Hysterical Literature, reading and orgasming with Stoya

I LOVE this project. Hysterical Literature is a video art project by Photographer and Filmmaker Clayton Cubitt. Launched in August 2012, it became a viral phenomenon because of its originality and quality!

The concept: women choose a book to read and, seated at a table, they begin to read it. So far, so good. What we don’t see at first, but we guess along the video, is that a hidden “assistant” is stimulating the reader with a vibrator. It is surprisingly hot to watch these women taking pleasure little by little and finally reaching orgasm. Their voice changes and it’s like they’re making love to the story and letters that are coming out of their mind.

Several sessions were recorded, including one with famous porn star Stoya. She reads “Necrophilia Variations” by Supervert, a literary monograph on the erotic attraction to corpses and death. It is sweetly morbid and extremely erotic, especially when read by her. Her orgasm is absolutely awesome. She trembles, smiles and screams. Her thoughts on the experience were: “This section of the world that I’m inhabiting slows down, zooms in. Like a stretched rubber band it suddenly contracts, and I am lovingly punched with an orgasm.”

I love how the set is very minimalistic, and it’s all in black and white, but at the same time it is really powerful and meaningful.

You can watch all the other sessions and know more about the project here.

Hysterical Literature, art and sexuality

With this project, Cubitt’s goals are to short-circuit the “practiced poses of modern media-savvy portrait subjects”, to explore the battle between mind and body, and also to explore the relationships between women’s sexuality and the concept of shame that is spread in our society. He also wants to make art and sex merge together, and I have to say the result is explosive!