literally throws herself at men
Lilly McElroy likes to throw herself around. At men, onto her bed, through the air. A performative photographer and video artist, McElroy seems to have a lot of fun making refreshingly spontaneous pictures. I asked her to explain the procedure behind her photographs and this is what she sent me:
“I started the project by placing an ad on Craig’s list looking for men who would meet me at bars blind date style and let me literally throw myself at them. This worked fairly well, but limited the # of photos I could take. Now , I go to bars with a friend/photographer and approach men who are physically larger than I am. I ask them if I can literally throw myself at them. If they say yes, I have myself photographed doing it and buy them a drink afterwards. If it seems like they want to hang out, I’ll have a drink as well. Sometimes we talk about the project and sometimes we just chat. I don’t have a specific set up for the photos. I just want them to look as much like snap shots or party pics as possible.”
Link: The Year in Pictures, Lilly McElroy (via BoingBoing)
Related: more literally throwing of oneself
February 15th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Okay, now I have to say something about this, because she’s not quite as wrong as I presume most of the others on this weblog are.
There are not two but three ways you can take the phrase “throw myself at him.”
The usual one is the most figurative: “aggressively make it known that I want to sleep with him” (or perhaps just “be with him”).
The literal one is “put myself in my hand and lob myself in his direction,” which is of course impossible.
But there’s a middle definition, which is not as figurative as the former, but not as literal as the latter: “Propel my body towards him as though I had been thrown.”
Is it literal? No. But it is decidedly more literal than the typical definition. In cases like this, I find “literally” to be perhaps not quite correct, but at the very least extremely more acceptable than the usual offense.
February 16th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
This is actually correct. The word “throw” doesn’t necessarily imply the use of an arm–it can (and in this case does) mean “to propel through the air in any manner” (from Merriam Webster Online).
March 5th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I would agree with the previous posters — this is not an incorrect usage. The speaker is differentiating a physical act from the figurative idiom.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:17 am
I agree with the other posters. This usage is correct.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
And what the hell is a “performative” artist? Don’t they mean a performance artist??
August 16th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Oh, I’ve seen this, actually! It was featured in an art museum in my area about six months ago, and the pictures turned out spectacularly.
I’m more than a little impressed that an artist featured in my podunk little town made it to the Literally blog.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
[…] I’d advise against the t-shirt and rolled up blazer sleeves look.. it’s literally textbook Miami Vice, LITERALLY(ha.) […]