They did porn

I've already told you that I love books and I ADORE to get free books. Pornstar, Artist and Pornbishop (in random order) Zak Sabbath/Smith has penned a book about his experiences in the world of altporn, titled We Did Porn. He sent me a copy, I was happy, I read it, and here there are my thoughts about it.

First of all, for people who likes to get down to brass tacks immediately, the book is really nice. It's a wonderful taschen-like edition, smells good and it's full of wonderful drawings by Zak Smith. As an artist, I'm supposed to talk about his art in a creative and/or professional way, but I'll simply tell you that his artworks are really cool. Just watch them on the web, and have your own opinion. To watch images is quicker than to read about them. So, the book worths the candle even before reading.

Let's talk about the words now. There are nice reviews of the book on the web, from Fleshbot, The Rumpus or Pop Matters for example. They did them first, cause shipments to Europe are always slower, so I have to write something they didn't.

The book is well written, it is funny, and should be a must for people who are interested in (alt) porn and art - not the bigger audience, but we can easily extend it to everyone who simply is interested in how people live working in the porn and/or art field.

People sometimes wonder what "alt-porn" is. Is it just a new porn industry branch with tattooed punk-rockabilly pretty girls fucked by tattooed punk-rockabilly guys (and girls) or a new artsy wave of pornography? The question is quite useless. Anyway, reading Zak's book, I got a point. The "mainstream porn" industry is composed by 70% of talents who like the money, 20% of talents who like the sex (and the money), 10% of talents who are truly mad with a weird past, and/or truly genial in some interesting and perverted way (and likes the money). In alt porn, the 20+10% is bigger, that's all.

To get the idea, in the short chapter titled "Oh, also, about Porn Girls" he wisely write this meaningful dialogue:

"I wish Vin Diesel was a porn star"
"Why? If you wanna fuck Vin Diesel you can just..."
"Yeah, but I would wanna get paid"
"I don't get it, I mean... Oh, wait - I get it - insurance"
"exactly"
"Like if it's not good, then you can go 'Well, I'm getting paid whatever' and you don't have to be all 'Why the fuck am i doing this?"
"Exactly"

Let's talk about the author now, cause I always get personal when I read books. I don't know him, a part of some short professional emails. I like his book and I like his art. When you read a book, specially of a living author, you always get something of his/her so-called soul. Sometimes not, like in this instance. Zak never come out of his character. So you can like or dislike his character, but what you can tell about him is only that he has a good/bad taste in choosing a character. And that he's good in writing, great in painting and he likes himself very much.

Moreover, he's really American. I'm really European, and this gives me a different angle from Fleshbot, The Rumpus or Pop Matters, cause they are all Americans. Europeans and Americans are charmed by each others, even if every European thinks Europeans rule and every American thinks that Americans rule. This is something like soccer or mint nationalism, nothing that should matter. The interesting point is what we say about each other. Zak, in a long interesting passage about his shoots in Europe, write that Europeans "agreed to suppress the public expression of all their differences of race, creed and class except during soccer games and world wars". I wish it were like this: we're simply more quiet in expressing our opinions. Anyway, reading his books I saw how close we are in living the cynicism of our times. He write about this as well.

There's something like a "black box" in every person, who makes us similar beyond our country, class, color, creed differences. This happens cause we simply can't open the box, and if we could, we couldn't understand what's inside, and if we could, we could not talk about it. We all have the box. Europeans and Americans have a very different approach to this box, but in the end we both usually ends up with a sort of "whatever" (Zak use this word often). Whatever, we are Westerns.

That's all that Fleshbot, The Rumpus or Pop Matters didn't tell that comes in my mind right now.

Almost End note: The part about Mandy Morbid is lovely as well. The book and this interview can show you that this lady (and Pornsaint) is special.

End note: I really enjoy reading the book, buy it!

by Francesco D'Isa