Now that the cat is out of the bag about the Cyberporn class, the university is bracing for potential rabid close-mindedness. Seems to be in-season these days. Someone suggested that I police my blog and decide what to delete. I suggested that no matter what it was, deleting things would likely only make matters worse.
So, I was going to post about encountering an extracted and edited scene from Closer available on the web that has Natalie Portman’s character in a fairly risquee scene. I was going to talk about how the extracted scene, which contains none of the dialog, or context, is decidedly unerotic to my eye, while the bittersweet place of the scene in a film that manages to do bittersweet really well was far more erotic and engaging. That is — imagine this! — what makes someone or some situation “sexy” in not just naked bits, but a whole concert of context, of style, of voice, of humor, and of character.
I was going to try to weave this into a bit of a film review, and a bit of a commentary on how Ms. Portman was banking some outstanding performances that she would probably need in order to shield herself from the inevitable slings and arrows after the release of the Empire of Clones, or the Clone Jedis, or whatever. I was going to tell you to ignore what the people were saying as we filtered out of the theater (“What is Hollywood thinking these days!” “I told you we should have gone to see Bridget Jones.”) and go and see a film that will definitely not leave your spirits floating, but will make you feel.
Instead, I find myself measuring words in a way I don’t normally; waiting for the other shoe to drop. I recognized, at the outset, that people might see the content of the class as provocative. I guess I just didn’t realize how unwilling people would be to even talk about online porn. It is still very much a taboo within some circles.
Natalie Portman and Self-Censorship
Now that the cat is out of the bag about the Cyberporn class, the university is bracing for potential rabid close-mindedness. Seems to be in-season these days. Someone suggested that I police my blog and decide what to delete. I suggested that no matter what it was, deleting things would likely only make matters worse.
So, I was going to post about encountering an extracted and edited scene from Closer available on the web that has Natalie Portman’s character in a fairly risquee scene. I was going to talk about how the extracted scene, which contains none of the dialog, or context, is decidedly unerotic to my eye, while the bittersweet place of the scene in a film that manages to do bittersweet really well was far more erotic and engaging. That is — imagine this! — what makes someone or some situation “sexy” in not just naked bits, but a whole concert of context, of style, of voice, of humor, and of character.
I was going to try to weave this into a bit of a film review, and a bit of a commentary on how Ms. Portman was banking some outstanding performances that she would probably need in order to shield herself from the inevitable slings and arrows after the release of the Empire of Clones, or the Clone Jedis, or whatever. I was going to tell you to ignore what the people were saying as we filtered out of the theater (“What is Hollywood thinking these days!” “I told you we should have gone to see Bridget Jones.”) and go and see a film that will definitely not leave your spirits floating, but will make you feel.
Instead, I find myself measuring words in a way I don’t normally; waiting for the other shoe to drop. I recognized, at the outset, that people might see the content of the class as provocative. I guess I just didn’t realize how unwilling people would be to even talk about online porn. It is still very much a taboo within some circles.
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