VLVL2 (9): "Clitorally Ladylike"
Tim Strzechowski
dedalus204 at comcast.net
Mon Nov 3 21:29:13 CST 2003
133.23 "speculating that a push-button automatic might at least appear more clitorally ladylike"
cf. Zoyd's chainsaw pull in chapter 1 (p. 6), which further enhances the Zoyd / DL parallelism.
And for the Freudians on the List:
"The female genitals are symbolically represented by all such objects as share their characteristic of enclosing a hollow space which can take something into itself: by pits, cavities and hollows, for instance, by vessels and bottles, by receptacles, boxes, trunks, cases, chests, pockets, and so on. Ships, too, fall into this category. Some symbols have more connection with the uterus than with the female genitals: thus, cupboard, stoves and, more especially, rooms. Here room-symbolism touches on house-symbolism. Doors and gates, again, are symbols of the genital orifice. Materials, too, are symbols for women: wood, papery and objects made of them, like tables and books. Among animals, snails and mussels at least are undeniably female symbols; among parts of the body, the mouth (as a substitute for the genital orifice); among buildings, churches and chapels. Not every symbol, as you will observe, is equally intelligible. (Freud - Complete Works. Ivan Smith 2000. All Rights Reserved.)
http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/symbolism.html
from Charles Panati, Sexy Origins and Intimate Things. Penguin: New York, 1998.
"While the penis serves the functions of procreation and urination, the sole purpose of the clitoris is to give pleasure. In fact, it is the only organ in the human body whole sole function is to transmit sexual sensation [...]" (28).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140271449/qid=1067916172/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-6792453-9354228?v=glance&s=books
Frankly, it would be interesting to get Glenn's reading of this passage.
Tim
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