Medusa and Narcissus: Porno-Graphology
Medusa was Queen of the Gorgons and daughter of the earth goddess. Medusa was portrayed as a female with wings. She had a round face and flat nose. Her tongue was extended and her large teeth barred. Her hair consisted of live snakes. Medusa had the power of turning all who looked upon her into stone. For Freud, Medusa represented female sexuality that turned men hard and turned them into stone. To be turned into stone is to be petrified. Jesus says to Peter, AYou are the Stone upon which I will build my church@. Peter was petrified. He was so afraid that he betrayed Jesus three times. We are fearful of stones especially if we have ever passed one through our body.
Stone is defined as calculus- a small stone used in calculating. The stone is used in counting. Stone is also a hard material growth found in animals- testis. What does the stone testify? How can stone be witness? The spirit leads Jesus into the desert. There he will be tempted by Lucifer. Forty days and forty nights without food. Jesus was hungry. Lucifer comes to him and asks for a sign: " If you are God's son, order these stones to turn into bread". Jesus ignores the stones and prefers to speak of bread and words: : The scripture says, 'Man cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks'". The message is that we need words that speak the truth. Words that speak the truth are like bread to a hungry person. Words that lie are like stones that sink to the bottom of the ocean even if they can be skipped on the surface for a brief time. Freud=s reading of Medusa links the erotic (eros) with the spiritual which is linked with death (thanatos). As humans we are always between stone and water; trying to link the two together with our sexuality and spirituality.
Narcissus was so struck by his own beauty that he could not take his eyes away from his reflection in a pool of water. Wanting to be closer to his reflection he fell into the water only to drown. The moral of this story if there is one is that the image and the imaginary; how we imagine ourselves to be, while forgetting what is real and natural can have tragic consequences.
The technology of the image deals with what is captured. The image presents what is otherwise than it is. This will be our definition for the image. The real on the other hand is defined as that which is what it is.
The French philosopher Sartre in his play No Exit describes how the look of the Other, who looks at us through eyes that have no eyelids captures our freedom by reducing us to an image. In this sense all images are pornographic insofar as they reduce what is real to an image. This and this alone is the definition of pornography. Pornography has nothing to do with sex, with the fetish, with abuse, with subordination, domination or animation. The image does not smell like the real thing. It smells like the chemical used to draw it out onto the photographic paper. The image does not give us a pure or immaculate perception, rather it shows us a pure or immaculate deception. The image, especially when it is touched, re-touched or airbrushed covers up the stains and stinks of everyday life.
The French psycho-analyst Jacques Lacan distinguishes between the eye and the gaze. The eye that views the object is one the side of the subject. The gaze is on the other side of the object. Lacan says when I look at an object, the object is always gazing at me, from a point which I cannot see it. The question is when we view pornographic images what are we looking at? To gaze at something is to exercise power. Through the gaze we become masters of what is looked at. The image which gazes at us, masters us. We are reduced to a passive observer. The gaze is that which baits us; that which hooks us as we give our freedom to the image. In other words, the porn viewer becomes the porn star. The one who imagines is reduced to an image. This is the perversity of pornography. This is one way we should understand Jesus' words stressed in the Gospels, "They have eyes that they might not see." Might not see what? That things are looking at them; trying to capture and bait them; images trying to make them believe that they are masters when in reality they are only master-baiters, baited by the master image and the image of the Master.
Stone is defined as calculus- a small stone used in calculating. The stone is used in counting. Stone is also a hard material growth found in animals- testis. What does the stone testify? How can stone be witness? The spirit leads Jesus into the desert. There he will be tempted by Lucifer. Forty days and forty nights without food. Jesus was hungry. Lucifer comes to him and asks for a sign: " If you are God's son, order these stones to turn into bread". Jesus ignores the stones and prefers to speak of bread and words: : The scripture says, 'Man cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks'". The message is that we need words that speak the truth. Words that speak the truth are like bread to a hungry person. Words that lie are like stones that sink to the bottom of the ocean even if they can be skipped on the surface for a brief time. Freud=s reading of Medusa links the erotic (eros) with the spiritual which is linked with death (thanatos). As humans we are always between stone and water; trying to link the two together with our sexuality and spirituality.
Narcissus was so struck by his own beauty that he could not take his eyes away from his reflection in a pool of water. Wanting to be closer to his reflection he fell into the water only to drown. The moral of this story if there is one is that the image and the imaginary; how we imagine ourselves to be, while forgetting what is real and natural can have tragic consequences.
The technology of the image deals with what is captured. The image presents what is otherwise than it is. This will be our definition for the image. The real on the other hand is defined as that which is what it is.
The French philosopher Sartre in his play No Exit describes how the look of the Other, who looks at us through eyes that have no eyelids captures our freedom by reducing us to an image. In this sense all images are pornographic insofar as they reduce what is real to an image. This and this alone is the definition of pornography. Pornography has nothing to do with sex, with the fetish, with abuse, with subordination, domination or animation. The image does not smell like the real thing. It smells like the chemical used to draw it out onto the photographic paper. The image does not give us a pure or immaculate perception, rather it shows us a pure or immaculate deception. The image, especially when it is touched, re-touched or airbrushed covers up the stains and stinks of everyday life.
The French psycho-analyst Jacques Lacan distinguishes between the eye and the gaze. The eye that views the object is one the side of the subject. The gaze is on the other side of the object. Lacan says when I look at an object, the object is always gazing at me, from a point which I cannot see it. The question is when we view pornographic images what are we looking at? To gaze at something is to exercise power. Through the gaze we become masters of what is looked at. The image which gazes at us, masters us. We are reduced to a passive observer. The gaze is that which baits us; that which hooks us as we give our freedom to the image. In other words, the porn viewer becomes the porn star. The one who imagines is reduced to an image. This is the perversity of pornography. This is one way we should understand Jesus' words stressed in the Gospels, "They have eyes that they might not see." Might not see what? That things are looking at them; trying to capture and bait them; images trying to make them believe that they are masters when in reality they are only master-baiters, baited by the master image and the image of the Master.
posted by Zlomislic @ 9:17 PM
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