From "The Language of Legs" in the April 1969 issue of Playboy:
I'm just flipping through this issue of Playboy because it contains the interview with Allen Ginsberg that I'd read at the time and wanted so much to be able to reread again that I subscribed to Playboy. I chose 1-month of unlimited access to the archive, which cost $8.
Sample from the Ginsburg interview:
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57 comments:
@Althouse: Judging from what you chose to present here...there is a very long and detailed description of Ginsberg’s masturbatory fantasies with broomstick in Barry Miles’ biography. I think it may have been from when he was detained in Cuba.
It's more than just the 'legs'. It's what is attached to those legs..
trigger-post
This issue also contains "Ada" by Vladimir Nabokov.
And a story by Jean Shepard.
And lots of ads for socks and permanent press slacks.
Clinical Psychologist John A. Blazer tells us how to read legs in the days of micro miniskirts. In '69, even the shrinks had cool names.
“And lots of ads for socks and permanent press slacks.”
LBJ Haggar slacks?
The Language of Legs? Yowzah!
The Language of Allen Ginsberg? Double-plus-unYowzah
Does anyone know the name of the poem referred to in the quote?
The reader was a civilized man, who dresses nice, who is into women but not so homophobic that he will be turned off by a discussion with Allen Ginsberg about gay anal sex (maybe he's tried it on a gal).
BTW, "Ada" was a big book so it must have been a small excerpt or maybe a short story.
Maybe Fox News used it in their newsbabe formula.
Can anyone name a living poet?
I mean someone who actually publishes poetry, as opposed to a rap artist or musician.
I can't...and I'm not happy about that.
Ryan asked: “Does anyone know the name of the poem referred to in the quote?”
Bowel?
Legs good, Ginsberg bad.
Blogger Ryan asked: “Can anyone name a living poet?”
Bob Dylan? Patti Smith?
She's got legs.... She knows how to use them....
Shoot any more beavers and we'll have to call the game warden.
Please post the rest of the legs article. My batting average has been nose-diving lately.
I think the poem he's talking about is "Please, Master."
That link goes to an audio recording. Here's the text.
"I think the poem he's talking about is "Please, Master.""
Describing graphic oral and anal sex from the perspective of a submissive partner. I almost wrote "gay" sex, but really the whole poem could have just as easily been written by a woman describing heterosexual sex, except for one line (really only one word - balls):
"Master grease my balls and hairmouth with sweet vaselines."
"Bob Dylan? Patti Smith?" - I was trying to exclude musicians. Really you could say any musician who writes words is a "poet."
Feminists at the Universities will soon be shave-shaming women who have the temerity to shave their legs.
Hairy female legs will abound. Not the worst thing in the world, mind you. I reckon there are some hot women in Europe who don't shave their legs.
But still -- in general, hot women in America shave their legs. That smooth look -- as displayed in the august pages of the 1969 Playboy Mag -- satisfy that high American standard.
However, I am still trying to get that nefarious Allen Ginsberg interview out of my mind. It is beclouding the issue.
“‘Bob Dylan? Patti Smith?’ - I was trying to exclude musicians. Really you could say any musician who writes words is a "poet."
Did Dylan win his Nobel Lit Prize for his prose?
Were poets always bereft of music?
I see a Playboy article named The Language of Legs & I just imagine what National Lampoon would have done with it.
NatLamp just corrupted so many parts of my brain. I'm sure it'll take millenia in Purgatory to to burn it all out.
Chickelit I think you meant Howl, or was that supposed to be a play on words?
Was Alan Ginsberg impotent? Why else would a man write a whole poem about sex (getting fucked) but never mention himself cumming. I suppose he could have had a prostate orgasm, but wouldn't he at least mention that along with all the other graphic detail?
Maybe that's what is gay about the poem: the person getting fucked has no orgasm.
The "pleasure of a good shit" comes from the evacuation of said shit from the rectum. Unevacuated rectal objects are more analogous to the agony of constipation.
Where's Titus when you need him.
And Chickelit, I'm sure Bob and Patti are real poets. I was only asking whether there is a poet, who is alive, and not also known as a musician.
@Ryan: When did being a poet take on the “thou shalt be pondered only alone in silence with no accompaniment” definition?
Surely some of thevmore wizened people here will know.
As for Ginsberg, he was always blinded by masturbation. When Woody Allen goes, who be the successor?
I'd always heard Melinda Gates described as a philanthropist, but I never understood what that meant. Dig it!
"When Woody Allen goes, who be the successor?"
Don't worry, Stern has trained newer generations to go there, a lot. Likewise ass-play is doin' fine.
@chickelit - never.
But try the reverse experiment: name a famous dead poet of the past who was also known as a musician.
==
Are you saying that Ginsberg must have masturbated before the sex, and that's why he doesn't mention his own orgasm?
And he only mentions the balls part of his own male anatomy, which cannot even be stimulated to orgasm.
“Really you could say any musician who writes words is a "poet."
Some musicians don’t write music. The way copyright works in this country, a writer can get separate credit for the words and melody for a song. Sometimes that credit is shared by people who play mutually exclusive roles. Robert Hunter for example wrote many lyrics for The Dead but didn’t ever write a melody.
@YoungHeg,
"NatLamp just corrupted so many parts of my brain. I'm sure it'll take millenia in Purgatory to to burn it all out"
Yeah, same here. But all the laughter and all those foto funnies and Mary Marshmallow, well, it created copious amounts of mirth -- and Jesus wants us to be happy!
Go see, A Futile and Stupid Gesture.
"I became a member of NAMBLA a decade ago as a matter of civil liberties."
- A. Ginsberg, 1994
"I subscribed to playboy for the interviews."
- Some other liar*
* Excluding Althouse, who may be the only person who actually did so.
BTW, the "philanthropist" is the funniest. "But, don't try to tie her down--she's a lover of all men."
Silly.
@Ryan: I don’t know enough about impotence to answer your question. But Ginsberg was a so-called “beat” poet.
I suppose he could have been writing in the voice of the fucked person, with himself in the role of the fucking person.
What is your best approach when the girl is standing with all her weight on one leg and her other leg has just kicked you in the nuts?
And a story by Jean Shepard.
Jean Shepard and Allen Ginsburg in the same issue. From the sublime to the ridiculous. They say Ginsburg was the foundational intellect of the Sixties.
Obviously.
What an era! How many women today pay that much attention to the couture and legs?
It is rare enough to be noteworthy. Women used to aspire to that, not to having secondary tree growth or lichens on their thighs, hid under a onsie or sweatpants.
Shrug. Given a choice between gorgeous legs, and all kinds of cultural signifiers in that day, pro and con, and a Gay Man discussing anal sex...where does Althouse go?
I feel a bit ill served today, Madam Althouse.
thanx for the pricing info Professor! i was curious
{The articles sound interesting too}
And lots of ads for socks and permanent press slacks.
I'll say one thing good for Playboy, while Heffner ran the mag the male models within didn't look queer or like fatter versions of Jimmy Buffett. They were all basically the Arrow Shirt Man — groomed, poised, comfortably in command — they gave something for 14-year-olds to aspire to.
Playboy has articles?
huh...
A living poet? I immediately thought of Rod McKuen, but I checked and discovered that he died three years ago. I don’t recall anyone making a fuss.
How strange to read 'cats' meaning cool folks. Not, you know, felines.
"How strange to read 'cats' meaning cool folks."
Now, it's 'Katz' that's cool.
But, that's gettin' mainstream, which is less cool. First the NYT did a piece. Now, Wapo:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/pft-commenter-rose-from-an-internet-cesspool-to-podcasting-glory-and-no-one-knows-who-he-is/2018/05/21/16077f24-5910-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html?utm_term=.5093f95bda61
Anywho, that sorta stuff is the future. This place is not.
IMHO.
Did Michelle Goldberg's short skirt and tights direct your attention to the playboy article? I thought she verged on manspreading occasionally. The chairs were unfair to her.
Ryan said...Where's Titus when you need him.
--
Probably exploring a "hairmouth".
Sansabelt Slacks, Jaymar Ruby Inc. Michigan City, IN?
Ginsberg was the one who though 50s society was crazy, right, foul mouthed predecessor to lenny Brice, Tribune of dysfunction like rd laing.
The "Language of Legs" is LOL
while "cool" sexual vulgarity remains freighted with intellectual pretense as still-born and passé porn.
What about an entry or a two on the horrors of human trafficking and pedophilia being marketed around the world and in the USA? What about an entry on the Language of
Raped, Fucked and Tortured Innocence and a pic of little boy or girl legs?
What about a realistic blog post as to how most matrix minion men are into boys, sometimes girls, but certainly into satanic sadism and NOT into women's legs?
You show your age and selfish, wishful bias and no concern whatsoever for the victims of unsexy plundering and vile predation. How could you not know?
Ginsburg: The sad combination of TMI, 50s/60s hipster bullshit and the intellectual shallowness caused from believing his press clippings.
What about an entry or a two on the horrors of human trafficking and pedophilia being marketed around the world and in the USA?
Democratic Senator Bob Mendendez - New Jersey is NOT part of the narrative, so stop trying to drag him in!
Nice stems.
Read the Jean Shepard story, while you're at it. I remember this issue as well.
"They say Ginsburg was the foundational intellect of the Sixties."
Who is "they?"
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