Compare and Contrast

ouses,barns,sheds - his favorite outdoor

with him." c: connection with golf.

' 'hich nobody even m eans "strong emo- 02:et comes up with

or, mania, torment, ::eem crazy, but there's - that his self-esteem

: 311Tgeon whose family - iigure his golf game

-d th e world, know --<SOn meant when he

h Care: The History - .:: Relating to Various - fraught with prob- e simple pleasure of

p any. How good it ~ : ead. The white flag

as it slaps the air in green, and perhaps

nly a dream? These

is good. I'viaybe the ce, for reflection. A

- lf and with nature. · - -ay nowadays. I'viost ---;:::;. People accuse one - ~ ad d up their scores ;.__ are too concerned

rhy thm of the game. liability of golf, the

y not about judg- £ the game is that a · vay and lands in a

d . Accept it. This is -- n ot possible to con-

- e game encourage a

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PORNOGRAPHY 317

This is what the late George Knudson, Canada's deeply intro- 11 spective and mightily gifted golfer, alluded to when he suggested that the golfer "give up control to gain control." That is, the player ought to stop thinking about what to do with the golf club at every segment of its route away from and back to the ball. Said Knudson: "Let yourself swing."

Perhaps that sounds too much like Zen golf. But we will risk 12 any accusation of limp thinking because we know that we find almost an altered state when we bounce on the rolling turf, and when we are aware of the high grass swaying in the rough and when we wrap our fingers around a velvety grip and when we swing the club to and fro and when we fall into the grace of the game, an outing that sends us inward.

If we play sensibly, we can discover the sensuality that lurks 13 everywhere on the course. Thinking about slow play, Knudson once said: "I don't know what all the concern is about. Slow play just means that you're going to spend a longer time in a nice place." Take a book along on the course, then. Read a poem. Chat with your companions. Swing, swing, swing. Walk in the woods.

Knudson's comment can be a code for the game. Spring has 14 been here for weeks, but the season still feels fresh, and we are renewed. As for me, I have scratched the itch long enough. I want grass clippings stuck to the soles of my shoes, mud on my golf ball, dirt on my club face, the club in my hand while I turn it round and round until it feels right. Care to join me?

Pornography I'v1ARGARET ATWOOD

One of Canada's best-known writers, Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939. She has published more than twenty books , including novels, short stories, poetry, and criticism. Among her most recent works are The Robber Bride (1993), Morning in the Burned House (1995), and Alias Grace (1996). In 2000, Atwood won the prestigious Booker Prize for her novel The Blind Assassin.

W hen I was in Finland a few years ago for an international writers' conference, I had occasion to say a few para-graphs in public on the subject of pornography. The con- text was a discussion of political repression, and I was suggesting

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318 UNIT EIGHT• FURTHER READING

the possibility of a link between the two. The immediate result was that a male journalist took several large bites out of me . Prudery and pornography are two halves of the same coin, said he, and I was clearly a prude . What could you expect from an Anglo- Canadian? Afterward, a couple of pleasant Scandinavian men asked me what I had been so worked up about. All "pornography" means, they said, is graphic depictions of whores, and what was the harm in that?

2 Not until then did it strike me that the male journalist and I had two entirely different things in mind. By "pornography," he meant naked bodies and sex. I, on the other hand, had recently been doing the research for my novel Bodily Harm , and was still in a state of shock from some of the material I had seen, including the Ontario Board of Film Censors' "outtakes." By "pornography," I meant women getting their nipples snip p ed off with garden shears, having meat hooks stuck into their vaginas, being disemboweled; little girls being raped; men (yes, there are some men) being smashed to a pulp and forcibly sodomized. The cutting edge of pornography, as far as I could see, was no longer simple old copu- lation, hanging from the chandelier or otherwise: it was death, messy, explicit and highly sadistic. I explained this to the nice Scandinavian men. "Oh, but that ' s just the United States," they said . "Everyone knows they're sick." In their country, they said, violent "pornography" of that kind was not permitted on television or in movies; indeed, excessive violence of any kin d was not per- mitted. They had drawn a clear line between erotica, which earlier studies had shown did not incite men to more aggressive and brutal behavior toward women, and violence, which later studies indicated did.

3 Some time after that I was in Saskatchewan, where, because of the scenes in Bodily Harm, I found myself on an open-line radio show answering questions about "pornography." Almost no one who phoned in was in fav or of it, but again they weren't talking about the same stuff I was, because they hadn't seen it. Some of them were all set to stamp out bathing suits and negligees, and, if possible, any depictions of the female body whatsoever. God, it was implied, did not approve of female bodies, and sex of any kind, including that practised by bumblebees, should be shoved back into the dark, where it belonged. I had more than a suspicion that Lady Chatterl ey 's Lo ver, Margaret Laurence's The Di viners, and indeed most books by most serious modern authors would have ended up as confetti if left in the hands of these callers.

4 For me, these two experiences illustrate the two poles of the emotionally heated debate that is now thundering around this

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easy to say nately, opinio

But even talking ab out -- and the n ame may include cr such as some 5 others of exp· - contributing eral climate o

perversion, w The camp ·

out howling as longer have· may include lows: th ose -.:- including the£. chicken p orn beaten, m ay be sible liberals " -::

movement b, in real life, so parcels, being like adoration tence, of a geni but have to ma_~::-

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ediate result was - .._ of me. Prudery in, said he, and I

- fr o m an Anglo- - -andinavian men ~ "p ornography"

, and what was

mrrnalist and I had aphy," he meant

~ ently been doing - still in a state of -ading the Ontario

ap hy," I meant -- g arden shears,

a disemboweled; :ome men) being _ e cutting edge of

imple old copu- . e : it was death,

this to the nice rited States," they ;:ountry, they said,

·tted on television lCind was not per-

· ca, which earlier re ag gressive and

• -hich later studies

w h ere, because of an open-line radio

F "·" Almost no one -ey w eren't talking

-·t seen it. Some of -- negligees, and, if -50ever. God, it was

d sex of any kind, d b e shoved back

-- :an a suspicion that . = The Diviners, and authors would have callers. e two poles of the ering around this

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PORNOGRAPHY 319

issue. They also underline the desirability and even the necessity of defining the terms. "Pornography" is now one of those catchalls, like "Marxism" and "feminism," that have become so broad they can mean almost anything, ranging from certain verses in the Bible, ads for skin lotion and sex tests for children to the contents of Penthouse, Naughty '90s postcards and films with titles containing the word Nazi that show vicious scenes of torture and killing. It's easy to say that sensible people can tell the difference. Unfortu- nately, opinions on what constitutes a sensible person vary ..

But even sensible people tend to lose their cool when they start s talking about this subject. They soon stop talking and start yelling, and the name calling begins. Those in favor of censorship (which may include groups not noticeably in agreement on other issues, such as some feminists and religious fundamentalists) accuse the others of exploiting women through the use of degrading images, contributing to the corruption of children, and adding to the gen- eral climate of violence and threat in which both women and chil- dren live in this society; or, though they may not give much of a hoot about actual women and children, they invoke moral stan- dards and God's supposed aversion to "filth," "smut" and deviated perversion, which may mean ankles.

The camp in favor of total "freedom of expression" often comes 6 out howling as loud as the Romans would have if told they could no longer have innocent fun watching the lions eat up Christians. It too may include segments of the population who are not natural bedfel- lows: those who proclaim their God-given r ight to freedom, including the freedom to tote guns, d rive when drunk, drool over chicken porn and get off on videotapes of women being raped and beaten, may be waving the same anticensorship banner as respon- sible liberals who fear the return of Mrs. Grundy, or gay groups for whom sexual emancipation involves the concept of "sexual theatre." Whatever turns you on is a handy motto, as is A man's home is his castle (and if it includes a dungeon with beautiful maidens strung up in chains and bleeding from every pore, that's his business).

Meanwhile, theoreticians theorize and speculators speculate. Is 7 today's pornography yet another indication of the hatred of the body, the deep mind-body split, which is supposed to pervade Western Christian society? Is it a backlash against the women's movement by men who are threatened by uppity female behavior in real life, so like to fantasize about women done up like outsize parcels, being turned into hamburger, kneeling at their feet in slave- like adoration or sucking off guns? Is it a sign of collective impo- tence, of a generation of men who can't relate to real women at all but have to make do with bits of celluloid and paper? Is the current

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