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Web Log Archives: June 29, 2003 - July 05, 2003 Saturday, July 5, 2003
Friday, July 4, 2003
On first read, it might seem illegal, futile, or just plain strange that people spend hours and often months writing stories and novels that appropriate another writer's characters, plot lines, and settings. But fanfic practitioners, who cite as their antecedents everything from James Joyce's Ulysses to Michael Cunningham's The Hours, say their writing pays tribute to Rowling even as they adopt the same kind of populist-editing values that have brought to the culture everything from rap music sampling to Star Wars bootleg DVD that leave annoying characters like Jar Jar Binks on the cutting-room floor. Rowling's literary agency officially "welcomes the huge interest that her fans have in the series and the fact that it has led them to try their hand at writing," as long as the fanfic is not commercial or inappropriate for children. As this article comments, "it's safe to assume that when [Rowling] hails her readers' creativity, she has in mind something other than tales wherein Professor Snape is fellated by the Sorting Hat." Personally, that's just about the only type of fan fiction I have any interest in reading.
Early on, studio bosses and gossip columnists recognized the value of a great real-life love story, understanding that fans lived vicariously through their movie idols. So from the '20s until the studio system disintegrated in the '60s, the bosses — who exercised absolute authority over their actors — fabricated fake dalliances and exploited real ones for two purposes: first, to create new stars by attaching them to established ones, and second, to cover up the homosexuality or potentially tarnishing behavior of a star. [...] With the breakup of the studio system, actors and other celebrities have become free agents. Today, no boss can order Demi and Ashton to do his bidding. But celebrity romance has not changed radically, because celebrities have become so savvy about their own images that they do what the bosses used to. "Movie stars have unconsciously become their own publicists. It is an instinctive skill. They don't need publicists to tell them what boyfriends and girlfriends are good for their career," says Paramount producer Lynda Obst. [...] How do you create and then exploit your celebrity romance? (First advice: Imitate everything that Demi and J. Lo do.) If you haven't found your celebrity love, arrange it: Jennifer Aniston had her publicist call Brad Pitt's publicist to ask for a date. Once it's started, promoting it is very simple. You should appear together at semi-private places — in a back room at the Los Angeles' Ivy restaurant, or at the New York club Bungalow 61, or anywhere that Tobey Maguire is. When you're photographed there, feign annoyance and express surprise that anyone would see you. A joint appearance at a Lakers or Knicks game (depending on your coast) is useful fodder for the tabs. Start engaging in very public canoodling — in your car, in clubs, at restaurants. "You should hold hands and gaze lovingly no matter what the situation," says Walls. When quizzed about the relationship, issue an ostentatious denial through your publicist: "They are just close friends." If public interest flags, have a friend drop a leak to Us or the tabloids: "They couldn't keep their hands off each other on the set...." Note to publicist: make sure everyone knows that Daze and Naoko Yamano are just close friends. Thursday, July 3, 2003
That solution is to end the institution of marriage. Or rather (he hastens to clarify, Dear) the solution is to end the institution of government-sanctioned marriage. Or, framed to appeal to conservatives: End the government monopoly on marriage. Wait, I've got it: Privatize marriage. These slogans all mean the same thing. Let churches and other religious institutions continue to offer marriage ceremonies. Let department stores and casinos get into the act if they want. Let each organization decide for itself what kinds of couples it wants to offer marriage to. Let couples celebrate their union in any way they choose and consider themselves married whenever they want. Let others be free to consider them not married, under rules these others may prefer. And, yes, if three people want to get married, or one person wants to marry herself, and someone else wants to conduct a ceremony and declare them married, let 'em. If you and your government aren't implicated, what do you care? In fact, there is nothing to stop any of this from happening now. And a lot of it does happen. But only certain marriages get certified by the government. So, in the United States we are about to find ourselves in a strange situation where the principal demand of a liberation movement is to be included in the red tape of a government bureaucracy. Having just gotten state governments out of their bedrooms, gays now want these governments back in. Meanwhile, social-conservative anti-gays, many of them southerners, are calling on the government in Washington to trample states' rights and nationalize the rules of marriage, if necessary, to prevent gays from getting what they want. The Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, responded to the Supreme Court's Lawrence decision by endorsing a constitutional amendment, no less, against gay marriage. If marriage were an entirely private affair, all the disputes over gay marriage would become irrelevant. Libertarian blogger Arthur Silber made a similar argument a few days earlier. UPDATE: Radley Balko cites other columnists (including himself) who advocated privatizing marriage before Kinsley.
Sometimes Bill Asher can't believe what he hears. As the president of Vivid Entertainment Group, the biggest name in pornography, Asher makes a living lucrative enough to send his 16-year-old daughter to one of Los Angeles's most expensive private schools. And he's not at all intimidated by the school's other parents — lawyers, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, even Andy Garcia. "It's not seen as an odd thing that I'm a pornographer," he says. "They know what I do, and they talk to me about it, it doesn't faze anyone." When he drops off his daughter at her friends' homes, he says, parents open up to him. He estimates that an amazing one quarter of them have asked him for work. But what stuns him most are the reviews he gets. "They talk about my movies like you'd talk about Julia Roberts," he says. "They say, 'My favorite is Jenna Jameson,' or whatever. A lot of the women will say they'd like to see more plot. It's nice to hear the advice, but it always feels strange to me to have someone's mother give you her take on our porn movies." Last week American married couples weren't into sex anymore. This week they're totally into it. Without Newsweek, I'd never be able to keep track of this stuff. Wednesday, July 2, 2003
This is the book that arguably was the most successful literary hoax of the 19th Century. These amazing erotic lesbian poems were supposedly written by a contemporary of Sappho. The work which was "discovered" in 1892, deceived scholars of the highest caliber! Louys presents some titillating erotic lesbianesque poems along with his famous mock serious introduction imitating Classical scholarship in detailing the life of the fictional Bilitis, a Greek Lesbian in the circle of Sappho. This is the "translation" of a sixth century BC book of songs by a Greek/Phoenician woman, retelling an incredible story of a young woman who loses her lover, abandons a child, travels to Greece, falls under the spell of Lesbos, and eventually winds up at a temple of Venus, doing the Goddesses' work! ShanMonster comments, "I don't know how anyone could take these poems seriously. They are really very silly and of a definitely prurient nature. This is definitely the Victorian equivalent of pornos for men featuring 'lesbians.'" Debussy later set some of the Bilitis songs to music. The Lied and Art Song Texts Page has twelve songs in both the original French and English translations by Marvin Ward. Comparisons Little Sparrow, bird of Kypris, sing with our first desires! The fresh bodies of the young girls are covered with flowers like the earth. The night of all our dreams is approaching and we talk of it amongst ourselves. Sometimes, we compare together our beauties so different, our hair already long, our young breasts still small, our puberties round like quails and hidden under the nascent down. Yesterday, I fought this way with Melanthô my elder. She was proud of her breasts which had grown in a month, and, pointing to my flat tunic, she called me Little Child. Not a single man could see us, we got naked in front of the girls, and, if she won on one point, I won by far on the others. Little Sparrow, bird of Kypris, sing with our first desires! Very silly indeed, though "puberties round like quails" is a pretty little phrase. More Bilitis translations here and here.
Tuesday, July 1, 2003
Against one wall leans a rack of 50 or so vintage shirts, almost all of which have been screen-printed with statements like "I Fucked Paul Sevigny" (the brother of actress Chloë Sevigny and a member of the Brooklyn band A.R.E. Weapons) or "I Fucked Anna Wintour" (the editor of Vogue) or I Fucked -- fill in the blank with any celebrity, media personality or downtown New York scenester whose name Courtney can fit onto a shirt. Most of the shirts bear their original logos and slogans with the occasional rugby or polo thrown in for variety. [...] The combination of Courtney's text and the original logos is often intentional and the results can be amusing -- and at times, disconcerting. A black D.A.R.E. T-shirt -- a vestige of Nancy Reagan's drug wars -- sits beneath the text: "I Fucked Kurt Cobain," a heroin addict who killed himself. After hearing about the T-shirts from a friend, I ordered one that reads "I Fucked David Remnick" (the New Yorker editor), with the letters centered around a Champion logo. The profile delves into Courtney's theories about celebrity worship, Rothkoesque paintings and cease-and-desist letters.
Barnett says MPs have created world-leading law. Day-after comments from the legislator who sponsored the bill. Abstention by Muslim lawmaker tips scales on prostitution law. "Ashraf Choudhary, a member of the ruling center-left Labor Party, is New Zealand's first and only Muslim member of parliament (MP). His decision on Wednesday night to abstain in a conscience vote on the Prostitution Reform Bill helped produce a 60-59 vote in favor of the law, which decriminalizes prostitution and was firmly opposed by church groups in the country." Price of sex likely to rise. "Decriminalisation could force up prostitutes' prices because brothel-owners will be compelled to improve working conditions and will face more competition for staff." Sex bosses warn of new law's dangers. "Foreign sex workers will flood New Zealand and scores of back-street brothels will open as a result of legalised prostitution, sex industry figures claimed last night. Brothel owners say that by passing the Prostitution Reform Bill, MPs have opened a gateway to more vice, violence, drugs and dangers. Taking powers away from the police, and legalising women who work the street will make it impossible to protect prostitutes, they claim." Working girls fear benefit cuts. "Auckland beneficiaries who use sex work to supplement their incomes are worried that the industry's new legal status means they will have to be registered. Experienced prostitutes have told the Herald that such a requirement would drive women further underground to protect their benefits, possibly putting them at greater risk." Work and Income refuses sex advert. "Auckland massage parlour owner Brian Le Gros placed an advertisment for workers in the Situations Vacant section of today's New Zealand Herald. Mr Le Gros also tried to place the notice with the [Department of Work and Income] but it was rejected. Work and Income national commissioner Ray Smith said the department would not advertise or refer clients to vacancies in the sex industry." Males make up majority of prostitutes arrested. "More than half of the 354 people arrested for soliciting in the past five years were men. Labour MP Tim Barnett, who sponsored the law change to decriminalise prostitution, said police figures also showed half those arrested were Maori or Pacific Island people." This editorial in the Manawatu Evening Standard supports the law but questions whether it will really make the sex business safer. Monday, June 30, 2003
At some point after Stonewall and before Sex and the City, straight people appropriated gay life! But you straight people only appropriated the good stuff. You took the top-shelf items--things like anal sex and gym bodies and ironic detachment. You never appropriated any of the bad stuff--bottom-shelf stuff, like our parents and eternal damnation and gay newspapers. Which hardly seems fair. Yes, queers have fun, but we pay a price. Being gay is a drag sometimes; it's not all fun and games and fisting, you know. Articles include "Appropriate Lesbian Bed Death", "Appropriate Eternal Damnation" and "Appropriate Montana Motel Anxiety".
Another story from the Las Vegas abstinence convention: "Dozens of teenagers who have taken vows of virginity will descend on the Strip tonight [last Friday], passing out 'good girl cards' in an effort to teach Sin City tourists and locals about abstinence. The cards feature photos of six girls on the front with information about sexually transmitted diseases and marriage on the back. The teens will hand out the cards in an effort to rival the ubiquitous pornographic pamphlets that are thrust at tourists as they walk the Strip."
On average, Kobayashi said breaking up a couple takes a few months and costs around two million yen [US$17,000], including contract fees, and transportation and accommodation expenses. "With that price, you can buy a nice Japanese car," Kobayashi chuckled, adding that the contract does not guarantee a breakup. [...] Kobayashi said 80 percent of his clients are women. He receives around 15 emails and 30 calls a day. He decided to expand his regular private eye work into the couple-busting business after seeing a 2001 TV drama series on the profession. Surely there must be similar outfits in New York and Los Angeles. Sunday, June 29, 2003
Trend pieces like this often include a caveat sentence, admitting that no one can verify whether the trend actually exists. Newsweek offers this doozy — "It's difficult to say exactly how many of the 113 million married Americans are too exhausted or grumpy to get it on." — and then marches unabashedly forward with its anecdotal fluff.
Plus a list of chapter headings like "Perverted Sense of Smell in Relation To Sex" and "The Baffling Role of the Clitoris." |
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