Porn sucks.
Really, aside from the euphemistic overtone of such a statement, really think about it. For the last few decades, pornography in general has been relegated to roughly two styles: reality, and poorly crafted fiction. On the reality side, you get what you're asking for, which is essentially just straight forward sex between whoever is presented, and obviously there is a wide range of selection in this arena: threesomes, interracial, good old fashioned straight sex or even gay porn, if one is so inclined. This kind of style delivers exactly what it says it will, and everyone buying, viewing, and ultimately getting off can smile in satisfaction while they cum for whatever their preference is.
The fictional side is a whole other ball game, and always has been. While most will immediately say "It's porn! What kind of quality are you really looking for beyond the erotic?", I honestly believe this is a piss poor excuse for an escape clause, and it's not the kind of statement that gets anyone out of anything else, short of pre-school children's television. Even by the time most in my generation had witnessed the birth of Power Rangers, we ooed and ahed at the cooler aspects and rolled our eyes 'till they hurt on the rest of it - about 80% camp. Point being, even elementary kids can be a hard sell when it comes to lackluster performance and forced stupidity, and as adults, we are all too eager to rip and criticize anything of the sort that is attempted upon us.
So why do we accept it in porn?
The easy answer, again, is: watching porn, of any kind, you're only in it to view the sex. Who cares about plot, characters, production value or, God forbid, acting? This is obviously a very true statement when it comes to reality porn, and I can easily see why people would harbor the same attitude toward fictional porn. And while I, by no means, intend any kind of disrespect toward those who reaffirm this view, forgive me for saying that personally, I want and, to a certain degree, expect some kind of intelligent production out of any kind of fiction I partake in.
Yes, even porn.
Okay, I'll amend that statement a bit: I don't expect that kind of quality out of porn, but only because that kind of quality has very rarely been delivered, and therein lies my problem with it. Only in the realm of written erotica and few and far between European comics have I ever seen any true attention to the fine details of unique and quality fiction when it comes to pornography. The best examples in the comic book industry come from the likes of Serpieri's Druuna work and Alan Moore's 2008 The Lost Girls, both of which I will touch back on shortly. In the literature world, we can look to a wide array of erotic writers as well as the side work of some more accomplished masters such as D.H.
Lawrence and Anne Rice.
Of course, I would be completely remiss to leave out the internet, and especially Lush Stories.
Written erotica is by no means easy, but it is the easiest form of quality and diversified porn for a reader to accept. The reason for this is the inherent imaginative nature of the genre; the author crafts their world, characters, and situations, and guides and leaves the reader to formulate the rest in their minds. Thus, the reader can insert or ignore whatever other aspects will ultimately enhance their experience. For myself as a reader, I tend to plug in actors or even real people I have known in the places of written characters, which helps flesh out the given story more realistically. With written erotica, there are no limitations. There are no mediocre artists or production designers, no limited budgets, no cast that is only capable of lasting the extra mile of sexual interplay long enough to film a given scene, leaving no room in their plastic-riddled bodies for actual acting chops. Of course, I'm generalizing here; there may be a handful of porn stars out there that are capable of solid acting, but in reality, it's not as if the industry ever gives them any real opportunity with solid stories of any kind to actually pair their acting skills with their sexual prowess.
The next step along is comic books. Paulo Serpieri, an accomplished Italian author and illustrator, broke down all kinds of barriers with Morbus Gravis, and pretty much every work since with his iconic heroine, Druuna. Many of the sexual scenarios he introduced involving Druuna in his graphic novels were not for the squeamish, but the truth of this is not that he simply created graphically and sexually violent situations for nothing more than titillation; he actually designed stories with undercurrents of eco-feminism and the nature of humanity. On top of the fact that his art was gritty, incredibly detailed, and more often than not, realistic, every single act of sex that occurred in the story happened not only for a point of plot movement, but also with a subliminal theme carried through by the story itself. Regardless of what hard line bible thumpers and repressed critics will say, this is literature, however hard to swallow at times, at its finest; a series of grandiose and unapologetic statements on the world at large and the species that seemingly rules it.
Alan Moore's The Lost Girls holds a special place in my heart, in spite of the fact that I have not yet read the piece in its entirety. However, Alan Moore himself has always been an incredibly intelligent and talented rogue in the realm of comic books, and any fanboy or girl reading this is nodding their heads right now. By now, with the films, everyone has heard of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, and this is the man who created the in-your-face graphic novels that started everything. Even in those somewhat-more-mainstream pieces, Moore refused to shy away from classical conventions, depicting male nudity and graphic mass genocide in Watchmen and shying away from no political attack in V for Vendetta. When he embarked on The Lost Girls, however, he was still breaching completely territory, even for him. In short, the story as I understand it depicts surrealist flashbacks by the then-adult lead females of Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan. The excerpts that I have been able to view showcase incredibly cerebral and ultimately passionate storytelling depicting the leads in situations starting in reality and culminating in the familiar respective fantasies with their individual orgasms and, hence, losses of innocence. Simply in a smattering of a few pages a piece, I was already drawn into incredibly deep themes of subversion and hidden lust, the likes of which we are all familiar with and espouse on this website.
Obviously, and especially as a father, I am not pounding a pulpit in demand that pornography, quality or otherwise, be made more readily available to the wider mainstream public. However, with as much money as the porn and erotica industries take in, even in spite of the recession, I see no reason why the forms can't be cultivated into higher quality and, especially, more diverse forms. Really...how many times have we all seen some ridiculously heavy-chested housewife cheat on her working husband with the far-too-handsome plumber? Go for diversity! A pornographic thriller, a heist movie, even...yes, even sci-fi and fantasy, which, as expressed by the above mentioned graphic novels, give far more diverse and interesting ways to explore sexuality and the possibilities therein.
Alan Moore and Paulo Serpieri are just two of many who have realized that pornography is just as legitimate a form of literary and artistic expression as any other. This is something that many of you, obviously, in respect to your even reading this, have realized as well. I have tried even here on Lush to up this particular aspect of the game a little by introducing my spy and sci-fi stories, and the work of Piquet, especially his Slave Princess line, has been carrying that particular torch here for some time. I encourage everyone who has any kind of interest in more genre inspired erotica to delve whole-heartedly into it...express yourselves, no matter how wild the extremes! Obviously, we have to maintain respect for the rules/guidelines laid out by Lush, but I personally have found a rich well of cathartic discovery and expression with just this kind of indulgence.
To be fair, diversity is certainly not limited to more fantastical genres. Several writers here have accomplished complex and highly intriguing works based firmly in the real world, simply by introducing interesting situations into otherwise mundane reality. My point with all of this is that here, with literature, we have far more opportunities to create different experiences for each other than I think we sometimes realize. And in the realms of outside media, such as film and graphic literature, there are whole frontiers to be explored and, if you will, exploited. Imagine big budget effects, stunt work, production design and even some level of talented acting in pornographic films. I don't know about the rest of you, but I would get off far more to watching beautiful people get it on if it were part of a well-produced and crafted story, forwarding the narrative with every erotic interlude.
Who knows if that day will come. However, with such prominent and talented creators such as Alan Moore and, honestly, the majority of the writers on this site, leading the charge, I think we can look forward to at least some glimmer of progress toward higher quality and more diverse erotic expression.
Until then, I'll keep writing and lusting after the writing of everyone reading this.