This is a photographic journey across the world of pornography in the USA, Japan, Hungary and Germany. It features a contemplative essay from Martin Amis, who talks to the stars, wannabe stars and industry workers in LA.
Porn is not dead, but it's not feeling itself either. The quantity of pornography being consumed is greater than ever, but what was once disguised by a brown paper bag is now the subject of mainstream movies and the subtext of global news stories. Somewhere between the explicit revelations about President Clinton's sex life and the making of The People vs Larry Flynt, dirt lost much of its ability to stain, leaving something of a cultural vacuum in the process. Provocative questions about sexual imagery and the sex industry in the Western world have now been explored by an idea storm in the form of a groundbreaking book: "Porn?" The concept of cutting-edge British monthly Dazed & Confused, and art directed by award-winning Tom Hingston Studio, "Porn?" brings together a sexually balanced orgy of the world's top fashion, art and documentary photographers, illustrators and writers, filling a space between low-brow porn and high art erotica. Sensual images mix with absurd and provocative conceits: Nick Knight's covert hand wanks furiously under a cover; Paul M Smith creates hybrid creatures from the the features and bodies of porn stars; Larry Sultan documents the empty sets and flimsy props that form the background of California's porn film industry; Terry Richardson shoots the most famous porn star of all, Houston of Houston 500 fame. From studies of sex aids to the succulent surfaces of meat, "Porn"?'s razor-sharp design acts as a prism for the concept of pornography, deconstructing the industrialised voyeurism of ailing medium-core and turning it into something far more stimulating.
Professor Gail Dines has written about and researched the porn industry for over two decades. She attends industry conferences, interviews producers and performers, and speaks to hundreds of men and women each year about their experience with porn. Students and educators describe her work as “life changing.” In Pornland—the culmination of her life’s work—Dines takes an unflinching look at porn and its affect on our lives. Astonishingly, the average age of first viewing porn is now 11.5 years for boys, and with the advent of the Internet, it’s no surprise that young people are consuming more porn than ever. But, as Dines shows, today’s porn is strikingly different from yesterday’s Playboy. As porn culture has become absorbed into pop culture, a new wave of entrepreneurs are creating porn that is even more hard-core, violent, sexist, and racist. To differentiate their products in a glutted market, producers have created profitable niche products—like teen sex, torture porn, and gonzo—in order to entice a generation of desensitized users. Going from the backstreets to Wall Street, Dines traces the extensive money trail behind this multibillion-dollar industry—one that reaps more profits than the film and music industries combined. Like Big Tobacco—with its powerful lobbying groups and sophisticated business practices—porn companies don’t simply sell products. Rather they influence legislators, partner with mainstream media, and develop new technologies like streaming video for cell phones. Proving that this assembly line of content is actually limiting our sexual freedom, Dines argues that porn’s omnipresence has become a public health concern we can no longer ignore.
World Wrestling Entertainment star Mick Foley provides an inside account of the organization while charting the six-week process by which he developed a story line and prepared to get back into the wrestling ring.
Backstage at the Adult Video News Awards. With a team of 22 casting agents, producers, talent bookers, technicians, writers and adult film consultants, Grecco gained access to every part of the four-day Las Vegas pornography extravaganza, capturing portraits of porn stars and their producers, the wannabes and the legends, the fans and the partygoers. Chosen from over 13,000 photographs, the book features a special photographic collection of the provocative props, hardware, footwear, sex toys and gadgets used exclusively in the adult industry: a $3,000, foot-tall, multi-colored, hand-crafted glass dildo is recalled with an almost archeological spirit. The text is by pop culture journalist/author, Lonn Friend and former FHM executive editor, Rob Hill. •Insightful essays •Biographical captions that lend literary depth to the breathtaking photos •Companion feature in post-production •Celebrity guest Forewords
The definitive collection of essays and reportage written during the past thirty years from one of most provocative and widely read writers--with new commentary by the author. For more than thirty years, Martin Amis has turned his keen intellect and unrivaled prose loose on an astonishing range of topics--politics, sports, celebrity, America, and, of course, literature. Now, at last, these incomparable essays have been gathered together. Here is Amis at the 2011 GOP Iowa Caucus, where, squeezed between "windbreakers and woolly hats," he pores over The Ron Paul Family Cookbook and laments the absence of "our Banquo," Herman Cain. He writes about finally confronting the effects of aging on his athletic prowess. He revisits, time and time again, the worlds of Bellow and Nabokov, his "twin peaks," masters who have obsessed and inspired him. Brilliant, incisive, and savagely funny, The Rub of Time is a vital addition to any Amis fan's bookshelf, and the perfect primer for readers discovering his fierce and tremendous talents for the first time.
Alice in Wonderland (also known as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), from 1865, is the peculiar and imaginative tale of a girl who falls down a rabbit-hole into a bizarre world of eccentric and unusual creatures. Lewis Carroll's prominent example of the genre of "literary nonsense" has endured in popularity with its clever way of playing with logic and a narrative structure that has influence generations of fiction writing.
Kevin loves sex... or rather an idealised version of it. The reality has often proven less successful, and always more traumatic. Fortunately his imagination – at least when the day job of settling bets in the local bookmakers permits – keeps him one step removed from the real thing, and that suits him just fine.
A memoir of Ric Porter who, as a young man, fell into working in the British porno industry. This book charts his experiences from working with the then unknown Ben Dover on early films through to managing the UK's most prolific adult magazine publishing group to becoming a producer for Television X and more. Features anecdotes of many well known adult and mainstream celebrities. An amusing and insightful look at the British adult industry 'from the inside', this reads like a cross between 'Boogie Nights' and 'Carry On' - Welcome to Pornoland!