THE ROAD TO RUIN

(photo: Pan With A Goat - image found online)

BETTY LOVES PORN.

THIS IS MAYBE A SIMPLE THOUGHT, BUT IT'S TRUE.

AND IF YOU'LL KEEP COMING BACK TO HER WORDS, YOU WILL PROBABLY READ PLENTY ON THIS VERY SUBJECT. 

THIS TIME, SHE WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU SOMETHING SHE STUMBLED UPON ON THE WEBTUBE AND SHE FOUND QUITE INTERESTING.

SURPRISINGLY, IT'S A BRITISH DOCUMENTARY SERIES ON THE SECRET HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION: PORNOGRAPHY. 

WHAT SHE FOUND MOST PRECIOUS IN WATCHING IT, WAS COMING TO THE SIMPLE REALIZATION THAT THE CONCEPT OF PORNOGRAPHY IS NOT NATURAL TO THE HUMAN BEING. IT IS A MIND-CONSTRUCT INVENTED BY VICTORIAN SCIENCE.

IT'S MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. BRITISH SCIENTISTS DISCOVER THE REMAINS OF POMPEI. 

SOME OF THE HOUSES, UNDER THE PETRIFIED LAVA, ARE ALMOST INTACT.

INSIDE, THEY FIND AN ASTOUNDING GEYSER OF FRESCOES, STATUES, OBJECTS DEPICTING PEOPLE IN (KINKY) SEXUAL INTERCOURSE.

AND THE DROP THAT MADE THE BUCKET OVERFLOW WAS A MAGNIFICENT STATUE OF THE GOD PAN HAVING SEX WITH A GOAT. 

ALTHOUGH OBSCENE AND UNACCEPTABLE, IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL THEY COULD NOT DESTROY IT. IT GENERATED AS MUCH HORROR AS FASCINATION AND THEREFORE, THEY LOCKED IT UP IN A "SECRET MUSEUM" AND THEN HAD TO FIND A NAME FOR IT.

"THIS CAUSED IMMENSE TROUBLE [...]. THE WHOLE OF EUROPE TRACED ITS OWN ROOTS, IN A DIFFERENT WAY, BACK TO CLASSICAL CULTURE. SO, THE DISCOVERY OF POMPEI AND ITS OBSCENITY WAS A THREAT NOT JUST TO PEOPLE'S IDEA OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, BUT TO THE VERY IDEA OF WHO THEY WERE."  

(DR. SIMON GOLDHILL - UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE) 

"THE REMOVING OF THE PAN AND THE GOAT FROM THE CULTURE IT WAS EMBEDDED IN, AND PUTTING IT AWAY, STARTED A PROCESS THAT STILL CONTINUES TODAY. THAT IS, CORDONING OFF SEXUAL REPRESENTATION FROM THE REST OF LIFE. FOR THE ROMANS IT WAS PART OF CONTINUUM, FOR US IT'S STILL A VERY SCARY THING." 

(PROF. JOHN CLARKE - ART HISTORIAN) 

BUT WHAT BETTY FINDS MOST IRONIC IN THIS WHOLE STORY, IS THAT THE GOD PAN IS, IN FACT, A SATYR. OR A FAUN. 

THAT IS, HE IS A HALF-GOAT, FROM HIS WAIST DOWN, HE EVEN HAS GOAT HORNS. 

YOU KNOW, HE WAS THE COCK IN THE NYMPHS' HEN HOUSE, AND THOSE GIRLS WERE FAMOUS FOR NOT EXACTLY BEING VIRGINS. 

HE WAS THE GOD OF SPRING AND FERTILITY AND BETTY'S SURE HE WOULD NOT MISS A BACCHANAL FOR THE WORLD AND BEYOND. 

HE WAS JUST THAT KIND OF CREATURE, YOU SEE.

WHY WOULD AN ART HISTORIAN, ALBEIT EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AND BRITISH, BE SO SHOCKED AT SEEING HIM FUCK A GOAT!??

HMMM??..

,)