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The Cat's UrgeBy: Edward D. Wood, Jr.Pseudonym: Elliot Parker Ph.D.,, 1971

 Item — Box: 2

Scope and Contents

Publisher: Echelon Book Publishers, Inc., Los Angeles [Contains salacious sexological case histories of female abandon - swapping, drunken sex, adulterous behavior, fetishes, and more. Page 24: "The room began to smell like a whorehouse on dollar day. Frantic, hot bodies give off a real musky smell when they’re in a close space. And that apartment was like a closet. Hell, I could have reached out and patted Benny on the butt." Page 89: "While the majority of housewives enter the forbidden world of animalism out of a profound despair, this is not an iron rule." While much of Wood’s approaches to African-American life are out and out racist, his views of Near Eastern sex practices seem to tend more towards a comical and prurient Orientalism, offensive and ignorant, but tethered to an archetypal Rohmer-esque mythological world of sexist warriors, most certainly inspired by his fascination with the exotic and supernatural. Yet, as opposed to Sax Rohmer, there is little awe and literary eloquence to counteract the reductions of the Other. Rather the notion of a misogynist Arab, painted as a savage and conquering force, is the primary abstraction of the Arab race with Wood. This point of view is apparent during a discussion of Arab sodomy on pages 136-7: "The Arab now straddled the American girl, and then his powerful maleness was at the entranceway. ‘It is the way of the East, my little love-slave.’ WIth [sic] that, he invaded. There was some sphincter tightening. Suddenly a gurgled shriek was heard as the American girl tried to push him off [...] The sex-perverted Arab was now bearing down on her as if she were some animal, some beast. She had always heard that these savage Arabs were like that, but she never knew they were so brutal. Now, a shock wave of pain tore through her narrow receptacle. Suddenly, Ahman erupted in some erotic sounding gibberish. Then, he immersed himself "to the hilt" and there was a stiffening [...] Ahman’s stiffening was rigid. Then the gushing proof of his peak flooded Valerie’s soul until she was transformed into little more than a sexual slave [...] Wordlessly, he went to the bathroom and washed himself. When he came out, bronzed and naked with his flaccid power a symbol of his superiority, he flashed a grin at her. ‘This is how we use our women in the East.’"]

Dates

  • 1971

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Extent

2 cubic feet. (2 cubic feet.)

Physical Description

Pages: 160

Repository Details

Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository

Contact:
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
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607-255-9524 (Fax)