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The title of this slender volume may be a bit deceptive for potential readers. While it offers a meditation on the psychological and philosophical implications associated with pornography, the ultimate focus of Giorgio Tricarico's book is a broader reflection on post-modern society, exploring
patterns of consumption, addiction, consumerism, voyeurism, and disengagement. The phenomenon of porn and the trends observed in porn provide a lens to examine shifts in post-modern culture.
Lost Goddesses focuses on the phenomenon of porn accessed through the internet. While Tricarico describes in graphic detail typical scenes observed in internet porn, he does not present the material salaciously. He offers these descriptions as a means of empathically understanding the subjective situation of the performers and consumers of internet porn. Lost Goddesses challenges the reader to grapple with their underlying assumptions and biases regarding porn; a process that cannot be done from an emotional distance.
As Tricarico emphasizes, porn almost immediately constellates a polarization of opinion: reactions strongly favouring porn or strongly opposing it. He points out that ‘A polarized, emotional position is rarely a good starting point to comprehend a complex phenomenon’ (p. ix). For Tricarico, porn is ‘a complex symbol of our times, emerging in a specific moment of the history of human consciousness’ and oriented around sexuality, one of the most powerful influences of psychic experience (p. x).
Tricarico indicates that porn can be traced back etymologically to the ancient Greek word pórne, which refers to the lowest level of prostitution. The rise of various forms of photography and the invention of the motion picture made sexually explicit material available as a consumer product by the end of the 19th century. The legalization of porn in the late 1960's and early 1970's stimulated the growth of the porn industry, fostering much wider distribution of porn, and allowing it to mov