Annals of Pornographie: How Porn Became "Bad"

by Brian M. Watson

In a groundbreaking reappraisal of European history, award-winning historian Brian M. Watson visits literature, art, photography, and historical figures you don’t learn about in school, to reveal, for the first time, the history of a subject that causes endless rage, anger, excitement and debate.

In an entertaining yet informative tone, Annals of Pornographie: How Porn Became Bad explains, well, the history of pornography, but also the history of sexuality, the creation of privacy (and public life), and the ‘invention of manners.’ It brings together the history of Western culture’s tortured and blissful relationship with erotic representation by tracing a history through the underside of Western culture, its art, literature, philosophy, sexology, psychology and their encounters with its law. It takes the reader through the underbelly of Western history, from the fifteenth century Renaissance all the way up to Playboy magazine and Hollywood.

Along the way, we meet a variety of colorful characters who do not get their usual historical due–from the ‘royal pimp,’ Lord Rochester, to the Renaissance ‘porn star’ Pietro Aretino, to the ‘unspeakable’ and flamboyant Edmund Curll (the first Hugh Hefner), to tax-dodging street pornographers and radicals in the streets of London and Paris, Rome and Amsterdam. We visit locations as far-flung as the hallowed halls of the Council of Trent, where Popes and kings fought over the future of the West, to a narrow alley in London filled with hack writers, aspiring poets, cheap bookstores, lovingly and disgustingly referred to as Grub Street, all the way up to alleyway pushers of dirty French pictures.

Annals of Pornographie: How Porn Became Bad reveals, for the first time, exactly why and how pornography became 'bad.' Because it wasn't always so.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

360 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2016

About the author

A word about my Goodreads Ratings before I get down to my bio: I believe very much that we should be using the full range of five stars in our reviews. I generally rate on the idea I read somewhere that made the point that we should re-read truly great literature four times in our lifetimes -- as a child, as a young adult, in middle age and in old age.

I use this rating premise heavily when it comes to fiction books. I'm much less strict when it comes to academic books as I consult even the worst ones pretty frequently.

So my general ratings for fiction with adjectives are as follows:
★ = Did not finish, terrible, awful, not great. Would not read again. Generic, predictable, or trashy.

★★ = Most likely finished. Not awful, wouldn't recommend to a friend, read this because it was in a series, or was disappointed by the development, book had some uniqueness but was otherwise generic af.

★★★ = Average rating for a book. Would probably recommend to a friend interested in the topic or the genre. Would not read again. Finished, book had some unique ideas but have seen ideas or plot elsewhere, obvious development, a good example of it's genre without boundary-breaking.

★★★★ = Really excellent. Might read again depending on what it is, good book in a phenomenal series or the best book in a okay or good series. Boundary-breaking, unique ideas, totally unexpected plot, good sense of humor, smart or wise. Definitely recommend to a friend or defend book on its merits.

★★★★★ = Phenomenal. Life changing, will definitely or already have read multiple times. Stuck on the edge of the seat, huge emotional impact, could not put down. Deeply soul questioning, totally unique, genre game-changer. Would recommend to a friend regardless of their interest. Would judge a person based on their opinion of the book.

I'm a historian of pornography and obscenity, focusing primarily on 1750-1850, but ongoing research from late medieval/early modern to Hollywood.

When I was young and friendless, struggling with learning how to speak, reacquiring language after getting hearing aids, a teacher did the kindest thing possible for a lonely and withdrawn child: she took me on her own time to the local library, sat me down and helped me find a book I would enjoy. That single event, and the book I read, forever determined the course of my life, spent among books. Since that time, all I wanted to do was to teach—to take things I had discovered and share them with other people, to explain how and why things were the way that they were, to be the ‘keeper of myths’ as Karl Becker put it.


As a result, after high school I started with a teaching degree with additional majors in History and English at Keene State College. After becoming more familiar with K-12 teaching, I decided that I wanted to teach at the college level, and dropped the teaching degree. Despite that, throughout my undergrad I sought diverse academic experiences, and took courses from a wide variety of critical disciplines in order to broaden my perspective as an educator and an individual. The desire to research at a higher level led me to pursue a M.A. at Drew University in History & Culture, an interdisciplinary degree that emphasized engagement with a wide range of perspectives and research



While at Drew, I focused especially on History of the Book and History of Sexuality—two fields that drew on my preexisting interest in the history of censorship—as to why certain books or texts are banned, censored or destroyed at certain times. Drawing on this, my 2013 M.A. thesis for Drew University, led by Dr. Jonathan Rose (founder of Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) _Society, Vice, and Suppression: The Historical Creation of Pornography in England, 1750-1850_ won the New Jersey David Kohn Award in Close Textual Reading for the most original and best-written thesis.


Happy at the reception my thesis had received, I decided to exp

Reviews

[Lori Ingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, I have SO many questions after reading this book...

If you want a good, general history about what was seen as pornography and obscenity from Victorian times to today, this is a good book to pick up. It's a fascinating history into obscenity, what can happen when "bawdy" works are suddenly in the hands of the masses, and how the Church played its part in making porn "bad." I can't wait to see what Brian comes up with next.

[Gabriel Clark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because a friend recommended it to me and shared it. At first I found it interesting, an investigation with an objective perspective, but when I finished reading it, it seemed to me that it is the opinion of an author who defends pornography and not a source of "historical" information. Each person decides whether it is good or not to watch pornography, but regarding the author I have to say that he is t3rribl3 (no offense), he seems more like a pseudo-researcher trying to express what he thinks than reporting objectively and truthfully, and I wonder, is this an "informative" book or an opinion article?
I honestly expected more, a point of view (if there was going to be one) and an objective analysis focused on History and not a collection of data with a subjective opinion very implicit in the book.
In short: it promises a lot, but in the end it doesn't meet expectations. I can't give it more than one star. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it.

[Guille Puerto · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book. It promises much more than it delivers but it's still an interesting perspective on the development of morality and the modern understanding of sex and sexuality in print.

Its centered around a choice of authors and books that each exemplify their time and culture's approach to erotic work and sexuality. From the Italian Renaissance to XIX c. London and New York.

The book left me wanting more detail on how these subjects were understood in the daily lives of ordinary people, but since there isn't that much written evidence about that anyway all I have left is speculation.

I'll certainly return to it and it's sources to learn more about the subject.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Проследява историята на отношението на обществото към порнографията и по-специално реакциите му спрямо нея, които са довели до това тя да се възприема като нещо лошо и неморално. Не разглежда всички аспекти на въпроса и като цяло се опира главно на знакови произведения.