Synopses & Reviews
Pornography: The force for change that has been written out of the history of world culture.
From cave painting to photography to the internet, pornography has always been at the cutting edge in adopting and exploiting new developments in mass communication. And in so doing, it has helped to promote and propel those developments in ways that are rarely acknowledged. Without pornography, the internet would not have grown so quickly. The e-commerce payment systems that are now commonplace would be at a far more primitive stage security and usability. Without video streaming software developed for pornography sites, CNN would be struggling to deliver news clips. Without advertising from sex sites, Google could not have afforded YouTube.
This smart, witty and well-researched history shows how a vast secret trade has bankrolled and shaped mainstream culture and its machines.
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
PATCHEN BARSS is Director, Communications and Media Relations, with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. As a journalist he has written about science and the humanities in higher education for more than a decade. His
articles have appeared in the National Post, the Montreal Gazette, Reader's Digest, Saturday Night, This Magazine, and many other publications. He has been a technology and culture columnist for CBC Online and a producer for CBC Television.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: Drawing, Painting, Carving, Writing
One The Oldest Impression
Two The “Hottentot Venus” and the History of Civilization
Three The Virgin and the Naughty Monkey
Four Fleshing the Press
Part Two: Mechanical Reproduction
Five Exposure Time
Six Stag Nation
Seven The Format War
Eight “U” Tube
Nine Erotica Online
Ten Virtual World FAQ
Eleven The Games People Play
Part Three: The Modern Pornography Industry
Twelve The Commercialization of the Internet
Thirteen Pornography Outstrips the Mainstream
Part Four: The Strange Future of Mass Communication
Fourteen Words Get in the Way
Fifteen Out of the MUD
Sixteen Emergent Sex and Non-emergent Technology
Seventeen The Law of Unintended Consequences
Eighteen Down but Not Out
Nineteen A Touchy Subject
For Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Index
From the Hardcover edition.