shagging & fucking

[George Thompson]

> > I'm confused about this. Does this mean that the speaker occasionally did men as well as women?

I have only read enough of this book as was necessary to find the letter quoted.  It's from Ch. 5, "The Lecture of Venus's Arse: Richard Cosway's Charles Townley with a Group of Connoisseurs, c. 1771-5", pp. 159-90.
This chapter deals with the homosocial relations among the collectors and connoisseurs of ancient statuary and their group sexual stimulation from the nudes.  The title of the chapter refers to a painting by Cosway which shows Townley and friends admiring three statues of females, including 2 nudes.  An odd detail is that on the opposite side of the painting from the statues, one member of the group seems to be giving the bum's rush to one of the others, who is looking back at the statues.  (plate 18)  She also reproduces (fig. 55) a preliminary sketch showing details which I can't myself make out in the reproduction.  She says that several of the men are exposing themselves to the statues -- now that she tells me, I guess I can see that.  She says that one of them is finger-fucking (not her term) a statue -- that I can see.  She says that another is gesturing with his thumb and index finger making a circle, and that that gesture "simulates the female genitalia".  This detai
l I take her word for.  (pp. 182-83)
(It seems to me that the resulting hand-shape must greatly resemble the gesture that Barry Popik has researched, in connection with his interest in all things dealing with food -- the gesture seen in advertisements, of a cook or chef indicating his satisfaction with a dish.  One wonders.)
I have read only the pages of this chapter indicated in the index as pertinent, and a few before and after.  The rest of the chapters seem to deal with the trade of dealing in and purchasing ancient works of art.

Coltman identifies Radicati as "the itinerant Italian pantheist, Count Radicati di Passerano . . . . , who arrived in England in 1730.  He fled to the Continent after being arrested and threatened with prosecution for his radical views, which encouraged homosexual practices.  In his letter to Townley, Cosway masquarades as a devotee of Radicati's position."  (p. 182)  She cites M. C. Jacobs, The Radical Enlightenment (1981), pp. 172-74 & 216, and G. S. Rousseau, "The Sorrows of Priapus", in G. S. Rousseau and R. Porter, Sexual Underworlds of the Enlightenment (1987), pp. 101-53.
"Cosway masquarades as a devotee of Radicati's position" -- I don't know whether this indicates that Coltman knows other sources that show that Cosway's reference to Radicati's Arse was a pose or in-joke.

Joel writes: "As I wrote Jesse privately, I am bequeathing my place in the gutter of the 18th century to George."
Please don't.  I am only at home in the gutters of early 19th C New York City -- this was an escapade not soon to be repeated, probably.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: ronbutters at aol.com
Date: Friday, September 3, 2010 4:09 am
Subject: Re: shagging & fucking
To: George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>, ADS-L <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>

> Well, in their defense, since homosexuality had not yet been invented,
> they did not realize that they were supposed to stick to just one sex
> as the outlet for their shagging. They seemed to divide the world of
> lust into tops and bottoms, not men and women. But then, so does the
> Bible, e g. In Leviticus.
> ------Original Message------
> From: George Thompson
> To: ronbutters at aol.com
> Subject: Re: shagging & fucking
> Sent: Sep 3, 2010 12:07 AM
>
>
> I'm afraid so.
>
> Quite improper.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com>
> Date: Thursday, September 2, 2010 9:55 pm
> Subject: Re: shagging & fucking
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > I'm condfused about this. Does this mean that the speaker
> occasionally
> > did men as well as women?
> > On Sep 1, 2010, at 10:05 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> >
> > > as for myself I stick as close to Radicati's Arse as a Bum Bailiff
>
> > to Lord Deloraine'
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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