Down in the Valley
Let's go sideways.
The Block
I hit a block recently, writing this newsletter. This was caused by two things, both of which were good. One was something that happened professionally that I canโt talk about yet. And the other was getting a nice shout out from Sean Bonner in his newsletter, which for some reason made me feel self-conscious about newsletter writing. Basically, the only way to get out of a writing block is to write, so thatโs what Iโm doing here.
Youโre a Bad Man, Arenโt You?
ICYMI, Warren Ellis has been accused of some sort of alleged sexual improprieties. I heard from a woman whoโs gathering stories from alleged victims. She asked me if I had anything to report or if I knew anyone who did. I didnโt, really. I will say that I was friendly with Warren for years many years ago. He turned me into a character in one of his comic books. In the comic, I was a porn czar named Filthy Sanchez. At a certain point, as I recall it, he picked my brain about some porn-related subjects for a novel he was writing. After that, he stopped communicating with me. When his book came out, I read it and surmised that some of the porn-related parts of the book had been not plagiarized, but I would say they seemed aggressively inspired by some of my work. Oh, well. I guess what goes around comes around. (BTW, all of this happened a long time ago, so itโs possible Iโve got the exact chronology wrong.)
BBC
Thereโs been a lot of conversation lately about racism in the porn industry. It is true: There are ways in which the porn industry engages in systemically racist practices. That is not a good thing at all, and I hope that the porn industry works to rectify that wrong. At the same time, Iโve spent over 20 years writing about the porn industry, and the one forever truth in porn was told to me years ago by a producer: If there wasnโt a demand for it, it wouldnโt be made. Iโm not offering up a defense of the porn industry. Iโm simply pointing out that Americaโs entrenched racism has created a demand for adult content that exploits, capitalizes on, and monetizes racist tropes. As Iโve written elsewhere, the porn industry is a dream factoryโbut itโs dreams are all yours.
This Fatherโs Day
My father died of a heart attack, at 60, in 1996. So Fatherโs Day is always tough.
Eight Years Ago
I noticed in my Facebook memories that eight years ago today, I finished chemotherapy for breast cancer. Iโve been cancer-free since. Iโm glad to be alive. I hope you are, too! Every day youโre alive is better than every day youโre dead.
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