And I thought horror fans argued about weird crap . . .
Anil Aggrawal, a multi-degreed professor of forensic medicine, has published a paper in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine that attempts to establish a definitive taxonomy of necrophilism.
I kid you not. The paper's available for free online, if you dare.
Curiously, the prof saves the first three categories in his ten-tiered system for pseudo-necrophiles. As the prof would have it, Class 1 necros are role players who enjoy sex with live folks who pretend to be dead. The prof says that this should properly be called "necrobiophilia." The prof includes this salacious little tidbit under the description of Class 1 necros:
Certain Parisian brothels cater to this perversion: the prostitute is made up like a corpse with a pallid appearance, dressed in a shroud, and lies in a coffin (often known as casket sex).
Ah, the City of Lights. What don't they do in Paris?
Horror fans might want to take note that the prof pathologizes vampire fantasies in which "the lover simulates a killing by biting the neck." Fantasizing that your lover is a zombie falls under this category.
Class II psuedonecros are, in the prof's terms, "romantic necrophiles." The prof describes these somewhat tragic figures:
These are normal bereaved people, who cannot bear separation from their loved ones. They do not seem to agree that their loved ones have died. They mummify their loved ones' body parts (or parts of them) and continue to relate sexually to them much as they did in life.
That's what normal bereaved people do?
Finally, Class III psuedonecros fantasize about making the beast with two backs, one back of doesn't move much, and will go to places like funerals and graveyards to get it on. The good professor states:
Some may be seen masturbating during funeral sermons or dirges as they sit in a crowd of mourners.
Classy.
Anyway, essential reading for fans of Clive Barker.
Your New Least Favorite Thing
The Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph introduces us to the Australian giant burrowing cockroach. How giant?
"Native to western NSW and north Queensland, they can reach 30 to 35g and more than 85mm in length," Sydney University senior biology lecturer Nathan Lo said yesterday.
For us Yanks, that's roach that's 3 1/3 inches long and weighs about 1.2 ounces.
Aside from their grotesquely enormous size, these roaches exhibit numerous behaviors that are almost unheard of among the insect world.
"Giants can live up to eight years, which is pretty amazing for an insect.
"When they give birth it's to live young, not eggs, and they leave the babies in their burrows, come out in the evening to collect leaf litter and bring it back to the burrow for the young ones to eat.
"They look after them for several months."
So they're excellent parents, apparently.
Not weird enough? Okay. People keep them for pets. One roach can fetch $100 and people say the roaches make excellent pets.
Go figure.
What Baby Wants, You Better Damn Well Want Too
So, Lauren Bacall has Twittered about her hatred of the Twilight franchise. From her feed:
Yes, I saw Twilight - my granddaughter made me watch it, she said it was the greatest vampire film ever. After the 'film' was over I wanted to smack her across her head with my shoe, but I do not want a (tell-all) book called Grannie Dearest written on me when I die. So instead I gave her a DVD of Murnau's 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu and told her, 'Now that's a vampire film!' And that goes for all of you! Watch Nosferatu instead!
Which makes me think, "Holy crap. Lauren Bacall is still alive? And she Twitters?"
(Though, as soon as I write that, I remember Dogville and Mandalay, so I guess I somehow knew that she was still kicking around.)
More importantly, what an astounding way to make sure the younger generation learns to hate classic cinema. "You like crap. Watch this on assignment and become a better person who is more like me."
Elsewhere on her feed she tells readers that they must watch 8 1/2 or they will burn in hell.
10 comments:
Liking your blog here, man! My name is Kent Meister and my company, Charred Oak Films is currently campaigning to crowdsource our first horror short, ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID, on Kickstarter.com and we'd love you to cover it And Now the Screaming Starts if you're interested. We're a young team of filmmakers with a lot of great material in the pipeline (this short will be used to help raise financing for our first feature, SATAN CAMP) and we're trying to get the word out about our project as much as possible. Here's the link to our pitch on Kickstarter.com: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/charredoak/always-a-bridesmaid-produce-a-bloody-good-horror. And here's the website for our company for a little more about us: http://www.charredoakfilms.com.
Keep up the great posts!
Quite an interesting post. I learned so much in few minutes!! Not that I wanted to know all this....I just could not stop reading :D Very entertaining!
I am a Clive Barker fan, so I am off to read the paper :) Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Firstly I don't have a Burrowing Roach and do not care for one. Secondly the Prof's work is hilarious and I must get my hands on the article!
www.musingcontinuum.com
So, where would the canonical Norman Bates fall under the prof's schema ? See, it's hinted at about the sex, but not explicitly stated old Normie was humping ma's wheelchair bound body..
Screamin' Sassy,
I never got from the original that Norman was doing sexual things to the corpse of his dear departed mother. If you watch the franchise flicks that followed (though few folks treat those as canonical), Norm's an unusual case of Class II: He can't except that his mother, who abused him sexually, is dead. The split personality aspect, however, is not covered in the prof's work.
Kent,
What a great idea. I will certainly give you guys a plug.
ah, i love those days when your blog leaves me rolling on the ground. thank you so much! :D
Thanks!
My name is Karina, I'm someone who has lived a life seemingly in the background, I must say this final indignity I have suffered almost too much to endure. You see, I have been sickly and weak since the day I was born and doomed to go through all my life a weakling. I seemed to have always suffered from one illness or another and could never play with the other children as I so desperately wanted to. Mother always made such a big fuss over me, also, making the situation worse as the other boys teased me mercilessly after they saw it. I was browsing the internet searching on how i could be transformed into a powerful when i came across the email of a man named Lord Mark. who was a VAMPIRE so I told him that I has always dreamed of becoming a VAMPIRES, All i did was just to follow the procedure that i was been told, and i bet you that procedure I took change my entire life to something i ever desire, freedom, sickness free, pains free, fame, influence, connections and even more that i can. Thanks to Lord Mark. Do you want a life full of interesting things? Do you want to have power and influence over others? To be charming and desirable? To have wealth, health, and longevity? contact the vampires creed today via email: Vampirelord7878@gmail.com
Post a Comment