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Pornography or Erotica? On Art’s Function, Purpose, and Essence

March 18, 2024

art, criticism, experience, experiencing, love, philosophy, sexuality, society

The topic might sound unusual and, ironically enough, this too is part of the theme. Namely, we should be able to explore a topic as ubiquitous as human sexuality. The differentiation between pornography and erotica (erotic art, that is) is problematic. United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart notoriously said he couldn’t define it but he knew it when he saw it.

That isn’t good enough.

I want to define it and I want to understand it. I’ve had some discussions on the topic with my friend Igor, and I decided to take my side of the emails we exchanged, edit it for length and focus, and turn it into a post.

But here’s an important caveat: My main interest isn’t in defining pornography (or erotica). Rather, I want to create a more general theoretical framework that talks about the differences between art’s function, purpose, and essence. So while there will be a fairly in-depth discussion on pornography, erotica, and their differences, my ultimate focus will divert to art in general.

pornography vs erotica. Image of young woman — Erotica doesn’t even need to display nudity to be erotic. Though, funnily enough, even nudity *itself* can be a matter of definition (i.e. historical/cultural contexts). Is the woman of the photo nude (a little? a lot?) or not? Ask a twenty-year old secular, liberal person in present-day Helsinki and a Victorian prude like Christina Rossetti, and you’ll get very different answers!

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Strengths and Weaknesses as a Writer: a Pointless Question

March 11, 2024

Writing

art, creativity, fiction, genre, writing

3 comments

I recently had a hilarious (as it turned out) experience in a professional capacity. A Gothic writer wanted to hire a freelancer and I was one of the candidates. One of the interview questions was, What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with this question. Lazy recruiters have been using this for a long time and equally lazy and conformist candidates have been giving nice canned responses.

The thing is, al this falls apart once fiction writing enters the picture.

So this ridiculous experience – I’ll offer you more details in a while – inspired me to write this post, to clarify why What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? is a profoundly pointless question. Any writing adviser, guru, coach, or whatnot who tries to sell you a course or method to “fix your writing weaknesses” is just after your money.

strengths and weaknesses as a writer, AI render of a dystopian city made of files and folders — Those who are dead set on finding “strength and weakness” in everything, will end up living in a city made of files, folders, and boxes.

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The Collapse of Criteria and the Prostitution of Art

March 4, 2024

Society

art, creativity, ignorance, literature, mediocrity, social masses, social media, society, writing

4 comments

In an interview in 1991 (I will share the relevant excerpt translated/transcribed in this post), the Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis pointed out a sobering fact: We live in an era characterized by the collapse of criteria and the prostitution of art.

That is to say, Castoriadis argued, we live in an era with no criteria by which to gauge art. As a result, art prostitutes itself and loses its true meaning. It becomes industrialized.

There are two important elements in this very short excerpt I will discuss in this post:

Castoriadis naturally spoke before the internet and – especially – social media. I wonder what he would think about them.
Importantly, Castoriadis argues that art should create its own criteria.

If art should create its own criteria, and we observe a collapse of criteria today, what does that tell us?

collapse of criteria. image of Acropolis — The Acropolis of Athens, Greece. Each era creates its own criteria. Parthenon still stands, 2500 years later

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