Morally Neutral Knowledge (was: Frayn?s ?Copenhagen?

[Paul Mackin]

  David Morris wrote:

> sending from this adress beacuse my hotmail is down at the moment:
>
>
>
>> From: Bandwraith at aol.com
>>
>> David Morris wrote:
>>
>>> In GR Pynchon calls the scientific method (with the stand-in for 
>>> that concept
>>>
> being film/calculus dissection of life's continuous flow) a 
> "pornography," a
> term that is clearly not neutral. But what are the implications of that
> judgmental term on the nature of man and knowledge
>
>
>> Do you recall where that passage was? I would like to review it's 
>> context.
>>
>
> P. 567
>
> "So Slothrop is borne, afloat on the water-leas. Like signals set out 
> for lost
> travelers, shapes keep repeating for him, Zonal shapes he will allow 
> to enter
> but won't interpret, not anymore. The most persistent of these, which 
> seem to
> show up at the least real times of day, are the stairstep gables that 
> front so
> many of these ancient north-German buildings, rising, backlit, a 
> strangely
> _wet_ gray as if risen out of the sea, over these straight and very low
> horizons. They hold shape, they endure, like monuments to Analysis. Three
> hundred years ago mathemeticians were learning to break the canonballs 
> rise and
> fall into stairsteps of range and height, delta-x and delta-y, 
> allowing them to
> grow smaller and smaller, approaching zero as armies of eternally 
> shrinking
> midgets galloped up stairs and down again, the patter of their 
> diminishing feet
> growing finer, smoothing out into continuous sound. This analytic 
> legacy has
> been handed down intact - it brought the technicians at Peenmunde to 
> peer at
> Askanian films of rocket flights, frame by frame, delta-x and delta-y,
> flightless themselves... film and calculus, both pornographies of 
> flight."
>
One, two, three, many pornographies.

What we thought of as a single sin is only the tip of the iceberg.

I assume there are as many pornographies as there are sins.

Later in the book, analysis is said to be the current name for Original 
Sin. This extends pornography pretty much to the limit. (you might say)

Geli sez her witching technique vis a vis Tchcherine is not so good and 
is told she doesn't need technique on account of she has love.

Love is pure and whole. Technique is corrupt.

Wow.

As a point of reference see what the Britannica sez:


pornography
Encyclop?dia Britannica Article



the representation of erotic behaviour in books, pictures, statues, 
motion pictures, etc., that is intended to cause sexual excitement. The 
word pornography, derived from the Greek /porni/ ("prostitute") and 
/graphein/ ("to write"), was originally defined as any work of art or 
literature depicting the life of prostitutes.

Little is known of the origins and earliest forms of pornography because 
it was customarily not thought worthy of transmission or preservation. 
One of the first clear historical evidences of pornography in Western 
culture can be found in the salacious songs performed in ancient Greece 
at festivals honouring the god Dionysius. Indisputable evidence of 
graphic pornography in Roman culture is found at Pompeii, where erotic 
paintings dating from the 1st century AD cover walls sacred to 
bacchanalian orgies. A classic of written pornography is the Roman poet 
Ovid's /Ars amatoria/ (/Art of Love/), a treatise on the art of 
seduction, intrigue, and sensual arousal.

During the European Middle Ages pornography was widespread but held in 
low repute, finding expression mostly in riddles, common jokes, 
doggerel, and satirical verses. A notable exception is the /Decameron/ 
of Giovanni Boccaccio, some of whose 100 stories are licentious in 
nature. A principal theme of medieval pornography was the sexual license 
of monks and other clerics, along with their attendant displays of 
hypocrisy.

The invention of printing led to the rebirth of ambitious pornographic 
written works. These frequently contained elements of humour and romance 
and were written to entertain as well as to arouse. Many of these works 
harked back to classical writings in their treatment of the joys and 
sorrows of marital deception and infidelity. The /Heptameron/ of 
Margaret of Angoule^me is similar to the /Decameron/ in that it uses the 
device of a group of people telling stories, some of which are salacious.

In 18th-century Europe there appeared the first modern works that were 
both devoid of literary value and designed solely to arouse sexual 
excitement. A small underground traffic in such works became the basis 
of a separate publishing and bookselling business in England. A classic 
of this period was the widely read /Fanny/ /Hill;/ /or,/ /Memoirs/ /of/ 
/a/ /Woman/ /of/ /Pleasure/ (1749) by John Cleland. At about this time 
erotic graphic art began to be widely produced in Paris, eventually 
coming to be known as French postcards.

Pornography flourished in the Victorian era despite, or perhaps because 
of, the prevailing taboos on sexual topics. In 1834 an investigation in 
London established the presence of 57 pornographic shops on Holywell 
Street alone. A notable work of Victorian pornography is the massive and 
anonymous autobiography /My/ /Secret/ /Life/ (1890), which is both a 
social chronicle of the underside of a Puritanical society and a 
minutely detailed recounting of one English gentleman's lifelong pursuit 
of sexual gratification.

The development of photography and later of motion pictures contributed 
greatly to the proliferation of pornographic materials. Pornography in 
the 20th century is unprecedented in the variety of media used and the 
enormous volume of works produced. Since World War II, written 
pornography has been largely superseded by explicit visual 
representations of erotic behaviour that are considered lacking in 
redeeming artistic or social values.

Pornography has long been the target of moral and legal sanction in the 
belief that it may tend to deprave and corrupt minors and adults and 
cause the commission of sexual crimes. Occasionally, important works of 
art or even of religious significance may be banned by a state or other 
jurisdiction because they are considered pornographic under such 
assumptions. Those assumptions have been challenged on legal and 
scientific grounds. Nonetheless, the production, distribution, or 
possession of pornographic materials may be prosecuted in many countries 
under statutes dealing with obscenity (/q.v./).

*To cite this page:*
"pornography" /Encyclop?dia Britannica/
<http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=62436>
[Accessed October 5, 2002].