Sunday, October 17, 2010

Exploitation Film’s Great Contribution to Popular Culture: Showmanship!



There’s no question about it: when it comes to exploitation — cinema and novels (most often regarded as “pulps”) — there’s often a huge disparity between what’s promised and the final product. Many would strongly argue that the true legacy of exploitation (and its two main sub-genres: horror and sexploitation) exists in the marketing: the lurid book covers and movie posters and trailers produced to advertise “projections” of a product that the makers only wished they produced. These book covers and movie posters and trailers are in fact exploitation’s true cultural contribution — and a fun, lively, and vastly entertaining one at that.
Are these artifacts — obvious by-products of a need to sell a dream or fantasy project — art? Of course, they are. In some strange way they’re all the more endearing because they emerge out of the dreamer’s starry-eyed wish to produce work of such heart-stopping greatness that, by their mere existence, they would catapult you out of the tedium of your daily lives. And that’s part of what I love most about exploitation — even for its let-down “real” product — its feverish, often  demented earnestness and desire to entertain and make you go “Holy Shit!”

There’s no question about it: Exploitation is about putting on “a show” … or, as it’s been often stated, more about selling “the sizzle” not the steak. And now this — COMING SOON TO THIS THEATER! THE GREATEST EXTRAVAGANZA EVER MADE!!!!


PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls
and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana
(as told to Richard Perez)

Richard Perez's PERMANENT OBSCURITY on Amazon





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IS THIS EXPLOITATION NOVEL RIGHT FOR YOU?

"Notebook" for the novel --> http://permanentobscurity.com/

I need to emphasize that PERMANENT OBSCURITY is not "erotica," although it has BDSM overtones (leaning toward so-called "femdom"). It's really a dark comedy about bohemia and the difficulty of relationships (female/male and female/female) and finally the big question for anyone in the arts (or in the tabloid media): sudden fame vs. permanent anonymity. The style of the novel is inspired by '60s over-the-top sexploition films like those of Russ Meyer (FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL KILL, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) and those Something Weird Videos, like A SWEET SICKNESS and BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL [so-called “cautionary tales”]) -- updated to the Bush era (circa 2006).

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)
Written in the 3 parts:

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: PART 1 - THE KINKY HOOK
Whereupon we are introduced to Dolores and Serena and their kinky shenanigans.

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: PART 2 - STRANGE HUNGERS
Whereupon Dolores and Serena grapple with relationship/sexuality issues, life-threatening drug dealers, irreversible money woes. Culminating in a desperate attempt at making a so-called "femdom" film.

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: PART 3 - NO MAN'S LAND
Whereupon Dolores and Serena find themselves in a place not expected. Namely, hell.

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» PERMANENT OBSCURITY: the title and where it came from --> http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-origins-title.htm

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» The subversive power of sexploitation:
pre-porn era sexploitation and its influence --
http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-sexploitation-1.htm

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» BAD GIRL CINEMA (and its influence on the novel):
http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-origins-badgirls.htm

Buy now from AMAZON (U.S.) >> http://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Obscurity-Cautionary-Misadventures-Pornography/dp/0971341540

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» To purchase (foreign countries): http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-buy.htm


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~: About the Author:

 

Initially published small literary magazines, Richard Perez has also written for The New York Times (a newspaper he doesn't read.) His first novel, The Losers' Club (aka: The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition) has three foreign translations to date: Korean, Turkish, Italian. PERMANENT OBSCURITY: or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography, and Death — his second novel — also reflects his infatuation with bohemia and willful nonconformists.


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