Literate Perversions

It’s a Thin Line Between Art and Sex

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Cherry Torn pours drinks on the Upper Floor at Saturday’s “Thin Line Between Art and Sex” event.

In my unfortunately abortive attempt recently to promote non-crappy porn, one of the positive obstacles that I ran into in trying to get enough articles up was the fact that I suddenly realized that there was actually a surplus of stuff to write about. What I said about there being an excess of crap still stands; whenever you wander into the world of smut, be sure to bring a snorkel so you breathe under all the shit.

But nevertheless, things are a lot better than they used to be; in addition to being ass-deep in personal tsuris, one thing that stalled me was that I just couldn’t decide who to write with. There’s good reason to be optimistic about where we’ll be with our porn in twenty years. [Read more…]

My Pro-Porn Week, Pt. 2: Kink.com

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Logo for Kink.comSo, on Monday I announced that as my way of commemorating Morality in Media’s White Ribbon Against Pornography Week, I would write a post every day this week about my favorite porn, stuff that in one way or another I think is hot and makes the world a better place.

Obviously, I’ve already blown that somewhat ambitious schedule by failing to get an entry in yesterday or Tuesday. My apologies about that; it’s less because I’m flaky than because I’m undergoing a lot of tsuris right now, which includes a girlfriend in the hospital while she gets turned into a cyborg by the doctors. (Long story.)

But anyway, I’m going to keep plugging away at this and get these entries in as best I can. Today, my choice of prime porn: Kink.com. [Read more…]

Pushing Porn During Anti-Porn Week

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Were it not for the efforts of Joe.My.God., I would be blissfully unaware of the fact that according to the group Morality in Media, the week October 31 – November 7 (which is in fact, eight days, more than a week) is White Ribbon Against Pornography Week, in which Good Americans are supposed to devote themselves to combating “the floodtide of pornography pouring into our nation’s communities, homes, and children’s minds.”

Thanks a lot, Joe. [Read more…]

More Lost Girls

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Dorothy caught in the tornado of her own ecstasy.

Dorothy caught in the tornado of her own ecstasy.

As if just being Susie Bright didn’t make her cool enough,everyone’s favorite sexpert has an interview with one of my other literary heroes, Alan Moore, about The Lost Girls, which I blogged about before.  Susie gets to have all the fun. Dammit.  She’s also put together a Flickr gallery of Melinda Gebbie’s work.  I’ve never seen Gebbie’s stuff before, but the excerpts from The Lost Girls are breathtaking examples of erotic art.  The problem with trying to portray eroticism is that you’re trying to capture an incomprehensible mix of contradictions; our society is big on the idea that mind and body are two entirely different things; the body is just a meat vehicle for the mind, which is the real “you.”  Sex gives the lie to that.  Men’s tendency to name their cocks and call them the “little head” is a good example of how divorced our sense of self is from our physical being.  Gebbie’s art — for instance, her depiction of Dorothy captured in a swirling orgasmic “tornado” that turns her sense of reality upside down — is sensual, colorful, and shows how sex merges the fantastic and the real, and how inseperable it makes your body and mind.

This is going to be a hell of a book.  I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

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Insect and Machine Smut

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What I love most about sex is just how much inventiveness it brings out in people; that is, unless you happen to be a porn director in the San Fernando Valley. For the rest of us, everything from robots to sneezing is fair game for genital entertainment. The idea of cockroach porn, however, stretches my limits just a tad (via boing boing and Double Viking). I do have to say that since I live in a city where, instead of bluebirds, we anxiously await the first cockroach of spring, I’m glad that they give pleasure to somebody. [Read more…]

Non-Crappy Porn

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I promised that I’d provide some good sources for non-crappy porn, so here are some of my favorites:

Electra Summers: One of my big gripes with mainstream porn is the fact that it makes everyone look the same, which by definition is not sexy. For me, eroticism lies in difference and individuality of form. Electra’s been showing off a plump, zaftig form for years, and doing it with great joy and humor.

Retroraunch: One of my favorite ways to escape the monotony of the crappy porn that’s produced is to look at porn from the past. Retroraunch is a great source for smut from the past, especially the fifties and sixties.

Jane’s Guide: When all else fails, go to Jane’s Guide. Jane Duvall and her cohorts have been reviewing internet porn sites for years, separating the crap from the non-crap so that you don’t have to.

Bettie Page Shrine: Bettie Page, Queen of the Pinups. And lots of her.