61 Frames Per Second by John Constantine Today in Hooksexup's videogame blog: Street Fighter. The movie. A new one. With that chick from that Superman show. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about!
The Remote Island by Bryan Christian Mad Men's January Jones struts her stuff in Vanity Fair. Plus: Damages returns, the latest Gossip Girl guest star and Donna Martin capitulates.
To suggest that the West is an advanced culture, having produced the "doctrines of democracy, civil liberties and feminism," is instantly a faulty conclusion (although it's noted that Ms. Paglia seems almost passive/aggressive in her opionionless opinion). Any society that tries to subjugate nature is a society bent on destruction and the imposition of itself on others. In slang terms, it's called a boundary problem. Anybody who wants to reach a genuine union with God must first shed the arrogance that is nearly congenital in (at least American) Western society, and with that sloughing off goes the desire to mash the life out of another living thing, human, animal, insect or plant. Then, finally, the individual recognizes her own worth, and in doing so recognizes the worth of all other objects found on this earth.
The original model for democrary was in part intended to protect the individual in pursuit of her own destiny, but even today's vigilant citizens are overwhelmed by the mob mentality of groups working to subjugate those liberties for their own ends you know who they are because they are the congregations of the loudest, deafest and most ignorant and fearful. What humans do have over animals is their ability to use the power of reason to change their environment and their perceptions of themselves. (In fact, animals have this ability as well, but rarely encounter the kick-start to use it.)
Ms. Paglia doesn't understand the given co-existence of good and destructive traits within the human animal it's not the traits that determine the outcome, it's the success of that person's struggle that does. And this is what the founding fathers recognized and decided, for the first time on such a scale, to set out to protect. It is just as "natural" as the tendency to want to slug the person next to you who's been stepping on your foot three times in the past hour. To degrade that struggle as just somone trying to swim against her own tide is simply another attempt at assert one's will over another (arrogance) and to denigrate oneself and any others. LH 4/9/99
The choice of panelists for this discussion riveted my attention immediately. I thought the gamut from Camille Paglia's agnosticism to Thomas Moore's serene and studied perspective is a great balance on this topic. I greatly admire the intellects of both these thinkers and was pleased to make the aquaintance of Robert Francoeur, Frances Kissling and especially Elaine Pagels as I have been following this thread. Thanks for the thought-provoking discussion to all involved; my Hooksexup membership application uploads today! DC 4/9/99
While reading the symposium on the relationship between sexuality and spirituality, the responses to question two reminded me of a poem I jotted down years ago:
Psssst!
It's hard to love a masochist
The inanity of such vanity
Will punish your own sanity
Or: one person's ecstasy can be another person's sin. FE 4/8/99
I find it troubling that Robert Francoeur's answer to the latest VoiceBox question refers to the "power" of the male phallic symbol and subsequently to the "mystery" of female sexuality. Apparently he finds that male sexuality is both mysterious and powerful, representing "life-giving power," while female sexuality represents at best "the power of femaleness." It sounds like female sexuality is viewed as somehow secondary, although women have as much "life-giving" power as men do. Francoeur seems to be overlooking the importance of female sexuality, which does represent the power of life as well as the power of being female, just as the phallus represents the power of being male and the power of life. LW 4/7/99
I love your magazine. I have grown to love it more so after having read the VoiceBox article on religion. As a Catholic, I find your article to be far more informative, supportive and fascinating than anything I have ever read that attempts to shed light on the Church's stance on sex. Wonderful. Kudos. TZ 4/7/99
I tend to oversimplify, else I simply fail to understand. Therefore, I feel that we as a society are spiritually immature and even primitive. As a result, all we are and do reflects that immaturity and primitiveness, much in the same way that a child shows a lack of experience as it attempts to grow up. My two cents worth. P.S. I like Hooksexup and generally like the offerings. Thanks and keep it up. JH 4/1/99
I am so glad to read that Hooksexup will have the likes of Elaine Pagels grace its pages! Elaine Pagels has done a great service by bringing some much needed perspective to Christianity with her studies of its origins. I can't articulate myself well enough on this matter: Elaine Pagels is the most accessible writer on early Christianity. If you haven't already read her books The Gnostic Gospels; Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; and The Origin of Satan; or her commentary on a particular gnostic text she translated found in a chapter of The Nag Hammadi Library in English please do! I haven't yet gotten deep enough into her work to read her truly academic material, but I hope to eventually. Again, I am so happy to hear that Elaine Pagels will be at Hooksexup! AC 3/26/99
