Interview with the Virtual Cannibal

Gy Harrop is the avatar of a white, male, French adult whose profession is writer, translator, and artist. PGL, your friendly author, met Gy through mutual friends in Paris. Gy Harrop describes his interest in SL as ancillary. He ventured into the space sideways, by way of video gaming and a philosophical interest in language. It was an interest that very quickly translated into the pointedly erotic value of language in online spaces. “Good graphics” are important to him in video games, he explained, but it is primarily the chat as action, the language-based play in the VW platform that enticed him about SL. In the course of the interview, the tension between textual and graphic representation of virtual sex-acts is a subject discussed.
One of the aspects of the interview that seemed notable was the great appetite for experience in a new format that Gy expressed, with the absence of any shyness, embarrassment, or trepidation about the kind of extreme online sex play he had engaged in. His particularly intellectual tact, his knowingness and analysis of the situation did not seem to diminish his pleasure in it. Additionally, the pleasure he expressed was not circumscribed as sexual pleasure, but the titillation of the whole thing. He gleefully breaks the boundaries of RL decorum in his VW experimentation.
Gy has participated in a gynophagia (eating woman) sex-play group that simulates sexual engagement that includes rape, other forms of violent assault, asphyxiation, and ultimately the death and consumption of the victim. In short, it is cannibalism as extreme sex practice. This manner of sexual intercourse or “lifestyle” transgresses the boundaries of most modern cultures of what may actually be done to another person (legally), but also what may be represented as a desired activity. One is forbidden to eat human flesh.

Excerpts from interview

Location: Second Life, virtual world platform
Date: May 19, 2007
Gy Harrop, the interviewee, resolves as a small monkey that scampers about (avatar suit + animation).
Hapi Sleeper appears in Cute Robot avatar.
The meeting place is Elpida, a picturesque garden.
For the interview they move to a tea house in Sokri, a Japanese town.

1. You're the spectator of your life here

[6:27] Hapi Sleeper: what brought you into SL. and what did you find when you arrived?
[6:27] Gy Harrop: videogames, that's what brought me to SL
[6:27] Gy Harrop: I used to hate chats
[6:27] Hapi Sleeper: yeah, but this is boring as a video game
[6:27] Gy Harrop: you mean..
[6:27] Gy Harrop: SL?
[6:27] Gy Harrop: yeah
[6:28] Gy Harrop: it's often boring
[6:28] Gy Harrop: but the way you can interact with subjects is pretty amazing
[6:28] Hapi Sleeper: video games narrate an experience with much more tempo. i agree, it is the interaction that sets this apart.
[6:28] Gy Harrop: completely
[6:29] Gy Harrop: to me, it's not a game in that sense there's nothing to play with
[6:30] Gy Harrop: the character you forge starts to have his own history
[6:30] Gy Harrop: just like in RL
[6:30] Gy Harrop: through the places he goes to
[6:30] Gy Harrop: the persons he meets
[6:30] Gy Harrop: and all that is based on chance
[6:30] Hapi Sleeper: 'he' not 'you' or 'i'
[6:30] Gy Harrop: but then
[6:30] Gy Harrop: that works like in rl for that part
[6:31] Gy Harrop: well
[6:31] Gy Harrop: schizophrens from all countries get united !
[6:31] Hapi Sleeper: yah
[6:31] Gy Harrop: that could be the special SL sentence
[6:31] Gy Harrop: lol
[6:31] Gy Harrop: you're the spectator of your life here
[6:31] Gy Harrop: :)

2. It really started when I met a girl

[6:32] Hapi Sleeper: would you tell me the story or the day or event here where you went from feeling like a tourist to someone who participates or knows people here?
[6:32] Gy Harrop: mh..
[6:32] Gy Harrop: blur border
[6:32] Gy Harrop: that's were lies the genius aspect of this invention
[6:32] Gy Harrop: lol
[6:33] Gy Harrop: first time
[6:33] Gy Harrop: was in a brothel
[6:33] Gy Harrop: such as the numerous that you can find here
[6:33] Gy Harrop: and
[6:33] Hapi Sleeper: no kidding
[6:33] Gy Harrop: funnily enough
[6:33] Gy Harrop: (yeah)
[6:33] Gy Harrop: (course)
[6:33] Gy Harrop: funnily enough
[6:33] Gy Harrop: it really started
[6:34] Gy Harrop: when I met a girl
[6:34] Gy Harrop: at the entry of one of these brothel
[6:34] Gy Harrop: and didn’t enter it
[6:34] Gy Harrop: and
[6:34] Gy Harrop: she proposed me to play in a sl snuff movie
[6:34] Gy Harrop: lol
[6:34] Hapi Sleeper: no!
[6:34] Gy Harrop: yeah!
[6:34] Gy Harrop: and that's quite natural when you think about it
[6:35] Hapi Sleeper: more death than life i guess
[6:35] Gy Harrop: yeah
[6:35] Gy Harrop: but
[6:35] Gy Harrop: as I said many times
[6:35] Gy Harrop: in a 3D environment such as this one
[6:35] Gy Harrop: where you're completely free about what you wanna do
[6:36] Gy Harrop: where sex seems to be one of the main
[6:36] Gy Harrop: the main
[6:36] Gy Harrop: attraction
[6:36] Gy Harrop: her
[6:36] Gy Harrop: here
[6:36] Gy Harrop: (sorry)
[6:36] Gy Harrop: you have to invent new ways
[6:36] Gy Harrop: of making it an experience
[6:36] Gy Harrop: lol
[6:36] Gy Harrop: and of course
[6:36] Gy Harrop: it doesn’t work at all
[6:36] Gy Harrop: lol
[6:36] Gy Harrop: sex is the most boring thing here
[6:37] Gy Harrop: considering you only have the chat to interact
[6:37] Gy Harrop: most sexual relations are in BDSM

BDSM stands for bondage/discipline and sadism/masochism. The term covers an array of sexual practice or lifestyle preference that include domination and submission, punishment, role play, and other activities that include an erotic relation to cannibalism and snuff (killing the subject).

3. Sex is language

[6:37] Hapi Sleeper: i know. i still have hard time grasping the thrill of it
[6:37] Gy Harrop: yeah
[6:37] Hapi Sleeper: BDSM?
[6:37] Gy Harrop: but that's where snuff comes..
[6:37] Gy Harrop: yeah
[6:37] Gy Harrop: bdsm
[6:38] Gy Harrop: cos that's the sexual relation where language is the most invested
[6:38] Gy Harrop: in a way
[6:38] Gy Harrop: you have to set a power relation
[6:38] Gy Harrop: thru language
[6:38] Gy Harrop: things to be said
[6:38] Hapi Sleeper: what's the 'bd'' if sm is sm?
[6:38] Gy Harrop: the BD is..
[6:38] Gy Harrop: well
[6:38] Gy Harrop: it's the commercial part of it
[6:39] Gy Harrop: where you have to buy many accessories
[6:39] Gy Harrop: that go with it
[6:39] Gy Harrop: with SM I mean
[6:39] Gy Harrop: Bondage is anecdotic
[6:39] Gy Harrop: the main interest is in power relations..
[6:39] Gy Harrop: as a game
[6:39] Gy Harrop: of course
[6:39] Hapi Sleeper: bondage is purely linguistic?
[6:39] Gy Harrop: yeah!
[6:39] Gy Harrop is typing...
[6:40] Gy Harrop: absolutely
[6:40] Hapi Sleeper: ok, following you
[6:40] Gy Harrop: and that's what I've found really fascinating here
[6:40] Gy Harrop: sex is language
[6:40] Gy Harrop: RL and.. SL
[6:40] Gy Harrop is typing...
[6:40] Gy Harrop: but everybody acts that way
[6:40] Gy Harrop: nobody talks about that here
[6:40] Gy Harrop: :)