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Show lis WRAPPING " .. J JQ BUY IT 7e naflvc ea77 of porno by RICHARD BARNUM REECE Chronicle Staff "Pornography is a pop art experience. ex-perience. This is not to say that it is a substantially qualified pop art experience. It is just to say that porno is pop." John Manarino; a west 2nd South philosopher. Tom Fightmaster and I went down to the A.B.C. book store to test the validity of the "pornography "por-nography is pop" thesis. The building is on North Temple and Sixth West. It is painted fire engine red. On the top part of the red building are large white letters advertising "THE Adult Book and Cinema." The windows are frosted white to prevent a free look for those under eighteen. On the door is a sign which warns the under-age to forego entrance. Something mystical was going on inside: a taboo which the young must beware. Heartened by our eligibility "Vietnam is more obscene than pornography," he said. His words felt like someone dropping a nickle into a coke machine that hadn't worked for 50 years. I was sure he was the one that sold me that '49 Oldsmobile. "We get more prejudice than the blackest man in the country," he said. "Why, we have dozens of people come in here and say that they're all for us, but when it comes to standing up and being counted they're nowhere in sight." "Could I have your name so I can attribute your quote?" I said. "I'd rather not," he said. "Why not?" "Business reasons," he answered. an-swered. There is nothing quite so popsy artsy as pornography. Warhol would approve. De Koonig would approve. Denmark approves. I approve. Commissioner Barker does not approve. Framed against that art criticism which find pornography as pop art is a liberal philosophical posture which considers men capable of exercizing a discrimination which accepts that which is self affirming and rejects that which is self destructive. de-structive. Given that man does have such a capacity and does, in fact, exercize it then pornocj.aphy is not only art but is also necessary to art. It indicates alternatives. "Where are your movies?" Tom asked the store-keeper. "They placed a temporary injunction in-junction on them and took them out," he said. "We used to have nine peep shows." "Like the ones at Lagoon?" The people underneath the plastic wrappers on the magazines all had orange sunburns. They looked uncomfortable. There wasn't a lot more to do than look at the sunburned people underneath the plastic magazine wrappers at the Adult Book and Cinema. After a while, Tom and I got bored and left. (A part of the psyche is drifting elsewhere to look at the morrio of Itself. . .there is a silver strobe light barking colors... you look around the room to meet the glance of a strange person in a trench coat: you spy your father at the same time he first spies you... you are vulnerable; he is vulnerable. Isn't Art wonderful? Zappo: you have immediately become a part of pop pornography Terrific. It's like being entrapped by a prostitute (mauve on ochre make-up) on west Second South St., and getting the chance to read about yourself in the morning paper... "Hey Jimmy, I caught ya' on the news this morning. . .farout. . .heavy duty. . .wow!!) It's like being entrapped by a prostitute and getting to read about yourself in the morning paper. "This is not a poor man's art," Tom said. On the shelves were magazines that were much too expensive for a student: "Around the World with Cuthbert Crotch-pheasant," Crotch-pheasant," "Head and Tail," "Climax Explosion," "The Marriage Manual" and "Fallos und Ficken." They cost from $5 to $10. Some of them were sealed in a plastic wrapper. We knew that it was another taboo to open the wrappers. Confident of our successful initiation into the mystique of knew that it was another taboo to open the wrappers. PORNOGRAPHY Tom and I approached the store-keeper and began to interview him. "Do you think pornography is art?" I said. "I think it's def in i tely an art," he said. The store-keeper was about 26-years-old and six feet tall. He was trying to grow a mustache. I think he was the used car salesman that sold me a '49 Oldsmobile when I was a freshman. :o enter the magic realm of maturity, Tom and I slipped inside. Ve felt like we were playing lookey. We hoped that we wouldn't get caught. On the inside of the red bulding is a bleak yellow room. There are four langing florescent lights. Against the walls were seven rows of Dooks, posters and assorted Dhonograph records. We dove into the long awaited mysteries of the pornographic experience. "Wowll" Tom said, "Look at this; isn't that fantasitcl!" Tom is an art student. I figured he had hit onto something big. It m a record titled: "The Original Crepitation (farting) Contest." Surely this was art. The canvas is broader. The audience becomes a ' part of the stage. It is necessary to be detached. . .the aesthetics are critical. . .suddenly a hit of the ludicrous ludi-crous seizes you:you have been embraced by the pop pornography experience: a huge joke is being played on you. Tom and I started laughing. 1 |