Another plug for “The Hour” …

Its an unusual news show that can do a week of highlights from old shows, and not only get away with it, but turn it into interesting new shows that offer different insight on stories told under different light, with different angles. Of course, The Hour is not your average news show, as I’ve mentioned in the past, lol.

This week really is a week of repeats for George and the Hour, but its really well done. Tuesday’s show, about his past religious and spiritual stories, was quite interesting, and I especially enjoyed his bit on the new Judas interpretations (go back here for my comments from 2005 on Judas’ role …).

Wednesday’s show included a replay of his interview with Larry Flynt, and his segue into his next bit, on the history of burlesque, echoed my own life-long feelings on Flynt … that he was happy to move on to a nicer story. I’ll admit up-front … I do read Hustler regularly, and I think Hustler not only occupies a place in the history of Men’s Magazine’s, it, and Flynt, deserve a place in the history of free speech issues. But I’ve always wished the representative of those values in the area of adult entertainment were just a bit more savory.

One of the problems, I think, is that the adult industry is a ghetto. Its not an industry that attracts creativity … because of public scorn and legal red tape, it tends to attract the lowest common denominator in today’s world. Erotica CAN be beautiful and artistic and wonderful, but one of the reasons we are deluged with mediocre or bad pornography is that we don’t encourage creative, intelligent people to work in an erotic area.

When we look at the history of art … the history of humanity … we see erotica. Sometimes it is couched in religious terms, other times its not … but nudity and erotica is a theme that spans culture, language and geography. We see examples in history of true genius applied in this area … original illustrated versions of the Kama Sutra are just one example. Today, I wonder who the genius in erotica might be … its hard for me to see Flynt in that role, and as someone in the forefront of free speech issues in the area of erotica, he should be someone who crafts erotica as art.

Instead, what I see today, is only the worst elements are willing to stake a claim in the adult world. Those with commercial power, like Flynt, end up being the ones at the forefront of free speech battles, but the battles are often on barely defensible material, where claims of ‘artistic merit’ are often more theoretical than real.

I don’t know what the answer is, honestly. I agree with Flynt’s stand on many of his free speech issues, but I wish he wasn’t the one representing those interests. Until its more attractive for intelligent, creative people to apply their talents in the adult field, I fear the Flynt, and people like him, will be who continues to speak for those interests, and that’s the true shame, IMO.