Here's an unusual query

[pantryslut]

Is there anyone out there on my f-list who's familiar enough with the Black Dahlia case that I can vent at them about something I just figured out re: Steve Hodel? I am hopping mad and I need to share with someone who will understand what the hell I am ranting and raving about. Don't make me write crackpot letters to strangers!

Comments

[bkwrrm-tx.livejournal.com]

Rant away. I've been fascinated by that case for about 30 years.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

OK. You know about Steve Hodel's "mysterious unidentified nude woman" photo from his father's album? The one he i.d.'s as Elizabeth Short even though nobody else thinks it looks like her at all?

You know how George Hodel was BFFs with Man Ray?

The woman in the photo is (most likely, imho) Juliet Man Ray.

Look at the photo and then look at Man Ray's portrait of Juliet with a stocking over her head, and you'll see their features match.

As far as I can tell nobody's ever put this together before (which makes me feel a little crackpotty, but oh well), but it seems like a much more likely, if less lurid, explanation.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna screen that link b/c of the crime scene photos.

Do you mean the Surrealist connection in general? I think it's interesting but not incriminating. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Duchamp's art was inspired by the crime scene, but so what? And yes, Surrealist art is full of women treated as objects (literally), dismembered women, dissected women, women who are treated violently in other ways, dehumanized women. But again, so what? I don't think there's any concrete connection any more than there is to the Lustmord fascination in Germany in the 20s -- which is to say, yes, yet another expression of that time and place's sexualized hatred of women that's scary and suggestive but, to my eyes, not much more.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Oh, good catch! That makes perfect sense--I know Juliet did tons of modeling for Man Ray's friends.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear other people think it makes sense, too. Helps me feel a little less batty :)

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

It makes sense to me. I have to add, though, that I thought the Steve Hodel book was a piece of crap, with a lot of crazy assumptions and guesses. Why are you hopping mad about this?

(I can't see the link, just says "screened comment".)

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I think the Steve Hodel book is a piece of crap, too. I'm angry that none of his critics ever put this together before.