This being my second time reading Lolita, I went for an annotated version, that I might pick up on a few of the frequent and obscure references dispersed throughout the novel, or at least have the translations of Humbert’s French conveniently compiled. Similarly, in approaching the text from a more critical readership, I expected this […]
Although I enjoyed my first visit to the Museum of Sex, I wasn’t all that impressed by its curation. There were exciting, educational elements for sure, but I at times I had difficulty navigating the exhibitions. For example, the installation that was located in the hallway between the “Universe of Desire” room and the Permanent […]
Tonight, I will be working on my essay, but for those of you who responsibly finished it with time to spare and, as the description reads, are a “fan of Crass, punk, or counterculture,” don’t miss this screening of CRASS: THERE IS NO AUTHORITY BUT YOURSELF (Alexander Oey, 2006), featuring special guest Penny Rimbaud live […]
Hey everybody, I highly encourage y’all to check out this website: http://www.artandmedicine.com/ that my friend Aviva’s dad, Mark Rowley, is associated with. Aviva tells me he’s been fascinated by medical “oddities” all his life. Specifically, I recommend reading some of John Wood’s poems. The very first one listed, “Elephantiasis,” is stunningly beautiful. –Sophia
By the late nineteenth century profound connections were being made between matters of political importance and discourses on sexuality. “The Scare-Crows of Sexual Slavery” by Victoria C. Woodhull presents a fascinating example of how the Women’s Liberation and Black Liberation movements were intrinsically and actively linked together. While she draws an important parallel between the […]
The most extravagant shift in Hawthorne’s novel is one mobilized by a light that can come only after an extreme darkness: Hester and Dimmesdale’s meeting in the forest is traced by their mutual illuminations on personal truth in contrast to the “human law” and the “higher truth” that govern their fellow townsfolk (217). Their revelations […]
In class yesterday we talked a bit about eyes (sight) and mirrors (reflection) as symbols in The Scarlett Letter. Our discussion focused on how the characters’ perceptions of themselves and their surroundings are shaped by the peculiar, perhaps deceiving, sense of sight. I would like to continue on this vein and explore how Hawthorne portrays […]
Although I’m not a scientist (really, really not a scientist), I found it helpful to conceptualize the ideas that Foucault presents on power in “Part IV: The Deployment of Sexuality” by relating them to some basic laws of physics. Foucault’s claim that power is “the multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which […]
In his History of Sexuality, Foucault provides us with a new accountability for the broadness of our perversions. He grants the individual and the society a space for discussion, unbound by singular form or direction. Noting that the trajectory of sexuality is non-unilateral –the same goes for the discourse surrounding it– Foucault dissects the untenable […]
