Luca Damiano is an Italian director, and he’s made some of the internet’s most beloved pornographic films, including: Snow White & The Seven Dwarves and Robin Hood. Although he tells all sorts of stories, he has a knack for remaking those already in the public domain and historical tales. What a blessing this is: over the the last few weeks I’ve watched Messalina, Cleopatra, and Hamlet.
I’ve written before about how porn is sex education, and que lástima it is that most erotic art fails to take this job seriously. What do we learn from porn? Often, very little. If we’re lucky, we learn about our own appetites and desires, find skills, or we can find a friend in the art and feel less shameful about something inside us. At its worst, it shows us something unattainable, something that feels bad or gives us wrong-ideas about what sex is and can be. But almost all of it fails in taking its potential teachings a step further, as Luca Damiano does.
I’m currently watching Shadow Hunters, a series that is just fine. And as I sat through the drudgery of it all, I realized that I will watch a lot of nonsense for the promise of some sexual tension. For the promise of some hot sex. Won’t we all? It always frustrates me when people recommend me something like Bridgerton, The Idea of You, or Fourth Wing, but pretended as though they were hooked on the story. They were hooked on the sex, love even. We all are.
One of my favorite books of all time is The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, which, sadly, has limited sex but is all about the uncovering best way to teach. How do we teach people the really important stuff? How do we engrain it into them? Neal Stephenson argues: through deception. You have to make it fun, so fun that the person doesn’t even realize they are learning.
This is the ultimate, untapped power porn has, as Damiano demonstrates. I read Julius Cesar in high school and learned nothing. I watched the Damiano film and now I know more about Cleopatra, Mark Anthony & Julius Cesar than most people. I found the film so entertaining it sparked a desire in me to learn more. So I watched Messalina, and learned more about the women of the Roman Empire. Still riveted, I’ve now bought a book about them to dig deeper.
Think of all the things porn could teach us, deceptively. All the history you could learn, even math or science. Porn could be and should be an educational tool that goes beyond sex, teaching us morals or culture or integrity anything else we want everyone to learn.
Could anything be more noble?
Food for your naughty thoughts,
Honey
P.S. You can find a list of all Luca Damiano films here.