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2008-10-23

Should you masturbate before gambling?

SEATTLE, Washington - I've already discussed how masturbation does not adversely affect athletic performance - but what about gambling? Jean Genet, in The Thief's Journal, claims that a pre-gambling spank was standard practice in the circles he ran in:

He led me a few steps away to the one comfort station on the Parallelo. It was run by an old woman. Surprised by the suddenness of his decision, I questioned him:

"What are you going to do?"

"Wait for me."

"Why?"

He answered with a Spanish word which I did not understand. I told him so and, in front of the old woman who was waiting for her two sous, he burst out laughing and made the gesture of jerking off. When he came out, his face had a bit of color. He was still smiling.

"It's all right now. I'm ready."

That's how I learned that, on big occasions, players went there to jerk off in order to be calmer and more sure of themselves. We went back to the lot. Pépé chose a group. He lost. He lost all he had.
(From the Grove Press translation)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would suspect you should masturbate a few hours before gambling. If you do it just before, you might be drowsy. That would be very bad. But you don't want to not do it and be thinking about banging some hot chick who walks by and distracts you.

Anonymous said...

leave it to you to have a post with the keywords "ass, books" together. How does one mix literature and porn so seamlessly? It boggles my mind.

Jeff said...

Goat, just be glad I didn't write about the coprophilia scene in Gravity's Rainbow