#eros the bittersweet coded

[sprachgitter]

i quite like it when fictional lovers are said to be fated to love and destined to meet every intra- and extra-diegetic step of the way and then someone decides they will brook no more of this nonsense for the lovers choose to love over and over and it was a universe of no one but them and a while later someone else puts their foot down to say but the presiding omnipotent deity of that said universe was personally involved and invested in their coming together and we keep going over this profound and stupid paradox over and over mmmmm do quite like that

[splendidemendax]

“In experiencing and articulating the melting threat of eros, the Greek poets are presumably also learning something about their own bounded selves through the effort to resist dissolution of those bounds in erotic emotion. The physiology that they posit for the erotic experience is one which assumes eros to be hostile in intention and detrimental in effect. Alongside melting we might cite metaphors of piercing, crushing, bridling, roasting, stinging, biting, grating, cropping, poisoning, singeing and grinding to a powder, all of which are used of eros by the poets, giving a cumulative impression of intense concern for the integrity and control of one’s own body. The lover learns as he loses it to value the bounded entity of himself." —carson, eros the bittersweet, 40–41

cliges is etb-coded for real.

brenda. brenda are you really confused as to why men were historically more concerned about the legitimacy of their children than women. are you fucking with me right now brenda.

[elektramouthed]

 Letters make the absent present, and in an exclusive way, as if they were a private code from writer to reader. The poet Archilochos applies to his own poetry the metaphor of a code, for he refers to himself, sending off a poem to someone, as a skutalē. Best known as a method employed by the Spartans for sending despatches, the skutalē was a staff or baton around which was wound a roll of leather. This was used as a code simply by wrapping it in a particular way, writing the message across the result, and then sending the unwound strip to the receiver, who rewound it on a similar staff to read it (Jeffrey 1961, 57). Archilochos’ metaphor understands the act of communication as an intimate collusion between writer and reader. They compose a meaning between them by matching two halves of a text. It is a meaning not accessible to others.

Anne Carson, from Eros the Bittersweet

[elektramouthed]

 Metaphorical sense is produced by the whole sentence and works through what one critic calls a “semantic impertinence” (Cohen 1966), that is, a violation of the code of pertinence or relevance that rules the ascription of predicates in ordinary use in the language. The violation allows a new pertinence or congruence to emerge, which is the metaphorical meaning, from the collapse of the ordinary or literal meaning. How does the new pertinence emerge? There is in the mind a change or shift of distance, which Aristotle calls an epiphora (Poet. 21.1457b7), bringing two heterogeneous things close to reveal their kinship. The innovation of metaphor occurs in this shift of distance from far to near, and it is effected by imagination. A virtuoso act of imagination brings the two things together, sees their incongruence, then sees also a new congruence, meanwhile continuing to recognize the previous incongruence through the new congruence. Both the ordinary, literal sense and a novel sense are present at once in the words of a metaphor; both the ordinary, descriptive reference and a novel reference are held in tension by the metaphor’s way of looking at the world.

Anne Carson, from Eros the Bittersweet

[ixlander]

   I turned to the library because none of the adults I knew would talk to me about sex beyond sketching the anatomy of reproduction. I needed to know much more than that; I needed to know about pleasure. I was tormented by lust, which had taken on a new and bittersweet urgency with adolescence. I had little idea what people did about these tempests of need, and I was very sure that the least move to still my frustration would have disastrous consequences. My gleanings of erotica and frequent, guilt-ridden masturbation were all that kept me sane until I escaped parental supervision.

   Even then, it was a long time before flesh could be discovered and schooled to yield the bliss of fantasy. I found that sex is a dry lesson in anatomy unless infused with the erotic imagination. The inner voice of Eros is arbitrary, bizarre, impeccably honest, bountiful, and so powerful as to be cruel. It takes courage to hear its demands and follow them. Because I sensed a connection between private fantasy and good sex, I did not abandon my smutty “home movies” as I learned how to persuade others to join me in sensual exploration; when to persist and when to abandon hope and choose again; how to be bedded and to bed another. I continued to enrich, diversify, and embroider my fantasies. Today, reading porn (or erotica, if you enjoy euphemisms) and plying my vibrator are as important to me as the sex I have with lovers, friends, and tricks. I prefer partners who are willing to risk their dignity in pursuit of delight and who do not make hard and fast distinctions between masturbation and lovemaking, between what we can think of and what we can do. Consequently, I have a small but select collection of prose and visual material that brings out the libertine in me.

   Until recently I was under the misapprehension that the Supreme Court had guaranteed my right to enjoy this material in the privacy of my home. When I started doing research for this article, I read Planned Parenthood’s book, The Sex Code of California. According to that document, this is the legal definition of obscenity:

     Obscene matter means matter taken as a whole, the predominant appeal of which to the average person, applying contemporary standards, is to prurient interest, i.e., a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion; and is matter which taken as a whole goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in description or representation of such matters; and is matter which taken as a whole is utterly without redeeming social importance.(1)

   Just for us “deviant sexual groups,” the following paragraph was added:

     The predominant appeal to prurient interest of the matter is judged with reference to average adults unless it appears from the nature of the matter or the circumstances of its dissemination, distribution or exhibition, that it is designed for clearly defined deviant sexual groups, in which case the predominant appeal of the matter shall be judged with reference to its intended recipient group.(2)

   Material which exists for the sole or primary purpose of turning someone on is illegal. There is no freedom of sexual speech. As I read the rest of the state and federal laws governing obscenity, I found that it is illegal to buy porn from outside the country or outside the state and to distribute it by mail. In California it is illegal to show pornography to a minor if you are not the parent or guardian. The real clincher is this: it is illegal to “exhibit” obscene matter. “Exhibit” is legally defined simply as “to show.”(3)

   The Alcoholic Beverage Commission has its own regulations regarding pornography. A liquor license cannot be held by places which:

     show films, still pictures, electronic reproductions, or other visual reproductions depicting: Acts or simulated acts of sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation or any sexual acts which are prohibited by laws. Any person being touched, caressed, or fondled on the breast, buttocks, anus or genitals. Scenes wherein a person displays the vulva or the anus or the genitals. Scenes wherein artificial devices or inanimate objects are employed to depict, or drawings are employed to portray, any of the prohibited activities described above.(4)

   Obscenity laws are selectively enforced. The police are fond of using them to harass gays, as in Toronto. In 1979 The Body Politic was busted under antipornography laws for printing an article about boy-love. Its mailing list and books from the Pink Triangle Press (including The Joy of Gay Sex and The Joy of Lesbian Sex) were confiscated. The books and subscription lists have not yet been returned, and the newspaper faces a second trial even though in its first trial it was acquitted of the charges. Individuals who get involved in unpopular political activities are often arrested under obscenity statutes or for other sex offenses. Antipornography laws can also be used to close down any gay or lesbian bar with erotic art on its walls or that shows sexy movies. During a wave of repression, the police will use any excuse to close down the bars and silence our leaders.

pat califa, from public sex: the culture of radical sex, 1994