Post Modernism Pornography Project opening shots

This is where it is all going to begin. Right here. I still have a lot of reading to do, luckily I actually ordered a copy of Simulacrum and Simulation along with Ecrits, so they should be coming in the mail any day now. I hope to be elbow deep in them soon. 1000 Plateaus, while it is something I love dearly, is not something I can use as a foundational step in my writting. So it has gone back to the shelf temporarly because it was really forcing me to get off track. Rizomatics will work best for extreame fetish pornography not, your baseline Jenna Jameson stuff which is where I am starting from.

Still getting some foundational thought work done will go a long way twords making thins whole thing go smoothly.

And so, what is pornography?

Oh fuck. Project over.

Just kidding. Seriously though pornography is something that needs a definition to it. And it needs to be better than "You'll know it when you see it" though I do bless the supreme court for that decision. No worries though I am not 12 people 7 of whom must agree with me, I am an army of one. I am army strong as well.

The inhenent problem with coming up with a deifination of pornography is the art porn divide. See art and porn share a one way binary relationship. Something is either art or it is porn. Porn can never be considered art, and art can never be considered porn. Even attempts to confuddle the barrier like the Destrictided project which is a series of short art films which all feature real sex acts, is hailed as an art film and doesn't make the pornographic rounds the same way as...well porn does. Once we understand this binary opposition it becomes very easy to break down. Why is there such a clear opposition? Simple! Pornography has sevearly negative conotations to it, whereas art has a protected status in our, ie american, mindset.

So when coming up with a definition of pornography they only real descision is what bullet do we choose to bite?

I've come up with 2 analogies to help make this work, the horror movie analogy and the action movie analogy. We are going to start off with the horror movie one because it is the bad one.

Saw. Getting a good solid definition of porn can be easily done through Saw. When most people are dismissing the saw movies, they will dismiss them as torture porn. That is to saw that the plot is nothing more than a thin veneer for getting people trapped in ludicris situations and watching them try to escape as they inflict horrible amounts of pain on themselves and others. Hostel is another great example, as is House of 1000 Corpses. These movies excist in only the flimsyest sense of the word. They have the bearest trappings of plot and setting just so that the gore effects have a vehicle for which you can ride in. There is actually a genra of extreme German gore film which is nothing but an endless repitition of gore effects. They are really boring to watch. Never the less we continue onwards.

This definition fits porn extreamly well, however, it has sevearly negative conotations to it. Also despite several attempts by many directors horror movies have yet to really breach that art/entertainment gap. They still fit neatly into a sort of dull turgid genra of exploitation, even with offerings such as Inside, Eyes Without a Face, and The Devils Rejects, the genra itself is poorly regarded. Which is all porn will ever be. Poorly regarded, and that's not the point of this project. I want porn to be more than its set peices. It isn't most of the time but I see nothing wrong in demanding higher quality porn. I'll go into it more later but I am running out of time so lets get to its flip side.

The flip side is the action movie. Action movies are a diverse genera. It has its share of trash. Okay let's face it most of the genra is trash. However, it does have some highly entertaining entries, 5th Element, Con Air, The Rock, and Die Hard 3: Die Hard with a Vengence. Man that movie has a long title. Oh I forgot Leathal Weap... never mind. Then there are some entrants into the genra that are actually quite clever, Fight Club is an amazingly intelegent movie that breaks the third wall, has a non linear narrative, all without the movie goers really noticing. You'll even have people arguing that Fight Club is more of a Drama than an action movie because they don't want that action movie association. It is though deal. There is also Crank, Crank is one of the most visually clever movies in years, it gives all sorts of nods to the audience regarding the fact that the main charecter is kinda dumb but that's okay cause we like him anyway. Crank also beats up on the third wall showing off the fact that it is a movie and we can all relax.

This is where pornography needs to be. Instead of dismissing it as we do the horror genra, sorry horror genra, we can maintain a more healthy relationship to it. I am not shooting for the stars here, but to put it on the same ideological level as the action movie. They have the potential for greatness, they have the potential to be meaningless acts of entertainment, and the genra is mostly crap.

Right now, we see pornography as something that is directly wrong. We have laws about viewing it, and I can't get a couple of paintings I needed to illustrate some other points I was going to make because my work has banned sites with nudity, including...art nudity. So when I get back to this again on... Wendsday? Maybe? I'll start breaking down the art/porn barrier I'll also make those analogies make more sense as I go along. You'll get it. The idea is to make porn not so strange and alien.

Oh I also want to break porn down into gereas because right now when I say porn I am emcompassing everything from softcore to crushing and that's just a little to broad. Yar I want my books damnit I am excited!