I was watching TV the other night, dozing off and half paying attention when I momentarily perked up as I heard a snide oily voice mumble something about masturbation. Not your typical fare, even on basic cable, so I roused myself to attention trying to figure out what it was all about.
I guess I had fallen asleep because I was sure I had been watching American Ninja Warrior. Instead what was on the screen was a panel of slick middle-aged professor types and what appeared to be either extremely precocious middle school girls or a pair dazzling anorectics.
Now I don't know about you but every time I hear someone start a sentence with the words "As the Viennese feuilletonist Karl Kraus famously quipped..." I reach for the remote before I start gagging on my sour cream and onion lightly ribbed potato chips. This time however, there was something different in the air.
"A woman occasionally is quite a serviceable substitute for masturbation," remarked one professor, and I suppose you're allowed to say that on cable so long as you cite a Viennese feuilletonist.
The other pointy-headed academics nodded impassively but not surprisingly, the anorectics took issue.
I must be a dimwit because the ensuing debate flew over my head like a zeppelin. It seems that the professors saw the whole thing through the lens of social satire, calling Kraus the Steve Colbert of the time and likening the informality of the feuilleton to a blog or a Twitter feed.
The two gals insisted it was sexist.
There was no moderator but if I were there I would have split the difference. Yes it was sexist but it was also funny and not altogether untrue.
It reminded me of another line from the great Austrian essayist.
The other pointy-headed academics nodded impassively but not surprisingly, the anorectics took issue.
I must be a dimwit because the ensuing debate flew over my head like a zeppelin. It seems that the professors saw the whole thing through the lens of social satire, calling Kraus the Steve Colbert of the time and likening the informality of the feuilleton to a blog or a Twitter feed.
The two gals insisted it was sexist.
There was no moderator but if I were there I would have split the difference. Yes it was sexist but it was also funny and not altogether untrue.
It reminded me of another line from the great Austrian essayist.
"An illusion of depth often occurs if a blockhead is a muddlehead at the same time."
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