THE BOOK OF THE PRICK

"No matter how ugly and vulgar a thing is, it is more vulgar and ugly not to be knowledgeable about it." -Arsiccio Intronato

Although this quote comes from a work that is unique in the history of Renaissance writings for its lewd bawdiness, I have always rather felt the same way as the author about the important power of experience. I still hold out with the Greeks that moderation is the best way to avoid slipping into self-defeating depravity of some sort. However, I also think that there is something left out of the discussion about a central New Testament concept concerning being "in the world, but not of it," involving a grave misreading of this idea. A prohibition against 'experiencing' that attempts to protect the eternal soul from the outward effects of the world in fact serves an opposite and insidious purpose that is little discussed in any study of the Bible. Namely, the notion that the power of Spirit is not strong enough to truly resist and counter the genuinely evil forces of the world, so Christians are taught to cheat through hiding out and retrenching amongst themselves and avoiding having experience of the world. Quite the opposite, they should be relying openly and securely on the alternative and always transcending power of Spirit active in their souls. Their belief in salvation and the very power of God's grace is thus negated as any encouragement to reach out courageously and boldly and offer their light to others- as Christ taught- sadly disappears. If people do not believe that their faith is strong enough to lead them home safely, how can they possibly lend direction to others whom they believe need to be 'saved' and why should we listen to them and share their beliefs? The entire structure of supposed Christian faith collapses here! Only true spiritual salvation or enlightenment can become a source of 'non-judgmental' judgment to both interpret the world's challenges and find paths through it. A believer is deprived of these tools if he or she does not engage the world from the point of view of the Spirit within. We are either free, or not. We are either capable of salvation, or not. God is either great, or not. This reminds me of Nietzche, where Christianity is set up as a mentality of victimhood, rather than victory:

"Christianity gave Eros poison to drink, however he did not die but rather disintegrated into a vice!"

And Milton too-

" "

Chardin-

Paul in II Chronicles-



so... check out La Cazzaria (Book of the Cock), 1525
by Antonio Vignali
check out the Intro of the book edited and translated by Ian Patrick Moulton
Routledge, 2003*

*extra bit/Every Sperm Is Sacred-

Because sodomites make their naturally fertile bodies infertile, Dante places them next to the usurers, who by lending money at interest made infertile metal breed. There are few activities more dissimilar to the modern mind than buggery and banking, but for Dante and other medieval theologians, the two sins were related in their perversion of God's gift of fertility. Arsiccio responds in this passage regarding homosexual acts amongst the clergy:

"They want us to give up buggery, so that it may belong entirely to them, and make us take up again the cunts they have rejected and disdained. And they go on arguing it is better to fuck your mother, your sisters, your nieces and daughters-and fuck them in the most vicious way possible-as long as it is a cunt you are fucking and you are not buggering anyone. And they justify this by saying it is because when you fuck someone up the ass you waste human seed, and thus human generation may be diminished, in contradiction of the commandment, "Be fruitful and multiply." Stupid cows! They can't see that they themselves contradict it completely. Their ignorance and their love of buggery is so great that they do not see that, if this is evil, in choosing to be friars and fleeing the inconvenience of wives and the annoyance of children, they have chosen the way and the method to end an annul the human race, refusing the harsh bonds of marriage and the other things by which the number of human beings is increased and multiplied. There is no one who casts aside sperm and wastes it as much as they do, they who corrupt themselves day and night with their own strong arms. They have no room, no bed, no chamber or latrine that is not full of sperm and thus of unborn embryos. And if our doctrine is true-which I doubt, since I've seen the licentiousness of these friars-on the Day of Judgment you will see so many unfinished spirits and bodies coming out of those bordellos that Paradise will not be able to receive them all."