Thread: The Conflict of the Cut: Thoughts about Pleasure and Pain

It's true that nerves can be pushed and feel pain. In a society that overenforces the promise of security, the reason offered by authority is this need to avoid pain. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound a cure; an ounce of protection and security is worth...

And without a doubt this has been proven to be true, so we have to keep it in mind. Gillette safety razors have made hair removal so much safer...really, a child could do it.

And as much as I appreciate safety razors for some body parts, the passion that I feel for straight razor shaving is worth so very much more than that promise of safety will ever be worth. True, I cut myself, a lot in the beginning, very, very rarely now. But I just did last week, right by my lip.

I shaved at night and went to work the next day. I'm a professor, so my students and colleagues, even at the committee meeting, they all saw that I had a gash. Who knows what they thought, but we all do tend to notice things like that on others' faces.

We all feel some sympathy for the pain, I suppose, a natural human response. Perhaps some of us are laughed at, too.

Why risk both the physical pain and possible emotional pain? For the passion. The danger is a thrill.

And the point to be made is that there's a fine line between pushing the nerves so they have something to feel and damaging or desensitizing the nerves. That line is the edge of the straight razor, to think about it metaphorically.

Because pleasure and pain are so close, if we avoid something that might be painful, we might never know the pleasure one can come to experience after mastering the skill and art of doing a potentially dangerous thing well.

I suppose I like to live a little, I guess. That's why I shave with a straight razor.

And the universe keeps telling me it's a wonderful thing, despite the occasional cuts. Matter of fact, it was only a day or two later, and the crusty scab line was still there so glaringly on my face, but then it was that I happened to connect in person with another straightrazorplace member, really by chance.

He happened to have recently cut himself, too, so we laughed. And we talked razors. It was quite wonderful, actually, and rare as I haven't met too many others who shave like I do.

I don't know if too many people like the way I live and think, but I guess I'm not shy about sharing my views.

While this post is about straight razor shaving, it really is also about what my writing partner and I tried to accomplish in our new book, a short novel. It most certainly is not a Disney story.

...leaves the room quietly, hoping no one notices him...

Originally Posted by billyjeff2

...leaves the room quietly, hoping no one notices him...

… I saw you and have surreptitiously followed you out. Fancy a beer?

I've never thought of shaving with a cutthroat as dangerous. It's irritating and inconvenient if you manage to nick yourself.
Compared to say, actually risking your neck racing motorcycles or downhill skiing.
Driving to work probably carries a greater risk of sustaining a life-threatening injury than shaving.

Reading your post, I'd guess... professor of English?

Originally Posted by AlanII

… I saw you and have surreptitiously followed you out. Fancy a beer?

First round's on me.

Originally Posted by xman

First round's on me.

Can I come?

You don't want to know how many Bud Lights I've just had! (C'mon, they were from a pitcher and we had some ladies with us.)

Yes, English professor. I guess that's obvious from the word choices.

I try to tell my students that it's the same thing. It's all the same thing.

I've argued that intelligence is a kind of precision with language, hence my love for straight razor shaving. The more precisely I do it, the better. The more precisely I comma, the better.

But some people think we English professors are stuffy about it, but that's just the job. You can't be a good plumber if every time you join pipes, there's a leak. I'm just an expert in joining sentences...

That doesn't, by the way, imply I'm any good at the artistry of it. That'll be up to my hoped for readers.

:-)