Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

Lessons in Torture and Seduction

feeds fantasies of domination and cruelty. Those two jerks at the hospital seemed to me to be hungry for some kind of val idation about themselves -- about who they are and who they aren’t. They seemed l ike members of a tribe unsure about their evolutionary stage because they lack a rite of passage that ushers in adulthood, or manhood, or some kind of strong, comforting identity. And those two, they need it, they need to feel l ike the aggressor, out of fear of being dragged back into the role of the one who’s attacked. Someone who, in any case, has such a seductive qual ity that they remain fixated on her. In addition, I exchanged phone numbers with the doctor, the first man in months that has stirred in me a form of fondness, if not attraction. I l ike him, I can’t say why. And the fact that he l ikes me, too, doesn’t bother me. I don’t know – these are only first impressions. If he comes tonight to the party, these impressions wi l l be confirmed, disproven or simply on hold. To sum up, I didn’t real ly get much out of the Lichtenstein exhibit. It ’s about to close and if I don’t manage to go back in the coming week, I’l l forget it al l.

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