Eleven Minutes...

[General Gonad]

I recently purchased a copy of Paulo Coelho's book, Eleven Minutes. It is the story of Maria, a young Brazilian girl who leaves her village convinced she will never find true love. She ventures off to Geneva to find fame and fortune where she SPs for a while before meeting a handsome young painter who she falls in love with.

This is a brilliant book from one of today's best authors (Coelho has also written Zahir and the Alchemist). If you have not read it, then go buy a copy. It's simply the best book you'll read this summer and if you're a client or SP, you'll really appreciate it. I devoured this book, wanting to read every extract of Maria's diary in each chapter.

I have decided to devote a thread to it. Again, nothing you'll read on the boards or anywhere else will compare to this book - it's an incredible journey. I can't believe it took me so long to discover it.

From Maria's diary when she discovers why men pay for sex:

"I have discovered the reason why a man pays for a woman: he wants to be happy. He wouldn't pay a thousand francs just to have an orgasm. He wants to be happy. I do too, everone does and no one is. What have I got to lose, if for a while, I decide to become a...it's a difficult word to think or even write...but lets' be blunt...what have I got to lose if I become a prostitute for a while?

Honor, Dignity, Self-respect. Although when I think about it, I've never had any of those things. I didn't ask to be born. I've never found anyone to love me, I've always made the wrong decisions - now I am letting life decide for me."

 

[chef]

.......................... I've always made the wrong decisions - now I am letting life decide for me."

I'm ambivalent about that last phrase: as much as I like it, it also sounds defeatist.

 

[General Gonad]

hey gg
welcome back
someone mentioned there is another handle here and the person claimed to be you
is it possible you were posting under 2 handles--i cant remember the handle

oliver

Olie,

I can guarantee you that it was not me...I always had one handle on all boards. Maybe Tony was trying to imposter me.

>>Chef,

It is not defeatist, only the reality - sometimes in life we are unable to decide our fate so we let life decide for us.

GG (it's good to be back home)

 

[General Gonad]

Why 11 minutes?

An excerpt worth from the book:

The men she had met since she arrived in Geneva always did everything they could to appear confident, as if they were in perfect control of the world and of their lives; Maria, however, could see in their eyes that they were afraid of their wife, the feeling of panic that they might not be able to get an erection, that they might not seem manly enough even to the ordinary prostitute whom they were paying for her services. If they went to a shop and didn't like the shoes they had bought, they would be quite prepared to go back, receipt in hand and demand a refund. And yet, even though they were paying for some female company, if they didn't manage to get an erection, they would be too ashamed ever to go back to the same club again because they would assume that all the other women there would know.

"I'm the only one who should feel ashamed for being unable to arouse them, but, no, they always blame themselves."

To avoid such embarrassments, Maria always tried to put men at their ease, and if someone seemed drunker or more fragile than usual, she would avoid full sex and concentrate instead on caresses and masturbation, which always seemed to please them immensely, absurd though this might seem, since they could perfectly well masturbate on their own.

She had to make sure that they didn't feel ashamed. These men, so powerful and arrogant at work, constantly having to deal with employees, customers, suppliers, prejudices, secrets, posturings, hypocrisy, fear and oppression, ended their day in a nightclub they didn't mind spending three hundred and fifty Swiss francs to stop being themselves for a night.

"For a night? Now come on, Maria, you're exaggerating. It's really only forty-five minutes, and if you allow time for taking off clothes, making some phony gesture of affection, having a bit of banal conversation, and getting dressed again, the amount of time actually spent on having sex is about eleven minutes."

Eleven minutes. The world revolved around something that only took eleven minutes.

 

[breadman]

I always try not to be too specific with personal comments, especially those that involve other people. Too many coincidences and someone can figure out who you are...

Id suggest deleting this thread once its all over and done with so nobody might stumble upon the same vacation description and put 2 and 2 together.

 

[General Gonad]

breadman,

Please read your PM and thanks for the advice.

GG

 

[chef]

Sounds like a very versatile writer. One of his books that was recommended to me, but that I have not yet read, was about his trip through Santiago de Compostela.

 

[Special K]

My Mistake...

I thought the title of this thread "Eleven Minutes" was referring to the combined length of your retirements from this board and the hobby GG. LOL!

 

[EagerBeaver]

I thought the title of this thread "Eleven Minutes" was referring to the combined length of your retirements from this board and the hobby GG. LOL!

LOL!

Sorry GG but that was a good one.

 

[Just-ass-weet]

One of my Favorite books!

I think we discussed this book, didn't we!? I read this book when it first came out and I have read it about 3 more times since! Another book, not as well publicized and his other books is "By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept" (http://bookreviews.nabou.com/reviews/bytheriverpiedra.html)

xoxox
Anik

 

[General Gonad]

I thought the title of this thread "Eleven Minutes" was referring to the combined length of your retirements from this board and the hobby GG. LOL!

SK,

RALFMAO - I fell off my chair laughing! Thanks for that!

>>Anik,

I miss you...great minds think alike! This really is a fantastic book, worth a thread and I plan on sharing some more insights from Maria's diary. Thank you for sharing your other recommendation.

GG

 

[General Gonad]

Sometimes life is mean...

The beginning of a chapter:

"Sometimes life is mean: a person can spend days, weeks, months and years without feeling anything new. Then when a door opens - as happened with Maria when she met Ralf Hart - a positive avalanche pours in. One moment you have nothing, the next, you have more than you can cope with."

 

[General Gonad]

Maria,Terence & the Marquis de Sade

Maria meets Terence, a 'special' client of the club she worked at and she doesn't know what to make of their first encounter, which she found very strange and somewhat humiliating. She asks him "was this worth a thousand francs?" Terence reflects and responds:

"I've asked myself the same thing. The Marquis de Sade said that the most important experiences a man can have are those that take him to the very limit; that is the only way we can learn, because it requires all our courage. When a boss humiliates an employee, or a man humiliates his wife, he is merely being cowardly or taking his revenge on life, they are people who have never dared to look at the depths of their soul, never attempted to know the origin of that desire to unleash the wild beast, or to understand that sex, pain and love are all extreme experiences."

"Only those who know those frontiers know life; everything else is just passing time, repeating the same tasks, growing old and dying without ever having discovered what we are doing here."

 

[General Gonad]

Ralf Hart pondering happiness...

I love this passage:

"But he wasn't. While most of humanity was scrabbling for a piece of bread, a roof over their head and a job that would allow them to live with dignity, Ralf Hart had all of that, and it only made him feel more wretched. If he looked back on what his life had been lately, e had perhaps managed two or three days when he had woken up, looked at the sun - or the rain - and felt glad to see the morning, just happy without wanting anything, planning anything or asking anything in exchange. Apart from those few days, the rest of his existence had been wasted on dreams, both frustrated and realized - a desire to go beyond himself, to go beyond his limitations; he had spent his life trying to prove something but he didn't know what or to whom.

He looked at the beautiful woman before him, who was discreetly dressed in black, someone he had met by chance, although he he had seen her before at the nightclub and thought that she seemed out of place. She had asked him to desire her, and he desired her intensely, far more than he could imagine, but it wasn't her breasts or her body, it was her company he desired. He wanted to put his arms around her and sit in silence, staring into the fire,drinking wine, smoking the occasional cigarette; that would be enough. Life was made up of all simple things; he was weary of all the years he had spent searching for something, though quite what he didn't know.

An yet, if he did that, if he touched her, all would be lost. For, despite the "light" he could see in Maria, he wasn't sure she realized how good it was for him to be by her side. Was he paying? Yes, and he would continue paying as long as it took to win her, to sit with her by the lakeside and speak of love, and to hear her say the same thing. It was best not to take any chances, not to rush things, not to say anything.

Ralf Hart stopped tormenting himself and concentrated once more on the game they had just created together. The woman before him was right; the wine, the fire, the cigarettes and the company were not enough in themselves; another kind of intoxication was required.

She was wearing a black dress with shoulder straps; she was revealing one breast; he could see her skin, more dark than pale. He desired her. He desired her intensely."

Isn't that a great passage?

GG

 

[hobby11]

i have read this book and

i give it a 7/10

 

[Juliana]

I so agree with you !

IMHO, no I can't stand Paulo Coelho, I see him as a sham. I read the Alchemist and I can't understand why everybody found it so marvelous. It seems cheap and superficial poetry mixed with clichés. My Humble Opinion...

I was soooo looking fowarding to read this book because some guy told me about it and he loved it.
To my desapointment I kept reading it and reading it. And waiting for the book to become interesting, no way !
It is writting with very poor vocabulary and it is pretentious because the author assumes he knows what sex workers are thinking or going through.
It is very male center perspective in the female experience and the book is monotonous like a boring artistic french movie. Plus she is way too uninteresting to be brazilian becoming sex worker travelling abroad, brazilians like her dont go anywhere.

I agree with Martin68 this book lacks substance and it is full of steretypes of what is espected of the sex worker persona in the status quo world.

I have meet sex workers who did not have formal education but they were never as boring as the character of Eleven Minutes.

If you guys want to read an interesting book about the sex industry please read
The Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl by Tracy Quan, this is a book of the female perspective. I guess what we are lacking is a book about the sex industry from a guy who truly loves women without having to put women down, I would say a feminist guy who can see beyond patriarchy.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Other readings

General Gonad,

You seem to be a fan of writers with flowery and ornate styles. May I suggest several readings - the first would be "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac, the legendary beat generation writer. You may be interested to know that Kerouac was of French Canadian ancestry, although he grew up in New York City. Obviously he is considered by many to be one of the literary giants of the 20th century. The book is a must read on several levels, for both its content and its style.

The other more contemporary work would be the masterpiece "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier, whose second book I understand to be due very soon. Frazier is an English professor at North Carolina State University.

By the ways, regarding Kerouac, you may be interested to know that he was a star halfback on the Columbia University football team. However, Kerouac is not even the most famous former Columbia athlete, not by a long shot. The most famous former Columbia athlete was a man who attended Columbia on a full scholarship, studied engineering and starred on Columbia's baseball team. Do you know who I am talking about?

 

[JuIcE_Y]

reviewing coehlo

First of all, let me say that I am a huge Paolo Coehlo 'VENDU', meaning that he could write a recipe for Sheapards pie (explaining how the beef, corn and potatoes each have a place in our unconcious mind and need to be given equal importance to allow us to be lead towards our personal dreams) and I would want to read it.
My Coehlo obsession started with a friend lending me the Alchemist and stating that I would most likely enjoy it. I DID. not because it was life changing but because it expressed in complete beauty what my own perspective on life was. Okay, I have to admit that I have always been a sucker for quotes like: Life is a journey, not a destination, or; dont frown, cause you never know when someone will fall in love with your smile. Thus, I have sometimes been accused of having a 50 cent philosophy. But its kept me strong and happy and I havent turned cynical yet.
To me the Alchemist was packed with magic and a beautiful message written in a language so simple that it talks directly to the innocent child inside us.
I do believe there is a time for every book. I read this one in a point in my life where I felt a bit lonely in the perspective I held, and this book only came to reinforce my vision.
Next, someone told me about 'Au bord de la rivière Piedra, je me suis assis et j'ai pleuré,' saying it was phenomenal. With a title like that, and the Alchemist under my belt, I was intrigued. It was a nice read but it didnt come and get me.
'The Fifth Mountain' is a must for all of you Coehlo fans. MAybe I enjoyed it cuz I know so little about religion, and enjoy learning very much. I like old mythical stories, and this is one about Elie the prophet. I went to read whats written in the bible after reading the book and basically what coehlo did was make a story up for the passage where it says that elie was in a village for a while. I thought it was beautiful!
'eleven minutes' was a nice read but I have to admit that I was dissapointed. I would have expected more rawness, if you know what I mean. I have to say that the dominating part in it really got to me (but maybe thats because im very easily excited) It was very well done though... but the whole love story and her writing in her journal didnt really fit. I felt like there were a couple of different books in it. I was expecting more PUNCH!
Anyways, what Im trying to say in this post, I think, is that every book will have its effect on different people at different times. Even if I've been dissapointed a bit I still think his books are great. I guess this must be how love feels...lol
Take care all!
XXXXX

 

[JuIcE_Y]

Oh My... IM embarrassed

I just realised that All through my post I have mispelled Coelho's name. AAHHH!! I'm a terible spellar (i did this one on purpose) HaHa! so sorry bout this and future spelling mistakes.
XXXXX

 

[EagerBeaver]

EB -- you could only be talking about Lou Gehrig

Bingo! The Pride of the Yankees was also once the Pride of Columbia.