Tuesday, October 21, 2008
So, last night on on NPR (liberal elitist rant coming up =P), they were doing this story about this old drive-in. Now, apparently, back in the day (not sure which), it was a porn theater. A porn drive-in.
Anyway, recently, the property was bought by some church, apparently because you haven't seen Davey and Goliath until you've seen Davey and Goliath on the JumboTron.
Anyway, when they took ownership of the property, they found BOXES and BOXES of porn. Which, ha! So, they burned it. Because they're a church and they don't want anyone having any fun. The priest is talking about how, they are a moral organization and they don't want anyone seeing that kind of thing. Which, how did you know it was porn unless you watched it, genius? For all you know, that was conclusive proof of who shot Kennedy and where Hoffa is buried. Now look what you've done.
Anyway, the interviewer, whose name is escaping me, fully called him out on Nazis burning books, and what, prey tell, is the difference, HMMMM?! And he blathered moralistically for a while without answering the question, mostly boiling down to the fact that they didn't wan anyone to see it, so what else were they gonna do with it, which, uh, Porn/Erotica historians and/or people who study sexuality, DUH.
Whatever. But it got me thinking. I mean, our justice system has tried (and FAILED) to distinguish a bright line between what is porn and what is art; what is prurient and what is pure. And there is no line. Because things by definitions cross over that line in either direction depending on the mores of the time, and whether or not you happen to agree with the point of view of the artist/producer of the piece. I'm not going so far as to say all porn is art, but if we can't actually define the difference between the nudes painted for supposedly artistic purposes and porn, then what's to say they didn't just burn the porn Mona Lisa? Like, maybe in 3000 years this will be like that Greek poet of which we have like 3 lines, but he was universally considered by his contemporaries as the greatest master of the form.
I dunno. Just thoughts. You know.
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