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shadowkat[I'm behind on my television shows again - have 34 hours saved on the DVR. I need a streaming device like I need a hole in the head.]
1. What I just finished reading?
The Most Dangerous Book: the Battle Over James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham
This is an interesting book - it appears to be as much a biography of James Joyce, as it is of his work - and the battles over it. A must read if you are a fan or scholar of Joyce and his work. And a recommended one for anyone remotely interested in the history of obscenity laws, censorship, and the feminist movement in the UK and the US.
I learned quite a few things that I didn't know before:
*. Joyce went blind because of syphillis, and had over 13 eye operations to prevent the blindness. He was in tremendous pain most of his life because of the ailment.
*. Ulysses to this day is amongst the top three best-selling classical novels. It sells over 100,000 books worldwide. The work influenced everyone from Virgina Woolfe to Vladmir Nabokov. And it was the first time anyone had attempted a work of pure stream of consciousness.
*. In most cases, censorship and obscenity laws were in place to suppress women's rights and women's sexuality. In many of the court opinions - the rule of law or test was whether the work would corrupt an innocent woman. And it was up to men to protect her from being corrupted by it. In short, these laws were sexist. Which may explain why Joyce's most devout fans tended to be women, and his most ardent supporters were women.
*. The censorship cases turned on the final chapter, Penelope, which is basically Molly Bloom's thoughts while sitting on her chamber pot during her period. (This, I found interesting - since my undergraduate thesis was on this chapter. And I'd in effect written not one but two college papers on it.) The government used the chapter to prove that the work was "obscene", while the Judges ultimately ruled that while it may be erotic, it was also art particularly when taken into context with the whole.
The book is well written and a bit of a page turner, a rarity for non-fiction. And well researched. Birmingham unlike other non-fiction writers - is thorough, he does not appear to take a personal or emotional stance, and seems to show various points of view - merely interpreting the pattern presented from the documents he's reviewed in substantial depth. The book comes with various photos of Joyce, including one of him sitting in the park in 1922, in pain, with an eye patch, Nora, Hemingway, Ezra Pound, the founder of Random House, founder of ACLU, and various others involved including the ex-pat American who started the world famous Shakespeare & Company in Paris.
2. What you are reading now?
Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf.
This is a rather controversial non-fiction book on Good Reads. Some people really hate it, while others love it to pieces. But then Naomi Wolf, the author of The Beauty Myth, is a bit controversial herself. I saw her speak a few years back at the Brooklyn Book Fair - when the Vagina: a New Biography was first published.
As to what the book is about? It's about how society, medical science, and women, generally speaking, have viewed and currently view the vagina and sexual pleasure via the vagina.
Also, it should be noted that the book concentrates on heterosexual women and heterosexual sex since Ms. Wolf is heterosexual and doesn't know much about lesbian or bisexual or trans. She's up front about this - stating that homosexual or lesbian or bisexual sex deserves a book of its own. And men - aren't really examined that much. The book is not man-hating. Wolf loves men and doesn't have any issues with them.
Wolf is thorough, but rather myopic in her research. By that, I mean, she has a tendency to only use or concentrate on the medical, scientific and scholarly research that supports and validates her own point of view, disregarding the rest. Which makes her a bit unreliable, even if she has valid points. She also has a tendency to generalize - which, I think weakens her novel. She'd have been better off if she pulled back a few steps from the work, at times the work comes across as a tad too personal or autobiographical.
(Sorry, Naomi, but not all women need an orgasm or cocaine to reach a creative high or to be highly creative. Shocking, I know, but there it is. There are actually quite a few highly creative virgins or women who have not experienced insane orgasms out there. Also we do not get depressed just because we haven't had them. You can be in a great creative mood without an orgasm. Seriously.)
That said, there were a few things she's pointed out that I thought were worth sharing and have been validated by medical doctors.
* Women's vaginas are wired differently. Every women experiences sex differently. It's an individual experience.
She calls it the "Goddess Array". There's a series of nerves spreading out from the vagina - and these nerves cover various sections. The more sections you stimulate, the greater the orgasm. But this differs for women. The view that the clitorus is the only thing that needs to manipulated - is wrong, just as is the old Masters & Johnson view that women experience sexual pleasure similarly to men or just thrusting and deep penetration works. It varies.
When it comes to sex - you can't generalize. Except for one thing - sex for women is partly a mental thing, and an emotional thing. There has to be a mind-heart-body connection. (I actually think this may be true of men as well, but not being a man - I don't know for certain.) If the man is nasty or says nasty things about the woman or the vagina, she will shut down. (Although - I'm not sure this is necessarily true of all women - I've read a lot of odd romance novels and fanfic. There are a few women who get off on that sort of thing. But it is rare -- apparently.)
Again, the problem with the book is that Ms. Wolf is a bit inconsistent. She generalizes while at the same time cautioning that you can't generalize about this topic. Which to be fair - is a pitfall most scholars have run into when discussing human behavior patterns.
[According to my Kindle, I'm 20% of the way through - but considering I've been completing books at the 50% mark on the Kindle lately (the last half appears to be interviews with the writer, acknowledges, pictures, and a bibiliography) - I'm guessing that I'm actually half-way done.]
* The other interesting bit is about rape victims or rather "war rape victims":
Ms. Wolf argues that rape or deliberate damage of the females vaginas during war was to psychologically curtail their will and make them more controllable. That damage to the vagina or violence to it - rips something vital away from a woman. She believes this is systematic, not individual, and a strategic move to control women or suppress them. (I also think it might be a male power trip - in that in some cultures - women are viewed as possessions. So rape is a bit like pillage - you are ripping apart your enemies possession. In short, I don't think the rapists or the one's ordering it are necessarily as smart about this as she thinks they are.)
I'm not sure she's right. Various medical and rape psychologists argue against this theory - stating the damage in rape scenarios is more mental than physical. The trauma is experienced mainly in the brain. That there are psychological or attempted rapes that cause this damage as well, while the vagina is intact and unharmed. While the intent may well be systemic as opposed to psychologically based, the trauma is psychological.
To which - Wolf argues, this is proof of the mind-heart-body connection. This point seems to be more valid. Although not sure about the way she gets there.
* There is a rather disturbing section regarding sexual experimentation on female rats. It is discovered that female rats and all female mammals have a clitorus and experience sexual pleasure. So this is not uniquely human. However there may not be the mental connection. On the other hand they do an experiment where a few virgin rates are injected with a drug that makes them view sex as trauma or back away from it. And they do. While the other rats are flirtatious. I found it disturbing, because it felt like torture to the poor female rats, and I winced reading it. (I like lab rats. I had one in college. We got along well, I was amongst the few who did well with the rat - mainly because I didn't like to torture it. Took care of it. And was kind to it. And rewarded it. I personally have issues with harming animals - which is one of the many reasons, I'm not a behavioral psychologist or a biological researcher.)
A great companion piece to the other novels I've read.
I don't know if this permissible content for all readers or not. So I'll let you figure it out.
3. What I'm reading next?
No clue. Let you know when I figure it out.
1. What I just finished reading?
The Most Dangerous Book: the Battle Over James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham
This is an interesting book - it appears to be as much a biography of James Joyce, as it is of his work - and the battles over it. A must read if you are a fan or scholar of Joyce and his work. And a recommended one for anyone remotely interested in the history of obscenity laws, censorship, and the feminist movement in the UK and the US.
I learned quite a few things that I didn't know before:
*. Joyce went blind because of syphillis, and had over 13 eye operations to prevent the blindness. He was in tremendous pain most of his life because of the ailment.
*. Ulysses to this day is amongst the top three best-selling classical novels. It sells over 100,000 books worldwide. The work influenced everyone from Virgina Woolfe to Vladmir Nabokov. And it was the first time anyone had attempted a work of pure stream of consciousness.
*. In most cases, censorship and obscenity laws were in place to suppress women's rights and women's sexuality. In many of the court opinions - the rule of law or test was whether the work would corrupt an innocent woman. And it was up to men to protect her from being corrupted by it. In short, these laws were sexist. Which may explain why Joyce's most devout fans tended to be women, and his most ardent supporters were women.
*. The censorship cases turned on the final chapter, Penelope, which is basically Molly Bloom's thoughts while sitting on her chamber pot during her period. (This, I found interesting - since my undergraduate thesis was on this chapter. And I'd in effect written not one but two college papers on it.) The government used the chapter to prove that the work was "obscene", while the Judges ultimately ruled that while it may be erotic, it was also art particularly when taken into context with the whole.
The book is well written and a bit of a page turner, a rarity for non-fiction. And well researched. Birmingham unlike other non-fiction writers - is thorough, he does not appear to take a personal or emotional stance, and seems to show various points of view - merely interpreting the pattern presented from the documents he's reviewed in substantial depth. The book comes with various photos of Joyce, including one of him sitting in the park in 1922, in pain, with an eye patch, Nora, Hemingway, Ezra Pound, the founder of Random House, founder of ACLU, and various others involved including the ex-pat American who started the world famous Shakespeare & Company in Paris.
2. What you are reading now?
Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf.
This is a rather controversial non-fiction book on Good Reads. Some people really hate it, while others love it to pieces. But then Naomi Wolf, the author of The Beauty Myth, is a bit controversial herself. I saw her speak a few years back at the Brooklyn Book Fair - when the Vagina: a New Biography was first published.
As to what the book is about? It's about how society, medical science, and women, generally speaking, have viewed and currently view the vagina and sexual pleasure via the vagina.
Also, it should be noted that the book concentrates on heterosexual women and heterosexual sex since Ms. Wolf is heterosexual and doesn't know much about lesbian or bisexual or trans. She's up front about this - stating that homosexual or lesbian or bisexual sex deserves a book of its own. And men - aren't really examined that much. The book is not man-hating. Wolf loves men and doesn't have any issues with them.
Wolf is thorough, but rather myopic in her research. By that, I mean, she has a tendency to only use or concentrate on the medical, scientific and scholarly research that supports and validates her own point of view, disregarding the rest. Which makes her a bit unreliable, even if she has valid points. She also has a tendency to generalize - which, I think weakens her novel. She'd have been better off if she pulled back a few steps from the work, at times the work comes across as a tad too personal or autobiographical.
(Sorry, Naomi, but not all women need an orgasm or cocaine to reach a creative high or to be highly creative. Shocking, I know, but there it is. There are actually quite a few highly creative virgins or women who have not experienced insane orgasms out there. Also we do not get depressed just because we haven't had them. You can be in a great creative mood without an orgasm. Seriously.)
That said, there were a few things she's pointed out that I thought were worth sharing and have been validated by medical doctors.
* Women's vaginas are wired differently. Every women experiences sex differently. It's an individual experience.
"For some women, a lot of neural pathways originate in the clitoris, and these women's vaginas will be less "innervated" - less dense with nerves. A woman in this group may like clitoral stimulation a lot, and not get as much from penetration. Some women have lots of innervation in their vaginas, and climax easily from penetration alone. Another woman may have a lot of neural pathway terminations in the perineal or anal area; she may like anal sex and even be able to have an orgasm from it, while it may leave a differently wired woman completely cold, or even in pain. Some women's pelvic neural wiring will be closer to the surface, making it easier for them to reach orgasm; other women's neural wiring may be more submerged in their bodies, driving them and their partners to need to be more patient and inventive, as they must seek a more elusive climax.
She calls it the "Goddess Array". There's a series of nerves spreading out from the vagina - and these nerves cover various sections. The more sections you stimulate, the greater the orgasm. But this differs for women. The view that the clitorus is the only thing that needs to manipulated - is wrong, just as is the old Masters & Johnson view that women experience sexual pleasure similarly to men or just thrusting and deep penetration works. It varies.
When it comes to sex - you can't generalize. Except for one thing - sex for women is partly a mental thing, and an emotional thing. There has to be a mind-heart-body connection. (I actually think this may be true of men as well, but not being a man - I don't know for certain.) If the man is nasty or says nasty things about the woman or the vagina, she will shut down. (Although - I'm not sure this is necessarily true of all women - I've read a lot of odd romance novels and fanfic. There are a few women who get off on that sort of thing. But it is rare -- apparently.)
Again, the problem with the book is that Ms. Wolf is a bit inconsistent. She generalizes while at the same time cautioning that you can't generalize about this topic. Which to be fair - is a pitfall most scholars have run into when discussing human behavior patterns.
[According to my Kindle, I'm 20% of the way through - but considering I've been completing books at the 50% mark on the Kindle lately (the last half appears to be interviews with the writer, acknowledges, pictures, and a bibiliography) - I'm guessing that I'm actually half-way done.]
* The other interesting bit is about rape victims or rather "war rape victims":
These women were different from the women we met who were traumatized by amputations, or by gunfire, or by being forced to work in diamond mines. There was something about what had happened to the rape victims that had efficiently switched a light off in them. These women, rejected by their tribes and families, moved in great groups together over the dusty mounds of earth as if they were adrift together. In spite of their individual courage, what was unmistakable was that aspects of their very souls, in some profound way, had been hollowed out of them. In any one woman, this dimming of vitality was notable, but when you saw this nation of drifting women, it was impossible to ignore. Something systemic had been done to them that had somehow, in a way unique to this trauma, blunted them at the level of engagement, curiousity and will.
Ms. Wolf argues that rape or deliberate damage of the females vaginas during war was to psychologically curtail their will and make them more controllable. That damage to the vagina or violence to it - rips something vital away from a woman. She believes this is systematic, not individual, and a strategic move to control women or suppress them. (I also think it might be a male power trip - in that in some cultures - women are viewed as possessions. So rape is a bit like pillage - you are ripping apart your enemies possession. In short, I don't think the rapists or the one's ordering it are necessarily as smart about this as she thinks they are.)
I'm not sure she's right. Various medical and rape psychologists argue against this theory - stating the damage in rape scenarios is more mental than physical. The trauma is experienced mainly in the brain. That there are psychological or attempted rapes that cause this damage as well, while the vagina is intact and unharmed. While the intent may well be systemic as opposed to psychologically based, the trauma is psychological.
To which - Wolf argues, this is proof of the mind-heart-body connection. This point seems to be more valid. Although not sure about the way she gets there.
* There is a rather disturbing section regarding sexual experimentation on female rats. It is discovered that female rats and all female mammals have a clitorus and experience sexual pleasure. So this is not uniquely human. However there may not be the mental connection. On the other hand they do an experiment where a few virgin rates are injected with a drug that makes them view sex as trauma or back away from it. And they do. While the other rats are flirtatious. I found it disturbing, because it felt like torture to the poor female rats, and I winced reading it. (I like lab rats. I had one in college. We got along well, I was amongst the few who did well with the rat - mainly because I didn't like to torture it. Took care of it. And was kind to it. And rewarded it. I personally have issues with harming animals - which is one of the many reasons, I'm not a behavioral psychologist or a biological researcher.)
A great companion piece to the other novels I've read.
I don't know if this permissible content for all readers or not. So I'll let you figure it out.
3. What I'm reading next?
No clue. Let you know when I figure it out.
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no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-06 01:07 am (UTC)I think what you state above is much closer to what motivates them. I think it is about power, but that they see the women as merely a means to an end or a tool. Not human. Not worth anything. Which is partly why it is such a deplorable and inexcusable gender crime. Although men are also raped in War for somewhat the same reasons.
In the book - Wolf states that she journey to Sierra Leon, and meet with rape victims and the most brutal rapists, who were young boys between the ages of 12-15, which the IRC was trying to rehabilitate and save. That was rather horrifying.
She also provides a great deal of medical and scientific information regarding the trauma of rape on the woman's body, mind, and heart - specifically the vagina itself. It has been scientifically proven that this is a crime, even if it is just attempted, that women never get over. The PTSD alone can last for years. I didn't realize the degree of damage it inflicts on the victim. But it does explain various people's reactions to how television and stories have portrayed it.
And there was an interesting, if somewhat dated statistic (the book was written in 2012), that 1 out of 5 women have been raped and 1 out of 71 men have been raped. And get this - women who were raped or molested as children or at any time really - often exhibit problems with balance, symptoms of vertigo, can be knocked down easily, and may exhibit other signs - such as difficulty speaking or raising their voice, or difficulty with certain sounds. Some of the symptoms are similar to PTSD, but last longer.
That section was somewhat eye-opening. Not that I didn't know a lot of this already, just not the severity.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-08 05:57 am (UTC)"Улисс" это роман №1 20 века.