April 1st, 2009 -- by Dr. Faustus
My Erotica, Your Smut
I realize that on any number of occasions Bacchus has expressed skepticism about the validity of the distinction between “porn” and “art”. Perhaps such skepticism is well founded. But in the spirit of friendly controversy, I shall offer an explanation of the distinction.
Bertrand Russell once introduced the concept of “emotive conjugations,” meaning that the words we use are determined by the person of the speaker. His example was as follows:
I am firm.
You are stubborn.
He is pig-headed.
The concept transfer nicely into the porn-versus-art debate, to wit:
I enjoy the erotic arts.
You get off on porn.
He is addicted to horrible smut.
Though perhaps the distinction doesn’t apply to absolutely everyone. Cue the classic Tom Lehrer song!
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To me, it’s so subjective that I find no difference between the two. Good post.
Addicted to honest smut?
The whole world is queer except me and thee, and sometimes I think thou art strange!
Mitty
I really like the idea of emotive conjugations- it definitely makes sense to me.
And thanks for that Tom Lehrer song. Now I must go everywhere yodelling it at the top of my lungs.
Or perhaps,
I enjoy horrible smut.
You get off on porn.
He is addicted to erotic art!
I can’t define “erotic art” but I avoid it when I see it!
Science-fiction author Spider Robinson defined erotica as “pornography that I happen to like”.
I sometimes wonder why it’s okay for me to look at lesbian porn, but it’s not okay for my husband.
And yet…it remains a firm rule in my home. It’s okay though because he’s perfectly fine with it.
Alas and directly connected with the previous post, I reside in a country where the national court has eliminated access to youtube.
Fortunately, there is a complete set of Lehrer cds at hand.
Is it not sad that Tom is not explaining the events of the day just now. We might be able to understand political correctness, american cowardess, 12 trillion – newmath, Joe Biden and the hunter, Cheny. 12 hunters, 2 game wardens and a pure bred guernsey cow.