kagablog

a philosophy of pornography is yet to be written…i know de sade and bataille and robert smith have tried to touch on it…but it only comes into its own in the digital age…in the transfer from across the oceans into a private room where one can sit naked and engage physically with the picture…a sculpture is public…even a book passes through many hands before it reaches you….the editor. binder, publisher, marketer, transportor, seller etc…with digital porno it’s possible to go direct from the model’s body to your screen with very few intervening stages of display…and in this way it’s more private…

there is also the aspect of control, that one can jump ahead in the story….even if it’s looking luscious already one enjoys that idea that one can push forward to the resolution and go onto the next story, that one can decide…also it is bottomless, endless…internet porn has already proliferated to the extent that i doubt it is possible still for anyone to quantify it or even access it all in a lifetime…there’s already not enough time…

the other thing is the nationality – the americaness of it, the holly-woodness, one doesn’t see indian porno so much, they’ve been dancing about for centuries midriff’s shown, they’ve had khajuraho and the kama sutra, so there wasn’t the same repression, the same calvinistic suppression of the picture which has now burst out, flourishing, flowering in the west…the indian porno one sees are really scaly, dodgy, ugly, lower end of the desperation cycle, where the american have conventions and awards and a competitive industry bringing out the most beautiful, the most lovely…

also – the idea that the women are “faking it” or that they don’t enjoy performing as much as the men is old fashioned…in fact i think it’s the reverse…women are able to enjoy themselves without having to overtly display anything, like the men…i think it’s a bit shit largely being a male porno star and having to force the erection, often aggressively force it…whereas the women have the opportunity to be largely passive, to be told what to do, to really be permitted to enjoy themselves…at the same time, knowing they are doing it for “work” releases them from the obligation to enjoy themselves…

why i also say a philosophy of pornography is yet to be writ is that the world is changing as a result of it…generations are changing…this generation is already different to mine in their access to pornographic material…how has it effected their relationships, their love lives, sex lives etc? how are they differently sexualised since e-tv started broadcasting soft-porn? even the ones who don’t watch it are aware of its existence…

what would a philosophy of pornography look like? the image / text of pornography…the conservativism of the story-line (as zizek points out)…the selection process, the economics of it…its effect on society and the individual…it’s effect on thought processes…the alternative world it postulates…the utopian vision and the living out of that fantasy of completion, of a total devotion to pleasure…it’s the ultimate freudian paradise, the pleasure principle has become the law of the land…one must enjoy oneself, one must give way, one must constantly strive for sexual pleasure all the time in all contexts and in all circumstances…the display of semen is also an invention of moving pornography…would be grotesque in statuary (as is the perpetual, eternal erection also for that matter)…so this act of “coming on” the body of the other was invented in pornography, it’s where image fudges its way into text…the story must be seen to have a climax, a resolution…it’s not enough for them to say they “came” they arrived, they reached the point for which they were reaching…it has to be made visual…here the imagery betrays its foundation as text, as narrative…

so a philosophy of pornography would investigate narratology, really look into it and not simply dismiss it as obvious or self evident…it would apply analysis to the historical trajectory of the pornographic narrative and the lebenswelt from which it issues…it would also examine the individualisation of sexuality…the increasingly solipsistic nature of the sexual in capitalist economies…the propensity and lust for solitude wherein these fantasies of the social can be lived out…the material response to pornography, the engagement of the body with the image/text makes it a unique phenomena…i can’t think of any other similar engagement beside perhaps the spiritual living into the text of religious documents, which is a sort of substitute body, the ephemeral spiritual being is inserted into the context of the religious story in the same way as the wishful sexual body is fantasised onto the pornographic situation…

a philosophy of pornography would also consider the sense most often dispensed with or trivialised in the pornographic landscape – sound…the repetitive huffing and puffing is as good as any a conceivable source for what it sounds like in hell…moans of pain/pleasure, groans difficult to distinguish from those of violence, submission, aggression…the tacky music is often the last consideration and even where they try to add a “romantic” flavour with a classic or two, the soundscape still inevitably degenerates into the animal repetitive, insolvent, painfully frustrated sounds of blurred articulation…my favourite pornography involves a lot of talking, the connecting to the personal , to the individual identity of the performers, because either selves come out in their voices – tone and words…as soon as they sink into the repetitive phrases: “oh yes oh yes, oh god oh god, don’t stop, don’t stop” etc we are back in the animal…while they still have the capacity for speech, for sentence structure – not phrases subsisting groans – there is still an individual personality present…

a philosophy of pornography would investigate a new vocabulary….such as the contemporary reference to “hardcore” as either a positive affirmation or an indication of vitality and authenticity…what other words have entered everyday speech via the aqueducts of the pornographic industry? how is it changing language?

we are also now in an era where the first generation of publicly recognisable porn stars are growing older, where they are taking over the industry for the next generation…not many have completely retired yet, so it will be interesting to reflect on their memories, on their perceptions of the industry in retrospect…the seventies stars reflected the exploitation of women and the ruthless aggression of the industry, but that was still in the days when they thought all that was needed was the act itself…there were no standards in terms of quality and compliance…it was before they realised that conditions in which the stars can feel comfortable, being able to choose their own partners, for example, were conducive to a better product…so now when a star like savanna has her own wine label, promotes the new york opera and so on, it’s a very different take…instead of being ashamed about her life she is like the courtesans of venice who slept with emperors…her prostitution is visible, is celebrated as somebody taking charge of their body or using it for herself…can one exploit one’s own body? what will happen when that takes a toll? as in the case of the other savannah who killed herself, it is alleged, after realising her beautiful face was beyond repair…

a philosophy of pornography must reflect on the premium placed on beauty in the contemporary capitalist state…advertising has been an enormous influence on the origins of the modern industry, to be sure…

a philosophy of pornography will have to consider the heterosexualisation of lesbianism and the whole quandary of the male gaze on the lesbian…as well as the increasing acceptance of bi sexual and homosexual pornography placed alongside that of the hetero…even in the hetero, those stiff dicks are still on display…the paradoxical escape of the dick (and its homosexual connotations) into the acceptability of the lesbian scenario…

in a philosophy of pornography the obsession with youth will need to be examined…the “staple fair” of the pornographic story – babysitter, cheerleaders, boss and secretary, teacher and student, positions of power…best friends, the all pervasive presence (everywhere all the time) of money and stories about money and fraud and spying…money features as a subject almost as much as romance…it’s the bedrock of the porno industry…it’s what it all comes down to…it’s the point nobody would argue with…it’s what they all say, isn’t it…i do it for the money…(sometimes, if they’re clever, they also say – i like to fuck, which might also be true)…i haven’t yet heard any porn star say they do it for love…

the images used to illustrate this article are all stills from aryan kaganof’s “taylor rain is dirty girl in ‘velvet’” which is a based on a poetic cut-up by gary cummiskey, “april in the moon-sun”