Advertisement
Books

Porn: An Oral History could have been fascinating

Polly Barton’s book exploring people’s attitudes to porn never manages to go beyond the bounds of her friendship circle.

In the introduction to her latest book for Fitzcarraldo Editions, the translator and author Polly Barton questions why we are all so uptight about porn. It is something that everyone on the planet consumes and yet nobody ever wants to discuss. So, Barton decides to reach out to her friends and mutuals and conduct 19 anonymous conversations about porn. This book, Porn: An Oral History, is the transcripts of these conversations.  

A book about how and why everyday people consume porn would be endlessly fascinating but, annoyingly, Porn is not that book. There is a moment in Barton’s introduction where she writes, “the agenda of this book is not to expound my beliefs about porn… I am increasingly unsure what a position or even an opinion on porn could look like from me.” Over the next 350 pages of transcripts, Barton proves that she really doesn’t have any real opinions to share. 

Your support changes lives. Find out how you can help us help more people by signing up for a subscription

By exclusively foraging through her extended friend group for interviewees, many of the interviews end up feeling very samey and, at times, insufferable. I think of how much this book would have benefited from Barton peering outside her realm, chatting to people from different class backgrounds and societies. Instead, from the off, the entire experiment just comes across as flawed. 

Barry Pierce is a journalist and cultural commentator  

Porn: An Oral History book cover

Porn: An Oral History by Polly Barton is out now (Fitzcarraldo Editions, £13.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

Advertisement
Advertisement

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.To support our work buy a copy! If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertisement

Sign our petition to keep people in their homes

Urgent action is needed to prevent even more people being pushed into homelessness.  A secure home is the first step in addressing the cruel cycle of poverty to ensure people can fulfil their potential. Join us to keep people in their homes.

Recommended for you

Read All
Battle to save Britain's libraries as budget cuts, closures and austerity leaves future uncertain
Libraries Week

Battle to save Britain's libraries as budget cuts, closures and austerity leaves future uncertain

Poet and author Blake Morrison on grief and why he wrote so much about his family
Letter to my Younger Self

Poet and author Blake Morrison on grief and why he wrote so much about his family

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper review – if only all fiction was this evocative
Review

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper review – if only all fiction was this evocative

Top 5 books about goddesses, selected by best-selling author Natalie Haynes
Mythology

Top 5 books about goddesses, selected by best-selling author Natalie Haynes

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when people will get the second cost of living payment in 2023
3.

Here's when people will get the second cost of living payment in 2023

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue