So, although it’s not acknowledged, we have a society which is entirely sexualised and yet its relationship with its sexual imagination is a really strange and unhealthy one, in that it tries to pretend it doesn’t have a sexual imagination or that having one is in some way shameful, sinful, guilt-inducing. Which means that the way in which the sexual imagination works in our culture is as a kind of multi-purpose social control leash.
It’s a stick and a carrot combined, that for the purposes of commerce it can flood your mind with the most licentious ideas and imagery but woe betide anybody who actually finds themselves in this inflamed state and responds.
Alan Moore
Paul Gravett interviewed Alan Moore on pornography, the world we live in, Lost Girls and other interesting topics in July 2006. Their full conversation is now online: Alan Moore: The ‘Lost’ Interview.
I remember we were on BBC Radio 4 Today programme recently, and the first question that was put to us was “How would we feel if even one paedophile was moved to attack a child by reading Lost Girls?” I restrained myself from asking how the interviewer would feel if even one Ministry of Defence bio-weapons expert was found dead in the woods after being outed on the Today programme, because that would have been impolitic. But I suggested that my main feeling, should such an event occur, would be one of enormous surprise because, as far as I understand it, when it comes to sexual criminals of any kind, whether rapists or paedophiles, it’s obvious that if pornography was doing it for them, they wouldn’t need to carry out these dreadful crimes.
Alan Moore
What a wonderful interview with so many intriguing details and ideas, including background information on the time frame of Lost Girls and the relationship between porn and real (sexual) violence.
It also looks likely that until we have come to the end of our stay upon this planet, whether that’s next Tuesday or in ten thousand years time, we will probably have some form of pornography accompanying us.
So the only question seems to be is it going to be good, constructive, healthy pornography, or something else? Are we going to put up with the same basically ugly kind of material that we have at present. There isn’t any reason why pornography should not be a thing of beauty, which would perhaps make us feel better about our own sexual imaginations.
Alan Moore
