Monthly Archives: February 2007

Hystéro-épilipsie: attaque

Photographic Iconography of Salpêtrière.
Paris: 1876-1880
Image sourced here.

More from this collection:

Salpetiere3 Salpetiere2 Salpetiere1 Salpetiere4

The Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital is a hospital in Paris. Salpêtrière was originally a gunpowder factory, but was converted to a dumping ground for the poor of Paris. Eventually it served as a prison for prostitutes, and a holding place for the mentally disabled, criminally insane, epileptics, and the poor; it was also notable for its famous population of rats.

During the French Revolutionary period, it was stormed by the mob and the prostitutes released, but others (probably madwomen) were less fortunate and were murdered. Since the Revolution, La Salpêtrière has served as an insane asylum and a hospital for women.

Three immoral tales

A 1833 novel by Petrus Borel: Champavert, contes immoraux

Champavert : Contes immoraux (1833) – Pétrus Borel [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] – more …

A 1974 film by Walerian Borowczyk. Tagline: “You don’t have to go to a museum to see an X-rated Picasso”.

Immoral Tales (1974) – Walerian Borowczyk [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] more …

A 1994 non fiction book Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs, that won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction. The book covers European Cinema with profiles of Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, José Larraz, José Bénazéraf, Walerian Borowczyk and Alain Robbe-Grillet.


Immoral Tales: Sex And Horror Cinema In Europe 1956-1984 (1994) – Cathal Tohill & Pete Tombs [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] more …

Immorality is poised on the brink of good/evil, psychopathology and morality.

To the creator of films as well as other forms of literature, the dark side of human nature has often proved more rich and interesting than the bright. Films and books on the lives of saints have not been as popular as murder mysteries and works of horror. While we may have no desire to experience them in our own lives, terrible deeds and evil people exert their perverse attraction on our psyches. We who consider ourselves moral and upright are often fascinated by the behavior of the pitiless, merciless, and guiltless psychopath. Like a magnificent black panther: powerful, dangerous, and alien, the psychopathic character can have a dark, perfect beauty that simultaneously attracts and repels us. –Gordon Banks [1]

The last quote by Gordon Banks reminds me very much chapter four in Aristotle’s Poetics which explains our attraction to the horrific when fiction is concerned. Why we like things which are painful.

Depending on the translation Aristotle states:

  • Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead bodies. –sourced here. [Aug 2005]
  • for we enjoy looking at accurate likenesses of things which are themselves painful to see, obscene beasts, for instance, and corpses. –sourced here. [Aug 2005]

See also: ambivalence – art horror – representation

To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon …

Gustave Courbet (portrait by Nadar)

“I have studied the art of the masters and the art of the moderns, avoiding any preconceived system and without prejudice. I have no more wanted to imitate the former than to copy the latter; nor have I thought of achieving the idle aim of ‘art for art’s sake.’ No! I have simply wanted to draw from a thorough knowledge of tradition the reasoned and free sense of my own individuality. To know in order to do: such has been my thought. To be able to translate the customs, ideas, and appearance of my time as I see them — in a word, to create a living art — this has been my aim.” Gustave Courbet, preface to World’s Fair catalogue, 1855.

The Stone Breakers (1850) – Gustave Courbet

Courbet depicted the harshness in life, and in so doing, challenged contemporary academic ideas of art, which brought him criticism that he deliberately adopted a cult of ugliness. [Apr 2006]

Anarchism had a large influence on French Symbolism of the late 19th century, such as that of Stéphane Mallarmé, who was quoting as saying “Je ne sais pas d’autre bombe, qu’un livre.” (I know of no bomb other than the book.) Its ideas infiltrated the cafes and cabarets of turn of the century Paris.

Related: avant-garde – anarchism – government – French theory

Proudhon and his children (1865) Gustave Courbet

The painter Gustave Courbet was friends with Proudhon and supported the latter’s views on societal change. Proudhon was avant-garde in politics, Courbet in the visual arts. One of Proudhon’s most poetic and prophetic exposés was “To be GOVERNED is …” which is reproduced on this page.

“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place[d] under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.” (P.-J. Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), pp. 293-294.)

 

The Big Night Down The Drain

Die große Nacht im Eimer (“The Big Night Down The Drain”) is an oil painting by Georg Baselitz. It was painted in the years 1962/1963 and hangs today in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.In October, 1963, the work, as well as the picture “Der nackte Mann”, shown in the west-Berliner gallery Werner & Katz (Baselitz first solo exhibition), was seized by the public prosecutor’s office because of immorality. The criminal proceedings ended in 1965 with the return of the pictures. Here is a photo of the painting.

The history of four-footed beasts and serpents

WilliamDent TumorAlibert Scythian Ruskin2 Ruskin RegDouble RegChild Races Puck pig natter1754 mclean1836 mandrake Licetus1665b Licetus1665 Licetus LepraNigrans Lavater2 Lavater Lamia Lambert human hairy goose Elephant Cyno Cholic Caylus Carlyle Buffon Boruw Birthmarks Bidden Baynes ArcimboldoCooking

The legend to the series of illustrations posted above by Ian McCormick is posted below. Alternatively, you can consult these images at my Flickr account here. The enigmatic Ian McCormick posted the images to his easynet page in the late nineties when I found them. I’ve tried joining McCormick’s Yahoo group, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone there. Does anyone know of the current whereabouts of Ian?

Scythian Lamb

Mandrake from Herbarius (1485).

One-eyed monster from Hartman Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (1493).

Blemmyae, or headless monster from Hartman Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (1493).

Long-eared Phanesians from Hartman Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (1493).

Big-lipped monster from Hartman Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (1493).

Sciapodes from Hartman Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (1493).

Goat-people (satyrs) from Hartman Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (1493).

Monstrous pig of Landseer by Albrecht Durer (1496).

Human Monsters from Gregor Reisch’s Margarita Philosophia (1517).

Cooking from Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s The Genius of Cooking (1569).

Triton and Siren from the Latin edition of Ambroise Pare’s Des Monstres et Prodiges (1582).

Lamia See Topsell’s The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents (1607, 1608, 1658).

Biddenden Maids “Pygopagous twins”.

Parastic ectopy; Siamese twins from Johann Schenk’s Monstrorum historia memorabilis (1609).

Cynocephali from Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (1642).

Goose-headed Man from Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (1642).

Hairy Man from John Bulwer’s Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transformed: or the Artificial Changling (1653).

More monsters (Fortunius Licetus, De Monstris, 1665).

Medusa Head Found in an Egg (Fortunius Licetus, De Monstris, 1665).

Elephant-headed man from Fortunio Liceti’s De Monstris (1665).

Amorphous Monster (Fortunius Licetus, De Monstris, 1665).

Bear-headed Roman Senator (Anne-Claude-Philippe, Conte de Caylus, Recueil d’antiquites, 1665)

Pope-ass and other monsters from Fortunio Liceti’s De Monstrorum causis natura (1665).

Sneering Woman (James Parsons, Crounian Lectures on Muscular Motion, 1745).

Black Albino Child (Georges Buffon, L’histoire de l’homme, 1749)

Chimera (Laurent Natter, Traite de la Methode Antique, 1754).

Miniature Count Josef Boruwlaski with his wife Islina and their baby.(18th century).

Large Man Daniel Lambert. (18th century).

The Cutter Cut Up (William Dent, 1790).

Calculating Facial Disproportion (J.C. Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1792).

Birthmarks (J.C. Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1792).

Rage (J.C. Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1792).

The Siamese Brothers (T. M. Baynes, 19th century).

Double Child (Nicolas-Francois Regnault, Descriptions des principales monstruosites, 1808).

Monstrous child with multiple sensory organs (Nicolas-Francois Genault, Descriptions des principales monstruosites, 1808).

Tumor (Jean Louis Alibert, Clinique de l’Hopital Saint-Louis, 1833)

Lepra Nigrans (Jean Louis Alibert, Clinique de l’Hopital Saint-Louis, 1833)

The Cholick (George Cruickshank, 1835).

The Body Politic or the March of the Intellect (T.Mclean, 1836).

Electric Kingdom ‘Postmodern Arcimboldo’. Club Flyer, 13 March 1999.

This post was inspired by Marginalia’s post on Jan Jonston.

Make it my thing

 

DimDamDom.jpg

Screen capture of French television series Dim Dam, Dom

 

Rose Hobart (1936) – Joseph Cornell

  1. In recent comment exchanges between Andrej ‘Ombres Blanches’ Maltar and myself, we stumbled upon some Youtube footage I do not want to withhold from you, dear reader.
  2. Joseph Cornell’s ‘film remix’ Rose Hobart [Youtube]
  3. Ado Kyrou directed some episodes of Dim Dam Dom though not this one [Youtube] starring Gainsbourg. But one senses definitely his influence. Other director’s of this series were Eric Kahane (Girodias’s brother) and Jean Loup Sieff. –Andrej Maltar
  4. “When watching a film I inevitably perform an act of will on it, hence I transform it, and from its given elements make it my thing, draw snippets of knowledge from it and see better into myself… I could not begin to explain the reasons why since, contrary to Duchamp’s objects, I am not at all sure that these films, generally extremely bad ones, can have an objective value; or then I would have to work on them, make some changes in the montage, cut, accentuate, or tone down the soundtrack, finally interpret them before my subjective vision could be objectified.”–Ado Kyrou
  5. The Dim Dam, Dom video extracts were posted by Youtubian SpikedCandy who also treats us this superb piece of schmaltz.
  6. “This is the dialectic — there is a very short distance between high art and trash, and trash that contains an element of craziness is by this very quality nearer to art.” –Douglas Sirk’s nobrow quote via Andrej Maltar

Leaving some of the original text to show through

A page of A Humument

A Humument: A treated Victorian novel is an illustrated book by British artist Tom Phillips, first published in 1970. It is a piece of art created over William Hurrell Mallock’s 1892 novel A Human Document.

Phillips drew, painted, and collaged over the pages, while leaving some of the original text to show through. The final product was a new story with a new protagonist named Bill Toge, whose name appears only when the word “together” or “altogether” appears in Mallock’s original text.

A Humument was begun in the 1960’s. In 1970, Tetrad Press put out a small edition. The first trade edition was published in 1980 by Thames and Hudson, which also published revised editions in 1986, 1998 and 2004; future editions are planned. Each edition revises and replaces various pages. Phillips’s stated goal is to eventually replace every page from the 1970 edition.

Phillips has used the same technique (always with the Mallock source material) in many of his other works, including the illustration of his own translation of Dante‘s Inferno, (published in 1985).

This post was inspired by the comments section to this post by Il Giornale Nuovo.

One more image from the latest entry to that superb blog:

Detail of a woodland scene dominated by an anthropomorphic tree-figure
by Pietro Ciafferi (1600-54).

Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

Elizabeth Báthory (1560 – 1614)

The legend attached to the name of Erzsébet Báthory lives on in the ‘Carmilla‘ of J Sheridan le Fanu, the Hammer ‘Karnstein’ trilogy of movies, and the influential role of the female vampire in today’s psyche. Lilith Silver in ‘Razor Blade Smile’ is the latest incarnation of the female vampire begun with the Hungarian Countess nearly 400 years before.

Erzsébet Báthory was a psychopath.

The two factors that determine whether you are a psychopath are: emotional detachment and lifestyle.

Factor One looks for a selfish, remorseless, individual with inflated self-esteem who exploits others.

Factor Two describes a lifestyle that is chaotic, antisocial and/or criminal, marked by impulsiveness, a lack of responsibility and reactive anger . According to Hare, a psychopath will score high on both factors, whereas someone with Antisocial Personality Disorder will score high only on factor two. [1]

The items are as follows:

  • 1. Glibness/superficial charm
  • 2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
  • 3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
  • 4. Pathological lying
  • 5. Cunning/manipulative
  • 6. Lack of remorse or guilt
  • 7. Shallow affect
  • 8. Callous/lack of empathy
  • 9. Parasitic lifestyle
  • 10. Poor behavioral controls
  • 11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
  • 12. Early behavioral problems
  • 13. Lack of realistic, long-term goals
  • 14. Impulsivity
  • 15. Irresponsibility
  • 16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
  • 17. Many short-term marital relationships
  • 18. Juvenile delinquency
  • 19. Revocation of conditional release
  • 20. Criminal versatility

The joy of comments

Note to self: recent comments:

Ombres Blanches currently has a review of Breton’s unfinished literary project and Scott McLemee asks if there is anybody out there eagerly waiting for volume two of “Sexual Personae”.