Hard porn in College?

Question

My friend is furious. Her first assignment in her literature class is to read and comment on a work of what she calls "hard porn" in translation. Can you give me the title of the work summarized below? Do you think this is appropriate to read in a university that costs over $50,000/year in tuition?

A young, wealthy, and very macho guy is proceeding slowly down a country road. Behind him a middle-aged guy is screaming at him to get out of the way. The 1st guy pulls out a weapon, kills the older guy, then grabs the woman sitting next to him, throws her on the BODY of her dead husband and rapes her! The woman gives birth to a daughter 9 months later. After a series of coincidences, the guy goes crazy and blinds himself. He then takes off with his daughter to another city, where he lives until old age, when he dies in an earthquake.

I can scarcely wait to hear your opinion.

To E: I enjoyed your textspeak abbrevs., but this time, I fear, udgi! Sorry about that!

This is indeed a modern summary of the great Greek classic play, "Oedipus Rex." The point we're trying to make is that one shouldn't be so swift to judge. There's an anti-intellectual movement in the US to ban books, curtail thought and discussion about the fundamental human problems and leave it all to a universal creator to decide our fate after death. The problems of life, love, family relationships, sex, leadership, social class are real and always have been. Many of you have seen this; others were quick to judge after reading a short and incomplete synopsis. Everyone in the world should read Ikdragn's answer to this question. It would be a better world if we heeded her.

Answer 1

I don't know the title of the book you're looking for, but if no one here is able to answer your question about it you can try
http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom


As for the more general question about the appropriateness of reading "hard porn" in translation...
The idea of college is to broaden the mind. If your friend is that furious about reading the work than it is obviously something she would never read on her own... thus the objective is being met. When I was going through classes for my degree in literature, we quite frequently read books that could be considered inappropriate for a variety of reasons, pornographic, racist, sexist, ect. The thing about these types of books is that they were usually written with the intent of bringing about the type of intense feelings your friend experienced. It is through asking ourselves questions about those feelings (Why does this scene disgust me? What is being said about society? Why did the author choose to write the scene this way? What is the symbolism of the scene?) that we discover our biases, emotions, feelings towards things that happen in our lives and around us in the world.

In addition, these types of works generally do not appear in freshman comp courses and are parts of special topics in literature. Generally a student who takes these classes knows what they are going in for and understands that they may have to read disturbing subject matter. The university is meant to prepare their students for life outside of the school system, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, welcome to the real world where life isn't always pretty and not everything turns out happily in the end.

On an additional note...while the storyline does sound a bit like Oedipus, it would be an extremely bastardized version. Oedipus does indeed kill his father and marry his mother, does go blind (to save his kingdom and atone for his mistakes) and escapes to Colonus where he dies (but I don't think it was in an earthquake) where he is mourned by his daughter Antigone. However, he doesn't rape his mother, and he had no knowledge of the woman being his mother until years after their marriage.
It would not surprise me if this book was influenced by Oedipus...there is an entire line of study looking at the Ancient influences on modern literature.

Answer 2

Welcome to the school of hard knocks, and reality. I hated a lot of classes in school, but I still had to do them. Books are written and read all the time. Some pornographic, some not. If you are an adult, or on the verge of being one, get used to the reality of life. It's literature, written to make you think long and deep about the story. Would you rather graduate having been protected from the written word you find pornographic? Whatever will you do in the real world, when you find out that reality bites sometimes. Just do the assignment.The teacher didn't say you had to live it, just read it.

Answer 3

It's indeed a terrible situation to read about, but it's happening for real in many places on this old globe, at least the murder, rape, etc.
Too bad the guy lived so long...maybe he became a blind whatever making people happy finally, I don't know!

It doesn't seem too harsh for college, as it's in the news all the time... ask your friend to ask her teacher why that assignment was given, so she'll understand why instead of just being upset and mad.
If she never understands, she can drop the class.

Answer 4

LMMFAO!!! OMG!
WTF is that for?!?!
Could I use anymore annoying Internet chat abbreviations?

No. That's not appropriate at all. Not for the violence or the sexual content, and not even for the horrible plotline...
But because chances are, there are more than a few students who are forced to read and comment on this subject that have been raped or sexually abused themselves.
By reading this story alone, they are forced to relive what was done to them. By writing down opinions about it, it may trigger some very deep stuff... Things that shouldn't be tampered with unless a trained psychologist is present...

Something should seriously be said about this to the head(s) of the college board. This kind of stuff shouldn't be tampered with by an English professor who is trying to be difficult...
I hate that.

Answer 5

i get the feeling you are trying to make some kind of higher point here, but you don't justify your argument well enough to make it understandable.

After a quick Google search, I agree with another poster who says the story sounds like Oedipus Rex. This a very famous work. I have not read it ( I was an engineering major), but I have never heard anyone complain of it being pornographic. The story contains sex and violence but they are not graphic detailed accounts by any stretch of the imagination. You definition of pornography sounds very closed minded to me.

Answer 6

If she feels this way, she should go to the chairman of the department and express her feelings. She should also have a faculty advisor. If this is the beginning of the semester, your friend has the option to change classes via a drop and add. I once objected to an assignment and did just that. I am not familiar with this particular work, but it doesn't exactly sound like something I would want to read. Personally, I would opt out. However, I agree with the above writer. It doesn't meet the criteria for hard core pornography. Pax - C

Answer 7

If he is on his own computer and by himself, the chances of him getting busted is really small. Who cares, anyway? He's not the only college guy that masturbates and watches porn.

Answer 8

Sounds like Oedipus Rex -

Answer 9

well considering that porn is non-violent and nobody is being raped i'm going to have to disagree. and colleges with high tuitions are often the most liberal in their ideas of where the line between obscene and artistic expression should be drawn.

Answer 10

What is the name of this story and who wrote it?

While it obviously has sexual content, it doesn;t sound like the purpose is to arouse the reader, which is my understanding of pornography.