Poem: "Naked Knowledge"
Jan. 3rd, 2023 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem was inspired and sponsored by mdlbear. It also fills the "not entirely devoid of interest" square in my 1-1-23 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.
Warning: This poem and its references are very Not Safe For Work at most jobs.
"Naked Knowledge"
[1880, 1931, 1971]
How do you make illiterate people
want to study an alphabet?
In 1880, French artist Joseph Apoux
created an erotic alphabet illustrated
with scenes of kinky sex making out
the shapes of individual alphabet letters.
In 1931, Soviet sculptor Sergey Merkurov
did the same for the Cyrillic alphabet,
inspired by Greek and Roman art.
The peasants found these to be ...
not entirely devoid of interest.
As more people learned to read,
so the demand for printing grew.
Technology developed, and fonts
along with it, but not everyone was
thrilled with the aesthetic results.
In 1971, Dutch creatives Anna Beeke,
Anthony Beeke, Ed van der Elsken,
Pieter Brattinga, and Geert Kooiman
made a photographic alphabet by
posing nude models in letter shapes.
It became a protest against what they
called a protest dehumanising and
indecipherable mechanistic alphabets,
reminding views of the beauty in letters.
It just goes to show that if you
want to attract attention, then
you can't beat naked knowledge.
* * *
Notes:
These are the (very explicit) alphabets featured:
The Erotic Alphabet of 1880 by Joseph Apoux
The Soviet-era Erotic Alphabet (in Cyrillic) by Sergey Merkurov
Belles Lettres: The Naked Alphabet by the Dutch team
mdlbear. It also fills the "not entirely devoid of interest" square in my 1-1-23 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.Warning: This poem and its references are very Not Safe For Work at most jobs.
"Naked Knowledge"
[1880, 1931, 1971]
How do you make illiterate people
want to study an alphabet?
In 1880, French artist Joseph Apoux
created an erotic alphabet illustrated
with scenes of kinky sex making out
the shapes of individual alphabet letters.
In 1931, Soviet sculptor Sergey Merkurov
did the same for the Cyrillic alphabet,
inspired by Greek and Roman art.
The peasants found these to be ...
not entirely devoid of interest.
As more people learned to read,
so the demand for printing grew.
Technology developed, and fonts
along with it, but not everyone was
thrilled with the aesthetic results.
In 1971, Dutch creatives Anna Beeke,
Anthony Beeke, Ed van der Elsken,
Pieter Brattinga, and Geert Kooiman
made a photographic alphabet by
posing nude models in letter shapes.
It became a protest against what they
called a protest dehumanising and
indecipherable mechanistic alphabets,
reminding views of the beauty in letters.
It just goes to show that if you
want to attract attention, then
you can't beat naked knowledge.
* * *
Notes:
These are the (very explicit) alphabets featured:
The Erotic Alphabet of 1880 by Joseph Apoux
The Soviet-era Erotic Alphabet (in Cyrillic) by Sergey Merkurov
Belles Lettres: The Naked Alphabet by the Dutch team
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-04 04:32 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-04 04:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-04 05:33 am (UTC)YAY!
Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-04 05:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-04 07:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 05:22 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-08 05:29 am (UTC)Totally kills the argument that erotica has no practical or literary value, just in case anyone ever needs that.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-08 05:32 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-08 05:41 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-08 05:45 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-01-08 05:58 am (UTC)I've written a variety of erotica. Check out Hart's Farm, oh wait, I forgot there's another erotic poem in January from that: rope and wax play. Watch for my February fishbowl because I'll have a Valentine's card from
Next prompt call will be the mid-month Creative Jam with a theme of "youth."