Let's Go to the Erotic Mass!

Let me clear something up right away. This Messe (which means both Mass and convention in German) won't be held in a church. Instead the "World of Eroticism" will be held next weekend in the Philipshalle (g) a medium-sized venue in Düsseldorf. As I always told my European friends in the US, you'll never really understand this country unless you visit a gun show. They took my advice, and returned blanched with terror at seeing so many gleaming weapons, hand grenades, and SS memorabilia in one place.

I guess the European equivalent might be such an Erotikmesse. So I think I'll go next weekend, since it's going to be literally around the corner from where I live. If I survive, I'll post a dispatch.

Comments

[Malcolm B]

Don't go to the one in Düsseldorf - comparative Erotic Mass Analysis 101 has taught me that there are two kinds of these things:

Awesome ones, like the Venus in Berlin, attended by thousands upon thousands of people, which feel like a gathering of like minded people - basically what such a convention is all about. It's really somewhat awesome, I actually know people who go there with their girlfriends - normal people with normal jobs, who are not even interested in the casual threesome.

Then there are the ones like the one coming up in Düsseldorf, which are poorly funded, basically not attended by anyone who is a professional, and usually feature CRAZY high entrance fees. I seriously can't see anything interesting in them - its kinda like a strip club, only creepier. Why? Because people try acting professional, they won't admit that they are there to watch people fuck (which you only see if you pay a second, higher entrance fee), but rather use the "mass" moniker as an alibi. Thus, its a somewhat cold affair.

In conclusion: Don't go there, unless you REALLY want to waste your money. The gun show comparison is really somewhat lacking, because people at gun shows generally a) admit what they are doing and b) are behaving socially - and not like they are doing something forbidden and cannot be seen by any of the other attendees.

[Anonymous]

Peter:

In his opinion piece, Habermas does express concern about growing xenophobia in Germany and Sarrazin's "pseudo-science." As the opening paragraph states, as well as throughout:

"Since the end of August Germany has been roiled by waves of political turmoil over integration, multiculturalism and the role of the “Leitkultur,” or guiding national culture. This discourse is in turn reinforcing trends toward increasing xenophobia among the broader population."

Regarding the sentence I quoted, though, you're right that in my haste I missed the negation and so misread it. However, Habermas isn't saying "the opposite" of what I want to say. I take it that Habermas is differentiating between past Nazi Germany and the current "rearguard reaction" (in the meaning of "resistance especially to sweeping social forces"). In other words, he's saying that there's a fire in the basement but the house isn't burning down.

Andrew:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were born in placid Belgium but returned with your family to Texas in your childhood? You then grew up in one of our gun-craziest states? And you spent several years attending to the legal needs of death-row convicts?

If I suffered the same fate, I, too, would find the essence of America in a gun show.

[Alex]

Reminds me to the old Hippie-slogan: Make love, not war. ;-)

[Andrew]

First of all, anonymous, gun shows are a huge phenomenon in most of the U.S. Trust me, I grew up in Houston. It's not a stereotype if it fits. Or perhaps it still is, but nevertheless it fits.

And there's certainly no cause to think I 'disapprove' of gun shows. That would be maudlin and predictable and stuffy. I've been to several of them and find them invigorating.

The reason I sent my European friends to a gun show is that gun shows, in their American form, simply don't exist in Europe. You could say the same thing about ranches, Branson, MO, etc. But I picked gun shows because they're similar to erotic conventions: A big group of people getting together in one place to celebrate a particular hobby that some other sections of society find unseemly.

[peter]

anonymous: if you quote things out of context, it would be wiser to use a source that is not as readily available as the NYT. the full quote sais the opposite of what you wanted to say and reads:

"Nevertheless I do not have the impression that the appeals to the leitkultur signal anything more than a rearguard action or that the lapse of an author into the snares of the controversy over nature versus nurture has given enduring and widespread impetus to the more noxious mixture of xenophobia, racist feelings of superiority and social Darwinism. The problems of today have set off the reactions of yesterday — but not those of the day before."

[Anonymous]

No surprise that you would find a gun show as characteristic for the U.S., Andrew. Not a word, either, about the many Americans who do not fit this clichéd stereotype.

As usual: German Joys = sex and culture; American Miseries = guns and philistinism.

What about the "noxious mixture of xenophobia, racist feelings of superiority and social Darwinism" (Habermas in today's NYT) that is becoming more and more prominent in Germany?

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." (George Orwell)

[G]

Never been to either, in the US or here.I'll wait to see what you think of it.