Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 14:46:25 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Re:  M-TH: Art and Pornography


Malgosia wrote:
"I was thinking of your observation above in connection with the "Jewish
monument" in Vienna that I described some time ago.  I was imagining a
monumnent in which, in place of the crouching Jew, one would have the
gigantic figure of a crazed Nazi holding a gun in one hand and with the
other offering his cock to be sucked."

Well, I think this manner of presenting a Nazi is a problem. There is a
quasi-tradition of art that makes implicit connections between 'queer
decadence' and the homosocial culture of Fascism/National Socialism.
Luchino Visconti's _The Damned_, Bernardo Bertolucci's _The Conformist_ +
_1900_, Liliana Cavani's _The Night Porter_, _Cabaret_, and so on. The
figure you imagine might end up participating in this tradition. Other
possible effects of the figure that are also counter-productive from the
point of view of people who would like to fight the resurgence of Fascism
is that (1) it can be seen as a kitsch and (2) it might give off that SM
frisson.

Yoshie




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