Choking Up

Sally Rooney is one of the great documenters of extended adolescence and also of sexual mores. In this regard "choking" is the foreplay du jour. Practitioners of jujitsu choke each other out with opponents signaling when they’ve had enough. You can’t cry "uncle" obviously. You slap the mat.  Back in the long ago era of Roth, fellatio was the transgressive activity. These days, in certain circles blow jobs don’t even qualify as sex. You walk into someone’s house and they matter of factly blow you. It's a far cry from "hello!" Times change. The 80s for example was the era of golden showers. Then came rough sex and bukake. Strindberg wrote Dance of Death which may someday be the swan song for this era of "choking," though today it’s everywhere. That same host or hostess who once blew you has become a veteran MMA who no longer wants to be a door mat. Go to a gathering of thirty somethings and you’ll be the guest who's being detained or restrained. Remember the choke which was part of the apparatus of the old standard shift? Remember when "gay" meant "happy?" Choking as an element of lovemaking has nothing to do with being gay. Most sexual intercourse amongst young people since the time of the pandemic has involved choking. If Godard were alive, he’d undoubtedly have directed a sequel to Breathless which would deal with this phenomenon. If you remember Anna Karina plays the prostitute in Vivre Sa vie. Talking dirty was the paraphilia explored in that film as it was in the porn series Talk Dirty to Me. Humankind always in the move has come a long way since then.

read "Luggage Tags" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn