--Shel Silverstein

It's hard waking up without e-mail.

That was my first observation of the morning. I'm used to using e-mail to drag me back into consciousness, and, thanks to my phone service being cut off, I couldn't do that.

Somewhere along the line, I remembered the radio, and turned that on instead. A half hour or so later, I was up.

I kicked things off by pointing out that in order to properly understand any of the relevant issues, we first had to define our terms. Fortunately, I said, it's very easy to define what "pornography" is, if you bother thinking about it for a few seconds. To demonstrate this, I said, I would now briefly go through a few books, pointing out which were pornographic, and which were not.

For example, I said, pulling out a copy of My Secret Garden, this collection of "women's fantasies" was clearly pornography. I mean, the fantasies included all sorts of scenarios that demeaned women, right? Not to mention all manner of perversions. No, I continued, tossing the book against the wall behind me, this was clearly just smut.

On the other hand, I continued, pulling out a copy of Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica, this book was serious literature. Art. You can tell that, because it's called "erotica," not "porn," right? So, I said, laying it gently on the desk beside me, this was okay.

On the other hand, I went on, pulling out The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, this was trash. They have some of the most graphic drawings in there... I blushed to even mention it to the class.

And so on. By the time I got done (assigning positive and negative values almost completely at random), I'd also disposed of Talk Dirty to Me, Fear of Fifty, and The F-Word, but sanctioned Lolita, Lady Chatterly's Lover, Portnoy's Complaint, and Get Your Tongue Out of My Mouth, I'm Kissing You Good-Bye (the last on the grounds that I liked the cover).

Anyway, by the time I got done, my actual point -- that this is anything but cut-and-dried -- got across pretty well.

Actually, the lack of a compelling pro-porn argument is a bit glaring in our packet of readings in general. It's sort of almost represented, but nowhere near to the extent of the other two sides. I'm thinking of reading Mary Anne's introduction to Torn Shapes of Desire to fill the gap. The only problem is time. If we had the originally scheduled four periods, I'd definitely want to do it; given only three (with two to go), it's going to be enough of a challenge simply to cover what we've already been assigned. But we'll see.

In desperation, I instead bought a different variety, which (a) had a rougher surface than I was used to, and (b) was twice the usual size. I then went back to the art classroom, where I cut the board in half with an x-acto knife.

While I was in the Mac lab earlier, I was directed to this Hamlet parody by Shel Silverstein. After reading the first screen's worth, I printed the whole thing out, and proceeded to read it (aloud, but in an undertone) before class, finishing moments after the professor walked in. Good stuff.

Anyway, the homework assignment had been to paint some sort of object. A still life. Or, rather, to use some sort of object to create a composition, without being strictly representational about it. What with everything else going on this week, I didn't do this.

Neither did most of the class.

In fact, of the fourteen students present at the start of class, precisely four actually did the homework.

Nice to have company. And kind of nice to know that it's been "one of those weeks" all around.

I uploaded the entry just moments before they closed, and then went home, and went to sleep.