Or should I say “8-bit existentialism?”
A pang is a paroxysm of extreme pain or anguish; a sudden and transitory agony; a throe; as, the pangs of death.
Category Archives: juxtapoetry
Writing Degree Zero
Writing Degree Zero (Le Degré zéro de l’écriture, 1953) is book-length essay written by Roland Barthes. It was published in English by Hill and Wang in 1968. Its current edition features a foreword by Susan Sontag and was translated by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith. It introduced the literary term écriture to Anglophone literary theory.
She knows
Girl with a cup (1850), by Danish painter Constantin Hansen
It’s one of those paintings one finds on the web, they talk to you, you find them 2 weeks ago, they compel you to write about them two weeks later.
A little of Vermeer, Chirico and Balthus in this painting of a girl drinking from a cup. Her gaze is half interrogation and half wonder, but a defiant gaze nevertheless, as if she knows more than she’s willing to admit, and more too, than you would expect her to. There is quite a bit of sadness too, sadness not so much of a girl, but of a grown woman trapped in the body of a girl. As with many interesting 19th century works, it’s hard to tell, is it a kitschy guilty pleasure or just a good painting?
This city is famous for, or, cult fiction #6
This post is part of the cult fiction series, this issue #6
“This city is famous for its gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts, fetishists, onanists, pornographers, frauds, jades, litterbugs and lesbians. If you have a moment, I shall endeavor to discuss the crime problem with you, but don’t make the mistake of bothering me.” –Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces
Will you talk about yourself?
This post is part of the cult fiction series, this issue #5
The Swimmer (1968) Frank Perry
The famed John Cheever short story appeared in the New Yorker and people talked. Now there will be talk again. When you sense this man’s vibrations and share his colossal hang-up . . . will you see someone you know, or love? When you feel the body-blow power of his broken dreams, will it reach you deep inside, where it hurts? When you talk about “The Swimmer” will you talk about yourself?“
And when I scream I AM THE SUN
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2NrIALcNOw]
And when I scream I AM THE SUN an integral erection results, because the verb to be is the vehicle of amorous frenzy.” —Solar Anus – Georges Bataille
My heart is made of asbestos
Madam Satan American poster
I love apparent antonyms and verbal incongruities combined in one little phrase, tucked close to each other as tiny juxtapoems.
Two examples that come to mind are Madam Satan and Monsieur Vénus.
I’ve mentioned Monsieur Vénus before.
Today, a little about Madam Satan.
The film came first my attention via the French poster depicted at the now offline French site Fantasfilm.com dedicated to “le fantastique” in film. The superb dress was designed by Adrian.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMjAhtsqxvw]
Watch out honey, you’ll get burned.
Don’t worry, my heart is made of asbestos.
In search of strange women
more on strange women
(Proverbs 2:12-19)
To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
(Proverbs 2:3-6)
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
(Proverbs 5:20-29)
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
It has to be offered to her
The weather is soft. To the right approaches a man, to the left a woman. They will meet within ten to fifteen seconds. His will glance upwards stealthily. She will look straight ahead, knows that she is being looked at. She will only half enjoy this, but she would not want to miss it. It is a gift she refuses, but it has to be offered to her. –Adapted from K. Schippers‘s opening lines on Balthus in Eb.
Collage by Indian artist Rajan c k.
‘You got to,’ she said
It’s time for icon of erotic art #23.
Roman Charity by Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724-1806)
“Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. ‘You got to,’ she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. ‘There!’ she said. ‘There.’ Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously” —The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
Please notice the stylistic similarity (or at least a similarity in feel) with Dutch Girl, 2006 by Lisa Yuskavage