I would not agree that gonzo is defined by the sex acts involved.

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"Gonzo can take on several different forms. It can vary from the cameraman (in adult, very often the director) interviewing the actors, or participating in the scene with dialogue and/or sex. It can also mean that the actors are simply acknowledging the fact that there is a camera shooting what they are doing. So, although in adult gonzo, the cameraman is usually somehow visible or audible, simply the actors playing to the camera constitutes a gonzo scene."

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On a distantly related tangent, many people (including myself) also misuse the word "monogamous." Look it up in Webster's, for example, and you'll see that it has nothing to do with a sexually exclusive relationship but simply refers to having only one marriage partner at a time. So technically, if the partners in an open marriage take other lovers but don't marry them, they're still monogamous. Likewise, technically, unmarried partners can't be monogamous even if they have no other sexual partners.

Isn't it weird how language comes to mean something completely different from what was originally intended?

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Monogamous:

3 : the condition or practice of having a single mate during a period of time <monogamy is common among birds>

I think the source of the seeming incompleteness of the other definitions is the rather (willfully) naive notion that sex does take place outside of marriage. I don't think anyone need fear looking foolish by using monogamous to mean sexually exclusive.

RE: Gonzo

While eye contact between subject and camera has long been used in still pornography, looking directly into the lens is mostly considered extreme corrosive to the conceit that the camera is an invisible observer of the events transpiring before it. Extras that make the mistake of looking into the camera during a take are (usually) terminated with extreme prejudice.

The genius of gonzo was the (re)discovery that the "fourth wall" need not be maintained to give the viewer a satisfying voyeristic/masterbatory experience (I say rediscovered because there is a world of old B/W loops that were doing this long before the Golden Age of Porn, let alone Gonzo,) and that in fact, the disruption of this traditional boundry between audience/camera could be the source of intense eroticism.

Shedding the conceit of the invisible camera/observer is a powerful technique. It relieves the director of all sorts of obligations, and excuses a world of bobbles and gaffs that would be utterly unacceptable in a traditional narrative filmmaking style. As compared to "Hollywood-style", it is less hungry for production resources by many orders of magnitute, and as such is well suited for the ultra-low budget world that porn inhabits (what is considered a big porn budget would be considered laughably low in the world of labor of love independent filmmaking.)

Unfortunately, needing less money to execute convincingly is not the same as needing less thought, and more often than not "breaking the fourth wall" is as much a result of a filmmakers lack of talent as it is his lack of budget.

-T.C.

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-T.C.

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That's okay. I knew what you meant.

-T.C.

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Apparently, the word really has evolved over the past 18 years, and I really need to buy a new dictionary.

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My biggest problem is my spelling is soooo bad often times spell-checkers and online dictionaries can't even figure out what I'm trying to spell

-T.C.

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Now ya'll made me pull out my (paper) copy of Merriam-Webster and mine is older than YogaGrrl's, and it has the same shortfalling. Guess it's time for me to update my dictionary.

DenverDon

Edited by - DenverDon on 4/25/2004 6:43:37 PM

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Cheese!

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A useful dictionary search tool that also includes a reverse dictionary where you type in the concept and generate words.

A dictionary of slang with some cute definitions of gonzo amongst other things.

An aside on the evolution of words

"the practice of engaging in multiple sexual relationships with the knowledge and consent of all the people involved"

The word was coined in 1992 by the polyamory usenet-newsgroup.

It's interesting how popular culture creates and influences language development. Kind of makes me wonder when we'll see some of those delicious position descriptions ala "Reverse Cowgirl" in the Oxford Dictionary of English?

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Dave Cummings

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BTW, if you want a reason to kill yourself, go ask Jim Holliday what a double penetration is and isn't.

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Now, there are many different ways to do that, vignette scenarios, interaction from behind the camera etc, or a minimalist, simpler approach like RLD, but it all lends itself to the concept of heightening the voyeuristic thrill of the viewer.

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Taylor Lynn Yahoo Group

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