November 26th, 2009 / 2:08 am
I Like __ A Lot
Food for Thought With Sasha Grey
Sasha Grey at the First Thanksgiving
DD: Do you think it can be a really positive thing to do so much so young because you learn so much.
SG: Yeah, over the past few years my learning curve has been huge and sometimes people say, ‘Don’t you just want to be a normal 21-year-old and go party and have fun?’ No, I mean why do you think great artists of our time have always said youth is wasted on the young? I don’t want to be an old a person in regret and think I should have done this but I was off being lazy. There are enough mistakes we make as human beings anyway, so let the mistakes be real mistakes not chosen mistakes.
You know what? I think this is great advice. The rest of the interview isn’t bad either. (via Jezebel.)
Tags: Jezebel, mistakes, sasha grey
Weird, Sasha Grey shares the same inicials with Suicide Girls. A coincidence? Or “Nomen es omen”? I mean, her charisma and so.
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November 26th, 2009 / 1:08 pmJustin Taylor—
Also, Jim Casey in Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” and John Coffey in Stephen King’s “The Green Mile” and “Joe Christmas” in Faulkner’s “A Fable” and Jerry Cornelius in all those Michael Moorcock books all share the same initials. I wonder what those authors were getting at. Probably another porn reference, of some kind.
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November 26th, 2009 / 1:35 pmm—
John Connor in Terminator. This is so porny.
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November 26th, 2009 / 4:46 pmMerzmensch aka kosmopol—
And Jesu… Oh my goodness! oO
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November 27th, 2009 / 11:05 pmJonny Ross—
bingo-bango, skip
she’s purty when she speaked smart
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She’s an “existentialist porn star.”
*vomits*
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November 26th, 2009 / 2:52 pmJustin Taylor—
What, only nice girls are allowed to read Sartre? Say what you will about National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
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November 26th, 2009 / 3:38 pmdrew kalbach—
those people are nihilists. they don’t believe in anything.
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November 26th, 2009 / 5:29 pmdavid—
ah, that must be exhausting
November 27th, 2009 / 11:05 pmJonny Ross—
the dude abides
i often wonder if those who enjoy grey as a cultural figure have actually seen her porn. it’s just hard to take this ‘empowered sexuality’ seriously having seen what she does (or let’s others do to her). i hate to be graphic, but she’ll fellate a member that’s been inside her anus while being spat on and smacked. i’m a guy, with a conventional way of viewing porn, but i doubt the feminists find her actions empowering. i think it’s a marketing schtick, the same way people view marilyn manson as being intellectual. five loads of semen on one’s face is not Kantian because she kant see.
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November 26th, 2009 / 3:39 pmdrew kalbach—
dropping puns like loads
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November 26th, 2009 / 5:31 pmdavid—
tyra banks approves of this message
yeah, empowering isn’t what i think of when i think of Ms. Grey
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November 26th, 2009 / 5:36 pmRoxane Gay—
There’s nothing empowered about going from back to front. She’s a “smart” girl who does porn and so she frames her porn work with this intellectualism so that people don’t confuse her with a, say, Jesse James. I find her porn boring but I don’t think I’m the target audience.
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what exactly is an ‘existential investigation’ into sex work? the idea that anal precedes essence? i really don’t follow.
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Her porn sucks, she always looks drugged or “somewhere else,” not “in the moment.”
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November 26th, 2009 / 5:32 pmdavid—
um, that is not what i have ‘heard’
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When you say, “a conventional way of viewing porn,” do you mean a laptop?
I don’t understand what the graphic sex acts you describe have to do with the larger questions that you raise. Are you suggesting that when you watch porn it impacts and influences you to such a degree that you lose control of your own desires, and find them re-shaped by what you have seen? That is, after watching the above-described, are you filled with the desire to subject your wife to the same treatment? If this is truly how desires are transmitted, why not just watch it with her and then you’d both want the same thing, right? Does “conventional” porn fill you with the desire to do a shitty job of pretending to be a TV repairman? Does watching South Park compel you to walk around in a beanie all day, irrespective of the weather? Do video games, music, and this blog have the same effect? How do you get through a day?
Anyway, I’ve seen SG in various states of action–most recently at the New Museum, as part of the “Case” performance piece that Brody Condon and Brandon Stosuy organized–but I’m not trying to sell her as a cultural icon or a role model, or even as an intellectual. I’m not trying to sell her, or a position about her, period. I just thought this was a pretty good interview with a reasonably interesting person. If you boys want to fight about press releases and magazines ledes you’ve read, be my guest, but take it to an SG messageboard- I imagine they exist.
What I admire about SG is embodied in the quote I chose to post– this idea that the call to be a “normal” whatever is essentially a call to mediocrity. I especially like that last line, about making sure your mistakes are real mistakes. I see someone who at 21 is doing exactly what she wants to do, setting her own hours, and living well. It’s as much as anyone could ask for, and more than most of us will ever get. But that’s the point- you don’t get it by asking.
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November 26th, 2009 / 5:32 pmdrew kalbach—
‘If you boys want to fight about press releases and magazines ledes you’ve read, be my guest, but take it to an SG messageboard’
why can’t it be discussed right here? fascist!
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November 27th, 2009 / 1:59 ambarry—
drew:
justin is the decider. weren’t you informed?
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November 26th, 2009 / 5:36 pmdavid—
i hear you justin
porn has gotten nastier and nastier since i was a kid watching it
jimmy refers to the kind of porn that i associate with ms. g…it is hardcore shit with her basically getting beaten up (slapped, spit on, fucked in the mouth until she gags)….even if it’s part of the “show” the dudes are working her over
i heard when tyra called her out for acting so empowered…she referred to this kind of thing. it’s my understanding (didn’t see the ep) that SG said she wanted her own company for control of scenes purposes…since she said she wasn’t empowered at all early in her career and basically had to do whatever was in the scene
in any event, i don’t begrudge her for a second for doing this stuff for her job and then doing all sorts of cool stuff outside of it. i have a shitty job and try to write during my off time.
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Chill out, dude. No one’s questioning the earnestness of your feelings toward SG. Maybe you’re not selling her as anything but take a cursory look at her myspace and website or whatever and it’s obvious she’s trying to sell a certain persona (self-aware, self-empowered, intellectual, hip, feminist, etc.). There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s what any public figure does. But there’s nothing wrong evaluating her public image and asserting that, hey, she doesn’t actually come across as that smart, sincere, or eloquent after all. In fact, she’s about as interesting most 21-year-olds. Yes, it’s admirable that, because of her talent or for other reasons, she’s able to work on all these neat projects, but so what? Personally, I’m not very interested in her music career (or even her porn career).
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since i take tumblr to be the new cultural indicator of 18-22 yr old males and females, i can say without a doubt, porn is only going to get bigger and more mainstream in the coming years. but also, i think it could get less ‘nasty’ and more ‘artsy,’ or anyway, the stuff that might be marketed to young people probably will.
given the ’success’ of porn blogs like synthetic pubes, websites like suicide girls, and the films of joe swanberg, which attempt to combat the abundant stereotypes in most all nudity, this seems likely.
have any of you guys seen the film _gate of flesh_ by seijun suzuki? it’s pretty much the definitive proof that porn can be art (and it was made in 1964). it makes _eyes wide shut_ look like a rap video.
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November 27th, 2009 / 12:48 pmm—
Ayo…
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yesterday was gastronomic porn, jesus h, i have a gravy hangover.
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i think sasha’s brilliant – her interviews are fascinating, and her work, well…guess that depends on what gets you off – she’s not really my “type” but i love listening to her speak – thanks JT for the post, very interesting stuff
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I know I’m coming in late to the discussion, but this piece from the Rumpus seems pertinent, as it specifically deals with SG on the Tyra Banks show:
http://therumpus.net/2009/06/barely-legal-whores-get-gang-fed/
Also? I hate Tyra Banks. But for other reasons. For America’s-Next-Top-Model-related reasons.
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November 28th, 2009 / 10:05 pmdavid erlewine—
good stuff, i remember this interview but didn’t think to cut/paste it
ha, i hate TB for other reasons, too
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November 28th, 2009 / 10:08 pmrachel—
ha! how awesome that those are her initials, i never noticed. thank you dave
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November 28th, 2009 / 10:48 pmrachel—
also, having read the article, it occurrs to me that while the hoopla around sasha grey tends to depress me for spiritual/sparkly unicorn/whatever reasons, with her own agency she probably does have the potential to do some or even a lot of practical good for violence prevention. that in itself makes me more keen to see what she will do, and less bummed about the current silliness of her whole phenomena.
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Aloha! bea
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Aloha! jga
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you guys really need to separate the art from the artist here.
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=)))
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