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Porn crosses over
Social conservatives may be in the ascendancy in the US, but you
wouldn't know it at the local bookstore
By Edward Wyatt
August 30, 2004
Porn stars may not keep many things hidden, but whatever secrets they had are
now on the shelf at the local bookstore.
A wave of confessionals and self-help guides written by current or former stars
of pornographic films is flooding bookstores this year, accompanied by erotic
novels, racy sex-instruction guides, histories of sexual particulars and
photographic treatments of the world of pornography.
While many bookstores have long maintained sections devoted to erotica or
sexuality, rarely have those books been as prominently positioned as some of
the current crop, which have been elbowing their way onto display tables at the
front of the major chain bookstores.
Every generation has a book or two that sets pulses quickening and generates
frantic debate about pornography, community standards and the lowering of the
bar for what is acceptable. But the latest flurry of sex books, coming at a
time when sexual images already dominate advertising, entertainment and the
Internet, is clearly finding a wide audience.
Publishers, for their part, insist they are not simply churning out dirty
books.
"I don't publish pornography," said Judith Regan, president and publisher of
ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins. "I publish smart books about sex. A
lot of people try to imitate what I do but they don't do it well."
Regan's most recent offering is How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary
Tale, a memoir by Jenna Jameson, probably the most successful woman ever in the
adult-film business, written with Neil Strauss, a former reporter and music
critic for the New York Times.
The book, which is already climbing the bestseller lists, is long (579 pages),
graphic (with clinical descriptions of a smorgasbord of sex acts) and bulging
with color photos of a mostly nude Jameson -- which led some stores, including
Wal-Mart, to refuse to stock it.
Also headed for stores this fall is XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits by photographer
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, with an introduction by Gore Vidal and essays on
the intersection of pornography and culture by Salman Rushdie, Nancy Friday,
John Malkovich and others.
For history buffs there is The Intimate History of the Orgasm as well as
histories of prostitution and the pornographic film industry, all currently in
stores or coming soon. Also just issued: Star, a novel by Pamela Anderson with
a reversible book jacket that contains a nude pinup of the author on the
inside.
100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed, the sexual memoir of a teenage Italian
girl, and The Surrender, a former ballet dancer's account of her spiritual
awakening through anal sex, are also on the way. Even some mainstream novels
are drawing attention for their sexual content, like Tom Wolfe's forthcoming
chronicle of the sex-and-beer obsessions of the college crowd, I Am Charlotte
Simmons.
"Sex is what is selling these days," said Judith Curr, publisher of Atria Books
and Washington Square Press, imprints of Simon & Schuster that publish Zane
(who will not disclose her real name), one of the industry's top-selling
authors of erotica.
"When publishers see that, everybody wants to get into the market," she said.
The current crop of books was spawned by the success two years ago of The
Sexual Life of Catherine M. by Catherine Millet, a French art critic. The book
received mediocre reviews but spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller
list, bringing a new air of respectability to the genre.
Bob Wietrak, vice president for merchandising at Barnes & Noble, said that
while erotica had been around for years, a big difference now was that it was
written by name-brand authors rather than by the ubiquitous Anonymous.
"What we're seeing now in novels is that they're sexy, but they're very
sophisticated," Wietrak said.
That sophistication has brought greater acceptance, he said, and demand has
generated better placement in stores.
Jameson's book is featured at the front of most bookstores. Its publisher is
also promoting How to Have a XXX Sex Life, by the Vivid Girls, stars of
pornographic films produced by Vivid Entertainment.
The key to her assertion that Jameson's book is smart, Regan said, is in the
subtitle.
"This is a cautionary tale for this culture," she said, referring to the book's
frank descriptions of Jameson's rape by a relative of her boyfriend, her drug
addiction and other trials.
"It's the story of what she aspired to and what she's become, and the price she
paid for it," Regan said. "You cannot live a life like this and not pay a
price."
Last week, the book appeared among the top 20 titles on the Amazon.com
bestseller list. It also showed up at No. 27 on the extended Times bestseller
list for the week ending Aug. 14, which is notable because the book did not
officially go on sale until Aug. 17.
A different kind of sexual awakening is the subject of 100 Strokes of the Brush
Before Bed. When it was published in Italy last year, the author was identified
only as Melissa P., and she would not pose for photographs that showed her face
because, she said, she was not yet 18.
The book itself is hardly as demure, relating such tales as the author's 16th
birthday, when a lover goaded her into having sex with five men at once. The
book sold more than 500,000 copies in Italy alone, and its success has spread
across Europe. The author has helped her fame by revealing herself as Melissa
Panarello. In interviews, she insists that the book mirrors her own
experiences, although she stretched into two years events that actually took
place in one.
Morgan Entrekin, president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic, said he believes
the book will endure alongside previous erotic bestsellers published by his
company, including Tropic of Cancer and Lady Chatterley's Lover.
While he acknowledged that a chronicle of an adolescent's sexual experiences
"is probably not a book that is appropriate for every market," Entrekin said
the book was neither exploitative nor pornographic.
"Pornography, for me, comes from intent, and I just don't think there's that
intent here," he said.
Malaika Adero, a senior editor at Atria, concurred, saying that erotica like
Zane's Sex Chronicles, Addicted and, most recently, Skyscraper have sold more
than 1 million copies not because they are exploitative but because they are
intelligently written.
"These books are not subtle or coy or sentimental," Adero said. "They express
their sexuality with a humor and a confidence that is reflective of today's
woman. That is a cultural change that I don't think is going to reverse
itself."
Some others clearly agree, including Harlequin Enterprises, publisher of the
famed Harlequin Romance novels. In recent years Harlequin has introduced
several book series that take a distinctly modern -- that is, explicit -- view
of sex. In one series, called Blaze, the authors Lori and Tony Karayianni,
writing as Tori Carrington, address a letter to readers in which they claimed
to have surprised themselves at how far into "the shadowy side of sex" they go.
Harlequin romances, of course, can be bought at Wal-Mart, one of the biggest
sellers of books. But Wal-Mart shoppers looking for Jameson's memoir will be
disappointed: the chain decided against carrying the book, Regan said (Wal-Mart
officials did not respond to inquiries seeking comment).
Wal-Mart shoppers can, however, buy Anderson's novel, Star, though with a
difference. To accommodate Wal-Mart and other mass retailers, Atria issued
about one-quarter of the 135,000 copies of the novel in print so far with a
plain pink cover, instead of the jacket featuring a nude Anderson -- a sort of
modern equivalent of the plain brown wrapper.
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