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Hysterical literature - Reading For Pleasure





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“Art on the table and sex under the table, just as society likes it,”

Clayton Cubitt


Hysterical Literature is a series of video shorts by photographer and filmmaker Clayton Cubitt. It explores themes of feminism, the battle between the mind and the body, concepts of female shame and the contrast between culture and sexuality.


The concept is quite simple, a woman sits at a table and reads a piece of literature aloud whilst simultaneously being brought to orgasm. Artistically they are shot in a way that reduces, as much as was aesthetically possible, anything generally associated with pornography, or luridness.


As Cubitt says, 'the series is testing the limits of what we have categorized. It is not pornography because it does not show any intimate part of the body; in fact, all of the elements of the scene remove any association with pornography. There is literally nothing of sex shown to the camera, but there is an intimacy that is rarely seen on camera.'


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One of the readers is a porn star and writer, another works in fashion, another is an actress and a comedian, one is a burlesque dancer and model, and the rest are artists and filmmakers. The authors they read are of their own choosing and range from Tony Morrison and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Anthony Burgess and Bret Easton Ellis.


In case you are wondering, Katie does the work under the table with what Cubitt calls her “paintbrush,” a Hitachi Magic Wand vibrator—also known as “Big Buzzy.”


So far there are 12 sessions available to watch. Go to the website below for a full explanation and essays from some of the participants and other writers.




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