Re: Being true to oneself

1

Since I'm currently doing some research on pornography, I've been testing out some of my theories by trying to keep up with some of the trends in new porn, and it's sort of a problem when about half of my conversations end up with me saying something like, "So I was watching this really interesting pornographic video last night..." Not cool!


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 10:49 AM
horizontal rule
2

(five dollars caveat)


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 10:49 AM
horizontal rule
3

Did he seem to think having dated a Suicide Girl was impressive?


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 11:04 AM
horizontal rule
4

How can there be new trends in porn? I would have thought Rule 43 precluded "trends".


Posted by: Tassled Loafered Leech | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 11:18 AM
horizontal rule
5

4: The relative popularity of fetishes can change over time.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 11:22 AM
horizontal rule
6

So spanking has bottomed out?


Posted by: Tassled Loafered Leech | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 11:26 AM
horizontal rule
7

Art School Sluts

Was this by the producer of New Wave Hookers?


Posted by: Populuxe | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 11:31 AM
horizontal rule
8

1: You know, "really interesting" isn't a phrase you generally hear with regard to porn. You hear a lot of things along the lines of "sexy" and "hott" and a lot of things along the lines of "disgusting" and "offensive." I generally hear "misogynist" and "feminist" with equal frequency.

But "interesting" porn, that sounds like a real find.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 11:57 AM
horizontal rule
9

This seems relevant.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 12:11 PM
horizontal rule
10

8:Agree.

Centipede Porn?

I could imagine porn becoming interesting with new classes of amateurs:Hollywood stars, Congresspersons, athletes but of course that would be interesting as a social phenomena but not in itself. And not interesting for very long, except to academics and social theorists.

I can think of nothing else in porn that would be interesting but not also very disturbing, like Japanese "cute"


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 12:22 PM
horizontal rule
11

7: I'm sure I don't know.
3: I didn't get that impression. He seemed like enough of a loser that one might fairly have been impressed, maybe?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 12:46 PM
horizontal rule
12

Jane Espenson has said that the best jokes for a TV show are the ones that reveal something about the character, rather than relying on something you already know about the character. Not "Ha ha, the sidekick character is booze hound" but "Wait, Brittany and Santana are sleeping together!"

I would be interested in porn where the sex scenes have that kind of relationship to character development. Of course, character development itself is fairly rare in the genre.

I'd also like to see self referential porn that carries on a thoughtful metanarrative about porn itself.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 12:51 PM
horizontal rule
13

But "interesting" porn, that sounds like a real find.

A wall of books opened, and I walked like a lamb into that bustling pleasure palace known as Flossie's. Red flocked wallpaper and a Victorian decor set the tone. Pale, nervous girls with black-rimmed glasses and blunt-cut hair lolled around on sofas, riffling Penguin Classics provocatively. A blonde with a big smile winked at me, nodded toward a room upstairs, and said, "Wallace Stevens, eh?" But it wasn't just intellectual experiences. They were peddling emotional ones, too. For fifty bucks, I learned, you could "relate without getting close." For a hundred, a girl would lend you her Bartok records, have dinner, and then let you watch while she had an anxiety attack. For one-fifty, you could listen to FM radio with twins. For three bills, you got the works: A thin Jewish brunette would pretend to pick you up at the Museum of Modern Art, let you read her master's, get you involved in a screaming quarrel at Elaine's over Freud's conception of women, and then fake a suicide of your choosing - the perfect evening, for some guys. Nice racket. Great town, New York.


Posted by: Woody Allen | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 12:51 PM
horizontal rule
14

I'd also like to see self referential porn that carries on a thoughtful metanarrative about porn itself.

I think, actually, that this would likely fail as porn, and that you would not like to see it all that much.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 12:52 PM
horizontal rule
15

I'd also like to see self referential porn that carries on a thoughtful metanarrative about porn itself.

Boy, has the tone around here changed over the past four years.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 12:54 PM
horizontal rule
16

Not on the subject of porn, but rather on the subject of concerts, I'm going to hear a toy piano recital tomorrow night.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 1:00 PM
horizontal rule
17

Ryan North is all over this issue, at least for some values of "this issue."


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 1:08 PM
horizontal rule
18

Not on the subject of concerts, but rather on the subject of porn, I'm going to hear a toy penis recital tomorrow night.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 1:11 PM
horizontal rule
19

13 "The Whore of Mensa"!

Porn, I reckon, need not be interesting or perhaps shouldn't be interesting. Porn is a hookup, not a date. It should be compelling, but only if that's a euphemism.

I mean, ok, I suppose it can be interesting if you watch it dispassionately, sociologically. But if you're comfortably watching it that way, it probably isn't good porn.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 1:13 PM
horizontal rule
20

12: When you get into hoity-toity stuff like plots and characters, let alone clever self-referentiality, you're talking about Erotica. Porn is porn because it is workmanlike.


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 1:14 PM
horizontal rule
21

14: and that you would not like to see it all that much.

For instance, Inserts . (Not porn, but pretty unwatchable and you can extrapolate from it to rhc's proposal.)

For good "meta-porn" (but without any actual porn), I do recommend Inside Deep Throat narrated by the late, lamented Mr. Hopper.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 2:19 PM
horizontal rule
22

Oh, I guess it probably wouldn't work. I was just imagining for a second that it could work.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 2:23 PM
horizontal rule
23

Porn is porn because it is workmanlike.

Porn features plumbers, cable guys, waitresses, and construction workers. Erotica features vampires.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 2:42 PM
horizontal rule
24

18 A reenactment of the France Gall video?


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 2:52 PM
horizontal rule
25

Art School Sluts

I really think I've either seen this or read an article about it. I don't particularly feel like googling it right now, though.


Posted by: emdash | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 7:26 PM
horizontal rule
26

That was the Caitlin Flanagan article about the Slut School Arts.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 7:51 PM
horizontal rule
27

Caitlin Flanagan was traumatized for life by walking by Megan's house on the wrong night.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 8:28 PM
horizontal rule
28

I don't particularly feel like googling it right now, though.

Probably a good idea, because then you might end up at the iafd*, which links to reviews of the movie the contrast between which is so great as to be kind of hilarious.

*Very much not to be confused with the imdb.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 9:48 PM
horizontal rule
29

My god, Violet Blue is beyond belief.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 9:56 PM
horizontal rule
30

"The difference between erotica and pornography is lighting." Gloria Leonard

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pornography


Posted by: Jack Parsons | Link to this comment | 06- 2-10 11:50 PM
horizontal rule
31

29: Why?

Also, what went on with her and Boing Boing a ways back?


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 1:30 AM
horizontal rule
32

Suicide Girls interview with the director of Art School Sluts:

DRE: But is this movie for guys to jerk off to?

EM: That's the commerce of it but I see a lot of art in it as well. For VCA to back a project like this it needs to be in a certain digestible structure that they can sell. It has to have so many discreet sex scenes, a certain amount of anal and things like that. These are the hard and fast things that a porno company needs to get the money back out of it. Pornographers are like Indians in that the movie gets cut up into compilations then the stills from it are sold to the web. It's part of this bigger machine. The actual sales of each porno movie are very small. That's why I think Art School Sluts can be successful because there are definitely a few thousand people who want to see these kinds of girls.

DRE: Well if you had your druthers would you not put anal in the movie?

EM: I think people want to see anal. Katja Kassin really likes anal so with her we did anal. I'm not a big fan of DPs just because its two dudes' asses flopping around.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 1:46 AM
horizontal rule
33

Pornographers are like Indians in that the movie gets cut up into compilations then the stills from it are sold to the web.

Huh?

I understand how the pornographers are making money, but I don't get how this makes them like Indians. I can't even figure out which Indians he is referring to.

I'm curious, and would like to read more, but really shouldn't, because I have to work and the kids are around.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 6:44 AM
horizontal rule
34

33: possibly they're like American Indians in the "using every part of the buffalo" sense. I agree, it's a bit obscure.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 6:47 AM
horizontal rule
35

"You can use every part of a pig except the squeal...and we're dubbing that onto the soundtrack!"


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 7:11 AM
horizontal rule
36

33: I think he means that they randomly break out into really big dance numbers with inexplicable smoke effects and shimmery silk curtains.

Actually a Bollywood musical inspired porn movie could be quite good. Or "interesting" at least.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 8:11 AM
horizontal rule
37

29: Why?

Her review of the film in question.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 8:38 AM
horizontal rule
38

33-36: I thought he meant Bollywood too, although I didn't get the actual "randomly break out into really big dance numbers" bit. I just saw "Indian" in the context of moviemaking and assumed he meant some common practice in or around Bollywood that I couldn't think of. I'm not sure 36 sounds right, but I wouldn't know.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 8:49 AM
horizontal rule
39

From the context, I'm quite sure ajay is right.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 9:03 AM
horizontal rule
40

I like bring durnk too brah


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 9:06 AM
horizontal rule
41

I don't get why there are so few desis in porn, esp. sience they are the hottest and theres like a shitload of super por people there.

also thats like 'artisinal'' shit at whole foods. people should get paid enough doing usful shitty jobs they can do their 'art' as a zero income socially useful hobby


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 9:09 AM
horizontal rule
42

Wow. Is yoyo-style even better than tierce-style or Btock-style?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 9:15 AM
horizontal rule
43

41: By zero income socially useful hobby you mean amateur porn, right?


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 9:15 AM
horizontal rule
44

i suppose that depends on syntax


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 9:33 AM
horizontal rule
45

though if you're expert at syntax, explicating "you're the [bee's knees's]/[bee sting] and so am i" on a blog could count too


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 9:36 AM
horizontal rule
46

41.1: The major centres of porn production in the Americas, Europe and Japan don't have large porn-friendly desi populations. I'm sure there must be desi-centric porn sites by now, though.


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 10:06 AM
horizontal rule
47

I'm sure there must be desi-centric porn sites by now, though.

Oh sure, lots of them. Just google "indian tgp".


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 10:29 AM
horizontal rule
48

tgp?


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 10:30 AM
horizontal rule
49

Thumbnail gallery post.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 10:31 AM
horizontal rule
50

Which is odd if you have seen circa .5 millenia ago india religous art

halfway through that i thought of equivalent catholic art, so postfail


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 11:27 AM
horizontal rule
51

Apo, why do you know these things? Why does a married heterosexual living in North Carolina know details of international porn website design? Do you just have some magical, intuitive connection to all things pervy on the internet? Do you have some special version of google that lists porn website design first when you enter "pork"?


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 06- 3-10 11:37 AM
horizontal rule
52

Why "desi" = "indian"?


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 4-10 2:11 AM
horizontal rule
53

52. It's an American usage, approx. = Brit. "Asian", but in point of fact more precise. Derived thusly.


Posted by: OFE | Link to this comment | 06- 4-10 3:39 AM
horizontal rule
54

Thanks. Very interesting - easier to use than "South Asian" or "subcontinent" or whatever, and avoids the ambiguity of "Asian" which a lot of people interpret as "East Asian". I was worried it might be vaguely derogatory but apparently not! Will start using.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 4-10 3:45 AM
horizontal rule
55

You will increasingly find 'Desi khana' sections on restaurant menus (and restaurants of that name) in Britain. Colloquially, this translates as 'home cooked style' and IME is usually worth a try.


Posted by: OFE | Link to this comment | 06- 4-10 3:52 AM
horizontal rule
56

or 'desi chana' which i am not sure if its worth a try, having not opened the bag yet. tho as chana dal they are good, if a bit dusty tasting

the first link i saw for desi khana was for jain cooking, which if i remember right doesn't use alliums. which makes it pretty evil.


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 06- 6-10 1:23 PM
horizontal rule