is a java applet written by Paulsen based on Goldsmith's Fidget text, a transcription of recordings Goldsmith made in which he spoke every body movement he made for thirteen hours on June 16, 1997 (Bloomsday).
Fidget attempts to reduce the body to a catalogue of mechanical movements by a strict act of observation. Goldsmith aims to be objective like the photographer Edward Muybridge. In Fidget, Goldsmith reduces language to its basic elements in order to record and understand movement in its basic form.
It's absolutely fascinating. Follow along: masturbation, drinking, other regular body movements. But described carefully and in order.
You'd at least get stones thrown at you if you stood on a box in the middle of a busy town with a loudspeaker just reading it aloud.
I'm sure there's even more detail you can go into if you add every itch and minor pain and ache, and various emotion, of every second.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Wanking in more ways than one, I think. And they accuse us of narcissism?
ReplyDeleteFidget.....I hate that word...I fucking hate that there are no real socially acceptable words for female masturbation! It's wrong! I am horrified that we still are ashamed of our own bodies and experiencing pleasure, cos if we can't experience pleasure at our own hands we can't expect out partners to do it!
ReplyDeleteI don't think Fidget is meant to refer to masturbation in particular here though, is it?
ReplyDeleteI never even knew figet was used to refer to masturbation! There's me telling everyone I'm an awful fidgeter/fiddler while on the phone.
ReplyDeleteThus explaining the swift hanging up Voodoolady gets from her friends on the other end of the line sometimes... ;)
ReplyDeleteI thought it was referring to the fact that he was documenting every movement he made during routine actions, masturbation just being one example? 'fidget' doesn't work at all for masturbation. Fiddling, now on the other hand...
ReplyDelete