Third Rail Erotica: Anais Nin\'s Auletris
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11/24/2016
Third-Rail Erotica - Los Angeles Review of Books
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Third-Rail Erotica Laura Frot
533
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ab v g f d
Auletris Erotica
NOVMR 20, 2016 ACH RA GT the erotica it deerve. Our i Fi y Shades of Grey, with it porni ed capitalim, DM lite, and Fi y Shades of
Anaï Nin Pulihed 10.15.2016 k lue Pre 118 Page
Grey ex to line tocked Target. Depite widepread dimial https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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of the . L. Jame phenomenon a unfeminit and poorl written, edg ex ha een turning up in criticall acclaimed culture a well. Viewer of thi eaon’ Transparent, for example, are treated to a tor line with arah and her hot dom, Pon. And Maggie Nelon’ The Argonauts — Nelon won the 2015 National ook Critic Circle Award in Criticim and wa a 2016 MacArthur Fellow — open with thi tantalizing cene: “the word I love you come tumling out of m mouth in an incantation the rt time ou fuck me in the a, m face mahed againt the cement oor of our dank and charming achelor pad. You had Molloy our edide and a tack of cock in a hadow unued hower tall. RVIW AY INTRVIW CTION LAR AOUT U DONAT Doe it get an etter?” While a cionada of erotica know that Pat
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Cali a, Anne Rice, and man other have long een turning reader on to all hade of kink, it’ now reaching larger audience than ever. We are alo in a moment of trigger warning, afe pace, and
UY THI OOK
#NotOka. College and workplace are cramling to put their exual aault and harament procedure in order. Thi preidential election ccle wa a ad leon in retrograde exual
FICTION
politic, and how ome people are till tone deaf when it come to the
di erence
etween
eduction
and
a
pu
gra.
Unurpriingl, contemporar women’ erotica i preoccupied with agenc and conent, oundarie and limit, and the entanglement of power, ex, and pleaure. ure, fanta i the realm of ecape, and e, con ating erotica with realit i an https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
RCOMMNDD Vulgar and Unsightly: Adrian Nathan West’s J’accuse Against Extremely Degrading Pornography Houman arekat
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error, ut fanta ction can reveal what we are drawn to, anxiou
Houman arekat
aout, tring to overcome or diavow, not to mention what get u
On the Kinds of Love We Fall Into: Polyamory in Theory and Practice
o , oth in the real world and in the private, no-hold-arred realm of the erotic imagination. New ah: Thee two do not alwa coincide for women. One erotica writer who recognized all thee dicrepancie well ahead of the curve wa, perhap unurpriingl, Anaï Nin — the
mmett Renin
Poetry & Pornography: An Interview with Dodie Bellamy Matia Viegener
a air. Nin’ recentl dicovered Auletris i third-rail erotica for
The Illusion of Sex: On the Fi y Shades of Grey Trilogy
our time, raiing charged iue aout women’ exualit oth on RVIW AY INTRVIW CTION LAR AOUT U DONAT and o the page. Amazon initiall inited on marking Auletris a
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ame Nin of the epia-tinted Le ank café and ainthe-fueled
“adult,” rather than literar
ction, reportedl ecaue of the
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Roger ellin
nipple expoed in it cover art. When the puliher and media outlet proteted, the compan revered coure. In fact, the nipple are the leat provocative element of Auletris. k lue Pre ill Auletris a a work that “reak man taoo.” Fan of Nin know that he ha covered plent of alaciou territor efore: tuercular nmphomaniac, exhiitionit, voeur, orgie, gender ending, ondage, etialit, incet, hermaphroditim, etc. Nin wa a pioneer of women’ ex writing in nglih, and all contemporar erotica author are indeted to her, whether the realize it or not. In the 1940, he wrote riqué torie for an anonmou private collector at the rate of a dollar a page. Depite how Nin downplaed her epoke mut a “literar https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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protitution,” compared to other explicit writing of her time in nglih, her wa revolutionar. The two team volume, Delta of Venus and Little Birds, were not pulihed for the pulic until the ’70, jut a er her death, ut the were et eller and et a new tandard for erotica. While he ha alwa had a loal following, Nin tend to e regarded critic and cholar a a not-quite-eriou author. Her major work, her he 12-volume diar, i o en dimied a lightweight and elf-indulgent; Katha Pollitt once remarked, “M idea of hell i to e INTRVIW tranded on CTION a deert iland with nothing toDONAT RVIW AY LAR AOUT U read ut Anai Nin’ diarie.” Never mind that the diar i a
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monumental tud of not jut one woman’ development ut alo a centur of modernit and avant-garde culture. uan ontag mocked Nin — “Her theor of art wa precioul intangile (dicover of the unconciou, automatic writing, revolt againt our mechanitic civilization)” — et ontag admired the ver ame amition in male writer om the period, uch a George ataille, Jean Genet, and Antonin Artaud. Nin’ erotica ha omehow earned a reputation a o core or ower, a compared to the macho “rigor” of her male contemporarie, like her lover Henr Miller or George ataille, with hi ophiticated philooporn in Story of The Eye. Perhap the marketing of Nin’ Delta of Venus and Little Birds, whoe cover port twee vintage photograph of apper in Mar Jane, are to https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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lame for her pigeon-holing; inide, in contrat, one
nd a
treaure trove of polmorphou perverit. Although Nin’ anonmou enefactor told her to jettion the poetr and turn up the raunch, he delivered an intenel atmopheric and elegantl lrical mix of “PIV” (peni in vagina) and imaginative ex. et in artit’ atelier; on houeoat; and in ohemian ar in Greenwich Village, Montparnae, and other liidinou locale, the vignette are not jut a narrative deliver tem for ucking and fucking (although there i plent of oth). Nin decrie odie and technique with tender RVIW AY INTRVIW CTION LAR preciion, AOUT UandDONAT he render her character’ hang-up with the patience of a
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hrink. Thee torie how ign of Nin’ highrow in uence, uch a Djuna arne’ decadent 1936 novel Nightwood and D. H. Lawrence’ Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, om which Nin learned how to imue ex writing with enualit and pchological depth. The ackground of Auletris i a it of a mter. According to it editor, Paul Herron, a Carmel, California, out t called Pre of the unken e (I could nd no trace of it) created an edition of ve copie credited to “A. Nin” in 1950. Two copie of Auletris are accounted for, two are miing, and one languihed in Nin’ UCLA archive until now. The volume contain two torie. One, “Marcel,” i a retoration of an original manucript that wa pulled apart legendar editor John Ferrone in order to create https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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everal of the torie in Delta of Venus. The other, “Life in Provincetown,” i rand panking new. If Delta of Venus i Nin 101, Auletris i Advanced Nin, with more extreme material. oth “Marcel” and “Life in Provincetown” are epiodic, a pornograph and erotica inevital are (fuck, ret, repeat), ut the are told multiple narrator and tructured a interlinked torie within torie. Like cheherazade — the female torteller of A Thousand and One Nights, whoe edtime tale for a loodthirt king keep her alive — Nin i the doenne of the low teae, the veral ump and grind, uilding upene to RVIW AY INTRVIW CTION LAR AOUT U DONAT the full reveal. Auletris oat a notale numer of timid men and
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carnall commanding dame. The cene etween women are epeciall juic. The tar of the volume i “Life in Provincetown.” and and ex, with artit inhaiting dilapidated former hing hack along the ocean, Nin’ Provincetown i LGTQ- iendl avant la lettre. It i a town for cruiing and panexual hookup. The local iren i an artit’ model “whoe mouth wa o ig, o full, o prominent, that one could ee nothing ele.” A he trut around town in a “ aming red athing uit
om morning till evening,” everone
think of what Nin call the woman’ “other mouth”: “omehow or other one imagined the other mouth to e equall luxuriant, equall prominent.” Living like a performance artit with her
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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hade up, edding whomever he want, “the mouth” i a forceful and lut lad. The onl man “the mouth” i not ale to educe i her h Portuguee neighor next door, “the handomet o in all the town.” The tor hi to hi perpective, and
om viual to
auditor timuli, a he liten through the thin wall to “the mouth”
olicking with her conquet. he laugh when he i
careed: “There wa a di erent kind of laughter for each part of the od. Ling in the dark, on the other ide of the wall, he could almot divine INTRVIW where he wa eing touched.” Nin inviteDONAT RVIW AY CTION LAR AOUT U the reader to inert him/herelf into the cene and imagine the
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puling od ehind the wall, jut a the aroued Portuguee o doe. Nin o en hold omething ack or put an otruction in cene — a phical eparation uch a the wall or a mediating narrative laer — that generate an active, complex aphrodiiac reading. When another h man, Pietro, ecretl watche “the mouth” unathe nude, we ee her om hi perpective and experience hi ene impreion. he undree and maturate, ringing forth a marvelou odor; the nger had opened a perfume ottle in the center of the woman’ od. […] The nger remained quietl working, hpnoticall, ut the leg tremled now and https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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then, a under a ecret electric current, and now and then he raied the middle of her od a if the nger were teaing her. Meanwhile, Pietro urie hi throing cock in the warm and. While thee epiode are tick with ero, other never quite reach li -o . A twice-removed tor of a teenage o’ deadl erotic aphxiation never (thankfull) come alive a an anecdote. Ditto a equence aout a iexual male trapeze artit courted an elderl lord who live in an Eyes Wide Shut manion and whoe RVIW AY INTRVIW CTION LAR AOUT U DONAT fetih i lahing the trapeze artit’ perfect a with a razor. Nin
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narrate thee cene a if he i working her wa through cae tudie in Kra
-ing’ Psychopathia Sexualis. he doe not phone
it in exactl, ut let’ jut a that ometime he fake it. ome cene are ure to unettle reader. A trange man grope a woman in a crowded uwa — ever woman’ favorite place for a trt — and he woon in delight. An 11-ear-old girl plant herelf on Pietro-the-h’ lap and fellate him; the cene ecome till more dituring a he tell him that it’ quite all right, ecaue he doe the ame for her father. Pedophilia i a trictl no- zone for commercial erotica — Naokov’ Lolita, with it 12-ear-old “nmphet” on a road trip with the 37-ear-old Humert Humert, wa originall pulihed Olmpia Pre in Pari ecaue of it candalou tor line — ut Nin wrote aout https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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incet in her diarie and her ction. In Delta of Venus, for example, a tor called “The Hungarian Adventurer” feature an aritocrat who leep with hi daughter and make a pa at hi oung on. ven given the range of Auletris’ material, the concluion of “Life in Provincetown” i dituring. A Jewih “Viennee mime dancer” arrive in Provincetown following her imprionment in a concentration camp, where, he tell her
iend and
townpeople, he wa forced to ervice “the entire diviion of German oldier,” an experience he recount in horri ingl lood perm INTRVIW detail. he wa o phicall damaged theDONAT RVIWand AY CTION LAR AOUT U rape that he had to recover in a hopital. Thi arupt appearance
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of the Holocaut, and of rutal, large-cale exual violence, in Nin’ pornotopia i more than a little jarring. rotica and pornograph o en incorporate overt political iue and hitorical
gure —epeciall literature in the French
liertine tradition — and the mot explicit hitorical reference Nin make in her pulihed erotica i a mention of the outreak of World War II, an occaion for fuck-now-for-tomorrow-ou-die excitement. Other wrote provocativel aout ex and facim in thi period: ataille (Blue of Noon), Jean Genet (Funeral Rites), and alvador Dalí, for example. cene of German committing atrocitie, including exual aault, are not at all unuual in French and ritih literature of the period. ut Auletris’ German rape cene i rendered unnerving the narrator’ commentar. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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The woman’ tale i aid to e “a wonderful tor to make men concentrate” on her “exual part and ceae to ee her face, which wa not particularl eautiful.” Like “the mouth,” the Jewih woman i reduced to her vulva. More chillingl, the narrator comment, “Men had a peculiar feeling aout women whom the know to have een equentl exuall ued. […] It wa a kind of invitation. One wa certain of not eing reuked. […] It wa trul a form of encouragement he dealt each time he told her tor.” The perpective here i unclear — i it the men’ or the narrator’? The predator lack of compaion and the oliteration of a woman’ ujectivit eem quite incongruou for Nin’ RVIW AY INTRVIW CTION LAR AOUT U DONAT erotica.
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What follow i an awkward attempt to tranform the rape epiode through a ort of exual exorcim. Pietro take the woman to the each, hoping to get luck, and he tell him how he recovered
om her traumatic experience in the concentration
camp. he wa picked up an aritocrat in New York who ued a erie of rutal ex intrument on her,
om a piked and
tudded trap-on tongue to a erie of araive dildo, each one of which i more painful than the next. All of thi i narrated in detail, with the woman’ agon hi ing to aroual and ack. Force fantaie are a mainta of women’ erotica. Heroine are “overtaken” onl to nd that the are attracted to their aailant. Margaret Atwood’ hort tor “Rape Fantaie” i a rilliant (and https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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improal funn) repone to thi enduring theme. The cene in Auletris i conenual, ut Nin doe not uuall eroticize phical pain, and epeciall not to thi extent. Thi &M i ver far indeed along the axi: more the tu of ade or a numer of pulp porn writer of the da (or, dare I a, Henr Miller). The fact that there i no paper trail for “Provincetown,” no urviving manucript or dra , which i alo aerrant for Nin, leave open the poiilit that omeone ele had a hand in thi epiode. The lat turn of the crew in “Provincetown,” however, i more Nin-like. A the INTRVIW Jewih woman conclude her AOUT U tor, theDONAT RVIW AY CTION LAR perpective hi . “Pietro wa aghat. uch a woman he could not
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hope to ati . He remained ilent. he egan to laugh in the dark. he undertood what had happened to him. […]” The tor trail o in ellipe, with the laughter of the urvivor, tranformed through erotic extremit, and Pietro’ detumecent anxiet that he will not e ale to “ati ” her. The woman undertand what ha happened to Pietro, ut he i unale to grap what ha happened to her. deriding hi appetite for exual extremit and forcing him to con ont hi limit, the author herelf “top” her demanding patron. The pulication of Auletris now ma have a imilar e ect in revealing our cultural oundarie of what i acceptale and what i deemed o enive, ocene, or dangerou.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/third-rail-erotica
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Auletris appear at a moment of heightened anxiet aout exual politic — not jut for women, ut for men a well. In “Marcel,” a tor in Delta of Venus that feature the ame character in the Auletris verion, the earth, polamorou female narrator (a Nin tand-in) tell the apprehenive, neurotic Marcel exactl what he like aout hi exual technique. Relieved and grateful, he ak, “Wh do women never tell men thi? Wh do women make uch a ecret and mter of it all?” he replie, “I elieve in aing it. There are enough mterie, and thee do not help our enjoment of each other.” A we continue to ort out the politic of fanta RVIW AY INTRVIW CTION LAR againt a ackground of high-take candal of ex AOUT U and power,DONAT
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what Nin can o er u, along with her encclopedic command of lut, i the inight that the exiet act of all i empath. ¤ Laura Frost is a cultural critic based in San Francisco.
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Join the discussion… gd • 3 days ago
Nice review.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share › Elaine • 3 days ago
Do not forget Lily Pond's work editing Yellow Silk, a very high class journal of literary and graphic erotica.
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Gina • 3 days ago
I first read "Delta of Venus" a few years back, and very recently read "Little Birds". I personally love how Nin treats erotica. Next up, and soon, will be "Henry and June". Among other erotica I have read, Lady Chatterley's Lover was merely okay for me. I expected more, but not sure in what way. Maybe Nin just works better for me? I would love recommendations of other authors who write about sex in a similar way.
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