I am slowly making my way through the second season of Boston Legal and in episode 20, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," a divorcing couple are fighting over possession of a Victoria Erotica collection. They fight for possession of the premiere piece of the collection: The Hysteria Machine. I found it fascinating, and hilarious. I think I would love to go to a sex museum. Someone should take me.
Here is some dialogue from the courtroom:
Shirley Schmidt: Could you tell us how the Hysteria Machine works?
Clifford Cabot: Women would frequently complain of symptoms such as nervousness, heaviness in the abdomen, vaginal lubrication, insomnia, and so on. Physicians referred to these symptoms as “hysteria,” but of course they were actually signs of sexual arousal. Before inventions such as this, the physicians would ‘massage’ a woman until she reached a climactic “paroxysm,” as they called it.
Shirley Schmidt: And how did this machine come into being?
Clifford Cabot: A doctor invented it because, well...his arms got tired.
Behold, the Hysteria Machine:
Oh those Victorians, the crazy buggers, treating female sexuality as an illness.
I miss having lewd suppertime conversation. I want to talk about pornography and masturbation and penises while I eat! It helps digestion. I'm not sure my family would appreciate it...
I finished Life of Pi today. It was pretty good, especially...the iiiiiisland. Mostly, I wasn't very motivated to read the book, I just wanted to finish it...so I sucked most of the pleasure out of it. However, I was amazed at how much could happen in the middle of the ocean, in a lifeboat...for 200 pages... god...
I would have gotten more out of it if I hadn't been skimming, but...I am done. *throws book in the corner* Actually, that's a lie. I placed it gently on the book shelf, and I liked it just fine. Now, if only I would finish One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I love (So much. It's amazingly written, and although I am only halfway through the novel, it is easily one of my favorite books), but haven't gotten around to picking back up. Oh magic realism, yer so crazy.
I ate a fortune cookie today. It read:
You will be rewarded for your hard work this past month. . .
. . .in bed. :D:D