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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

eroticism and pornography « Previous | |Next »
January 9, 2004

Hey, Gary, it was good to receive an e-mail from Kristian and Hugo, who are out there somewhere reading this stuff. Bukowski is their particular interest. I’ve only had a glance at their stuff but they seem to be interested in poetry and through poetry Bukowski. I’ve been thinking about what I might write in response to their e-mail. In due course I’ll write something.

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about our perennial topic of surrealism and pornography. You’ve been writing some interesting things about the female experience, which of course is also the film-maker Catherine Breillat’s enduring concern.

What stuck me is a slightly different matter. You recently posted a couple of digital images of Helmut Newton photographs. They got me thinking about Newton.

Newton’s images are meant to be art, photographic art. Who’d doubt it. They look okay next to Balthus’ paintings. In fact, Balthus and Newton have something in common. In fact, they have many things in common. Their topic is sex. That need not be shocking in itself but the art of Balthus and Newton is unsettling. Their object is the female body.

Perhaps, here we’re close to that issue concerning you – the female sexual experience. It will always be inaccessible to males, I’m afraid. The perspectives of Balthus and Newton are necessarily male perspectives of the female body, although if I may say so there is something explicit or self-conscious – even critical – in Newton’s male perspective. His art can even be seen as social commentary, but I wouldn’t advise it – it only serves to minimise the shock effect. Let yourself get stirred sexually by them if that is your want. As much as any genuine work of art communicates anything, the arousal of sexual desires is surely the intention of Newton’s work.

I know some of it is stylised and even fictionalised, and could be illustrations for Carter Brown or Ian Fleming – this is another thing Newton has in common with Balthus. In any case, stylisation serves sexual arousal. Newton even has a red Indian princess in bikini and war bonnet – now that’s style!

On the question of the unsettling effect of Newton’s photography, consider the following image:

16-k2-holok-treff-04.jpg

There’s not too much of the female body shown here – you could say the minimum for the maximum effect. It is modest in comparison with most pornographic images readily available on the Web. Indeed, neither Newton nor Balthus are interested in the depiction of the vagina. The vagina is much more Catherine Breillat’s domain, i.e., the woman’s domain.

Newton’s is a very male image. You could see it as a male fantasy but isn’t that exactly what Newton intends? Isn’t this the unsettling part of his art? Isn’t it the depiction of male fantasy not to feed an appetite (or even to induce one) but to unsettle the male viewer that Newton is after?

When I look at Balthus I see Bataille, and when I look at Newton I also see Bataille. Am I deluded?

While on this topic of looking like Bataille, consider the following section from Bukowski’s poem, ‘snake eyes’ (What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire):

Am I just speaking to myself
and this is the medium through
which I speak.
still, if somebody reads
this
and your day and your
night
were
akin to mine,
then somehow we’ve touched,
strange brother or
sister,
and we both understand that death is
not the
tragedy.

Under every bush lurks Bataille – if you have the right kind of Gnostic vision. (I got my glasses from Health Partners)


| Posted by at 9:53 AM | | Comments (0)
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