTC)Re: all the little friends of henry darger
Date: 2009-10-13 10:49 pm (UTC)not sure. Seeing that i'm in charge of these matters...
we'll have to talk it over I guess.
Also... it might be a good idea to skim over the book in question... so you know what you're talking about.
Also, are you sure you're straight? how do you know?
And these children you speak of... are these actual 'real' children? or sort of 'pretend' children?
Re: that's liberalism for you
Date: 2009-10-14 04:52 am (UTC)Makes me think you - bold anonymous commenter - are more concerned with the alleged offenses of "Hollywood liberals" than the rape of a 13-year-old girl. At least, using the latter to score points against the former is pretty damned sleazy.
Re: that's liberalism for you
Date: 2009-10-14 07:46 am (UTC)this is a classic case of hollywood liberals being apologists for fucked up sexual behavior such as polanski's. your point about my being more concerned with that than polanski's victim is precisely opposite to the truth: by condemning these hollywood sleazeballs, i'm lending even more support to the victim. wake up, man.
Re: that's liberalism for you
Date: 2009-10-14 07:47 am (UTC)Polanski finishing latest film from jail cell
Date: 2009-10-14 07:56 am (UTC)http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6873582.ece
From imagination to acts
Date: 2009-10-14 10:17 am (UTC)Art can go often very far, be censored very often in the past and will still in the future, and will be rediscovered later on. But, except for performances, art usually do not touch the physical integrity of a person in a way which is forbidden by the norms of the society at that time.
Roman Polanski is not arrested because of his movies, but because of his acts. He might be innocent or guilty, but that is the work of the court. French intellectuals have been a tad too quick in their support I believe.
Re: From imagination to acts
Date: 2009-10-14 11:02 am (UTC)Something else happened to whip up the moral frenzy, and by all accounts that "something" involved a recent documentary about Polanski, an ambitious judge in the US, and a Swiss banking scandal. Without those three elements coming together, this case would not have been re-ignited. It's always worth remembering that moral panics, frenzies and witch hunts can be orchestrated. When we react strongly and suddenly to an emotive and clear-cut issue, we are often being politically manipulated, no matter how righteous the cause.
Re: at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-14 02:47 pm (UTC)Re: From imagination to acts
Date: 2009-10-14 06:35 pm (UTC)Re: From imagination to acts
Date: 2009-10-14 06:35 pm (UTC)Re: From imagination to acts
Date: 2009-10-14 09:04 pm (UTC)Re: at the bottom of the hill
Date: 2009-10-14 10:43 pm (UTC)I don't agree with the initial light sentencing in the plea agreement any more than the media did back then, but one must admit that Polanski's flight from this situation is a tad more complex than "Oh, he ran away from his sentence," as if he were never, at any point, willing to undergo any type of sentencing for the crime he admitted to. I think it's pretty clear, due to the screwy judge who presided, that he felt he was fleeing a kangaroo court, and if you look at the facts, he pretty much was. It doesn't make his crime okay, and it doesn't make his flight okay, but it does give us a better understanding than the one that has typically been presented by his harshest critics.
And again, a plea bargain can be just as much an indication of the prosecution's inability to succeed at prosecuting a higher charge than it is of the defendant's inability to win against a higher charge. None of the evidence makes it particularly clear that the prosecution would have had an easy time winning a case for forcible rape, since all they really had was testimony and physical evidence that a sex act occurred. I'm not sure the victim had any injuries or eyewitness testimony that would have sealed a forcible rape case for them.
I'm not saying that Polanski didn't forcibly rape her. I'm saying that what we're looking at is essentially a statutory rape case. They're saying that if he was successfully tried for statutory rape under today's laws, he would get 3 years in the slammer, maximum. And everybody's talking about "Oh, this may be the last movie Polanski makes if he gets sentenced." As though he's going to be put in prison for 30 years or something. I mean, he seems like a healthy enough guy. I'm sure he has more than 3 years left in him.
I just wish we could lose the extreme rhetoric that surrounds the Polanski affair. Not everybody who dares examine the details is a rabid defender who thinks that Polanski should be able to rape with impunity because he made "Chinatown." But on the other hand, there are a lot of attackers who have absolutely no sense when it comes to the details of this case.
Re: From imagination to acts
Date: 2009-10-15 02:21 am (UTC)Re: From imagination to acts
Date: 2009-10-15 10:19 am (UTC)x factor rival
Date: 2009-10-22 10:56 pm (UTC)great britian would be galvanized in its opinion on momus. momus in turn would achieve his long overdue notoriety .
ehmm only a thought.