{"id":2399,"date":"2012-09-03T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T14:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2024-10-02T11:37:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T15:37:00","slug":"viral-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2012\/09\/viral-reading.html","title":{"rendered":"Viral Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>More than two million YouTube viewers have watched this woman read a book. Imagine that.<br><strong>Update:<\/strong> Dec. 30, 2015 &#8212; That number is now 18.86 million. Yes, you read that right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Further Update:<\/strong> Oct. 2, 2024 \u2014 Viewers now number 30 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PQuT-Xfyk3o?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The woman is <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/46049353\">Stoya<\/a>, and she&#8217;s a porn star. The book is <a href=\"http:\/\/supervert.com\/necrophilia_variations\/\"><em>Necrophilia Variations<\/em><\/a>, described by its author as &#8220;a literary monograph on the erotic attraction to corpses and death.&#8221; Nothing in the video is pornographic, not even the excerpt she reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The video went up on Aug. 1. Within days it had gone viral. The author &#8212; he goes by the name Supervert, and he&#8217;s a friend of mine &#8212; messaged on Aug. 4 that the video was &#8220;getting a bunch of play on Twitter.&#8221; It had over 50,000 views on YouTube. &#8220;Funny thing,&#8221; he added, &#8220;is that, to me, this is better than a front page review in the NY Times. I&#8217;m thrilled.&#8221; A few days later the number skyrocketed to 1.2 million. Supervert messaged again. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never had a better creative thrill in my life.&#8221; But he was not talking about the numbers. He was talking about the video itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes it so fascinating? Here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/stoya.tumblr.com\/post\/28527362494\/hysterical-literature\">what Stoya thinks<\/a>. And here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/supervert.com\/necrophilia_variations\/thoughts_on_hysterical_literature\">what Supervert thinks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/supervert.com\/necrophilia_variations\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" height=\"147\" data-attachment-id=\"2408\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2012\/09\/viral-reading.html\/stoya-1-270\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Stoya-1-270.png\" data-orig-size=\"270,147\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Stoya shows the cover of Necrophilia Variations.\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Stoya shows the cover of Necrophilia Variations.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Stoya-1-270.png\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Stoya-1-270.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2408\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Stoya shows the cover of Necrophilia Variations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/supervert.com\/necrophilia_variations\/sample\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" height=\"148\" data-attachment-id=\"2409\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2012\/09\/viral-reading.html\/stoya-2-270\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Stoya-2-270.png\" data-orig-size=\"270,148\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Stoya reads from Necrophilia Variations.\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Stoya reads from Necrophilia Variations.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Stoya-2-270.png\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Stoya-2-270.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2409\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Stoya reads from Necrophilia Variations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than two million YouTube viewers have watched this woman read a book. Imagine that.Update: Dec. 30, 2015 &#8212; That number is now 18.86 million. Yes, you read that right. Further Update: Oct. 2, 2024 \u2014 Viewers now number 30 million. The woman is Stoya, and she&#8217;s a porn star. The book is Necrophilia Variations, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,18,20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-art","7":"category-literature","8":"category-media","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-CH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62686,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/62686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}