I] Planet of the Arts -Vol 4-No.4-1989. . The trees had a low cloud and the sun was ‘an early start to the slopes, and decided to in the lounge for a beer and my favourite hot varm smiles. Ithought what is he up to? After 2 we hit the slopes again. 2p up I didn’t notice we were going to an out the trees. I said “Aaron, no, I can’t skiin the zood spot. Good for what, I wondered? Fast 2es was making me breathe heavily. Aaron to face. I began to feel excited and warm. He ght into the snow. The next thing I knew my shirt was lifted above my breast. My nipples vith the cold air hitting my skin. “Aaron no aid. I knew then I was not going to stop him. it with his tongue. I became very hot. My clit unzipped my ski pants and stuck his hands ind he held me real tight so I would not fall. rand around my clit; my juices were oozing. ept saying “yes, oh yes come for me.” Yes, yes eld me until Iregained my strength. “Are you ‘se, I was smiling and shook my head yes. I yours later.” a Love Ya, Hot Spiced Wine y @ e-rot t-ca Bill Cupit Jerry Stochansky I'd like to write down some thoughts on erotica. The first thing that struck me as I read the call for Planet submissions, was that I had no clear idea what erotica was. (Evidently, the meaning was even less clear to Shaun, who asked to see a dictionary). Here it was, another one of those bandied-about words in our everyday language that we know only from con- text, not from etymology, and in such contexts that we have always nodded understanding rather than asked for clarification. What is erotica? Something sexual. Something sexually...pleasing, exciting, enticing, titillating, artistic,archaic, above porn, well-written, guided, subliminal, tasteful, hard core, pornographic, violent, unhealthy, underbellied, airbrushed, sensual, imaginative, evoking desire, interest, disdain, offense, hedonistic, religious, iconographic. Something that makes you uneasy. Well, youcanseel’m confused. I’m taking all these media images that have been thrown at me my entire life and am trying to make adjectives out of them. Erotica. Eros. Eros, love god or mischievous pootie? What does he shoot into us with that arrow, that arrow that changes mere mortals into the objects of our intense desire? (To take a lesson from Midsummer Nights’ Dream, even mere mammals may be changed into objects of aching intrigue). How do we see them differently? What turns us on? What is erotica? A list of the erotic. For, if juvenalia is a collection of what we did when we were young, erotica must be a collection of what we do when we are in love/in lust. There is nothing less erotic than a list: Food — to taste, to touch, to look at. So called aphrodisiacs like oysters, and chocolate and rhinoc- eros horn, but also the smell of freshly baked bread or the curve ofa pear, the red ofa strawberry floating in frosty drink, the tickle of seltzer up your nose and the ambience ofa well-presented dinner, with or without candlelight, on a clean white cloth and a heavy shiny fork and the thick sweet taste of Drambuie on your lips, warm glassin your hand, sinuses clearing. Eating chocolate ice cream after chopping fresh cilantro, im- possible sense combinations that make you dizzy. Literature — like Harlequinsand high-brow porn, the Marquis de Sade, the Jackie Collins sagas, the poetry of the Rossettis, (a poem... more sensuous because it must be read out loud, given breath, given life, given expression). Art — the painters, from Bosch to de Koonig, Vargas to Schiele, why can’t Ithink of women painters Ylew Age Sex So what is “new age”? It’s anera, it’s a state of mind and, unfortunately, it’s an easy target for skeptics, cynics and the media, who probably coined the term anyway. They seem to see us new agers as post-hippie, neo-Eastern mystics with a penchant for global-village jargon that the skeptic hears as alarm- bell buzzwords. New age music or new age mind; both groove on transcendence, transformation, and interconnections...meditation, reflection, raised awareness and - how do they do it? the uninitiated grope - the disappearance of old standbys like “isn’t this a co-incidence!” and “it wasn’t my fault!”, in fa- vour of quantum synchronocity and the principles of attraction. Yes my friends, karma is here again. And “getting clear” doesn’t have much to do with debt or skin condition, although I wouldn’t rule out the pos- sible connection. Interconnectedness, the web of life, the flow... Anew ager, as Paul Horn was recently quoted, “is an awakened person, conscious of spirituality...All this creative energy comes from God.” Well, God has many faces, and the new ager realizes that one of them is yours. This energy is found as an internal source with a universal linkup; sometimes hard work, sometimes lost, and sometimes a “peak experience”, it’s also one of those things that, trying to explain, makes me sometimes feel like an out-on-a-limb, brink patrol, round-eyed wonder-in-her-voice Pollyanna-on-acid. The earnest search for our own love, light and truth has naturally, evolved to a brisk new age market for the recording industry and the self-help business. One can only hope that the crystal craze has benefited the social lives of geologists and rock buffs, while I (iko) n.pl. by ANN MARIE FLEMING of the erotic? Oh, the photographers like Mappelt- horpe, documenting their own strange desires, (sure, there’s Cindy Sherman, making us look at what we are making her make, if that makes any sense at all...) The filmmakers — men: Almodovar’s sex & death; Ber- tolucci’s S&M; Cronenburg’s mind fucks. Women: Wertmuller making men’s objects; Hammer’s early- naive-lesbian-feminist-unspoken-uncoded visual shock statements; Borden trying to play the line, or at least aware there is one. I know I’m not enough of an art historian to throw around any more names or adjectives. Film, perhaps, interests me the most right now, seeing as that’s what [’m pursuing. If you’re not dealing with your sexual side, you’re not being honest. (Well, complete, or something, I’m not sure...) And this concept has me all in knots, coming from a conserva- tive, small-c catholic upbringing. Oh, the big-C catho- lics, they know all about it. Guilt is erotic. Look at the video rentals. Violence is erotic. Voyeurism is erotic. Power, dominance, subservience, money, control. Leg is erotic. Shoes, underwear, vacuum cleaners,pencils. - Fetishes. Why erotica? Why anything? The same desire within us to create drives us to create something which speaks to our sexual nature. Art is an expres- sion of meaning: we meant to do this. This was no accident. And sex is biology, natural selection and all that crap. To some women there is nothing sexier than a funny, intelligent, sensitive man. Some women prefer blondes. Some men can sit there all day and follow a single line of their jeans with a finger tip, over and over again. Some men pump iron, drink beer and look at calendars. Some men are calendars. I can’t figure it out. Grief can be erotic. Pain, sorrow, all the down sides. Because, I guess, they are so very personal, they let you get so very close, they reflect feelings inside our own bodiesand minds. Babies get erections. Nuns cream their pants. I know. I’ve read about it. (Or was that just Patti Smith who creamed her pants?) Knowledge is erotic. Knowledge, like in the Gene- sis myth, the apple, or was it the pear, covered in chocolate, (here we are back to food again, we hunger in so many ways) the desire for it... to know something isto always want to know more... Because it can never be an end in itself. Come to think of it, nothing can be an end in itself. Nothing can be an end. But you can be there. Erotica that works, puts you there. And there is a very specific place. Hopefully, a place that feels good. A eroticism and spirituality by LESLI KELLY take heart that even the trees are rating fund-raiser dances these days. Eroticism. Living in the paradoxical jungle that we do, defining eroticism immediately requires a similar defining of what porn is, or isn’t. Go to my battered, outdated American Heritage (for shame!) high-school diction- ary: Erotic: of or concerning sexual love and desire; amatory(Gk, of or caused by love). Pornography: written or graphic material intended to excite lascivious feeling (Gk, writing about prosti- tution). And the debate rages on. Meanwhile back in my studio, it seem that one simplis- tic difference between these two issues is that porn is big business while eroticism isan artistic rendering of a unique and personal vision. One takes, the other gives. This difference, in its new age way, naturally leads to connection in the shared issue of power. The dynamics of power in the expression of human sexu- ality would seem to have a great deal to do with the amount of personal power, empowerment, that we feel for ourselves. Porn is domination and subjugation. Eroticism and spirituality are the balance and peace- ful sharing of power that will come from our individ- ual spiritual journeys. Regardless of cultural bondages, us-and-them politics, and the difficulties between the male and female difference in perspective, the world is waiting outside our bedroom doors. We can peel away the blindfolds, strip the neediness to wield power over another, and remove the pretense that we have no power of our own. We are already One. A : The trees had a low cloud and the sun was an early start to the slopes, and decided to in the lounge for a beer and my favourite hot varm smiles. Ithought whatis he upto? After 2 we hit the slopes again. 2p up Ididn’t notice we were going to an out the trees. I said “Aaron, no, [can’t skiin the good spot. Good for what, I wondered? Fast 2s was making me breathe heavily. Aaron ‘0 face. I began to feel excited and warm. He ght into the snow. The next thing I knew my thirt was lifted above my breast. My nipples vith the cold air hitting my skin. “Aaron no aid. [knew then Iwas not going to stop him. it with his tongue. I became very hot. My clit unzipped my ski pants and stuck his hands ind he held me real tight so Iwould not fall. :and around my clit; my juices were oozing. ept saying “yes, oh yes come for me.” Yes, yes eld me until Iregained my strength. “Are you ‘se, Iwas smiling and shook my head yes. I sours later.” s Love Ya, Hot Spiced Wine 4 omy Stochonsky ve e-rot t-ca Tra like to write down some thoughts on erotica. ‘The first thing that struck me as I read the call for Planet submissions, was that Ihad no clear idea what erotica was. (Evidently, the meaning was even less clear to Shaun, who asked to see a dictionary). Here it was, another one of those bandied-about words in our everyday language that we know only from con- text,not from etymology, and in such contextsthat we havealwaysnodded understandingrather than asked for clarification. What is erotien? Something sexual. Something sexually pleasing, exciting, enticing, ttillating, artsticaarchaic, above porn, well-written, guided, subliminal, tasteful, hard core, pornographic, violent, unhealthy, underbellied, brushed, sensual, imaginative, evoking desire, interest, disdain, offense, hedonistic, religious, iconographic. Something that makes you uneasy. ‘Well, youcanseeP'mconfused. I'm iakingall these media images that have been thrown at me my entire life and am trying to make adjectives out of them. Erotica. Eros. Eros, love god or mischievous pootie? What does he shoot into us with that arrow, that arrow that changes mere mortals into the objects of our intense desire? (To take a lesson from Midsummer Nights? Dream, even mere mammals may be changed into objects of aching intrigue). How do we see them Aifferently? What turns us on? What is erotica? A list of the erotic. For, if ‘collection of what we did when we were ‘when we are in lovelin lust. ‘There is nothing less erotic than a list: Food — to taste, to touch, to look at. So called aphrodisiacs like oysters, and chocolate and rhinoc- ‘eroshorn, but also the smell of freshly baked bread or the curve ofa pear, the red ofa strawberry floating in frosty drink, the tickle of seltzer up your noseand the ambience ofa well-presented dinner, with or without ‘candlelight, on a clean white cloth and a heavy shiny fork and the thick sweet taste of Drambuie on your lips, warm glassin your hand, sinusesclearing. Eating chocolate ice cream after chopping fresh cilantro, im- possible sense combinations that make you dizzy. Literature —likeHarlequinsand high-brow porn, the Marquis de Sade, the Jackie Collins sagas, the poetry of the Rossettis, (a poem... more sensuous because it must be read out loud, given breath, given life, given expression). ‘Art — the painters, from Bosch to de Koonig, Vargasto Schiele, why can't Ithink of women painters Yew “Age Sex So what is “new age”? It’sanera, it’s a state of mind and, unfortunately, it’s an easy target for skeptics, cynics and the media, who probably coined the term anyway. They seem to see us new agers as post-hippic, neo-Eastern mystics with a penchant for global-village jargon that the skeptic hears as alarm- bellbuzzwords. New age music or new agemind;both groove on transcendence, transformation, and interconnections..meditation, reflection, raised awareness and - how do they do it? the uninitiated ‘grope - the disappearance of old standbys like “isn't this a co-incidence!” and “it wasn't my fault! in fa- vour of quantum synchronocity and the principles of attraction. Yes my friends, karma is here again. And ‘getting clear” doesn't have much to do with debt or skin condition, although I wouldn't rule out the pos- sible connection. Interconnectedness, the web of life, the flow. ‘Anew ager, as Paul Horn was recently quoted, “is an awakened person, conscious of spirituality..All thi creative energy comesfrom God.” Well, God hasmany faces, and the new ager realizes that one of them is yours. This energy is foundasan internal source with a universal linkup; sometimes hard work, sometimes lost, and sometimes a “peak experience”, it's also one of those things that, trying to explain, makes me sometimes feel like an out-on-a-limb, brink patrol, round-eyed wonder-in-her-voice Pollyanna-on-acid. The earnest search for our own love, light and truth has naturally, evolved to a brisk new age market for the recording industry and the selthelp business. ‘Onecanonly hopethat theerystalerazehashenefited the social lives of geologists and rock buffs, while I (iko) n.pl. by ANN MARIE FLEMING of the erotic? Oh, the photographers like Mappelt- horpe, documenting their own strange desires, (sure, there's Cindy Sherman, making uslook at what weare makingher make, ifthat makes any sense tall...) The filmmakers — men: Almodovar’s sex & death; Ber- tolucci’s S&M; Cronenburg’s mind fucks. Women: Wertmuller making men’s objects; Hammer's early- naive-lesbian-feminist-unspoken-uncoded visual shock statements; Borden trying to play the line, or at least aware there is one. [know I'm not enough of an art historian to throw around any more names or adjectives. Film, perhaps, interests me the most right now, seeing as that’s what I'm pursuing. If you're not dealing with your sexual side, you're not being honest, (Well, complete,or something, I'm not sure...) And thi concept has me all in knots, coming from a conserva: tive, small-c catholic upbringing. Oh, the big-Ceatho- lics, they know all aboutiit. Guiltis erotic. Lookat the video rentals. Violence is erotic. Voyeurism is erotic. Power, dominance, subservience, money, control. Leg, iserotic. Shoes, underwear, vacuum cleaners,pencils. Fetishes. Why erotica? Why anything? The same desire within us to create drives us to create something which speaks to our sexual nature. Art is an expres. ion of meaning: we meant to do this. This was no accident. And sexis biology, natural selection and all that crap. To some women there is nothing sexier thana funny, intelligent, sensitive man. Some women prefer blondes. Some men can sit there all day and follow a single line of their jeans witha finger tip, over and over again. Some men pump iron, drink beer and ook at calendars. Some men are calendars. I can't figure it out. Grief can be erotic. Pain, sorrow, all the down sides. Because, guess, they are so very personal, they let you get so very close, they reflect feelings inside ourownbodiesandminds. Babies get erections. Nuns cream their pants. Iknow. I've read about it. (Or was that just Patti Smith who ereamed her pants?) Knowledgeis erotic. Knowledge, myth, the apple, or was it the pes chocolate, there we are back to food again, wehunger inso many ways) the desire foriit...toknow something isto always want to know more... Because itcan never be an end in itself. Come tothink ofit, nothing can be an end in itself. Nothing can be an end. But you can bé there. Erotica that works, puts you there. And there isa very specific place. Hopefally, a place that feels good. « eroticism and spirituality by LESLI KELLY take heart that even the trees are rating fund-raiser dances these days. Eroticism. Living in the paradoxical jungle that we do, defining eroticism immediately requires a similar defining of what porn is, or isn't. Go to my battered, outdated American Heritage (for shame!) high-school diction- ary: Erotic: of or concerning sexual love and desire; amatory(Gk, of or caused by love). Pornography: written or graphic material intended lascivious feeling (Gk, writing about prosti to exci tution). ‘And the debate rages on. Meanwhile backin my studio, it seem thatonesimplis- tic difference between these two issues is that porn is big business while eroticismisanartisticrendering of ind personal vision. One takes, the other gives. This difference, in its new age way, naturally Ieads to connection in the shared issue of power. The ‘dynamics of power in the expression of human sexu- ality would seom to have a great deal to do with the amount of personal power, empowerment, that we feel for ourselves. Porn is domination and subjugation. Eroticism and spirituality are the balance and peace- fal sharing of power that will come from our individ ual spiritual journeys. Regardless of cultural bondages, us-and-them polities, and the difficulties between the male and female difference in perspective, the world is waiting outside our bedroom doors. We can peel ‘away the blindfolds, strip the neediness to wield power over another, and remove the pretense that ‘we have no power of our own. Wo are alrendy One,