Quote:
Originally Posted by slayda
By that difinition, a modern art composition of bright colors is porn since it has "graphic details designed to grab your attention."
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Discussions work better when people deliberately misstate others' opinions and the respond to those opinions in a non-constructive manner!
Seriously, though, I was going to post the "know it when we see it" thing as being pretty similar to how I define pornography. I won't say that pornography isn't art (it's surely a form of creative expression), but there's just something about focusing on sex so much that strikes me as kind of "lower-minded." That is to say, I think there's a pretty distinct division between an academic exploration of sexuality through art and what basically amounts to a chimpanzee sitting around playing with its genitals. Also, as has been stated, the main purpose (by far) of erotic literature is to induce sexual arousal, and presumably the author is trying to make that stimulation as powerful as they can for the reader. Trying to create an erotic reaction in the person experiencing a piece of creative expression is a well-recognized and valid part of some artistic statements, but when the entirety of a literary work is intended to create a strong erotic reaction in the reader/yourself, you're pretty clearly caught up in your dirty monkey brain and ignoring some shades of subtlety in the world around you in favor of focusing in on an aspect of human psychology whose biological purpose doesn't extend beyond a mechanism to encourage the passing on of genetic information. Immersing yourself in the stimulation you get from pandering to that drive has about as much artistic merit as smoking a joint.