Pleasure and Horror

This is my second go 'round with reading the Pornographic Imagination and I have to say, I much enjoyed it more the second time. When I had to read this originally, it was for my Gay and Lesbian Literature and Culture class I took last fall. We were reading it in response to "Tipping the Velvet" and all the erotic text it included. My first impression of this essay was not a positive one. I saw Sontag as overly passionate advocate of pornography, which I was not condemning, but felt as though she was trying to take everything and gear it in her favor. In fact, I didn't even complete the reading because I felt like she was droning on and turning the issue into more than it was. This time however, I not only got all the way through the essay (although, I still felt at times she was elaborating on more than needed) but I actually enjoyed it. I was able to see the connections she was making to Science Fiction and deadpan humor in argument to why books with pornographic content were more than a simple way to get cheap thrills, but as having literary ties.



Her extensive evidence for why The Story of O and Historie de l'Oeil is more than a face value, toilet-read really captured my attention, especially when she speaks of what makes a "strong and upsetting impression". The fact that she says that pornography is ultimately about death and not about the sex is conclusive in itself, to me, as to why it should be considered a work of literature. To this she says that pleasure is dependent on perspective and that it is "open to death as well as joy". Later, she goes on to state that "most people try to outwit their own feelings; they want to be receptive to pleasure but keep 'horror' at a distance". This is exactly why most people would argue against porn and erotic content being literature. They only see the pleasure (as most graphically described), but fail to recognize that "the truth of eroticism is tragic".