Wait, I saw this movie. It was called "8MM."
Brian
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay Gertzman" <
jgertzma@earthlink.net> To: "rara avis post" <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003
9:03 PM Subject: RARA-AVIS: porn in noir: Louise Welsh's _The
Cutting Room_
> This novel is narrated by a tough-minded, gay man
named Rilke,an
> appraiser for an auction house which has been
comissioned to sell the
> contents of a house in Glasgow. He uncovers a
splendid collection of
> classic and modern pornography compiled by the man
who owned the house,
> but also a set of half-a-century old photos which
seem to depict a
> woman's torture and murder. He sets out to discover
whether or not this
> "snuff" really occured, and if the owner of that
house could really have
> participated in such an act. On the way, he visits
the considerable
> vice district of Glasgow, with its dirty streets,
greasy restaurants,
> bars, and porn stores. The style is terse and
carefully descriptive when
> necessary. We learn about the increasing trade in
women, children and
> their vital organs, drugs, and porn in Europe since
the fall of the
> USSR, about the compulsions of transvestism and
furtive gay sex in
> dark corners (Rilke's own practice), and about the
reasons the auction
> business is primarily cash-based. The depiction of
amoral behavior from
> one end of the social scale to the other is
informative and
> intelligently noir-ish. But the ultimate reality
check Welsh is working
> toward is problematical, and too narrowly conceived,
in my opinion.
> Various people explain to Rilke that if *men* desire
something purely
> enough, even snuff, they will bring it about. Death
is at the heart of
> sex; Poe is quoted about the death of a beautiful
women being the most
> beautiful thing in the world. Since the cavemen drew
pictures of naked
> ladies on the walls of caves, "all manner of vice"
existed. The distance
> between between de Sade and the Traveller's
Companion books one bought
> in Paris b/c they were banned in the US and Britain
is collapsed. Late
> in the novel, Welsh has Rilke discover the porn
collector's edition
> of _Merryland_, an 18th century version of the old
theme of the
> woman's body as a newly-discovered paradise. To
Welsh (ok, Rilke), the
> woman is not the subject of adulation and desire,
but is anatomized like
> a dead cadaver, taken apart like a student would cut
up a frog. Damned
> if the other texts are not all about death also,
cutting, stripping,
> murdering the female in the man's heart. Not too far
from Jane
> Campion's version of the novel _The Cutting Room_.
And here is Welsh
> (er, Rilke's) interpretation of a bridal gown: "the
bride a sacrifice
> in white." Point taken, Ms Welsh, time and time
again. Yes your book is
> noir--unless your interpretation of its universe
cannot be taken
seriously.
> I wish someone else who has read this book would
comment on it, and
> on my interpretation, which of couse may be all
wet.
>
>
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