SCFZ

i'm taking this personally

spent past two days in the bucolic offline countryside.
was reading a local contemporary fiction novel there.
in the book, a somewhat delusional/oversensitive heroine quoted a proverb saying:
"If you want to be happy for a day, get drunk. If you want to be happy for a year, get married (get femalegra eventually/alternately). But if you want to be happy for a lifetime, plant a garden.”
despite i take a great deal of pleasure in gardening i am not completely sure if the plasure-giving potential of a garden is not overestimated in this proverb.
i mean, is this a thread to discuss pleasure?

i think we're fucked - the tiepolo book i'm reading declares that pleasure in europe ended on march 27 1770 (declares such, inbetween, so far, much humbug and tantalising translations of otherwise untranslated giorgio manganelli - like discovering quotes from renowned magnificent lost antiquities in much later lesser works, and thus i am simultaneously pleased & sorrowful)

we could do with more pleasure, perhaps we have lost the knack, tbh i'm not even sure what pleasure is - which movie?

while watching in the "Conspirators of Pleasure" the toe-sucking carps, i thought i might enjoy this hedonist practice.
but then i read of a lady who visited a fish spa and the "side effect" of this type of pleasure (fishes nibbling at one's feet) was amputation of all the fingers (after being infested by the bone-eating shewanella bacteria who is a part of the bacterial flora of a fish).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/arti ... H-SPA.html

Holidaymaker, 29, has all five toes on her right foot amputated after catching a 'bone-eating infection from a Thai FISH SPA'

A holidaymaker claims she needed all five toes on her right foot amputated after catching a bone-eating infection from a fish spa on holiday in Thailand.
Victoria Curthoys, of Perth, Australia, already had half of one toe chopped off after catching an infection more than a decade ago.
And surgeons amputated her other digits after she unknowingly caught shewanella from the spa in 2010, where freshwater fish feed on any dead skin.
Doctors in Australia took two years to diagnose her with the water-borne bug, which had left her battling recurring fevers and sickness.
It rotted away the rest of her big toe after seeping through her prior surgery wounds, forcing medics to amputate it in 2012.
The pressure of walking on her smaller toes left Miss Curthoys with ulcers hiding further infections. All her toes were amputated over the next five years.
Speaking about her ordeal, the 29-year-old said: 'When I was in Thailand I decided to use a fish spa.
'I thought nothing of it as I'd watched the owner set up the system and it looked very clean, but how wrong I was.'

so, i expect to stay aloof from this type of experience.
tho i don't reject toe-sucking completely if a fellow human would participate (i am only opposed to any involvement of fishes!).
btw. i still follow on the thoroughly rotten Mubi the list called "TOE-SUCKING!" https://mubi.com/lists/toe-sucking
it contains (at the moment) 11 movies with the toe-sucking scene (i watched only 3 out of them so far)...
1/ L'ÂGE D'OR (LUIS BUÑUEL, 1930)
2/ SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE (ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET, 1974)
3/ A LITTLE COMFORT (ARMAND LAMELOISE, 2004)
4/ GETTING STRAIGHT (RICHARD RUSH, 1970)
5/ THE SMELL OF US (LARRY CLARK, 2014)
6/ KNIGHT OF CUPS (TERRENCE MALICK, 2015)
7/ THE TIT & THE MOON (BIGAS LUNA, 1994)
8/ FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (ROBERT RODRIGUEZ, 1996)
9/ MOONLIGHT WHISPERS (AKIHIKO SHIOTA, 1999)
10/ DAYDREAMS (CAROLINE DERUAS-GARREL, 2016)
11/ LOVE, MATH AND SEX (CHARLOTTE SILVERA, 1997)
i guess i will end each of my posts in this thread by the popular (confusing) shout, "Enjoy!"

lav diazepam wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 8:30 pm visited today an exhibition (details later in the eponymous thread) and there was on display this Shell-Man!

gonna finally share the details of the exhibition.
but i changed my mind and won't do it in the eponymous ("Exhibitions") thread but here (because this newly emerged playground is much more suitable).

so, on July 8th i visited the exhibition devoted to the local lady of letters Bohumila Grögerová.
often, she collaborated with her hubby (a local man of letters) Josef Hiršal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohumila_ ... erov%C3%A1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Hir%C5%A1al


exhibition was great but i want to elaborate on something else (the building where it took place).
it was "Letohrádek Hvězda" or "Star Summer Palace" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letohr%C3 ... v%C4%9Bzda





strangely enough, it was the very first time i entered this palace.
i was always highly suspicious about the buildings with a floor plan in the shape of a heart, a star, or alike (it smells of high-degree kitsch).
plus, considering that the "Star Summer Palace" was designed by some retard belonging to the House of Habsburg (Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria, 1529-1595, specifically) i kept avoiding visiting the place for decades.
but because of Bohumila Grögerová i decided to withstand the tourist-exploitation kitsch palace.
"but" (to quote Victoria Curthoys, of Perth, Australia, who visited a Thai fish spa and lost all her toes as a result) "how wrong I was"!
it turned out "Star Summer Palace" is one of the coolest places in Prague and once anyone of you will come to Prague it is most likely i will drag you there!

(to be continued in the next post — gonna split this account into the series of posts)

1/ in the cellar, one can see a permanent exhibition of the "Battle of White Mountain" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_White_Mountain (one of the triggers of the 30 Years War, 1618-1648) because it took place in the proximity of the summer palace (built 1555-1558).
"Star Summer Palace" in the forefront, two opposing armies in the background.


the entrance into the cellar is guarded by a stucco of Silenius, one of the companions of Bacchus.
because "Star Summer Palace" was originally not an educational institution but a pleasure pavilion inside a gated pleasure garden.

Silenius, one of the regular members of the company of god Bacchus. He is pointing his left hand towards the entrance to the cellar, in which the wine was stored — a necessary part of the pleasures for which the summer palace was built.

2/ in the ground floor, one can see a permanent exhibition elaborating on the building (viz pics in the post above), on the dilettante designer of the building (mentioned in the post above), and on renaissance/mannerist stucco art (because ceilings of the ground floor are covered with marvelous 16th-century stuccos depicting all kinds of motives related to the myths of antiquity).

The stucco decoration of the ground floor of the Star summer palace, created by Italian sculptors between 1556 and 1560, is one of its kind in the whole of Europe. The names of the Star's halls and their interpretations are always based on the theme of the central relief on the individual ceiling. The central circular Hall of Aeneas is dedicated to the celebration of the ruling Habsburg family. The rhomboid-shaped halls feature deities related to celestial bodies — Diana-Luna, Saturn, Cheiron (Sagittarius), Mercury and Jupiter.

because i can't post all my stucco snapshots (i was taking maniacally snapshots of the stuccos on the ceilings and also snapshots of the information screen with the reproductions of the stuccos & captions) this is only a small selection.

the most creepy stucco depicts a daughter breastfeeding her father...

Cimon and Pero. According to Roman legend, Cimon had been sentenced to death by starvation, but he was saved by his daughter, Pero, who breastfed him when she visited him in prison. In the 16th century this bizarre theme, known as Caritas romana, was a widespread symbol of children's love for their parents. It is obvious that the same symbol was used in the summer palace, at least on the first level of meaning, to express the respect of the builder (Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria) towards his father (Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor).

the most sensual stuccos with nudes were supposedly related to the posthumous journey of the soul (16th-century framing of nudity by religious bigots).

Triton with a nereid, demigod of the sea, symbolizing the companions on the posthumous journey of the human soul.

Sea centaur carrying a nereid — these mythical creatures were assumed to help the human soul on its posthumous journey.

btw. notice that in these depictions a male serves as a (social) vehicle for a (socially) immobilized female — something i already touched in a note to PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Helmut Käutner, 1954). patriarchal system (invented by males to enslave females) is ultimately harmful to inventors themselves too because it makes of them something equivalent to a dull & obedient horsepower! anyway, back to the pleasures of the 16th-century — feel free to behold these stuccos with a pristine (disinterpretation-free) eye.



and ofc in the pleasure pavilion, there is no scarcity of cupids!
namely, "cupid with a goat", "cupid on racing chariot", "cupid on a sea dragon", "cupid with a dolphin", "cupid on a lion", etc., etc., etc.

Cupid with a goat. This motif is one of four stuccoes in which cupids have various animals on leashes, It is mot likely — just like in other motifs in the Hall of Luna — that these personify human urges which were controlled by Cupid and which, according to the old saying ("omnia vincit") always win over everything.

Cupid on a lion. Like the other depictions of Cupid riding an animal, it is a symbol of taking control of passions through the higher law of heavenly love, represented by Venus.

if one turns his/her eyes from the ceiling (full of stucco story-telling) to the floor, one can see this geometric pattern...


lady-guard (with possibly a somewhat esoteric leanings) told me that if i will assume the central position (exactly in the middle of the star of the ground floor pavement of the star palace) i will be able to receive positive vibes of the universe/stars (or what???).
she didn't need to urge me twice to do so, i did what i was advised to do but, unfortunately, i felt no extra vibes whatsoever.
for such an extra sensation, i had to climb to the attic.
but i am jumping too ahead.
above the ground floor was first the first floor.

(to be continued in the next post)

3/ to reach the first floor, one has to climb the "segregation" stairs.


i mean, there are two parallel stairs (as you can see on the pic above) going vertically through the Star Summer Palace.
the main stair was meant for pleasure-seeking feudals (loyal to House of Habsburg) and the side stair was used by serving class (employed in this pleasure pavilion sweat-shop).
nowadays, neofeudalism is not yet ripe enough to restore the original (segregation) function of the two parallel stairs but within a few decades (possibly not in my lifetime) it might happen (viz "the best is yet to come").
so, for the time being, both visiting economic elites and visiting precariat while climbing to the first floor take the same (main) stair.

the first floor housed a non-permanent exposition devoted to Bohumila Grögerová, so the walls accompanying the stairs (viz pic above again) were covered with sheets (copies) from Bohumila's reading diary.
July was the time of the 1954 poll, so i searched for a sheet with her 1954 entries (found it!).
i want to stay focused on the description of the site thus i will skip all the Bohumila-related items i encountered in each of the rhomboid rooms (space of the first floor is divided in the same way as the space of the ground floor).
will only give you a glimpse of the Bohumila-related projection on the ceiling of the central room...
(on the last snapshot is a sound wave of Bohumila's voice that was spreading on the ceiling while i was hearing her recorded reading.)




i also have to say that some Bohumila-penned texts were written on the walls with an "invisible ink" and they got revealed only under the light coming from a hand-held flashlight.


4/ at the moment, when i was finally supposed to climb the attic, i had already spent in the Star Summer Palace more than 3 hours (far beyond i expected in advance) and the closing time was approaching fast.
thus i had to start to rush and didn't pay proper attention when i was told why there is nearly a complete darkness in the attic.
it was somehow related to Bohumila (maybe she suffered some vision impairment in old age or what???).
so i was told to keep a hand-held flashlight (in case i would need it) and rushed towards the dark attic (originally a dining room with a huge chandelier hanging from a tent-shape-like ceiling).
when i used the flashlight the chandelier was partly emerging from the darkness above.


as opposed to the previous floors, the space of the attic was not divided and thus one could perceive its star shape unhindered by dividing walls (tho all this perception was rather vague due to the nearly full darkness).
also has to be said that in the attic were played some rather abstract haunting sounds.
unfortunately, (i have to repeat) i can't tell what was the curators' intention to play those tunes due to all my rush prior to the closing time but in combination with the darkness it was impressive.
i recalled the advice of the lady-guard from the ground floor, moved to the central spot of the attic, vaguely sensed star-shaped outer walls, vaguely sensed tent-like ceiling and huge chandelier above my head, and was listening (while standing still in all-around darkness) the haunting sounds................................ and i must admit i sensed some undescribable vibes of some sort of a ziggy-stardust pleasure.
unfortunately, the attic-tripping lasted only about 15 min and i had to leave the Star.

5/ also can't be omitted that Star Summer Palace is inside a huge gated game preserve.
thus walking through the park/woods towards the building via long straight routes that intersect in the spot of the palace is a part of the whole scheme to transpose the visitor from the milieu of everyday life to the sphere of "otherworldly/alien" pleasures offered on the Star (in the Star Palace).


i actually captured my journey through the game preserve towards & from the Star...
https://youtu.be/5YgXT_DqmOk
https://youtu.be/GiCRtpFT0mk

(to be continued in the next post — the best is yet to come)

the main reason why (in my view) this account fits best into this thread is as follows.

part of the first-floor exposition was also a facsimile from an early print (1628) depicting an ideal pleasure garden (summer palace inside a game preserve).
in 16th/17th century, science only entered its early infancy and thus chemistry/alchemy was not yet able to provide to the public a substance equivalent to viagra/femalegra.
so, as a substitute, various schemes of an ideal pleasure garden have been conceived with the utmost expertise (comparable to the scheme of Raymond Roussel's "LOCUS SOLUS").
btw. notice that paradise is usually conceived as a gated community!
and btw. also notice that part of the intricate pleasure scheme is a point (5) that expects birdwatching!

1. Entrance into the garden from the palace.
2. Area designed for horse dressage, tournaments, fencing, shooting, ball throwing, so-called running at the rings, and other exercises.
3. Fortification and moat. The castle wall is lined all around with a road intended for walks in fresh air.
4. Paths.
5. Tree arbour intended for walks in the shade. The arbour on the right allows visitors to observe birds in the aviary without scaring them. The arbour on the left is intended for watching fish in the pond.
6. Fishpond lined with balustrades.
7. Fish feeding bridge.
8. Island with a grove intended for resting in the summer heat.
9. Aviary.
10. Flowerbeds.
11. A path among the flowerbeds filled with sand.
12. Marble well with metal fountains in human shapes.
13. Grottos with water toys.
14. Obelisks evoking ancient Rome.
15. Side portals connecting the garden with the game preserve.
16. Staircase to the bulwarks.
17. Cypress grove.
18. Sculptures.
19. Area between the grotto and the flowerbeds.
20. Open gallery with a balustrade.
21. Observation terrace.
22. Chapel.
23. Stand used for wild fowl trapping.
24. Guardhouse.
25. Summer palace in the game preserve providing quiet, refreshments and observation of wildlife.
26. Island with wild rabbits.
27. Bridge.
28. Moat preventing wildlife from getting into the summer palace.
29. Game preserve.
30. Tower of the summer palace offering a view of the moat.

(to be continued in the next post — all was not yet said)

"Star Summer Palace" is however not the only 16th-century pleasure pavilion in Prague!

Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (1503–1564) not only conceived a game preserve where his son Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria (1529-1595) designed and built a "viagra" pleasure pavilion (i.e. Star Summer Palace).
the same Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (1503–1564) also commissioned a "femalegra" pleasure pavilion for his wife Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547), i.e. "Queen Anne's Summer Palace" (built 1538-1565) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Ann ... mer_Palace
while "Star Summer Palace" is located somewhat aside from the Prague Castle, "Queen Anne's Summer Palace" is part of the Prague Castle complex.
within the local 16th-century patriarchal society, the playground for feminine pleasures was located in sight (as opposed to the playground for masculine pleasures located out of sight).

for cinephiles fond of STUDENT OF PRAGUE (Stellan Rye, 1913), the building of "Queen Anne's Summer Palace" might seem familiar due to a few scenes taking place in this femalegra-palace's walkways (if i remember right, at this spot also devil appears to the hero of the film).
(in the background St. Vitus Cathedral of the Prague Castle, in the foreground a pillar of Queen Anne's Summer Palace)

(the same walkway encircling Queen Anne's Summer Palace)


as i already mentioned in one of the previous posts, in the permanent exposition housed in the ground floor of "Star Summer Pavilion" was a section devoted to 16th-century stucco art.
besides elaboration on stuccos found on Star Palace's ceilings, there were several copies of related stuccos/reliefs found elsewhere in Prague (including those from "Queen Anne's Summer Palace").
the most noteworthy among all of them was a relief depicting "adoration of Priapus"!

P. della Stella, Adoration of Priapus, relief from the base of the column of the Royal Summer Palace (Belveder, i.e. Queen Anne's Summer Palace), modern plaster cast, Prague Castle collection

i assume, all the readers of this long account (in this thread focusing on pleasure and its side effects) now expect i will elaborate on "Persistent genital arousal disorder" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persisten ... l_disorder and that i will also mention a few instances/incidents of this disorder as reported by the local or foreign yellow press, but i must admit i am becoming exhausted by all my today's scribbles and thus i will take a rest.

this was a final installment of this saga — Enjoy! (whatever it might mean...)

Toe-licking demon, circa 1921.
One of many demonic entities found lurking in a Persian manuscript on magic and astrology from Isfahan, Iran.

in the past (while reading a book), i was told a sole prerequisite of pleasure is a garden...

neon noirickykino wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 10:13 pm "If you want to be happy for a day, get drunk. If you want to be happy for a year, get married (get femalegra eventually/alternately). But if you want to be happy for a lifetime, plant a garden.”

today (while watching a film), i was told the garden is only half of the pleasure!

btw. due to watching yesterday (for the 1962 year poll) HUMAN ZOO by Yoji Kuri (viz another thread) and seeing particularly this scene...


i was again reminded about this (viz above in this thread)...

neon noirickykino wrote: ↑Sat Aug 14, 2021 11:06 am

Triton with a nereid, demigod of the sea, symbolizing the companions on the posthumous journey of the human soul.

Sea centaur carrying a nereid — these mythical creatures were assumed to help the human soul on its posthumous journey.

btw. notice that in these depictions a male serves as a (social) vehicle for a (socially) immobilized female — something i already touched in a note to PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Helmut Käutner, 1954). patriarchal system (invented by males to enslave females) is ultimately harmful to inventors themselves too because it makes of them something equivalent to a dull & obedient horsepower! anyway, back to the pleasures of the 16th-century — feel free to behold these stuccos with a pristine (disinterpretation-free) eye.

i don't know what is the custom in other countries
but, in the Middle Patriarchal Banana Republic, part of the patriarchal-style wedding is this...


i.e. a groom receives a horse collar and a bride holds a whip.
and everyone (fully complicit with patriarchate) is cheerful about it.

do patriarchs seize the power and rule females so they can ultimately derive pleasure from regular/occasional submission?
is patriarchate fuelled by sadomasochistic drives?

one more film still of this kind (viz above) from HOW WISE ARISTOTLE BECAME EVEN WISER (Jiří Brdečka, 1970)...


i will prolly start to collect these film stills so i can ultimately write about this subject matter on the pages of Variety or Cahiers du cinema!