April 28, 2008
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Creepy or Kinky
Has “creepy” acquired a new connotation while I wasn’t paying attention? I have always taken it to mean “making the skin crawl,” as in eerie.
Merriam-Webster has it as:
1: producing a nervous shivery apprehension <a creepy horror story>; also : eerie
2: of, relating to, or being a creep : annoyingly unpleasantThe Online Etymology Dictionary says:
Creepy (1831) refers to the sensation of creeping in the flesh caused by horror or repugnance. Creepy-crawly first recorded 1858. The creeps first attested 1849, in Dickens.This issue came up because a couple of evenings back I finally found wing’d, the book of Kyle Simonsen‘s poetry I’d bought some time ago, maybe even as long ago as 2007. It had been lost in my clutter, evidently carried off by cats who liked the phosphorescent lime green ribbons that came tied around it.
Having finally had a chance to read it, I found reason to question the judgment laid upon it by someone who signed him-or-herself, “Blood Pudding Press”, who, in thanking me for buying it, called the work, “creepy/yummy.”
I wouldn’t want to eat it, nor even want to taste it, but I understand that “yummy” has become a more or less generic expression of approval. It is the “creepy” part that puzzles me.
Perhaps the writer of that little thank you note gets creeped out about sex…
naah, that can’t be it, not in this enlightened day and age.
If I thought some such characterization were necessary — and in a sense I do think it’s important to replace that “creepy” judgment with something more apropos — I’d say the poetry gets a bit kinky in places.
2: relating to, having, or appealing to unconventional tastes especially in sex; also : sexually deviant
3: outlandish, far-outI have always enjoyed the way the man plays with words. Here is one example, from the poem, “canyons flood.”
i thought hard about what i’d done
and tore a muscle in my groin;
sat in the booth and caught my breath
and bottled it.
sure enough, i’ll need it again soon.Not the strongest example from the book, that one is one of few that I felt could be extracted, a brief snippet, without suffering too much from losing its context. Kyle’s words carry me on long strange convoluted journeys, but they certainly don’t creep me out. Maybe I’m missing something. My main problem with poetry in general is that it makes me work to get it. I keep making the effort because sometimes, like this time, there are rewards.
Comments (19)
It’s about paradox. You’re a Goddess with that. I said so at the GSTF forums. Where I made you mah hero.
Ur creeping me out man……
That word already had a new connowhateveritakes…..
Kinky? That would be me in my new starched crimpoline undies…..
Did I make you go ewwwweeeee?
@benevolentMitch - No, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you made me go, “WTF is crimpoline?” “Eeeeww” isn’t part of my vocabulary, much less, “ewwwweeeee.” I did say “eeewww” recently, but it was done facetiously. That reaction just isn’t in my emotional repertoire. Nothing creeps me out. That part of my brain got broken or burned out long ago.
I dunno, I get creeped out about sex sometimes, even in this day and age, so maybe the writer of that note meant exactly what was written. lol
I haven’t read the book so I won’t comment on it, but as far as the connotations “creepy” carries to me is exactly what you said, as in “weird” or “eerie.” “Kinky” is always about sex or sexual fetish in my book. Maybe “Blood Pudding Press” isn’t as familiar with sex in general and may have found for themselves some of the poet’s work as “creepy” because they’re “babes as to badness,” so to speak. I hope that makes sense. In other words, I can see how the average Joe or Jane would call a sexual fetish or “kinky” preference as “creepy” or “weird” because they themselves would never think of – much less engage in – such a devious deed, in their opinion… Maybe it has a lot to do with the image S&M has painted with regard to “strange sex”, and yeah, to some people it can be downright weird, especially when you consider that S&M activity involves the acceptance or even invitation of pain relating to what is generally supposed to a pleasureable and relaxing experience.
@Celestial_Rose2002 -
@disentangle -
I was being disingenuous. I know that some people find even normal, unkinky, sex repulsive or disgusting, but that’s pathological. See my reply to benevolentMitch, above, for my personal take on things. I was being facetious with Mitch, too. I didn’t burn out my repulsion circuits, I transcended that shit.
@SuSu - Ohhh ok. I getcha.
Cool.
@SuSu - Ahhh, “I see,” said the blind man…
glad you managed to find it, read it, and (it seems like) enjoy it!
the signatory of said note was almost certainly Juliet Cook, the editor of BPP who did everything for “wing’d” but actually writing the poems. and my take is this: “creepy” is a perfectly adequate adjective for the collection, especially considering that first definition you provided from M-W: “1: producing a nervous shivery apprehension”. without having a copy of the ms. in front of me, as i recall, esp. in the latter half of the chapbook, themes largely revolve around the minimalization, marginalization, and eventually extermination of humanity, which i have no doubt is a source of apprehension for a rather large number of folks. i would cite “the last girl on earth” and “said the machine to the poet” as maybe the top two incidences of this phenomenon.
also let me put to rest other false speculation: in my experience reading her poetry and conversing with her during the publication of “wing’d”, Mrs. Cook is certainly not “creeped out by sex”, at least not in general, and if she is creeped out a bit she probably enjoys the sensation. i think she’d agree that some of “wing’d” is “kinky” (i would too) and also “weird”… that’s definitely the tone i was aiming for.
i think this is all kind’ve picky semantics. denotations may be standard (actually, they never are), but connotations are largely subjective and relative aside from broad social connotations. i suspect your initial reaction to “kinky” is pretty close to Juliet’s initial reaction to “creepy”.
part of what i like about poetry is that it makes you work a little bit (at least, most good poetry does) although i don’t think you should HAVE to work at it too hard to enjoy it. but i think sometimes people look at poetry that doesn’t read narratively or clearly like it’s a puzzle that they have to figure out, and then it will all make sense, but that’s just not the way most modern, post-modern, or contemporary poetry is. it’s not a math problem or a logic puzzle or a rubik’s cube. it’s pretty much just a series of phonemes and morphemes intended to be evocative of images, sensations, and emotions. at least, that’s what it is when i write a poem. it seems like most other people are trying to offer lessons and give advice, but i’m not wise enough for that, and too direct to guise that sort of thing in a poem.
i’ll point Juliet’s attention here and maybe she can clarify herself.
i’m just happy and honored you got my book and gave it a shot and bothered to blog about it. love for you, kathy.
I’m going to have to buy this book now:) Oh darn, another book…..
@TheCrimsonNinja - After reading your comment, I had to go back and read again what I had written, and sure enough, it says what I thought I’d said, even though you don’t seem to have read it that way.
I suppose “the last girl on earth” and “said the machine to the poet” would strike some people as creepy. They didn’t give me any chills, or turn my stomach, or anything. They impressed me with their insight, perception, whatever… I guess, if you were aiming at weird, I didn’t get the point.
In my book, Hallmark cards are weird, and you don’t fall into their category at all. You often express a view of reality that, if not actually my own, is that of the articulate males closest to me.
yeah, well, as you’ve pointed out, it’s subjective, right? So to answer you question, simply, as far as I know creepy is still creepy–but we all may find different things creepy eh? Or something not at all, I suppose.
@SuSu - as i like to think of myself as a (relatively) articulate male, i’m honored. and i would agree, in that i think hallmark cards are creepy as well; i think that may be part of the point! you and i probably find different things creepy than the public at large because much of our worldview is different. i related strongly to your statement about “that part of your brain being broken” in reference to being “grossed out” or whatever benevolentmitch was getting at.
curious as to what you felt i must have misinterpreted?
’Maybe “Blood Pudding Press” isn’t as familiar with sex in general’
Hahaha! Maybe Blood Pudding Press is virginal!
This is Juliet Cook, editor of Blood Pudding Press and publisher of Kyle Simonsen’s poetry chapbook, ‘w i n g’d’. Kyle directed me to this entry and comments section and I’m glad he did. I quite enjoyed reading it.
I like the word ‘creepy’, but admittedly it probably applies to my own poetry and some of the other poetry Blood Pudding Press publishes moreso than Kyle’s poetry. I don’t think his poetry is eerie, but I do think that some of its juxtapositions are unsettling in their own unusual way (less of a ghost story way; more of a contemporary dissonance kind of way) and I do agree with what he said in his comment above that some of his content just might make one’s skin crawl with apprehension–or with hideous anticipation and kinky joie de vivre!
Since I myself like the word ‘creepy’ and the juxtaposition of ‘creepy/yummy’, I guess I have sometimes used that phrase as a bit of a catchphrase for Blood Pudding Press. Perhaps I should reconsider that. I must admit I’m not the most literal person on the block, though.
As far as sex, I only like it if it involves multiple octopi. Creepy! Yummy!
Thanks for buying, reading, and blogging about Kyle’s book. He’s a very uniquely evocative poet, I think.
@TheCrimsonNinja - I’m not sure where there was misinterpretation, if any. Maybe I misinterpreted what I read as a defensive tone in your comment. I wasn’t aware of having attacked anyone or anything, so I wondered why the defenses came up.
It’s all clear to me now that Juliet explained that “creepy/yummy” is a meaningless catchphrase. I was mistaken in trying to find meaning in it.
BTW, in my lexicon, “creepy,” is a pejorative term, as in, “of or pertaining to a creep,” and a creep is a person nobody likes to have around. I went to the dictionary for help, because I couldn’t understand why your publisher would be cutting on your work that way.
…and just in case the tongue in my cheek is not obvious enough this time:
Indeed.
haha.
i sure wasn’t trying to be defensive. just having fun with the conversation, actually. i really, really like talking about words. it’s a disease. fortunately, they give me a degree for it instead of a cure!
I just paused in the middle of writing (typed writhing first) another entry about words (and other stuff), to check comments and my home/inbox for recent developments. Thank you for not being offended by my obscure praise of your work.
I neglected to mention one of the sweet little side issues about that book. When I slipped the ribbons off and opened it, there on the title page, was a handwritten “23″ in the blank, “You have acquired #_____ in a print run of 50.”
It first seemed so perfectly apropos, then I realized that I might be making much of nothing, that someone could easily write “23″ in all 50 blanks. Either way, it fits, is fitting.
Great Post! Thanks for sharing!!
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