pagliaesque
A true pioneer in the art of video installation, Pagliaesque conjures up an image of the defiant, sensual, and uncompromising vision.
Some words embody a whole attitude, a way of thinking, a way of being in the world: not simply a description of an idea. “Pagliaesque” is one of those few words. “Pagliaesque” is a term for the bold, the erotic, the impressively independent, and the art-historically inspired, pagan, intellectual, rock-and-roll-defiant way of thinking and speaking that comes from the controversial American academic and cultural critic Camille Paglia (born 1947).
Yet what does it say about the Pagliaesque to be this? Why does such a term have resonance outside of the walls of the university? Let’s take it apart.
Beauty, Nature, and the Wild: The Core of the Pagliaesque
Sexual Personae (1990) is the magnum opus that is required to be read if you wish to understand the Pagliaesque. In that book, she asserted that humans are not empty vessels, particularly humans’ sexuality. It is wild, dangerous, chthonic (a favorite word of Paglia’s meaning “dwelling beneath the earth”), and is totally driven by the raw primal forces of nature: flood, storm, predator, prey.
A Pagliaesque attitude rejects the sanitised, politically correct, soft approach to human beings. Rather, it claims that:
Art is bound to identity with primal energies. There is no appreciation of a painting of the Renaissance, a rock song, or a drag performance without understanding the relationship between the Apollonian elements of discipline, form, and light, and the Dionysian elements of ecstasy, violence, and the dark.
Nature isn’t your friend. It’s a typical Pagliaesque phrase. Nature is beautiful, and it is cruel, lustful, and indifferent. It’s not possible to lie about that.
Western culture is an example of the greatest works of sublimation. Paglia’s explanation of the beauty of Shakespeare, Michelangelo, or the Rolling Stones is that they harness primitive human passions and give them containment and sublimation.
The Pagliaesque in Style – Aggressive, Witty, and Unapologetic
Listen for the tone if you want to hear a Paglia-esque argument in nature. It is never boring. It is never meek. The voice of the Pagliaesque is:
Provocative: It challenges the reader to move beyond a simple consensus. Paglia once said, “There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack the Ripper.” The claim can’t be ignored; you may or may not agree with it.
Pop-cultural and high-cultural at once: A Pagliaesque essay could start with a line from Emily Dickinson and then go to a music video by Madonna and then a statue of Apollo in Rome in just three sentences. There’s no such thing as “serious” art and popular art.
Sensual and embodied: The Pagliaesque writer writes from the gut, the skin, the pulse; many academics, who write as if they have no body, don’t. Sentences have rhythm. Metaphors tend to be sexually loaded, violent, and ecstatic.
Why “Pagliaesque” Matters Today
One would think a term coined by a 1990s culture warrior to be quaint and outmoded. However, the Pagliaesque attitude is more pertinent than ever. Pagliaesque thinking is a refreshing antidote to the era of algorithmic politeness, trigger warnings, and the carefully sculpted social media personalities.
Think of the contemporary classroom. A Pagliaesque teacher would say that students must be exposed to art that is hard to view, disturbing, and even – a Nietzsche passage, a Sylvia Plath poem, a Goya painting of Saturn devouring his son – without being protected. The point of art is to disturb you. That’s the point.
Take into account the gender issues. Pagliaesque feminism is an oddball. It is not as if men and women are totally socially constructed. It claims sex to be a dangerous, asymmetrical, biological reality and that all “real” feminism would have to recognize female weakness and male aggressiveness as real entities to be dealt with, rather than just deconstructed. In this role, Paglia has become a hackneyed figure for mainstream feminists and a hero for a small group of feminists with alternative views. Whether one likes it or not, it’s clearly a Pagliaesque, fearless, messy, and offensive.
How To Be Pagliaesque (Without Being Camille Paglia)
Don’t agree with all of Paglia’s pronouncements to take a Pagliaesque perspective on life and thinking. There are four practical habits:
Trust your senses. Before you analyze a painting or a song, experience it with your whole body. Does it give you a tingle down your spine? Is it repulsive to you? Does it arouse you? That is valid data.
Reject ideological conformity. A Pagliaesque mind resists, not only groupthink on the right, but also on the left. It questions: What is not being heard from within the mainstream?
Enjoy shape and design. Paglia is a champion of the technicals. She likes Bette Davis, Robert Plant, and Roman roads engineering. Mastery matters.
Embrace the dark. Do not minimize the presence of violence, lust, envy, and ambition. They are genetic traits passed on by man. They are recognized in great art and in the honesty of life.
The Pagliaesque Legacy
The term “Pagliaesque” means many things: brilliant, exhausting, brave, overbearing, visionary, reckless. However, no one has ever insulted someone using the term with the negative connotations of “dull” or “cowardly.” Not safe—this is the Pagliaesque. It’s an idea whose chilling power delves to the core of things and never comes back, an idea whose haunting air stays with you for days, an idea whose elegance, after a lecture, leaves the room talking long into the night.
With so much niceness going around and so much comfort, a bit of Pagliaesque may be just what this culture needs. So not to destroy but to remind us that the human animal is still an animal and that our best art, our deepest loves, our most honest thoughts and feelings have come from that beautiful, frightening reality.
Therefore, eat Sexual Personae. See what Paglia does on YouTube: She is a showboat, a Pagliaesque voice, a Pagliaesque gesture, a Pagliaesque brain. Or remember that the next time you are enjoying a sunset, the nature that painted the sky also sends hurricanes and fangs. There is tension in the Pagliaesque that must not be wavered from, and that is its essence.
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