jeffbuck@swcp.com
Date: 08/28/02-03:31:02 PM Z
Um, you are trivializing the greatest turning point in Western history.
Christianity, Judaism and Islam are a lot more than pantywaist sex phobia.
epona <acolyta@napc.com> said:
> Um, I agree with Shannon. 13 years in a school of the Great Desert
Monotheism
> made me feel guilty about anything erotic. You cannot deny that
Christianity has
> preached sex = bad, except when procreating within a Church-approved union,
of
> course, but never for enjoyment, no. The great desert monotheism is NOT
what *I*
> am. I am Great Earth Mother, recovering Catholic, working on stripping
myself of
> all that guilt, desperately trying to stop saying "I'm sorry" for
everything.
> But that is probabaly WAY more than you needed to know about me!
>
> Before I start a religious war, I would like to mention I think Jesus is
great.
> I think he would cry if he could see how twisted his legacy has become. I
would
> love to make a bumper sticker that says "I love Jesus - it's his fan club I
can't
> stand!"
>
> Cheers,
> Christine
>
> jeffbuck@swcp.com wrote:
>
> > "The great desert monotheisms" came along and made us feel guilty and
silly?
> > Is that really what you think of Christianity, Judaism and Islam? You
make
> > them sound like some dopey little insects that flew out from the creek mud
to
> > buzz around in our ears till we got up and grabbed the ingenious
fly-swatter
> > of politically-correct romanticism in 1965 and swatted them all gone....
The
> > great desert monotheisms are what we are. -JB
> >
> > shannon stoney <sstoney@pdq.net> said:
> >
> > > Jonathan wrote:
> > >
> > > >Have you ever asked what photography (and the images) might want or
need
> > > >*from you*?
> > > >
> > > >Have you ever considered that an image may have its own reasons for
being??
> > > >
> > > >Perhaps your role in image-making should be as a *facilitator,* rather
than
> > > >*originator*???
> > > >
> > > >The latter leaves the personality in complete control: you - the
> > personality
> > > >"you" - has to puzzle out intellectually, deductively, THE ANSWERS.
The
> > > >former allows the process and, more importantly the *image* - a voice
in
> > the
> > > >outcome. You bear witness to the results - and are either interested
in
> > > >them or you're not. Perhaps the world speaks to us through ATTRACTION.
It
> > > >could be our connection with the world is essentially an erotic one!!!!
> > > >Wouldn't that be grand!?!?
> > >
> > >
> > > This is a very helpful idea. I think I am going to try it on for a
while.
> > >
> > > IT sort of appeals to a certain pagan sensibility too. Maybe this is
> > > the way most people related to the world until the great desert
> > > monotheisms came along to make us feel guilty or silly about being
> > > attracted erotically to, say, peppers or seaweed or the opposite sex.
> > >
> > > I saw some nudes in the most recent Aperture today that I liked a lot
> > > but that almost seemed to defy you to call them exploitative. There
> > > were some real crotch shots, as well as blatantly sexy, even slightly
> > > s and m, pictures of nude women. But they were made by a woman! I'm
> > > sorry that I can't remember the photographer's name right now. She
> > > is Hispanic. IF a series of images like this appears in a magazine
> > > like Aperture, maybe it means that the culture has turned some sort
> > > of corner, and is no longer obsessively worried about whether nude
> > > photographs are politically correct.
> > >
> > > Also today I saw a show in a gallery, and some of the photographs in
> > > this show did offend me. IT was interesting to have the experience of
> > > "being offended" by a photograph. The photos that upset me were
> > > photographs of children with craniosacral abnormalities or bad burns,
> > > which made them look strange and even freakish. It seems in really
> > > poor taste to me to photograph people mostly because they are funny
> > > looking. I know Diane Arbus got away with it, sort of, but maybe she
> > > shouldn't have. I wonder why this offends me, but nude pictures of
> > > beautiful young women do not? IT seems really exploitative to me, as
> > > does photographing people simply because they are poor. It seems
> > > voyeuristic. Maybe there is an element of voyeurism in a great deal
> > > of photography that involves people, but some of it seems healthy and
> > > some seems a bit National Enquirer-ish.
> > >
> > >
> > > But maybe Nancy Burson, who made the photographs, was "attracted" to
> > > this subject in the way that Jonathan describes, and so maybe my
> > > assumption that she was somehow exploiting the shock value of a
> > > person's birth defect is incorrect.
> > >
> > > --shannon
> > > --
> > >
> >
> > --
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
> It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this
> emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and
> stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed."
> -Albert Einstein
>
>
>
>
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