In my novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, I lightly fictionalise a TV interview with a male porn performer. In the novel, he says: “Anal sex was edgy. It wasn’t a mainstream thing. But time was, cum shots were edgy. And there was a response to cum shots, and then every porno had cum shots, and now there’s bukkake. Same with anal sex. Big shock when it was first shown, and now anal sex is in every movie. The audience takes that on and then says, what’s next? What’s new? So all this stuff, that was hidden away for years, is mainstream now. You know what else? There was a movie in England last year, an arty movie, based on a literary kind of novel. And it has blowjobs. The actress – and this was straight actors and actresses, not adult performers – had to suck the actor off on camera. Porno’s already crossed over, man. We’re mainstream American shit now. If people out there want to worry about something, tell them to worry about what comes next. Worry about what comes after us.”
Ellis is always worth reading, but Crooked Little Vein almost blew out part of my mind. It has some great ideas in it, but I didn't think that many sexual fetishes could be included in one book. The entire thing reminded me of a bad car crash. I wanted to look away, but I just couldn't stop reading it and ended up consuming the entire book in two nights (which shouldn't be too hard since it's a small book and under 300 pages). If you need two words to make you interested in the book, here you go: Godzilla Bukkake "I do not as a rule seek advice about food from thin people..." - Jeffrey Steingarten
This author is correct. The tendencies won't reverse their direction or stop progressing unless there would be a change in the criteria of what makes porn good, which is unlikely because of what it is. If hardcore imagery becomes common in the mainstream industry an analogous process will begin sooner or later, one way or another.
Actually, it says "the actress"..."the actor". Could be 9 Songs, but as I think that was largely improvised, I'd hazard a guess it's more likely Intimacy that they're referring to. Even though it's not as recent as is implied, it is based on works by Hanif Kureshi and features "serious actor" types (that's not to disparage 9 Songs' cast). Ellis' character isn't necessarily being accurate in any case. It's something I've thought for a while, that there's a point of crossover between the explicit end of independent cinema and the more creative side of porn (I'm thinking of Mason in particular), the problem being that, in the UK at least, should they crave the widespread distribution granted by an 18 certificate the independent film director isn't permitted to attempt to arouse us with their depiction of explicit sex. The UK censor has granted 18 certificates to explicit films like 9 Songs or Baise-Moi because they are, apparently, not intended to arouse. Which may or may not be true, but the point is that there's still a snobbery that says the depiction of sex and/or nudity within an "artistic" context is permissible, especially for the educated/arthouse audience, but that somehow the self-pleasuring masses need to be protected from in the enjoyment of sex for it's own sake.
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john thomas Deactivated User
1168 Posts 6/06
Posted - Nov 18 2007 : 3:32PM
It seems to me that it is a fundamental confusion to say that it is the near ubiquity of porn that has opened the door for mainstream movies like 9 Songs and Intimacy - (though whether the confusion is Warren Ellis' or one that he has knowingly attributed to his character is unclear to me after reading the rest of the blog). If anything porn is a barrier in the way of properly artistic (or even entertaining) responses to sex: we are so overwhelmed with porn - with sexual images made for the sole purpose of arousing the viewer - that, in our culture, it is almost impossible to depict sex without invoking that intent to arouse and with the detachment necessary for art or humour or, indeed, any response to sex beyond the most visceral. And if all depictions of sex become solely about that visceral response then we should not be surprised that porn is forced into ever more extreme, more viscerally aimed, depictions. We need to be able to look at sex more coldly: to be aware of its absurdity and of its profundity, of its significance and of its ephemerality. Porn just can't do that; art can and should, but the near ubiquity of the pornographic and the semi-pornographic in our culture makes that a more difficult task everyday.