PORNOGRAPHY vs. EROTICISM

An unknown ( to me) web-traveler stumbles on this blog and sends a message. His name is Luke Reynolds, he has recently published a book titled – A NEW MAN – . I check out his blog http://reynoldsluke.blogspot.com/ Logging onto his web-site: http://www.lukewreynolds.com/ leads me to AMAZON where I see his book. Reading through the introduction and 7 favorable reviews I understand his, is the story of a young man redeemed from a destructive addiction to pornography.

I wish to ignore the subject, yet throughout the night my sleep is haunted by pornography dilemmas..

I suppose a distinct difference exist between Pornography and Eroticism… Eroticism is perhaps innate in our planet’s Earthly nature, to attract, to stimulate, to ensure continuity…That’s why Flora gave erotic shapes and scents to flowers… and Faunus bestowed alluring characters to ‘human beasts’, to wild and domestic animals… Gave stunning plumage to the birds... entire oceans he filled with colour and exotic patterns, coral reefs pulsate with orgasmic sensuousness… even insect and simple lichens have mysterious sexual powers…

Eroticism is a component of Human evolution… The cave dwellers had the Venus of Willendorf and we have Playboy Centerfold… Would the ancients have deemed Fertility Rites as pornography??? In Greece the Greeks decorated urns with sexual customs and traditions;
the Romans frescoed walls with copulation and carried phallic amulets…

For example would we agree to destroy the Nude in art, because a Giorgione’s Venus evokes sensuality, or bestiality as in the case of Leda and the Swan… or voyeurism as in Boucher’s The Raised Skirt… Should we eliminate even the last trace of nineteen century French Postcards because by 'Victorians and Puritanicals' were deemed scandalous??? Personally I find Cecat, Zichy, Rowaldson and many others…amusing and entertaining, and love the dark, mischievous eroticisms of Aubrey Beardsley.

I let the KAMA SUTRA and THE PERFUMED GARDEN plunge me into the mind and mode of other cultures, cultures less repressive than my own… I can view Japanese Eroticism with a smile…

I am aware not all that is available on today’s sex market is eroticism, but when eroticism crosses the border into pornography is for the individual to decide and control.

I agree exposure without moderation, devoid of judicious guide, can result in grave dilemmas for the souls of youths whose sexuality is an emerging force, for the mind of immature or sexually frustrated adults, where addiction is the result...

The ever-pleasure-seeking-Human-Beast has the ‘intelligence’ to become addicted. We are addicted to sex, by having sex beyond its original purpose of reproducing the species… we are addicted to food, (we eat ourselves into sickness) we are easily addicted to cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, aspirins, wine, whisky, gambling, motor cars, TV watching...

Even religions become addictions…