The Atrocity Exhibition - JG Ballard

" The Sex Kit. 'In a sense', Dr Nathan explained to Koester, 'one may regard this as a kit, which Talbert has devised, entitled "Karen Novotny" - it might even be feasable to market it commercially. It contains the following items: 1) Pad of pubic hair, 2) a latex face mask, 3) six detachable mouths, 4) a set of smiles, 5) a pair of breasts, left nipple marked by a small ulcer, 6) a set of non-chafe orificices, 7) photo cut-outs of a number of narrative situations - the girl doing this and that, 8) a list of dialogue samples, of inane chatter, 9) a set of noise levels, 10) descriptive techniques for a variety of sex acts, 11) a torn anal detrusor, 12) a glossary of idioms and catch phrases, 13) an analysis of odour traces (from various vents), mostly purines, etc., 14) a chart of body tempertures (auxillary, buccal, rectal), 15) slide of vaginal smears, chiefly Ortho-Gyno jelly, 16) a set of blood pressures, systolic 120, diastolic 70 rising to 200/150 at onset of orgasm...' Deferring to Koester, Dr Nathan put down the typescript. 'There are one or two other bits and pieces, but together the inventory is an adequate picture of a woman, who could easily be reconstituted from it. In fact, such a list may well be more stimulating than the real thing. Now that sex is becoming more and more a conceptual act, an intellectualization divored from affect and physiology alike, one has to bear in mind the positive merits of the sexual perversions. Talbert's library of cheap photo-photography is in fact a vital literature, a kindling of the few taste buds left in the jaded palates of our so-called sexuality.' JG Ballard

Insecure Nation

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5348424.stm

thank god, we now never have to be alone again! Getting on msn via our mobile phones makes us permanently accessible…….and totally insecure! Total reliance on acknowledgement by others, acknowledgment of ourself in order to attain certainty of the self, and self worth. Dependence on the reinforcing sign that we are not left alone – is this a perfect example, taken to extremes, of the most human of needs?
that is to be wanted, loved, needed? Or is the disappearance of the conception of the independent individual who is certain of his/her worth without recall to reassurance to others?

russia

nice to see we can be USED for a good caused.............

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1993840.html?menu=news.quirkies

jesofukcingchristo

The Daughters

http://womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2883/context/cover/


this article is really quite illuminating, and, it floods me with an internal conflict. one part of me has massive sympathy for the cause against superficial and sexualised views of women. And also the view that the top-dog would let her husband marry a widowed women, for the sake of the widow. In ancient times, the whole point of this law was so that the widower would be taken care of, since the women back then were fully dependant on their husbands. isnt this the most perfect example of sisterhood and sororal solidarity?

The fact that they want women to be seen as more than cosmeticized dolls and whose love cant be expressed with valentine's cards is deceivingly progressive. The mass protest over a sex scandal shows more radical activity by women, for women, than seen in this country (going on their countries' very much more limited freedoms)!
Our view of women in islamic countries is of silent, submissive, non-entities. However here we see a possibility for a voice. Yet, it does seem to reek of Gertrud Scholtz-Klink's little project, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrud_Scholtz-Klink.

islam

My project in life is generally to try to make sense of the world as best as possible (which of course is inherently doomed to failure), and to maybe, someday, escape this Aporia and find the Logos.

So with this whole Islamic violence thing, how can we account for it? one response is to say that “Islam just is a violent religion”.

Well, no more violent than any other of the two other monotheistic faiths.
A response to this would be “but then how come the other two aren’t so violent?”.

My theory is this:

Actually the other two religions were as “barbaric” as Islam, in some of it’s forms, appears to be today.

When the Jews first appeared on the scene, all such violence was going on. A response would then be: “but that was talmudic times where such behaviour was the norm and accepted throughout the middle east. Today we are living in different times, there are a multitude of other competing ideologies and fundamentalists attitudes are not accepted.”

I would say, that actually, the world is no more barbaric today than in those ancient times. Of course it is different in how it manifests it. I see it not only in Hiroshima, the holocaust, darfur………..but also poverty, exploitation and multinationals exerting violence on the most vulnerable.
So yes, we are definitely still living in violent times. I really cant bare the way people talk about the world today as more progressive than other times in history (is it a Hegelian view?).

So Judaism, as it matured from it’s infantile stage, had it’s more violent teachings removed and it evolved into the religion it is today where there is no more stoning of women or such like.

Then along come the Christians, and yeah they were dam barbaric too! The Crusades for instance. And then they started to reform!

Then, along comes Islam, and hey, what do you know, they ALSO have a barbaric stage! Funny isn’t it, seeing as all these religions derive from the same book!!!!!!!!!

Now all of a sudden, we conceive of Islam as having some innate violent streak! But why should we expect Islam to be the exception to the rule. And the notion that we are living in more progressive times just doesn’t make sense, since violence surrounds those living in war torn places, and living in poverty (happens to be quite a few Muslims experience these things, strangely enough.)
Expecting Islam to suddenly reform in line the west (even though it definitely has in vast areas) is ridiculous a concept as trying to, by force, set up a democracy in Iraq by waging war on it! religions, like anything, take type settle, and seeing as anyone who isn’t Islamic doesn’t have much respect (not surprisingly from a modern secular standpoint) for Islamic fundamentalist beliefs, then I think it’s going to take some time and we should view it from an objective and historical perspective.

open democracy

lets look at history.........

http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization/left_jihad_3886.jsp

body language baby

Continuing from my post http://aporia86.spaces.live.com/?_c11_blogpart_blogpart=blogview&_c=blogpart&partqs=amonth%3d11%26ayear%3d2005 from way back in deepest darkest 2005, here is a little variation on the theme of internet-ness and internetal criticism.

Msn really is a shambles. I admit, I use it all the time and feel pangs of angst and despair when I am without it, like a long distance lover. However a particularly disturbing aspect of msn is when you have those conversations with people you barely know and who you are not yet familiar with their body language.
99.9% of people who I “chat” with (we really need a new word for msn chit-chat), on msn, I know well enough to people able to conceive of their voices with it’s timbre, pitch etc. of course there is still a huge lacuna which makes the whole process either more exhilarating (terms of the speculation and game-theory type moves which are made), or, extreme misunderstandings, unintentional facades, etc.

These problems are at their most extreme when your understanding and familiarity of the other is minimal. (im not talking about 13 year old girls chatting to 45 year old scenario). Isn’t it something like 60-90% of our communication comes down to body language? Well, emoticons just don’t seem to replace it really. I guess there are web cams, yet that is just making another excuse to allow for the dismembering of real stimulation.
I think this is a perfect subject for baudrillard’s next paper……….(maybe he’s reading this right now……..swoon).