I am waking up at 6:00 a.m. to teach Sade. Did you hear me? Sade.

Somehow I signed myself up to assistant teach an 8:00 a.m. class next semester (my first teaching endeavor since my French hooligans), which will mean being up in the city bright and early Why? Why!? I’ve always said getting up before dawn is inhuman.

Oh wait, it’s because I’m teaching the inhuman. Yes, it’ll be just me and the Divine Marquis (and a more experienced grad student instructor, and 33 undergrads). I’ll also be teaching Sylvia Plath (!), Jeanette Winterson (!!), Anne Carson (!!!), and Angela Carter (!!!!). My little tomato heart may well explode.

Poor undergrads, taking a required course to learn how to write essays. I wonder if they know they’ve signed up for rape by monks and sex with wolves.

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O of the month club

While in Paris this January, I picked up (okay, I obsessively cruised the Seine for) this copy of Story of O with stunning illustrations by Leonor Fini, which I’d read about but never actually *seen.*

Now they live in my living room, sharing a display with my antique sex toy collection. I keep the book open to some illustration, and every month — i.e. whenever I feel like — I switch the page. This month-ish’s is the frontispiece for “La Chouette,” the last section of the book in which… well, I won’t spoil it for you, but it does, as advertised, involve an owl. Now go read it. Now. Go.

Goddamn if there isn’t an academic project aching to be undertaken re: reclaiming Story of O in all its literary, third-wave feminism-y greatness. I’m not that busy, right?

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The antique sex toy collection, she grows

Acquired the metallic beauty on the right from the Alameda Flea Market last week: 1902-ish, Hamilton Beach, product name “Try-New-Life.” Try it. It tastes like vibration. The blue one on the left — circa 1960 — came from an antique shop on Haight. Sears brand, slogan: “Enjoy a new concept in the wonderful world of massage!”

This is the other recent acquisition, found at an estate sale in Noe Valley. Eskimo two-speed vibrator (two speeds!), I’d say 1920’s-ish, with its original box and deliciously crumbling attachments. Imperative: “Vibrate yourself to health and beauty.” Suggested uses: “For headaches, for complexion, for constipation.” Said the guy who sold it to me: “See how worn down the rubber is? Someone got a *lot* of use out of that.”

Posted in Happiness in objects, Sex | 3 Comments

Coming soon (available where fine books are sold)

Bonnie’s new site, Our Glass Lake, is under construction. While you’re waiting for all the creamy, blogging goodness (like the inside of a cream puff, no?), feel free to browse the five years of sex-, gender-, gaming-, and tech-related content at her old site, Heroine Sheik. Yes, five years. BONNIE FEELS OLD.

Related: “Five years of Heroine Sheik” (also this).

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