Final Solutions to the Latrinalia Question

T h e REALIST Issu e N um ber 80 - June, 1968 - P a g e 01 scans of this entire issue found at: http://www.ep.tc/reallst/80 Final Solutions to the Latrinalia Question by Donovan Bess by Alan Dundes by Robert Reisner So many o f us, in using the m en ’s Any American male who has ever had [ E d itor’s note: Mr. Reisner is the author room, fail to read the handwriting on the an occasion to enter a public bathroom of a book called Graffiti. What follows wall. Pity. T h ere’s no better index to our such as one found in a railroad or bus are latrinalia which were not included in cultural life. The graffiti authors have terminal has surely observed at one time his collection.] urgent things to say to us; they say them or another one of the many traditional Having relieved himself physically the on the walls, on the ceilings, on the water inscriptions found on the walls of the scrawler may as well relieve the excretia closets and on the floors. facilities. In some quarters, e.g. in the of his mind in the same place. He then Amateur anthropologists have begun rest rooms of some bars and caf6 ’s, one symbolically smears the walls with shit, to rescue some of these ephemeral writ finds the custom has been Institu for dirty words are considered dirt them ings. They are mainly students who volun tionalized in that a small slate and an selves. There is probably a relationship teered to help the research work of Pro accompanying piece of chalk are hanging between inscribing taboo words on a wall fessor Alan Dundes of the University of on the wall. This allows individuals to and playing with feces. C alifornia’s Berkeley campus. He is a write freely and at the same time it saves For some adults it may be their only folklorist who summed up his early find the establishment the expense of continu creative outlet. ings in a paper called Here I Sit: A Study ally repainting walls. For others, the only chance to do some of American Latrinalia. Despite the widespread distribution of thing naughty. Pornographic wall writing This is an erudite document, worthy of these inscriptions and despite the fact that comes out of frustration, anxiety and the this potent young scholar. He deplores many of them are demonstrably tradi desire to express what a person cannot the fact that since the golden age of tional, one looks in vain for extended state openly. latrine writings (in the Roman baths), collections of published texts and for any It is both horrible and fascinating to few of M an’s graffiti have survived. In rational discussion of them or the practice observe to what depths of degraded recent decades, m en’s room managers of writing them. Most histories o f the thought the mind can descend. The reader have become even more zealous in their water closet do little more than recognize is kindly requested to look upon these efforts to obliterate these publications. that such traditions exist. Typical is the crudities in a scientific and dispassionate Dr. Dundes writes that "the classic remark made by poet John Pudney, manner. author of The Smallest Room, who both study of the form in America was made • “This morning I stuck my cock out by Allen Walker R ead,’’ who “privately ers to say, “I must here resist the tempta of the window and fucked the published it in 1935 under the euphemistic tion urged on me by several men o f let world.” (Subway station toilet, N.Y.) ters to quote more freely from this poetry title: ‘Lexical Evidence From Folk Epig • "The fucking you get is not worth raphy in Western North America: a of the smallest room.” the fucking you take." Glossarial Study of the Low Element in Certainly there can be no doubt as to • “The difference between this firm the English Vocabulary.*” the antiquity of the genre. In the chapter and a cactus plant is that here the Without a good knowledge of Latin devoted to latrines of John G. B ou rk e’s pricks are in the inside." (Garment how would you discover that Professor classic Scatalogic Rites of All Nations, center building, 7th Ave., N .Y .) Read was not giving you a report on one finds references to the obscene poetry • "Cocksuckers of the world unite— the nesting habits of the Baltimore oriole? written in Roman latrines. What little bite Birchers." Dr. Dundes belongs to another generation evidence is available in print does attest • "Here patrons drink piss, employees and d o esn ’t mind at all if you figure out to the age and international spread of eat pussy." (The Village Gate.) what h e’s studying. In fact, last month this popular form of written folklore. Bleccker & Thompsoon Sts., N.Y.) he let me read his fat file o f latrinalia Gershon Legman, an authority on erotic • “The largest, hottest cock on cam in Kroeber Hall. folklore bibliography, mentions The pus is right between my legs." (Univ. All of the graffiti presented here arc, Merry-Thought or The Glass-Window and of New Mexico, Alburquerque.) unless otherwise attributed, from m en ’s Bog-House Miscellany of 1731 with the • "Big girl, big cunt. Small girl, all rooms. Women aren ’t literary when they only known complete copy at Oxford. cunt." (Continued on Page 8) (Continued on Page 9) (Continued on Page 15) http://www.ep.tc/realist THE REALIST ARCHIVE PROJECT The REALIST Issue Number 80 - June, 1968 - P age 02 scans of this entire issue found at: http://www.ep.tc/reallst/80 Reports that users have suffered such disturbances as embolisms (blood clots), hair loss, eczema, nasal irritation, | Perils of the Pill | mental depression, decrease in the size o f the uterus, bleed ing, etc., have begun to cause worry among more con- by Jack Soltanoff, D.C. scientous doctors. They arc concerned with the advisabil ity of subjecting the human body to such a potent drug. A Chicago gynecologist. Dr. Arthur H. Klawans, addres From time to time there have been reports from Europe, sing a meeting of the American Academy of General the Scandinavian countries in particular, and occasionally Practice several years ago, warned doctors to discourage from Canada and the U.S., indicating that oral contraceptives their patients from using oral contraceptives longer than have been causing significant physical, mental and emotional 2 years. problems in women using the Pill. The New York Times of August 12, 1967 carried an He gave as his reason that no one today actually knows article, relegated to the back pages, entitled “Birth Pill how the human body will react to the drug when taken Tests ordered by the F.D.A.” It stated that “The Food continuously over a period of time. & Drug Adminisration has directed a new series of long Apparently, high profits breed mild suspicions— approval range tests to be started immediately on all contraceptive of Enovid was given after its being tested in Puerto Rico pills already in the final stages of testing on human for only 3 years. It is obviously impossible at this time beings” (emphasis added). to forsee what the harmful effects on a female would be It further said, characteristically, " There is no plan, if she took it during her entire reproductive life of ap however to remove any present drugs from the market” proximately 30 years. and ended the article by saying that “The F.D.A. spokes The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, man said "all the present contraceptive drugs were sus as a result of a 3-year study several years ago, reported pected of ‘possibly encouraging’ cancer once it has started various unpleasant but benign side effects by 71% o f the although none are ‘believed’ to cause it.” users at some time during the study. These effects were In spite of a growing spate of articles on side effects so annoying to 22% o f the users that they discontinued of the Pill, most medical doctors refuse to “alarm” at taking the pill. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, the prospect that a chemical contraceptive might be and a “feeling of pregnancy” were reported in 43% of the damaging to their patients. They have been so pleased users. The menstrual flow was greatly reduced in volume at having an easy and reliable chemical birth preventative (during the part of the cycle when the drug is withdrawn). to offer to their patients, that they have tended to wel Some of the women felt tenderness of the breasts, and come it, while being skeptical of the warnings of possible some suffered vaginal bleeding after intercourse and also dangers. after a pelvic examination by a medical doctor. Those who Medical literature stresses the fact that the Pill must had bleeding were found to have “severe cervical erosion" remain in the hands o f the physician, based on his common which on occasion required cauterization. Although the sense and social and moral conscience. Medical circles symptoms were more prevalent during the first 3 months also contend that this is a time of great social change they were sometimes found to occur as long a time as and physicians must decide whether to join or be pushed after 30 months of trouble-free use. aside. These same researchers made a follow-up study one Recent And Past History year later which was reported in the Journal o f the Amer ican Medical Women’s Association.

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