From: seid@paxvax.ee.cornell.EDU (Steve Seidman)
Subject: repost of Camille Paglia book review
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Date: 18 Nov 92 22:06:04 GMT

Since this topic has come up again, it seems appropriate
to repost this relevant book review.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A brief review of a new book, relevant to academic feminism:

'Sex, Art & American Culture', by Camille Paglia.(Vintage, 1992)

Here's an attractive paperback collection
of interviews, book reviews, and reprints of speeches
and essays by the one and only Camille Paglia.  By now she
has become the punk rocking the boat figure of the academic
world with almost as much notoriety as her own idols: Madonna,
Mick Jaeger, Harold Bloom, etc.  Just in case you happen to
have gotten into heated debates about apparently lunatic
statements from this madcap professor from the Philadelphia
Institute of Art, this book should be a convenient way to
hear the self proclaimed anointed one, in her own voice,
verbatim, in context, uninterupted, and in her entirety
on so many of inflammatory (ie. entertaining) subjects.

Like, did Camille *really* condone rape?  Included are her
two (in)famous essays on date rape.  I got the firm impression
that her bottom line was to encourage women to have realistic
views about male sexuality ("guess what! It's hot!"p.57) so that
women can better understand it, and thereby protect themselves.
She also demands that women think seriously about their
own conduct, dress, and non-verbal communication and what it
all means in the sexually charged context of dating.

Like, does Camille *really* attack academic feminism?  Yes!!
There's an entire transcript of her MIT lecture, and also
the original Arion article ("Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders")
that basically says it all.  Among all the smoke and mirrors
about rock and roll, astrology and other such nonsense she
does have some cogent comments about some of the silliness
of the new decontructionist methods of criticism, along with
some charming anecdotes of famous feminists who are completely
out of their league when it comes to visual-art criticism.

Perhaps the most valuable part of the book is the inclusion
of some of Paglia's own book reviews: (a partial list)
M. Garber,'Vested Interest: Cross-dressing & cultural anxiety'
S. Gordon 'Prisoners of Men's Dreams'
W. Lesser 'His other half: men looking at women through art'
D. Halperin 'One hundred years of Homosexuality'
J. Winkler 'The constraints of desire'

A brief appendix outlines Paglia's rise to fame after
her publication of "Sexual Personae" which led to the Arion
essay (and the rest is history).  She asserts that there was
no orchestrated neo-conservative public relations scheme
to get all the media coverage for her criticisms of feminism.
Also inluded: a few cartoons making fun of Paglia, plus an
extensive bibliography of articles written about her.

I personally found her style (especially in the interviews, and
one speech) to be nasty, eccentric, egomaniacal, opinionated
and very entertaining.  As sex-radicals go: she's the real thing!
And any resonance between her views and certain neo-conservative
views doesn't take away from the freshness of her rhetoric.  I strongly
disagree with Molly Ivin's view that Paglia has catapulted herself
to fame by simply reinforcing popular prejudice reguarding
rape and feminist excesses.  The real value of this book is that
like all good books of literary criticism, it encourages the reader
to read more books (about sexuality and feminism in this case);
and that can't be a bad thing.

I'll forward to Sexual Personae, Volume II.

reviewer:  Steven Seidman
	   Cornell University,

	   seid@ee.cornell.edu


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