Belle De Jour
Diary of a London Callgirl
First ran into this when it won the Guardian blog award a couple of years ago. She's making waves again with a freshly minted book. Her daily weblogs are rather graphic and have a Sex/City feel to them but they're fairly engaging and worth a browse in the archives. As a literature major who dropped out of school being unable to support herself, she certainly seems to have found her calling.
posted by Peach Who? @ 8:13 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Just read a few posts. There's a whole chaper in Maximum City about the life of a Bombay 'bar girl'. It's also reality-prose but written by a third person - the author, who does a great job anyway because the bae completel trusts him.
The book has such notes about other characters in the city. Gangsters for example. Imagine, a decently lierate chhota-mota gangster blogging - with pseudonyms of course! Another book in the making.
ps: A line from one of the entries in the blog - "I've nothing to offer except live entertainment" - boy, there are others in this business too!
I had this thought nagging me in a meeting here. No sure, it adds up to much but here goes...
I read only a few posts of the belle du jour blog and almost immediately stopped judging her. I think she has a tone that does a good job of 'af-familiarisation'. You read an entry and you can already picture her life.
I don't know where I read this, but I remember the context being a good one, that if you know too much about a person it becomes dificult to judge them. Oh wait, I remember it. An english prof. said it in the context of "Ulysses".
One of the characters in Ulysses (Leopold Bloom) is a seemingly shady coward by any "normal" metric. But, I remember the prof. pointing out that we just know too much about this guy. In fact Ulysses is a book about this guy (and another's) thoughts -none censored - all day. You know everything he thinks and does throughout the day and it becomes difficult to judge and even to dislike him at the end of the day. I believe, there is a Law-related phrase for this - To know all is to condone - or something. You can look up the latin equivalent on Google.
I heard that thing from the Prof. and very much agreed with his conclusion. And a day after, Veerappan was shot and I found this on an acquaintance's blog!I guess that is the key. Movies like Company, Satya etc just deluge you with the details of their life making it impossible for anyone to judge - unless you are of course a Bush supporter.
Even in the book, maximum city, there are so many details about all kinds of crooks and whores in Bombay, and yet the book makes you want to go to Bombay and meet them!
This babe or belle, herself obviously has done nothing, I think, that requires any judgement. She has an interesting tone and even if she writes about just sitting at home and watching Wimbledon cheering for Tim Henman - it seems like great content.
It's also partly the whole new-age morals thing. Is it more moral to be monogamous etc? Not only are these definitions of these "morals" themselves being stretched and becoming "fuzzy". Also, this Internet thing, with blogs etc, just exposes you to way too many minute details making it difficult for one to form a concrete opinion of any kind. Maybe, it can also be labeled confusion, because articulating such a posture (say, one which says that you "understand" the belle's blog) is a tough job. And that will only make it easier for Bush to win the election again!
Got more... but enough for now.
Speaking of Maximum City, is this some new guerilla affiliate marketing scheme you're into? Rokhda kitna mil raha hain?
I don't know if I agree with Rahul's view. I've read all the mags myself but no amount of familiarity is going to transform Veerappan into Robin Hood. In this case, one can safely say -
Killing/Poaching - Wrong
Kidnapping/Murders - Ditto
Sex for money - Your call baby!
The other thing that struck me when I read her blog is how different our experiences are, merely on account of our professions. My uncle used to love working for the airlines for this very reason.
Now Belle's are a little "deeper" and grosser (read the entry where some guy wanted to piss on her) than what you'd care to read about but I'm betting she won't suffer from writer's block anytime soon.
"The other thing that struck me when I read her blog is how different our experiences are, merely on account of our professions."That counter intuitive? 'Twixt programming and prostitution I'm startled at the similarites. Excerpts from Sting's "Tomorrow we'll see", with which, intrepus, you could begin your in-the-works article/book
Second pack of cigarettes
It's a slow night, but there's time yet
Here comes the john from his other life
He may be driving to his wife
But he slowed down, take a look
I've learned to read them just like books
It's already half past ten
But they'll be back again
and...
Don't judge me
You could be me in another life
In another set of circumstances
Don't judge me
One more night
I'll just have to take my chances
For tomorrow we'll see
and my favourite...
They say the first's the hardest trick
But after that it's just a matter of logic
They have the money I have the time
Being pretty's my only crime
Ask what future do I see
I say it's really up to me
I don't need forgiving
I'm just making a living
and, while you're at it, nothing works more ironically than...
My skirt's too short
My tights are run
These new heels are killing me
Very interesting posts. Now, though you guys (deep and space) might not agree with each other, I agree with both of you! Indulgez moi -
clearly, prostitutes and pogrammers are in it for the money. So, there are similarities but they don't end there (and ironically, this is where the dis-similarities begin too).
Prostitution can be broadly classified as "Sex without Love". Now, programming, I would say, is actually "Love without Sex". And if you didn't know -
Love without Sex
is still the most efficient form
of hell known to manFor those of you who are poetically-challenged, that's a haiku.
So, ideally we would want to have all three - "Money, Love and Sex". But that's the ieal case. You can conceivably, also have both "Love and Sex" and that is when you willingly work at something where you don't care for the money.
But if you do care for the money, would you rather have Love or Sex? I could go on with this metaphor but will wait for your answers...and space esp, please don't sit on the fence and give me the sex in the short-term, love in the long-term answer. That would be prgramming by the day and prostitution by night kinda answer - hey, isn't that what most people are anyway doing?
You've misunderstood me completely. I meant different in a 'taxicab confessions" way.
While we're quoting songs, in response to IMan's LS&M, let me remind you on what's truly important.
"Nowadays everybody wants to talk like they got something to say
But nothin comes out when they move they lips
Just a buncha gibberish
And muthaf---as act like they forgot about Dre"
"This is the millenium of Aftermath
Ain't gonna be nothin after that
So give me one more platinum plaque and f*** rap, you can have it back"
Forgot about Dre?
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