Category: Uncategorized

3 of 6 – EcoSex @ U Conn – Weiss’s EcoSex – Student Responses: Alex’s Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process. It’s a great experience. We are reading amazing books. Thinking out of the box and across disciplines. Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions. In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we’ve read together, the “required readings.” Multiple perspectives and good synergy. Here, we offer a glimpse. Stefanie Iris Weiss’s EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets, was one of two introductory books. We got five responses: from John, Alex, Adam, Rhiann, Alissa, and Michael.

Here’s Alex’s take:

Response to Stefanie Iris Weiss’s EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets

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Eco-Sex does not mess around. The author, Stefanie Iris Weiss, utilizes many emotional and logical tactics in order to incite a revolution. Her first words, printed on page nine, showcase an emotional ploy. She breaks down the average eco-enthusiasts’ actions and renders them, more or less, useless. The words, “at least that’s what you tell yourself as you carry home your ‘I Am Not a Plastic Bag’ tote filled with nontoxic goodies,” following the description of the self righteous attitude of many environment lovers, serve to stab the ego of said activists. By yanking away one’s image, Stefanie Iris Weiss succeeds in producing somewhat of an identity crisis. Left feeling insignificant and kind of dumb, the reader yearns to re-establish herself as a valid member of the green community.

Stefanie Iris Weiss furthers the reader’s guilt by sharing the most extreme actions a person could take to ensure the environment’s well being. “A die-hard eco-sexual might have his or her tubes ‘tied’ and commit to not having kids,” the author states on page six. Gazing at these words, the reader is forced to comprehend how much more the could contribute or sacrifice to protect Mother Earth. Now, of course, most readers will not proceed to act out the intense scenarios Stefanie Iris Weiss offers, but many will be prompted to do something, rather than to blindly follow the trends of the “green movement.”

Knowing that humans are inherently selfish-beings, Stefanie Iris Weiss continues to appeal to self interest. “Face it,” she says on page nine, “you are not exploring exo-sexuality just because you want to save whales or trees– you’re doing it to save yourself. And why wouldn’t you.” Through these words, the author makes a case that protecting the earth is analogous with protecting yourself. This, of course, prompts readers to take Stefanie Iris Weiss’ statements seriously. Furthermore, through the words “And why wouldn’t you,” Stefanie acknowledges that it’s okay to long for self-health, and in turn strips any offence from the above sentence.

She continues to appeal to self interest by utilizing fear. She talks of a study that found “456 industrial pollutants, pesticides, and other chemicals in the blood, urine, and breast milk of 115 people, from newborns to teens and adults”(9). This statistic, effectively creates fear in the readers mind. Weary of chemicals not noticed in his/her own body, one will eagerly grasp for more information on how to avoid such offenses to nature, and more importantly to the self.

Still, I assume Stefanie does not crave widespread panic or chaos, but simply wants to spark interest. Said interest will in turn produce consciousness. A major theme, and the core, of Eco-Sex. Many people long to make a difference, to help in some way or another, but are unable to produce a significant change due to the confines of ignorance. How is it possible to act if you are unaware of the ways in which to act? This book makes it possible for the bright-eyed newbies, like me, to get in on saving our planet. Underneath the persuasion, the book is, at its heart, an informative text.

After reading only the intro, I realize how painfully unaware I am. This new comprehension goads me into not only reading this book but also into reading various other informative pieces on environmental help.

Questions: The tone of this book is a tad snarky, does this help the author in inciting a sexual revolution?

How does knowing about “greenwashing” affect your decision to buy certain products? Will it make you more vigilant? How do you even know what ingredients are bad?
Is there a way to educate the masses? I only the information in this book because of this class!

Alexandra Mayer

Published with permission

WGSS 3998 – Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let “nature” be your teacher in the arts of love. Education is the heart of democracy, education to love. Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday. Book Reports to be scheduled soon. Check out our summer offerings: Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21. Registration here!

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

The Question of Love – Proposal for a Study in 2013-14

Dear Earthlings,

“Appetite comes while you eat” says an old Italian proverb, and I am enjoying so much the research I’m doing here at U Conn that another research project came to me. It’s on my favorite theme: Love. It’s well supported, thanks to generous referees. I want to share it with you, the outline at least.

The Question of Love:

Beliefs, Realities, Practices across Human Cultures

Proposal for a Fellowship in 2013-14

Presented by Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Abstract

The question of love endures across human cultures whose belief systems have been organized around prevailing answers. Cultural interpretations of what the nature of love might be tend to change as a culture’s epistémé evolves overtime (Foucault, 1990). For example, love has been understood as a cosmic energy, a force of nature, an art, a virtue, a vice, a sin, an emotion, a need, an instinct, to name just a few (Anapol 1997, Cristaudo 2012, de Rougemont 1983, hooks 2001, Passerini 2009). Typically, a given cultural interpretation of what the nature of love is results in a belief system that organizes the culture where that interpretation prevails. This study focuses on the history of the question and its interpretive answers. It revisits specific eras in the light of these answers and the ensuing belief systems. How does the prevalence of a given belief about love affect the experience of those living? Does this belief affect the ways people practice love in relation to each other and the web of life that sustains each species? Can a belief about love lead a culture on a self-destructive path? Is it possible to produce an interpretation of the nature of love that helps a culture trace a path of sustainable evolution? The study intends to address these and other questions as they emanate from the central one.


Earth as Lover, Cindy Baker

What do you all think? I hope I get to do it. Some of it already exists, and perhaps the funds will materialize to continue. For a tentative outline click here. My desire is to prove that learning how to love, how to experience this feeling, how to generate the energy that makes it real, is what we really need at this time in human and planetary history. I hope you agree and send this project good energies. Send your comments and questions too. Thank you!

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love. Come back for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

UCHI Series – Intro to “Amorous Visions,” on Video

Dear Earthlings,

Did you get to read my notes and watch the clips about my intro to “Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema”? They appeared last week. Now you can take a shortcut and simply watch this video of my presentation to the Fellows group.

I can’t go into as much details as i would like to. But it’s a good scoop. If you’d like more details, go back to the posting of November 12, 2012. You’ll find out all about why these “fluid” and “inclusive” scenes are so pivotal. You’ll get to watch the clips, with the finale of a “three-way kiss.”

It’s great to share some of what I’m doing here at U Conn Storrs in my Fellowship year.

Stay tuned for more posting on Mondays in this series. We will go back in time to the beginning of the Fellowship period, when i introduced the project to the group.

Oh, I almost forgot this:

Want to know more about yours truly’s new book? What Is Love dares to engage the million dollar question! Would like to pre-read? Find out how to endorse the book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.

Come back for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Fellow at UCHI

Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

What Happens in Connecticut When You Drive in the Snow?

Dear Earthlings,

This is not really an uplifting tale, and I feel you should hear it since it could happen to you.

The title is: “What Happens in Connecticut When You Drive in the Snow?”

The short story is: “you get hit in the back, you get fined by the police, your car gets totaled, and the other driver’s insurance denies all responsibility.” Traveler’s, don’t ever get it!

At U Conn we have a provost, the first female provost here, who has written a book entitled Rude Democracy. Even without reading, I can tell she got it right. Thanks, Susan Herbst. Some education, some courtesy! How much more rude can a democracy be?

Curious about the long story?

Here is is: “It’s snowing and I’m considering whether it is a good idea to go home. Obama has just been reelected, it’s the 7th, early afternoon. Perhaps I should overnight at the office, my heart tells me. It looks nasty out there. Not a time to be in the car by oneself.

I look at a weather report with a colleague and it seems like there is some reprieve. I decide to go. “Toughen up, Serena,” says the other me, “get ready for the winter.” Walk in the snow to the parking lot that seems really far away. Finally get there. Drive a bit. Traffic is murder. Everyone scrambling to get home fast. I drive slowly, slowly to the point that the road is all clear ahead of me, while cars pile behind me as they try to beat the weather.

At some point I feel my car veer gently, very gently, a bit toward the right. I’m sure this is normal in snow. The road is very slippery with sleet. Before I know it the car behind hits me. My car sharply swerves to the right and turns around completely. Then is hit again on the front wheel. I feel my body bang under the blow. And luckily don’t feel any external injuries.

The can behind me crosses to the other side of the road. Mine ends up turned around on the curb on my side.

It’s cold. It snows thick. We wait for the police on the side of the road. Traffic is heavy and it’s not safe to sit in the car. It’s cold. We call Triple A.

Finally the police arrives. The other driver screams, “she lost control.” I’m not sure why he does that but find out soon. The police now blames me and gives me a ticket. I explain he was tailing me, but the policeman won’t hear. I end up with a ticket for “excessive speed for weather conditions.” I’ve just paid it online. Thanks, dear State of Connecticut, you make me feel welcome here!

Triple A comes and I get the car towed back to the office. Happy I’m all in one piece. A colleague has emailed to ask if I’m safely home, and I reply that I’m back at the office and explain why.

He offers to pick me up. His family has a spare bedroom where I can sleep.

It turns out the first three days I’m a bit like a zombie sorting things out with insurances. I, the naive from a tropical island where $ 3000 is the maximum liability for any accident, had only purchased liability, not collision, not rental, not comprehensive. Ouch!

Naive me, I was not aware this would not only have an effect on the risk from damages to my car I might cause, but also on damages to my car others might cause, since my insurance won’t care to hold them accountable. In the “rude democracy” system: they have no reason.

So I reflect, “what is it like to drive in Connecticut under severe weather conditions?” Insurance is mandatory and the insured pay. But are insurances ready to take responsibility? There would have been no accident without the snow, that’s for sure. Just for being on the road, I get both fined and hit. What is the system telling me? Is there a law that spells “stay home, you have no right to travel, the road is for others not you.” And yet, diving is the only transport system. Should I quit my job? I’ve never cancelled a class in my entire career.

Next day I find out the car is totaled. I’m still a bit of a zombie. We go look at the car, other possibilities. Three days after the accident I finally feel like driving.

I’ve been driving a rental since, hunting for a new car. Today the other insurance denies my claim.

So, the bottom line is, if I don’t go to court, the insurance wins. Do I want to fight this? Can I let it consume me? Welcome to Connecticut, Serena. The “rude democracy” is here to get you!

Consumer report spells that Traveler’s Insurance is not the thing to get. Irresponsible is the least one can say about the behavior.

You can admire my car’s behind, the way their insured hit it. Isn’t it cute?

You can also send me kudos for paying fines on time. I came to U Conn on a research mission. I came to study “Amorous Visions.” But where are they? When a democracy is rude, the vision blurs. Everyone wants to be right at all times. How ugly and irresponsible this is. All energies are consumed in fighting opponents until there is nothing left to win. There is no heart in this, and not much intelligence either.

Dear Earthlings,

It would be great to teach this rude democracy a lesson of kindness. Then the “Amorous Visions” would become visible again. Unfortunately, I don’t have much energy for that, and I’ve done it in the past when I did. Any interest? Let me know and I will assist you. Maybe when we manifest the energy of truth, the “Amorous Visions” will reappear. If you are a professional of justice we can educate the world about this, as we teach irresponsible insurers a good lesson too. Please step in!

We deserve a system that’s based on justice, don’t we? There is no point in winning when everybody wants to be right all the time. Sounds like kids having a fit when parents intervene in their little disputes. Can‘t we become a bit more mature? Charles Eisenstein says this is the end of the growth period for the human species. We can’t expand anymore, true. So it’s also time to share. Can we? Perhaps, once more, education is the key.

Education is the heart of democracy, a gentle democracy, that is. Education to love. When are the “Amorous Visions” going to reappear? Come back for more wonders. And check out out vacation offerings.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

Playa Azul, Western Puerto Rico
Book Online

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

UCHI Series – Intro to “Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema”

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Dear Earthlings:

As promised, the intro to my UCHI project presented on September 12, 2012. Check it out an watch the three beautiful clips, with a finale of a “bisexual kiss.”

I’ll stay tuned for your comments.

Introduction

Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Anna and Giulia in Bertolucci’s The Conformist, 1970

Intent

Providing evidence for the argument that “sexual fluidity” and “amorous inclusiveness” are natural elements in the human expression of love.

Using Italian cinema as an art form that bears witness to that truth.

Abstract

This study articulates a new interpretation of pivotal scenes in selected classics of Italian cinema based on the cultural constructs of “amorous inclusiveness” and “sexual fluidity” elaborated in recent cultural analyses of human sexual, erotic, and amorous behavior (Ryan and Jetha 2010, Diamond 2009). These classics include Pasolini’s Teorema(1968), where a mysterious guest awakens the erotic libido of all members in a nuclear family, and Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), where a charming hostess similarly awakens both members of a newlywed couple. Based on these new interpretive paradigms, these scenes acquire a new meaning that discloses the bisexual and polyamorous content therein. This enables more positive and complete understandings of the films as projects that artistically express love for love, or erotophilia. As an experienced scholar who charted new research fields that study love as the art of crossing beyond sexual divides and exclusivity (BiTopia, 2011), I am uniquely prepared to articulate these interpretations.

Research and Contribution

Based on Deleuze’s postmodern philosophy of cinema (1986), a film scene is a “movement-image” that stills time for future generations of viewers and can inspire transforming practices and movements. In many classics of Italian film, these scenes reflect pre-modern belief systems that precede monogamy and hetero/homo-normativities. As the expression of a 20^th century cinematic culture and tradition, Italian film encodes many of the contrasting beliefs that have historically characterized the multiple cultures that have inhabited the peninsula. For example, the notion that love is an art and desire is fluid was common in antiquity, when the modern concept of sexuality did not exist. This situation provides a fertile context for the study of a film’s diegetic structure that pivots on scenes where the socio-sexual conventions of monogamy and monosexuality are momentarily suspended. Are these cinematic moments “bisexual”? Are they “polyamorous”? In this cinematic culture a director is considered the “author” (or auteur) of a film. What do the scenes reveal about this author? Is the director’s gaze coded in them? Why do the films appear so “queer” even though they are not part of an LGBTQ film tradition? To what extent do new generations of viewers get to redefine what these moments mean?

Interpretive Perspective

The interpretive perspective I propose is authorized by numerous recent studies of human sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness that converge in assessing its biological and cultural roots. Lisa Diamond’s longitudinal study of women’s sexual desire proves that sexual orientation exists alongside with variable degrees of sexual fluidity (2009). Matthew Ripley (et al.)’s study of bisexual men registers an increasing degree of comfort with this practice and identity at least in the secular world. Based on recent findings in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University and from the Human Rights Commission, bisexual behavior turns out to be natural and healthy for a large number of humans (Rosenthal, LGBT Advisory Committee, 2011). Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha’s study of the prehistoric origins of human sexuality proves that inclusive behavior in both sexual and parental love has been prevalent in human cultures and communities over the course of the prehistoric life of our species (2010). Monogamy is a social construct that becomes normative with history. Our species is not biologically programmed for it, which explains why so many people have trouble adjusting to it.

Revisiting the “Fluid,” “Inclusive” Scenes

If sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness are “natural” for humans, then it is a good idea to look again at classics of Italian cinema for scenes of “sexual fluidity” and “amorous inclusiveness.” What do these scenes mean? Why are they significant? What new visions do they authorize if interpreted as cinematic moments that establish an early legitimacy for behaviors subsequently found to be natural for our species? Why do we still so often perceive these behaviors as “queer”? Can our vision of what is natural transform to include these behaviors too? How does the authority of new science about sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness in humans legitimate these new visions? These are questions in my mind as I plan to revisit the erotic awakening of Francesca and Silvana in Riso amaro (1948); the one the guest bestows on the frigid nuclear family members of Pasolini’s Teorema(1968). The charming French hostess, in Bertolucci’s The Conformist(1970) similarly awakens the newlywed Italian couple writhing with erotophobia from the Fascist regime; and a number of other similar scenes.

Silvana and Francesca bond as confidantes in Riso Amaro

Anna and Giulia dance together in The Conformist

As the new paradigms of “sexual fluidity” and “amorous inclusiveness” are put to work toward interpretations of classics of Italian cinema whose world fame exceeds their original cultural location, these interpretations will bring up unsuspected continuities. Binaries around which human sexual, erotic, and amorous behaviors have been organized include homosexuality and heterosexuality, monogamy and polyamory, modernity and antiquity. The cultural polarizations these binaries produce are in the way of envisaging worlds beyond these binaries. Directors whose key scenes represent “fluid” and “inclusive” moments produce visions of worlds possible beyond these binaries, were love for love, or erotophilia, prevails over erotophobia, or fear of love. A recent example of this is the fluid, inclusive kiss scene in Ferzan Ozpetek The Ignorant Fairies (2001).

Antonia and Michele exchange a “bisexual kiss” in The Ignorant Fairies

The Million Dollar Question:

How can we create a world where Massimo, the shared lover who binds Michele and Antonia erotically, wouldn’t have to be dead for Michele and Antonia to kiss?

How can humanities-based interdisciplinary research help to make this happen?

Thank you!

Work Cited List

Primary Sources

Bertolucci, Bernardo. Il conformista/The Conformist. Rome: Green Film, 1970.

De Santis, Giuseppe. Riso amaro/Bitter Rice. Rome: Lux, 1948.

Ozpetek, Ferzan. Le fate ignoranti/His Secret Life. Rome: Medusa, 2001.

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. Teorema. Rome: Aetos Film, 1968.

Secondary Sources

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. “Bisexual Games and Emotional Sustainability in Ferzan Ozpetek’s Queer Films.” New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film: 2: 3 (2004): 163-174.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.

______ ed. BiTopia: Selected Proceedings from BiReCon 2010. Routledge, 2011.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Tomlinson, Hugh, tr. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.

______ . Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Tomlinson, Hugh, tr. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota press, 1989.

Diamond, Lisa. Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2008.

LGBT Advisory Committee. Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations. San Francisco: Human Rights Commission, 2011.

Ripley, Matthew, Adrian Adams, Robin Pitts, Eric Anderson. “The Decreasing Significance of Stigma in the Lives of Bisexual Men: Keynote Address.” In BiTopia: Selected Proceedings from BiReCon. New York: Routledge, 2011.

Ryan, Christopher and Cacilda Jetha. Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. New York: Harper, 2010. Kindle Edition.

Dear Earthlings,

Courtesy of Poliamore Italia

Remember to come back on Thursdays for more snippets of what yours truly is up to.

Want to know more about yours truly’s new book? What Is Love dares to engage the million dollar question! Would like to pre-read? Find out how to endorse the book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love. Come back for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Fellow at UCHI

Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community
Book Online

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

UCHI Series – Fellini’s Orgiastic Imagination, in Video

Dear Earthlings,

Did you get to read my notes and watch the clips about Fellini’s cinema? They appeared last week. Now you can take a shortcut and simply watch this video of my presentation to the Fellows group.

I can’t go into as much details as i would like to. But it’s a good scoop. If you’d like more details, go back to the posting of November 5th, 2012. You’ll find out all about I Vitelloni, a 1953 film whose title refers to the overgrown milk-fed calves whose meat Italians like to eat. With this film, the term became synonym of young men who don’t take life too seriously and sponge a bit on society, families, women. There’s something charming about them, as they live in the moment and are open, flirtations, and cute.

It’s great to share some of what I’m doing here at U Conn Storrs in my Fellowship year.

Stay tuned for more posting on Mondays in this series. We will go back in time to the beginning of the Fellowship period, when i introduced the project to the group.

Oh, I almost forgot this:

Want to know more about yours truly’s new book? What Is Love dares to engage the million dollar question! Would like to pre-read? Find out how to endorse the book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.

Come back for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Fellow at UCHI

Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community
Book Online

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

UCHI Series – Fellini’s Orgiastic Imagination? A Dream of Return to Mother, Hostess, Lover, Liquid Matrix of Life

Dear Earthlings,

I have been out of touch for a while. You may have missed me. Please forgive. The move to U Conn, Storrs, was no joke and took most of my focus. Now, Sandy has passed too, and if that does not help generate awareness of Gaia Theory I don’t know what will!

U Coon Storrs is very congenial. A university expanding in multiple directions across disciplines: environment, sustainability, the digital sphere, education, health, language an culture. Woooow! How inspiring. I feel very happy to be in the midst of this. The Fellowship group is also beautiful. I love the communion of the minds in our discussions. Namaste!

So, I’m back with a desire to share what I’ve been doing. Here’s my latest to the Fellows group. It’s about the ur-director of Italian cinema, Fellini. These are just in-progress notes. Don’t take them too seriously. Also, watch the two beautiful clips. Let me know what you think.

Fellini’s Orgiastic Imagination: A Dream of Return to Mother, Hostess, Lover, Liquid Matrix of Life

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

UCHI Presentation, October 24, 2012

Context of Book Project Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema

Chapter on Assunta Spina, silent, 1914.

Diva, a chthonic force, a manifestation of the divine feminine, more than a French or British femme fatale or an American flapper. Diva: means “goddess,” integrates pagan and Christian aspects of divine feminine: pagan goddess and mater dolorosa. The film is in the hands of the Diva, she calls the shots (Dalle Vacche, passim). Film Assunta Spinais all about amorous inclusiveness and sexual fluidity: Assunta loves unconditionally all three men in her life. But they don’t understand this, each wants her exclusively, one disappears, and one ends up killing the other. Assunta accuses herself of murder when the police arrive.

Chapter on White Telephones genre, as in What Rascals Men Are, 1932. It’s black and white sound cinema. Genre: romantic comedy, comedy of manners: carefully avoids social and political issues, is designed to keep people entertained and oblivious to what’s around them. Idealized world: telephones are white. Also, corresponds to 1930s, a period of crisis in Italian based film production, because the “talkies’ come from America and people what to see that.

Chapter on Bitter Rice, 1948. Neorealismo: new national identity post Fascism. Film as epistemology rather than art, a way to “know” the Italy kept under wraps by Fascism. Film is shot on location, non-professional actors, script often improvised, long panning shots, lots of context, local character, group protagonist, “macchiettismo,” humor mixed with drama (Marcus, passim). Construction of a national identity involves a way to justify ownership of a territory, which becomes un-sovereign, feminized. So this identity, this “ownership” has a masculine character, and is predicated on styles of love that are functional to reproduction, including of course, heterosexuality. This is when what Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick would call “writing of homosexual panic” begins. “Sexual fluidity” and “amorous inclusiveness” are only visible in spurts, scenes that are pivotal to the plot but whose “love for love” energy gets quickly reined in and redirected toward love that’s functional of human reproduction. Bitter Rice has focus on women’s lives in the rice harvest fields. If you view the movie w/ “queer” binoculars, from the POV of an age when women can marry each other, you can see that Silvana and Francesca could have become lovers. They attract and are attracted to the same guys. They are coopted in a regime of sexual functionalism, Silvana becomes enraptured by Francesca’s prior life of robbery and glamour, and the only time their reciprocal love becomes expressed is when Francesca unsuccessfully tries to save Silvana from committing suicide.

Chapter on Fellini’s I Vitelloni, 1953. Film is part of Neorealismo in technique, style, structure, and also consolidates the practice of “cinema d’autore,” Italian version of auteur film.

Meanings of title: the overgrown milk-fed calves, the big bowel or gut, lazy good-for-nothings (Stubbs, 95). I Vitelloni brought success of public and criticism to Fellini, thus enabling funding of subsequent films (Baxter, 100-1).

Cinema d’autore, or auteur film

Context: effort to establish film as an art form w/ its own specificity, aesthetics, epistemological function.

Film as Art: stills movement image across time. As in “movement-image,” “time-image,” Deleuze. Many inspired artists are attracted to it.

Truffaut, French director who theorized auteur in Cahiers du Cinema, Jan 1959, p. 221: “Cinema cannot be an art as long as it is the result of the work of a group” (Wall, 23).

About Fellini: “On the filmmaker playing God” (Wall, 97).

Fellini makes fun of scriptwriter in 8 ½, of playwright in I Vitelloni, his casting is based on him seeing an actors’ face as a “sculpture” her can use to do what he likes (Baxter, 98-99). He infuriates producers, goes over budget and ignores shooting timeline.

But what is the “content” of this sovereign vision?

What is the desire that animates the artist?

I guess most would agree that it is a desire for inclusive beingness, not action. “Advanced” Fellini ever more eliminates plot, narrative. He dwells in being-in-the-moment, the imaginary, dream, inclusive festive moments of idleness embraced by an ironic gaze that is benevolent and cherishing at the same time.

Clip from I Vitelloni’s Carnival scene, Bakhtin, Carnival as reversal, polyphony, carnival, the grotesque, heteroglossia.

Clip from I Vitelloni’s scene of “homosexual panic,” as per a Sedgwick manual. But what is this panic? A fear of the wild side, of what it would take to turn “real” life into a circus, a carnival, an orgiastic space of orgasmic immersion into the pleasure of the other?

My contribution to the debate:

Fellini’s avowed “dreams” about water, seas, mothers. Remember, in Romance languages these are acronyms: mer, mere; mare, madre; mar, madre. No coincidence! The mother is a liquid body to the child, first amniotic, then milk. Water is the matrix of life. Fellini avows that he loves to dream, that he makes films so people can watch his dreams, a version of them (Chandler, 209).

Who are the five vitelloni?

Three of the five represent aspects of his personality – womaniser, homophile, intellectual – with Riccardo supplying the physical resemblance and Moraldo the professional” (Baxter, 98)

My point: I like this idea that eachvitellone is an aspect of Fellini’s personality, the all-encompassing visionary of the all inclusive orgy of life. In this context, Leopoldo, the deluded playwright, is a put down of theater, the traditional art of representation, in relation to the new one, cinema, that Moraldo, the observer Fellini, will supposedly embrace when he gets to Rome.

“The all-encompassing visionary of the all inclusive orgy of life.” As within, dream, so without, film. Key is irony, Fellini, like Moraldo, observes the “orgy of life,” w/ distance both ironic and passionate. And this vision, is nothing but a dream to return to the undifferentiated, the divine feminine mother, hostess, lover, liquid matrix of life.

Reported recurring dream of Fellini’s:

“As a giant sea monster was lifted out of the water, I saw that it was actually a huge woman. She was beautiful and ugly, at the same time. Which did not seem at all a contradiction to me. Then, as now, I could not help but notice that she had huge thighs. Even in relation to her gangantuan proportions, her thighs wee abnormally large” (Chandler, 206).

“I’m a child in a tube being bathed by women. It’s an old-fashioned wooden tub, like the one that was outdoors at my grandmother’s farm, the kind we children used to mash the grapes for wine with our bare feet. Before mashing the grapes, we had to wash our feet. Afterwards you could still smell the residue of fermenting grapes when you took a bath in the tub. It could almost make you feel drunk.

Sometimes I bathed with several children, little boys and girls, all of us naked. The waster was deep, over my head, which was my definition of deep. All of the other children could swim. I was the one who couldn’t. Once I nearly drowned. I had to be pulled out by my hair. Fortunately I had more then than I do now, or I would have drowned.

In my dream, as I get out of the tub, my naked, wet little body is wrapped in big towels by several women with huge breasts. Women in my dreams never wear brassieres, nor do I think brassieres that large ever existed. They wrap me in their towels. They hold me against their breasts, rolling me back and forth to dry me. The towel brushes against my little thing, which flips merrily from side to side. It’s such a lovely feeling, I hope it never stops. Sometimes the women fight over me, which I enjoy too.

I’ve spent my life looking for the women of childhood who wrap you in towels” (Chandler, 208).

Works Cited

Bertini, Francesca and Gustavo Serena. Assunta Spina. Rome: Caesar Film, 1915.

De Santis, Giuseppe. Riso amaro/Bitter Rice. Rome: Lux, 1948.

Fellini, Federico. I Vitelloni/The Young and the Passionate. Rome: Peg-Film, 1953.

Baxter, John. Fellini. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

Chandler, Charlotte. I, Fellini. New York: Random House, 1995.

Dalle Vacche, Angela. Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema. Austin: Texas University Press, 2008.

Kosofsky-Sedgwick, Eve. “The Beast in the Closet: James and the Writing of Homosexual Panic.” In Sex, Politics, and Science in the Nineteenth Century Novel (148-186). Beinard Yeazell, Ruth ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.

Marcus, Millicent. “Introduction.” Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism (1-29). Princeton University Press, 1986.

Stubbs, John C. Federico Fellini as Auteur. Carbondale. IL: Southern Illinois Press, 2006.

Wall, James McKendree. The European Directors. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William Eerdmans Publishing, 1973.

Dear Earthlings,

Courtesy of Poliamore Italia

Remember to come back on Mondays for more snippets of what yours truly is up to.

Want to know more about yours truly’s new book? What Is Love dares to engage the million dollar question! Would like to pre-read? Find out how to endorse the book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love. Come back for more wonders.
Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Fellow at UCHI

Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community
Book Online

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

5 of 26 – De l’Absurdite des vers – Mohamed Nait Youssef

Dear Earthlings:

My gift this year is a collection of 26 poems in my favorite language, French. It’s the language of love, so full of charm and mystery and music. Those earth tones, warm vowels that feel like deep ocher. It produces oxytocin, at least for me. The author, Mohamed Nait Youssef, is a promising voice. Very touching, heartfelt his journey into awareness of nature and being. Here is the 5th in the series. We’ll come back every Friday.

–>

5. Zéphyr :

Ton ombre livide

Sous le manteau de l’aube

Nuée, omnipotente au zénith

M’a versé des larmes

Ca pince !!!

Tout seul,

Sous le seuil de mes infinies inquiétudes

Ton visage lumineux

Sur la lune si beau

Me jette dans ce long tombeau

Sous le petit trou de ma vie

Je me rigole de ce simulacre destin

Ta main soyeuse sur mes cheveux aussi légère

Je me rappelle bien,

Tes mots, paroles et chants…

Zéphyr !!!

Mon porte-bonheur

Vraiment,

Tu mérites, ce vin d’honneur

Dans ma mémoire,

Tu demeures…

Published here with permission. Reach the author:

Mohamed NAIT YOUSSEF né en 1988 à Tripoli Libye. Étudiant de la littérature française à la faculté poly-disciplinaire d’Errachidia. Jeune issu du Sud-est du Maroc -village qui s’appelait, Gourrama, dans province de Midelt.

Esprit-libre03@hotmail.fr

+212615156476

Dear Earthlings,

Courtesy of Poliamore Italia

Remember to come back every Monday for another poem by Mohamed. And tell all your French-speaking friends to show up to. “Like” our blog and keep us in mind when you have something interesting. Meanwhile, watch for snippets from Serena’s new book, What Is Love? She dares to answer the million dollar question in this one. Would like to pre-read? Find out how to endorse her book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love. Come back for more wonders. And check out out vacation offerings.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog:
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Website: www.serenagaia.com

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings

Author’s Page/Lists all books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini

Playa Azul, Western Puerto Rico
Book Online

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community
Book Online

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

Ecosexuality: When Ecology and Sexuality Come Together

Ecosexuality: When Ecology and Sexuality Come Together

This is a new academic course that can be taught as a seminar, at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels.

The course is dedicated to exploring ecosexuality, as a social movement, a style of amorous and creative expression, a cosmic theory, an orientation, and a practice of love.

What is ecosexuality? How did the concept come about and why it matters? How can it help us to explore the intersections between ecology and sexuality, science and the humanities, global and personal health and love? How does ecosexuality intersect with other orientations and practices of love, including those common among gays, bis, straights, polys, swingers, metrosexuals, and so on? How does ecosexuality contribute to defining our relationship to the environment, to technology, the natural elements, and the web of life that sustains our species? Is nature our enemy, mother, hostess, all of the above?
A number of recent sources touch on the theme of ecosexuality. They include books and articles that study and analyze cultural expression, films, dvds, websites, and other educational and documentary cultural texts. Some of those in the assigned reading list may include: Sexual Fluidity, by Lisa Diamond; Sex at Dawn, by Christopher Ryan and Calcida Jetha; Gaia and the New Poltics of Love, by Serena Anderlini; Polyamory in the 21st Century, by Deborah Anapol; Mystery Dance, by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan; Microcosmos and Acquiring Genomes by Lynn Margulis; Sirens, by John Duigan; Shortbus, by John Cameron Mitchell; An Inconvenient Truth, by Davis Guggenheim; Sluts and Goddesses by Annie Sprinkle, Love Art Lab by Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens; French Twist by Josiane Balasko, The Ignorant Fairies by Ferzan Ozpetek, and Science of Panic, by Patrizia Monzani.

Dr. Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD, gave the opening remarks at the world’s first Symposium on Ecosexuality in Los Angeles on Oct 24, 2010, and keynoted at the second Symposium on Ecosexuality in San Francisco on June 18, 2011. She will keynote at the upcoming EcoSex Symposium in Portland on June 29, 2012. She is the author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love, a seminal text of ecosexual theory. She blogs at http://polyplanet.blogspot.com
Research paper expected at end of course.
Email questions for Dr. Anderlini at serena.anderlini@gmail.com

The Earth as Lover, art credit to Megan Morman and Cindy Baker.

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens Ecosexual Calendar in NYC: June 12-15, A Don’t Miss!

Dear NY Friends & Colleagues,

We are going to NYC! It would be nice to connect with YOU. Perhaps you can attend something we are doing. Our schedule is very full for this trip, we are there together just six days, and probably can’t add more activities with friends and colleagues at this point. We are mainly coming for Veronica Vera’s wedding. But we’ll be back through NY in September– if all goes according to plans. Just for visiting.

Hope to see you.

Love,

Annie

1. June 12th, Club 90 Reunion at MOSEX

2. June 13th, ASSUMING THE ECOSEXUAL POSITION A performative visiting artist lecture, slideshow & tell.Beth and I present the work we have been doing in ecosexuality and environmental activism and more. MOSEX.

3. June 14th, ASSUMING THE ECOSEXUAL POSITION A performative visiting artist lecture, slideshow & tell. Grace Exhibition Space in Brooklyn

4. June 15th, LET’S GET DIRTY! A naked performance in a bed of dirt with several other artists. Grace Space in Brooklyn

1. Veronica Vera, Candida Royalle, Veronica Hart, Gloria Leonard and Annie Sprinkle, FF Alumns, at Museum of Sex’s F*ck Art Gallery, NYC, Tuesday, June 12.

NYC’S GOLDEN GIRLS OF PORN: MOSEX HOSTS A REUNION OF THE WORLD’S FIRST PORN STAR SUPPORT GROUPs

Five adult film stars from the “Golden Age of Porn”: Veronica Hart, Gloria Leonard, Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle and Veronica Vera were the original “Sex and the City” girls. Turning to one another for the support they needed to navigate their way through life after blue movies, these dynamic women created “Club 90” in 1983, forming a bond that would continue for nearly thirty years. They went on to pursue their personal goals, and in the process, blazed new trails in the fields of human sexuality, women’s empowerment, erotic expression, and free speech. Come get a taste of the good old days when NYC was America’s sex film capital, movies were shot on 35mm film, and Times Square was x-rated! And most of all, come share the laughs, the drama & the intimate stories of this controversial support group. This rare reunion promises to be candid, informative and electric!

When: Tuesday, June 12^th, 2012 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Where: MOSEX’s OralFix Bar, 233 5^th Ave, New York, NY 10016

Tickets: $25.

http://museum.museumofsex.com/ai1ec_event/club-90-golden-girls-of-porn/?instance_id=5477

2. Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens at Museum of Sex’s F*ck Art Gallery, NYC, Wednesday, June 13. 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

ASSUMING THE ECOSEXUAL POSITION A performative visiting artist lecture, slideshow & tell with Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens

What happens when two city girls embrace the Earth as their lover? They get real dirty! Then they marry the Earth, Sky, Sea, Rocks, Sun, and more, in a series of performance art weddings? Stephens & Sprinkle have developed “SexEcology,” a new field of research which explores the places where sexology and ecology intersect. Learn 25 ways to make love with the Earth, how to find your e-spot, and why mysophilia, arboreal frottage and pollen-amory are so deeply satisfying. These ‘grrrrls gone green’ make experimental theater, visual art, video, and lead ecosex walking tours & workshops. Once you know more about the budding ecosex movement, you just might discover you are an ecosexual too.

Elizabeth Stephens is an artist, professor at UCSC, and filmmaker. Her new film, Goodbye Gauley Mountain—An Ecosexual Love Story, makes the environmental activist movement more sexy, fun and diverse. Annie Sprinkle was a prostitute and porn star for twenty years. She became a pivotal player in the sex positive feminist movement, an internationally known performance artist, and the first porn star to earn a Ph.D. Sprinkle and Stephens have been living and working together for twelve fertile years. For more about Beth & Annie’s work, www.sexecology.org

Tickets are at http://museum.museumofsex.com/ai1ec_event/assuming-the-ecosexual-position-with-annie-sprinkle-elizabeth-stephens/?instance_id=5403

3. Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens performance at Grace Performance Space in Brooklyn, June 14th and 15th. ASSUMING THE ECOSEXUAL POSITION–An ecosexual love story. A performative visiting artist lecture, slideshow & tell with Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens. (See above description.) June 14th.

4. LET’S GET DIRTY! This is in Brooklyn. We’ll do a naked performance in a bed of dirt. An ecosexual cuddle, with some films, and other artists doing stuff. We have to see the space to figure it all out. Grace Exhibition Space is a hot bed of performance art. Or in our case, a dirty bed. June 15th. 9:00 pm until 11:00 pm

http://www.grace-exhibition-space.com/performance.php?event_id=292

Grace Exhibition Space, 840 Broadway, 2nd floor, Brooklyn, NY 11206.

http://polyplanet.blogspot.com