Pages

Email!

musings...

If you like what you see here, or if you have anything you would like to share do send an email:
psychonauterotica@gmail.com

Friday, February 17, 2012

On Miserliness



“So what is envy? Let’s return to the Augustinian scene of a sibling envying his brother who is suckling at the mother’s breast. The subject does not envy the Other’s possession of the prized object as such, but rather the way the Other is able to enjoy this object, which is why it is not enough for him simply to steal and thus gain possession of the object. His true aim is to destroy the Other’s ability/capacity to enjoy the object. So we see that envy needs to be placed within the triad of envy, thrift, and melancholy, the three forms of not being able to enjoy the object and, of course, reflexively enjoying that very impossibility. In contrast to the subject of envy, who envies the other’s possession and/or jouissance of the object, the miser possesses the object, but cannot enjoy/consume it. His satisfaction derives from just possessing it, elevating it into a sacred, untouchable/prohibited, entity which should under no conditions be consumed. The proverbial figure of the lone miser is the one we see returning home, safely locking the doors, opening up his chest and then taking that secret peek at his prized object, observing it in awe. The very thing that prevents his consumption of the object guarantees its status as the object of desire. Most tragic of all, the melancholic has free access to all he wants, but finds no satisfaction in it.”

- Slavoj Zizek, from "Violence"



To Be Investigated:
"Miserliness" as compared to "Thrift"
"Chastity" (as virtuous) as compared to "Sexual Anorexia"
and the melancholic (a)sexuality of a certain logic of Queerness

Tattoos in Singapore



I just grabbed that foto off of Jullieit's deviantart page. According to her page, she is based in Sydney and Hong Kong. The above photo was apparently taken in Singapore.

I love this photo.

It is erotic, collaborative. It features prominently a woman's gaze (of the photographer herself, together with the eyes of the woman in the background), staring at the prominent homoeroticism of the quite quite gorgeous tattoo artist and his subject's body.

The image is also interesting to me because everyone is Asian; The 'counterculture' to Singapore's placid, efficient exterior (though never fully separate from it, of course). The photo is an invitation, or at least a window that we peer through, to witness this intimacy.

The tattoo-ed guy's gaze is averted away from the camera, while there is written upon the tattoo artist's face intense concentration, in a state of flow, his whole body leaning and oriented toward his art, his whole world zoning in on his act-of-inking... mergence of activity between two men enabling One shared activity... Intimate Comradeship? Etching fraternity into flesh.

Postcolonial man-on-man action...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

On Affect

Something can be problematic without my having to reject it in its entirety.
I can like something while acknowledging its imperfections.

Something can elicit an overall negative response in me without my having to forcibly push aside any consideration of its 'positive' qualities.

So similarly, I can choose to reject something out of simple distaste without immediately owing anyone an explanation.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Projects

I am moving to Melbourne from Sydney in early March, to explore a period of calm gestation of ideas and Being... I will be writing for fridae.asia on a monthly basis, covering IDon'tKnowWhat, but it should prove interesting.

I am recommitting to blogging here on Psychonaut Erotica, with some loose plans on turning this more into an online "Zine" rather than a blog, so that we can have featured pieces by featured writers, and a loose-knit hierarchy of editors as we are able to commit. I'm exploring the idea of an online writer's community, exploring ideas of spirituality, and moving beyond the malaise that can come from the privilege/excess as well as the poverty of postmodernity...

In the meantime, here are a few things I would like to explore:
1. Themes of topics I want to explore and write about in more depth
2. More photographic journalism, in my forays into Melbourne's urbanscape
3. Reflecting on my Professional World(s) that I have been in
4. Integrating my slow re-emergence into Facebook, and ideally how this can positively influence the growing of a Zine (rather than detract from my commitment to Psychonaut Erotica, as it has thus far been)