Art proves there's more to nudity than just porn. Too often that difference seems to be confused. Flesh doesn't have to be sexy. And there is more to flesh than simply the form we're accustomed to in everyday life.
Sometimes I check out the art to change my perception. It's one reason I love to do artistic things as a hobby. Twisting words is one thing, but the images sitting in front of you will change how you look and feel about everything.
Wax representations of flesh to create statements? (Suppose I ought to pass on the 'grotesque' warning.)
Paint nude bodies to match your canvas?
Use water to distort yourself for a selfie? (NSFW)
I admit that last one looks fun, but it might just be because I like to swim. It also says I've been spending too much time reading art news and not enough with my editing projects. Time to get in gear.
May spring come soon! This winter has been too long, too cold.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Friday, February 7, 2014
The Great Wall of Vagina
It's not safe for work. It can be really hard to tell, with a title like that. Somehow I'm the kind of person who texts a few friends to make certain the Great Wall of Vagina (and other awesome things like that) get around.
The comments really say a lot about this piece of art. Why don't women think they look normal? What is it that makes women so nervous about their intimate bits?
Another interesting part to note is under education. They highlight identical twin sisters, female-to-male and male-to-female transgender individuals, and labiaplasty.
Just look. Think about it. The controversy centers around the subject matter - whether this is art of porn - but see what else you can take away from that.
http://www.greatwallofvagina.co.uk/
The comments really say a lot about this piece of art. Why don't women think they look normal? What is it that makes women so nervous about their intimate bits?
Another interesting part to note is under education. They highlight identical twin sisters, female-to-male and male-to-female transgender individuals, and labiaplasty.
Just look. Think about it. The controversy centers around the subject matter - whether this is art of porn - but see what else you can take away from that.
http://www.greatwallofvagina.co.uk/
Friday, December 20, 2013
Sex and Gender
Once, I was reading an advice bit from an erotica author (not professional). At the time, I had so much trouble figuring out the real issues I had with what she said.
She said she had written stories from different points of view: straight woman, gay woman, straight man, gay man. And that meant she had done it all.
Gender is a spectrum. So often people view it as a box to be checked. If not one, then the other. It's just like viewing everything in black and white- and there are therapists out there to help people deal with that difficulty.
The Kinsey Scale was one of the first to explore this idea, that there was not just a heterosexual and homosexual category, but that people might be better categorized by points on a line.
I laughed when one of my acquaintances talked about how he'd go bi for Antonio Banderas, but I love that he's comfortable enough with himself to say it. So many men don't seem to be. And yet most of the women I know have that one admission even if they're straight.
Which makes me think about our society. Why is that permissible for women and not for men? Why has it been more okay for women to have a list of other women that they find fascinating, but men refuse to admit any feelings of the sort for other men?
(Except, of course, that women are amazing, awesome creatures.)
Oh, and now I have a topic for more research: What does it say about a person (call him Guy) when he's attracted to a specific attribute? What does it mean when Guy decides it's okay to break gender norms (meaning what he normally finds attractive) for one other - like Antonio Banderas? And what does that choice say about Guy?
There are a lot more things in my head about that. Sex doesn't just happen in twos. Sex doesn't just happen between a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. Sex isn't always monogamous or exclusive. And gender doesn't have to be the only factor. Some people are not comfortable identifying with either - it goes so much deeper than just what genitals are attached to a body. Which makes that a topic for another post... soon.
She said she had written stories from different points of view: straight woman, gay woman, straight man, gay man. And that meant she had done it all.
Gender is a spectrum. So often people view it as a box to be checked. If not one, then the other. It's just like viewing everything in black and white- and there are therapists out there to help people deal with that difficulty.
The Kinsey Scale was one of the first to explore this idea, that there was not just a heterosexual and homosexual category, but that people might be better categorized by points on a line.
I laughed when one of my acquaintances talked about how he'd go bi for Antonio Banderas, but I love that he's comfortable enough with himself to say it. So many men don't seem to be. And yet most of the women I know have that one admission even if they're straight.
Which makes me think about our society. Why is that permissible for women and not for men? Why has it been more okay for women to have a list of other women that they find fascinating, but men refuse to admit any feelings of the sort for other men?
(Except, of course, that women are amazing, awesome creatures.)
Oh, and now I have a topic for more research: What does it say about a person (call him Guy) when he's attracted to a specific attribute? What does it mean when Guy decides it's okay to break gender norms (meaning what he normally finds attractive) for one other - like Antonio Banderas? And what does that choice say about Guy?
There are a lot more things in my head about that. Sex doesn't just happen in twos. Sex doesn't just happen between a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. Sex isn't always monogamous or exclusive. And gender doesn't have to be the only factor. Some people are not comfortable identifying with either - it goes so much deeper than just what genitals are attached to a body. Which makes that a topic for another post... soon.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Beginning September
Ever have those thoughts of doing something and not understanding what holds you back from completing it? September begins and it is a good time to start new goals, tackle projects on hold, and generally getting back into the routine.
For your reading pleasure: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2013/jan/200113-hatke-news-scotland-library-free-pole-dancing-lessons.htm
You have to love a library that will encourage readers in almost any way possible - so long as the books aren't damaged as tennis table bats.
For your reading pleasure: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2013/jan/200113-hatke-news-scotland-library-free-pole-dancing-lessons.htm
You have to love a library that will encourage readers in almost any way possible - so long as the books aren't damaged as tennis table bats.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Thinly Veiled Autobiography
A book brings expectations. When I open a book, it's about a story. When I write, it's the same thing. Each character has a personality and a challenge to overcome.
I know one of the clichéd pieces of writing advice is "write what you know," but that doesn't mean every story needs to be taken directly from the writer's life. There are pieces of truth and pieces of other things woven together to make great fiction. The pieces one person picks out as the truth become the piece that someone else believes can't be true.
From time to time I run into writers who seem to write thinly veiled autobiography. Fiction isn't as complicated as truth. We can't believe what really happened, but we have to believe in fiction. An author needs to tie up the loose ends at the end of the story. Books don't generally run through endless characters for one use - they'll trim them down to use one best friend for several purposes and one antagonist in many cases.
Why do I say seem? I heard a writer not long ago substitute his own name for his protagonist's. Another one talked about his protagonist as "a mix of himself and his best friend" but the protagonist's name was one letter from his own. I've also heard "but it really happened that way."
I wonder if that leads many readers to think that some part of this truth that writers need to express in story must be what really happened. They look at my stories and they look at me and they might wonder. All I can do is try not to let it get to me, and if they ask - tell them it isn't true. At least not what they're asking.
Fiction is fooling the audience into believing something is real that isn't. If I do that, I'm a successful writer. Can I fool you? I hope so.
I know one of the clichéd pieces of writing advice is "write what you know," but that doesn't mean every story needs to be taken directly from the writer's life. There are pieces of truth and pieces of other things woven together to make great fiction. The pieces one person picks out as the truth become the piece that someone else believes can't be true.
From time to time I run into writers who seem to write thinly veiled autobiography. Fiction isn't as complicated as truth. We can't believe what really happened, but we have to believe in fiction. An author needs to tie up the loose ends at the end of the story. Books don't generally run through endless characters for one use - they'll trim them down to use one best friend for several purposes and one antagonist in many cases.
Why do I say seem? I heard a writer not long ago substitute his own name for his protagonist's. Another one talked about his protagonist as "a mix of himself and his best friend" but the protagonist's name was one letter from his own. I've also heard "but it really happened that way."
I wonder if that leads many readers to think that some part of this truth that writers need to express in story must be what really happened. They look at my stories and they look at me and they might wonder. All I can do is try not to let it get to me, and if they ask - tell them it isn't true. At least not what they're asking.
Fiction is fooling the audience into believing something is real that isn't. If I do that, I'm a successful writer. Can I fool you? I hope so.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Pen Names
Have you looked much within the erotica genre? It is littered with pen names and supposed pen names. While that isn't bad, it might say something about our culture.
What I wonder, with the unmasking of pen names on such a frequent basis, is why we choose them. J. K. Rowling thought she was safe with a pen name - and she was for a few months. One leak into the right journalist's ear, and suddenly there is a hunt for proof through experts to check on the phrasing used in each of the books she's written lately - the last Harry Potter book, Casual Vacancy, and Cuckoo's Calling.
Seems like a lot of effort. Right, it's J. K. Rowling, one of the most well-known and wealthy authors in the world. So she's worth it, when maybe a small nobody who publishes a few erotica stories.
But if you make it big, like E. L. James, someone else will want to see right through you.
Does that make some authors strive for the midlist? Does it make some authors pause before trying to send work out? Does it make someone happy to rip off the mask? Happier than the authors who had their bliss removed?
Life as a writer isn't easy. We pursue the stories we have to tell. It is not something happy people do. Happy people go play with their kids and their spouses and go to parties and have fun. Writers stick themselves alone in dark corners and scribble into notebooks. [Those who have entered the digital age might be typing into a computer, phone, or other device.]
Life as a writer with a pen name doesn't get better. Can you imagine trying to tell the people closest to you that you write, you have a pen name, and you don't want everyone to know? Why wouldn't you want everyone to know? It might not be a good move in your career. It might not be something you're willing to share because it's too personal. It might be a reason that most people cannot understand or aren't willing to sit through an explanation.
Some writers have many names. They use them for branding and to direct readers to one set of novels or another. Sometimes they list their different versions of a name - whether they were found out from a secret or if the pen name wasn't a secret at all - on their bio pages. Some writers use pen names to get away from connotations with other real people, other real writers. Imagine if your name were King or Rowling or Roberts - and you wrote in a different genre from the famous writer? Some people will find enough of a reason there to change into a different version of their names.
Some, but not all. Next time you pick up a book and read through the author's page, are you going to wonder if that was the name the writer was born with? And, really, does it matter?
What I wonder, with the unmasking of pen names on such a frequent basis, is why we choose them. J. K. Rowling thought she was safe with a pen name - and she was for a few months. One leak into the right journalist's ear, and suddenly there is a hunt for proof through experts to check on the phrasing used in each of the books she's written lately - the last Harry Potter book, Casual Vacancy, and Cuckoo's Calling.
Seems like a lot of effort. Right, it's J. K. Rowling, one of the most well-known and wealthy authors in the world. So she's worth it, when maybe a small nobody who publishes a few erotica stories.
But if you make it big, like E. L. James, someone else will want to see right through you.
Does that make some authors strive for the midlist? Does it make some authors pause before trying to send work out? Does it make someone happy to rip off the mask? Happier than the authors who had their bliss removed?
Life as a writer isn't easy. We pursue the stories we have to tell. It is not something happy people do. Happy people go play with their kids and their spouses and go to parties and have fun. Writers stick themselves alone in dark corners and scribble into notebooks. [Those who have entered the digital age might be typing into a computer, phone, or other device.]
Life as a writer with a pen name doesn't get better. Can you imagine trying to tell the people closest to you that you write, you have a pen name, and you don't want everyone to know? Why wouldn't you want everyone to know? It might not be a good move in your career. It might not be something you're willing to share because it's too personal. It might be a reason that most people cannot understand or aren't willing to sit through an explanation.
Some writers have many names. They use them for branding and to direct readers to one set of novels or another. Sometimes they list their different versions of a name - whether they were found out from a secret or if the pen name wasn't a secret at all - on their bio pages. Some writers use pen names to get away from connotations with other real people, other real writers. Imagine if your name were King or Rowling or Roberts - and you wrote in a different genre from the famous writer? Some people will find enough of a reason there to change into a different version of their names.
Some, but not all. Next time you pick up a book and read through the author's page, are you going to wonder if that was the name the writer was born with? And, really, does it matter?
Friday, July 19, 2013
A Struggle Within
I've never had a lot of family, and my friends have filled those voids for me. Which is good, because it seems like the family members I can manage to coexist with are far away or passed away.
I know I've been quiet on the blog lately, and it is all a struggle within my mind. There are good days and bad days and days when I wish I wasn't me and days that I wouldn't be anyone else for anything.
My home has always been within fiction. The stories I want to share are always bubbling free. The problem is that the story I want to tell these days isn't fiction. That said, I abhor memoirs. And yet as I turn the pieces together, nothing else will fit. Some stories do not translate to fiction. I also refuse to go the route of saying, "Here, read this pile of fifteen stories to understand." And it would take an unknown number of stories, because fiction simply doesn't translate the same way nonfiction does. Coherence of story matters. (At least, to me.)
The other struggle with writing a memoir is that I don't remember everything. I see flashes here and flashes there and only creative nonfiction would fill in the gaps necessary to make it understandable.
Is it worth telling a story that gets more complicated the more you remember? It's bad enough a friend of mine looked at me this week and simply stated, "You're complicated." I'm pretty sure that isn't a compliment, but thanks, dude. Doesn't matter if I try to be an open book, if I try to be someone simple. It doesn't work for me.
Honesty may be the best policy, but less can also be more. Simple questions should have simple answers. I know it always frustrated my father when he would ask me questions that seemed like it would have a yes or no answer, and I'd come back with something like green. All I can say is, it made sense at the time. To me, and me alone.
This month, today, both are significant to me. I struggle with mental illness, and the first signs of it (at least, confirmed from someone outside myself) were about seventeen years ago this month. Diagnosis followed slowly, about seven years ago. It's forever, and yet it's yesterday. I know I've been irrational with a side of paranoia lately, and I'm hoping to move past that for a time. How much is always unclear.
Maybe the memoir idea will fade and I'll be able to concentrate on editing that story I've been meaning to finish.
I saw a quote today by Terri Main. "You are a writer. The 'normal' ship sailed without you long ago."
I know I've been quiet on the blog lately, and it is all a struggle within my mind. There are good days and bad days and days when I wish I wasn't me and days that I wouldn't be anyone else for anything.
My home has always been within fiction. The stories I want to share are always bubbling free. The problem is that the story I want to tell these days isn't fiction. That said, I abhor memoirs. And yet as I turn the pieces together, nothing else will fit. Some stories do not translate to fiction. I also refuse to go the route of saying, "Here, read this pile of fifteen stories to understand." And it would take an unknown number of stories, because fiction simply doesn't translate the same way nonfiction does. Coherence of story matters. (At least, to me.)
The other struggle with writing a memoir is that I don't remember everything. I see flashes here and flashes there and only creative nonfiction would fill in the gaps necessary to make it understandable.
Is it worth telling a story that gets more complicated the more you remember? It's bad enough a friend of mine looked at me this week and simply stated, "You're complicated." I'm pretty sure that isn't a compliment, but thanks, dude. Doesn't matter if I try to be an open book, if I try to be someone simple. It doesn't work for me.
Honesty may be the best policy, but less can also be more. Simple questions should have simple answers. I know it always frustrated my father when he would ask me questions that seemed like it would have a yes or no answer, and I'd come back with something like green. All I can say is, it made sense at the time. To me, and me alone.
This month, today, both are significant to me. I struggle with mental illness, and the first signs of it (at least, confirmed from someone outside myself) were about seventeen years ago this month. Diagnosis followed slowly, about seven years ago. It's forever, and yet it's yesterday. I know I've been irrational with a side of paranoia lately, and I'm hoping to move past that for a time. How much is always unclear.
Maybe the memoir idea will fade and I'll be able to concentrate on editing that story I've been meaning to finish.
I saw a quote today by Terri Main. "You are a writer. The 'normal' ship sailed without you long ago."
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