Oo Roger, it’s so big!
This week's TLS offers a public service with fox-hunting's intellectual pin-up Roger Scruton telling us at great length "how to distinguish eroticism from pornography." Specifically, he writes about Fran?ois Boucher, some smutty 18th Century French painter, and compares his work Odalisque to The Sun's Page Three:
Of course there are differences between the Odalisque and the tits and bums on page three. One is the general difference between painting and photography ? the first being a representation of fictions, the second a presentation of realities. A lot hangs on that direction [...]. The least that can be said is that the bum on page three is as real as they come and interesting for that very reason. The second difference is connected, namely, that we need know nothing of the Odalisque in order to appreciate Boucher?s intended effect, save what the picture tells us. There was a model who posed for this canvas; but we understand the canvas neither as a portrait of her nor as a painting about her. The bum on page three has a name and address. Very often the accompanying text tells you something about the girl herself, helps you forward with the fantasy of making love to her..
Putting aside the dubiousness of that opposition of "representation" and "presentation", it is evident our Rog hasn't heard of the airbrush.
Next week, find out how to distinguish traditional countryside behaviour from sickening brutality.
