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!