The Relentless Forward March Of Enlightenment
or
The Pleasures Of Enlightened Self-Indulgence
or
The Pleasures Of Enlightened Self-Indulgence
At Delancey Place I was reminded yesterday (Aug. 31) that physicians in the 19th and early 20th centuries warned against masturbation (including nocturnal emissions) which they counseled must be avoided because it could lead to "not only impotence, but blindness, heart trouble, insanity, stupidity, clammy hands, suppurating pustules on the face, acrid belches, a flow of fetid matter from the fundament, tongue coatings, stooped shoulders, flabby muscles, under-eye circles, and a draggy gait."
Is it any wonder that so many truly intelligent thinking people take even the most modern medical pronouncements with a grain of salt?
A modern-day website (WebMD) has an article wherein experts talk about whether masturbation is safe, normal, or can lead to sexual dysfunction.
Below is a short excerpt from that article:
"In a study published this past January in BJU International, researchers found that frequent masturbation in young men raised the risk for prostate cancer but that frequent masturbation in older men lowered the risk. Sexual intercourse did not affect prostate cancer risk."
Oh me...Oh My! Young men and older men are different. Who'd a' thunk it? What about young women and older women? Are they affected differently by masturbation too? Huh?
One can never predict which particular topic might spark my interest at any specific instant.
Right?
. . .
Deceased should be called ceased, as in stopped, as in "ceased to be alive" -- because if a corpse was de-ceased, it would no longer be ceased, it would have returned to the living.
. . .
There is a short review of Isaac Asimov's novel The End Of Eternity in which the reviewer (Wendy Lesser) compares the novel's background (milieu?) with today's actuality. I enjoyed reading this article and thought that others might also like to read it, especially those who are Science Fiction fans or Isaac Asimov admirers.
. . .
Famous Authors
I don't really have anything to say about Truman Capote at this moment except that I am contemplating the purchase of and the reading of a new biography of this author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast At Tiffany's.
Drat! Now all I have to do now is remember the book's title or the author of this new biography.
. . .
. . .
What is blasphemy? One definition, from Wikipedia for blasphemy is: irreverence toward holy personages, religious artifacts, customs, and beliefs. The Abrahamic religions condemn blasphemy vehemently. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy.
There are some fascinating comments about a case of blasphemy from a court decision in 1824, Updegraph v. Commonwealth.
In that criminal case, the crime was that the defendant in that trial had blasphemed by having said, "That the Holy Scriptures were a mere fable: That they were a contradiction, and that, although they contained a number of good things, yet they contained a great many lies."
Society cannot let such heinous crime as blasphemy go unpunished.
No.
_____
"You cannot tell people what to do, you can only tell them parables; and that is what art really is, particular stories of particular people and experiences, from which each according to his immediate needs may draw his own conclusions."
--Ezra Pound
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