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| Wouldn't you like to run your fingers through this fur? |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).
The article: "Origins of a Fur Fetishist." Originally published in Ecstasy (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 3, no. 1, March/April 1971.
Excerpt: "The sights, sounds, smells and sensations of that day, as personally experienced by that little boy, were to stamp his character forever afterward. They were to become intertwined with some of Europe's greatest literature which seemed to be both history and fiction but which was actually heavily tainted by the deep-seated algolagnia of the author."
Reflections: Bob Blackburn compiled When the Topic is Sex the same way he put together the previous two Ed Wood collections, i.e. by following Eddie's own writing résumé. If a story or article appeared on that résumé, Bob did his best to track down the magazine in which it originally appeared. When Bob bought the March/April 1971 issue of Ecstasy, for example, he was probably looking for the short story "The Last Void," which eventually turned up in Angora Fever (2019).
But not all of Eddie's magazine work made it to his résumé. As my colleague Greg Dziawer has reminded us again and again, publisher Bernie Bloom had Ed writing all kinds of text for the Pendulum/Calga magazines, everything from photo captions to editorials. When Bob got his copy of Ecstasy, he discovered an uncredited article called "Origins of a Fur Fetishist" and concluded that it must've been Ed's. After all, Eddie was writing a lot of articles about fetishism back then, and fur fetishism was a particular specialty of Ed's since it was a kink that he himself possessed. Who else would have written something like this?
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| Leopold von Sacher-Masoch |
If it is indeed Eddie's work, "Origins of a Fur Fetishist" stands out as one of the more coherent, even elegant examples of his nonfiction articles. This one focuses entirely on a specific historical figure: Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895). Now, Eddie has fixated on other real-life personages in his work, returning repeatedly to the lives of Albert Fish (1870-1936) and Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614). Offhand, I couldn't remember Eddie writing more about Sacher-Masoch in any of his full-length books, although he does use the obscure term "algolagnia" (sexual pleasure derived from giving or receiving pain) in Bloodiest Sex Crimes of History (1967).
Sacher-Masoch is primarily known for two things: writing the 1870 novella Venus in Furs and being the namesake of the term "masochism." So this nobleman obviously had fetishes for both fur and pain. How did he get that way? Well, it all goes back to his boyhood experiences with his aunt, the Countess Zenobia. The article describes her colorfully: "a statuesque and commanding woman in her middle thirties—a passionately demanding female who had never been sexually satisfied or emotionally controlled by her insignificant husband." She sounds like someone who was specifically created to be a character in an erotic story.
As a boy, Leopold loved to rummage through his aunt's wardrobe, fondling the furs and sniffing the nightgowns. (This is probably the most Wood-ian passage in the entire article.) Once, while doing this, he quickly had to hide in the closet as his aunt entertained a lover. Again, the description of the events is colorful: "When the strange man was on his back, the Countess Zenobia mounted him like a Valkyrie astride a magic horse and rode her steed in a violent gallop as though toward some mighty battle." Uh huh. Magic horse. Got it.
Anyway, the countess and her lover were themselves surprised mid-coitus by the "small, frail" count. Irritated at this distraction, Zenobia quickly took to smacking her husband around, all while young Leopold watched from the closet. The lover was so horrified that he immediately departed. Then, still nude, Zenobia discovered Leopold hiding in the closet and began spanking him. This entire incident is highly reminiscent of a memorable passage from David Lynch's kinky and violent Blue Velvet (1986), so much so that I have to wonder if Lynch deliberately referenced Sader-Masoch. Even the title of Lynch's film suggests a fetishistic fixation on a particular fabric.
You can see how this kind of incident might have an effect on a young man like our hapless Austrian friend. According to this article, though, Leopold's kinks were confined to his imagination and his writing. "Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was never a debauchee in sexual matters," the author assures us. Wouldn't that be a strange twist of fate, leading a vanilla sex life and having a famous kink named after you anyway? He never even contracted syphilis!
Earlier in this review, I described this article as "elegant." That quality really comes to the fore when, after having told the Countess Zenobia story, the author gives us a brief but vivid biological sketch of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. A few chosen phrases, which I suggest you read aloud:
- The puzzle could not be complete for its construction carried on throughout his mature life and the image was always a mixture of his own dreams and the strange personal frustration the world and his selection of sexual partners thrust upon him.
- The brilliance, the wit and the dash of the past had been replaced by a certain melancholy that hung over Europe like a grey cloud.
- Those whispered bedtime stories told in hushed and mysterious tones that implied even more than they actually state were all Gothic tales of frenzied erotica and ruthless cruelty. Although illiterate, [Leopold's nurse] was undoubtedly a narrator of superlative talent for the tales she told formed a rich and macabre tapestry woven of all the sensuous and barbaric, tragic and wild elements latent in the tribal memory of a strangely primitive people.
Both the syntax and vocabulary of these passages are highly unusual for Ed Wood. Perhaps, on the day this piece was composed, Eddie was in the mood to write something more elevated and poetic than usual. As I've said, he had a number of modes or styles as a writer and could switch between them when necessary.
I regret to say that "Origins of a Fur Fetishist" takes a strange and disturbing turn at the end. There is a passage involving very young children and the things that "ignorant and primitive" people have done to them in the past. Rather than describe this material further, I will let readers of When the Topic is Sex discover it for themselves. Forewarned is forearmed.
Next: "There Are Different Words" (1974)