The Woman in the Dunes
I recently tried to read The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe and couldn’t get past the sexy talk with the woman. I really loved Abe’s description of sand, a significant metaphor in the book, kinda like Sisyphus’s boulder but smaller. It’s really quite amazing, what Abe has to say about sand. I got really excited about it, until the main character meets a woman, which I immediately became pensive about.
Yah — they start flirting, and a few pages later I’m reading about her bare tits. Abe’s existential conceit falls in direct contradiction to his — not the narrator’s, but his — attachment to the woman. (Imagine Buddhism at the mall.) Sorry to be a downer, I’m just highly skeptical when an author seems to exercise his fantasies in his creation. Muses are okay, just put on some clothes.
I’m reminded of all those hair band videos I used to watch in high school: the power ballads about some hot chick (as confirmed in the video) in a rare moment of affected genuineness, which actually points to a deep subconscious misogyny — the way art is only spent on attractive women. I’m not saying anything new with this; I just have a hard time thinking of memorable/meaningful accounts of non-attractive women written by men. Madame Bovary, in our collective consciousness, is hot — though her lament is probably hosted by a good share of ugly ladies. I want to read about an ugly lady written by a man, that would be kind of sexy.
Madame Bovary feels it real hard
But doesn’t the binary of attractive/ugly perpetuate the body image as given to us by by masculinist ideology, hmmmm?
But doesn’t the binary of attractive/ugly perpetuate the body image as given to us by by masculinist ideology, hmmmm?
damn, you win
damn, you win
sorry
sorry
One of the sexiest movie scenes I’ve seen was in this low-budget Argentine film, the name I don’t remember. The scene involves sex of the vehicular persuasion (not w/car, but man&woman inside of) between this man (then, scruffy, some kind of salesman or charlatan of sorts) and a very heavy woman. Anyway, the car gets stuck in a deep puddle in the road. During this “stuck” sequence, passions “flare” (I love the closeness of this word with its discomfiting cousin used to describe venereal burning), and she ends up riding him in the driver’s seat. The movement of the car creaking and the suction and and splashing around of the car in the puddle adds to this. But the realism and sexiness of this scene,, imho, is in the mounds of flesh responding like calm and fertile muscle. It looks pleasing, and most likely very much IS. We’re conditioned to be repulsed by this kind of femininity, as if somehow she wasn’t truly alive, couldn’t fuck like the rest. But this showed flesh and fullness, nowhere was the cellulite of diet ads or the philosophy that fullness equals unresponsiveness. Here, we’re given Michelin pale and bulging flesh, with torque.
My description lacks the intensity and raw animalism and beauty of this scene, which was without a doubt the best in the entire film.
One of the sexiest movie scenes I’ve seen was in this low-budget Argentine film, the name I don’t remember. The scene involves sex of the vehicular persuasion (not w/car, but man&woman inside of) between this man (then, scruffy, some kind of salesman or charlatan of sorts) and a very heavy woman. Anyway, the car gets stuck in a deep puddle in the road. During this “stuck” sequence, passions “flare” (I love the closeness of this word with its discomfiting cousin used to describe venereal burning), and she ends up riding him in the driver’s seat. The movement of the car creaking and the suction and and splashing around of the car in the puddle adds to this. But the realism and sexiness of this scene,, imho, is in the mounds of flesh responding like calm and fertile muscle. It looks pleasing, and most likely very much IS. We’re conditioned to be repulsed by this kind of femininity, as if somehow she wasn’t truly alive, couldn’t fuck like the rest. But this showed flesh and fullness, nowhere was the cellulite of diet ads or the philosophy that fullness equals unresponsiveness. Here, we’re given Michelin pale and bulging flesh, with torque.
My description lacks the intensity and raw animalism and beauty of this scene, which was without a doubt the best in the entire film.
It’s not written by a man but Charlee Jacob’s This Symbiotic Fascination is a beautiful novel about a large shouldered, heavy set, generally unnattractive woman.
It’s not written by a man but Charlee Jacob’s This Symbiotic Fascination is a beautiful novel about a large shouldered, heavy set, generally unnattractive woman.
some people like kobe abe
some people like kobe abe
Are we talking about a story that glorifies an ugly woman as beautiful or an ugly woman as ugly?
Are we talking about a story that glorifies an ugly woman as beautiful or an ugly woman as ugly?
have to disagree with ya there, jimmy. would pull it out and reread and either change my mind and agree with you or quote from it to prove you wrong, but my copy’s being borrowed by a really hot girl right now and unavailable for such purpose
have to disagree with ya there, jimmy. would pull it out and reread and either change my mind and agree with you or quote from it to prove you wrong, but my copy’s being borrowed by a really hot girl right now and unavailable for such purpose
also, she has nice bare tits
i’m thinking the latter, just an ugly woman as ugly
also, she has nice bare tits
i’m thinking the latter, just an ugly woman as ugly
would be interested if you quoted me wrong; not saying that as a challenge, just curious…
would be interested if you quoted me wrong; not saying that as a challenge, just curious…
bear tits.
bear tits.
Now we’re talking.
Now we’re talking.
Has anyone read Eco’s anthology “On Ugliness”? I haven’t.
And no-one’s mentioned “Ugly Betty” yet. Haha.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Finnerty-t.html
Has anyone read Eco’s anthology “On Ugliness”? I haven’t.
And no-one’s mentioned “Ugly Betty” yet. Haha.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Finnerty-t.html
f off, jy, some of us married schmos don’t need to read shit like that so early in the morning
f off, jy, some of us married schmos don’t need to read shit like that so early in the morning
good link, eco’s thing flashed thru my head but didn’t quite catch it. i thought about ugly betty but wanted to stay away from tv only cos sometimes i feel i post too much on pop culture.
good link, eco’s thing flashed thru my head but didn’t quite catch it. i thought about ugly betty but wanted to stay away from tv only cos sometimes i feel i post too much on pop culture.
http://gawker.com/5070904/how-to-build-your-own-trend-piece would have kicked your ass if you had, it seems.
It’s weird to think about how you could write about ugliness. Once you start to write about something and make it interesting then it’s kind of making it attractive. Or maybe not ‘attractive’ but ‘desirable’. Or just ‘interesting’, to go back a bit. Is something ‘interesting’ ‘attractive’? I think so. It suggests the presence of something worth caring about. Writers I’d Like to Fuck, for instance (bit facetious but I think the point holds).
http://gawker.com/5070904/how-to-build-your-own-trend-piece would have kicked your ass if you had, it seems.
It’s weird to think about how you could write about ugliness. Once you start to write about something and make it interesting then it’s kind of making it attractive. Or maybe not ‘attractive’ but ‘desirable’. Or just ‘interesting’, to go back a bit. Is something ‘interesting’ ‘attractive’? I think so. It suggests the presence of something worth caring about. Writers I’d Like to Fuck, for instance (bit facetious but I think the point holds).
Betty la fea was much, much uglier than Ugly Betty ever will be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_soy_Betty,_la_fea
Betty la fea was much, much uglier than Ugly Betty ever will be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_soy_Betty,_la_fea
dammit, have to get that book back
ha, but what about later in the day?
dammit, have to get that book back
ha, but what about later in the day?
What about plain? Is plain ugly?
What about plain? Is plain ugly?
I like Woman in the Dunes.
I like Woman in the Dunes.
“Sorry to be a downer, I’m just highly skeptical when an author seems to exercise his fantasies in his creation.”
Do you like Dennis Cooper?
“Sorry to be a downer, I’m just highly skeptical when an author seems to exercise his fantasies in his creation.”
Do you like Dennis Cooper?
i am somewhat ashamed to say, especially here, that i have yet to read dennis cooper. should i hit “submit comment”?
i am somewhat ashamed to say, especially here, that i have yet to read dennis cooper. should i hit “submit comment”?
Well, first of all you should definitely read some stat. But, it might be unfair to use that as a counter-example, as Dennis uses his fantasies to a really excellent degree in his fiction. I mean, his george miles cycle is ostensibly him “working through his fantasies” (he said something along those lines in an interview–of course th cycle does much, much more than that), and it’s actually something I really appreciate in an author–when he or she does it well.
Well, first of all you should definitely read some stat. But, it might be unfair to use that as a counter-example, as Dennis uses his fantasies to a really excellent degree in his fiction. I mean, his george miles cycle is ostensibly him “working through his fantasies” (he said something along those lines in an interview–of course th cycle does much, much more than that), and it’s actually something I really appreciate in an author–when he or she does it well.