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The Pornography of Death
The Pornography of Death
T h e Pornography of Death
“Birth, and copulation, and death.
That’s all the facts when you come to brass tacks;
Birth, and copulation, and death.”
ACONISTES
T. S. Eliot. SWEENEY (1932)
P O R N O G R A P H Y is, no doubt,
the opposite face, the shadow, of
prudery, whereas obscenity is an aspect
of seemliness. No society has been recorded
which has not its rules of seemliness, of words
laughter which seems identical the world
over; however little one may know about a
strange society, however little one may know
about the functions of laughter in that society
(and these can be very various) one can im-
or actions which arouse discomfort and em- mediately tell when people are laughing at
barrassment in some contexts, though they an obscene joke. The topper.of the joke may
are essential in others. The people before be “And then he ate the whole meal in front
whom one must maintain a watchful seemli- of them!” or “She used her husband’s name
ness vary from society to society: all people in the presence of his mother!” but the
of the opposite sex, or all juniors, or all laughter is the same; the taboos of seemliness
elders, or one’s parents-in-law, or one’s social have been broken and the result is hilarious.
superiors or inferiors, or one’s grandchildren Typically, such laughter is confined to one-
have been selected in different societies as sex groups and is more general with the
groups in whose presence the employment of young, just entering into the complexities of
certain words or the performance of certain adult life.
actions would be considered offensive; and Obscenity then is a universal, an aspect of
then these words or actions become charged man and woman living in society; every-
with effect. There is a tendency for these where and at all times there are words and
words and actions to be related to sex and actions which, when misplaced, can produce
excretion, but this is neither necessary nor shock, social embarrassment, and laughter.
universal; according to Malinowski, the Tro- Pornography on the other hand, the descrip-
brianders surround eating with as much tion of tabooed activities to produce halluci-
shame as excretion; and in other societies nation or delusion, seems to be a very much
personal names or aspects of ritual come rarer phenomenon. It probably can only arise
under the same taboos. in literate societies, and we certainly have no
Rules of seemliness are apparently uni- records of it for non-literate ones; for whereas
versal; and the non-observance of these rules, the enjoyment of obscenity is predominantly
or anecdotes which involve the breaking of social, the enjoyment of pornography is pre-
the rules, provoke that peculiar type of dominantly private. The fantasies from
49
T 0 M A N Y of us this Conference
has been a celebration of a very great
achievement of the scientific world-
the harnessing of the energy of atomic nuclei
to serve the future needs of man. This is the
tion stations built to test the technology on
which all depends, and to compare the relative
advantages of the ten most promising types
both from the point of view of economics and
also of reliability and safety in operation. So
culmination of scientific work of men of most of the next decade will be occupied in
genius in many nations. It is fitting therefore laying a sound basis from which nuclear
that representatives of the great majority of power can expand rapidly to become in the
countries should have come together to pre- end the major power source of the world.
sent their contributions to this work and to Until we have achieved a satisfactory opera-
discuss how this new source of power can ting experience we will not be justified in
help the future development of their countries embarking on a more rapid expansion.
and the whole human race. However, this new industrial development
We have had described to us the first ex- has the advantage of a very great and un-
perimental atomic power stations and have paralleled concentration of scientific and
heard that they are working well. W e have engineering ability driving it forward with
also heard of the rapid progress of construc- imagination and enthusiasm-as you can
tion of the first full-scale nuclear power judge from the papers which have been pre-
stations. Within two years they will be sented to this conference. So the speed of
delivering very substantial amounts of elec- development will be rapid and the nuclear
tricity to industry and we will begin to gain power stations of 1970 will look as different
experience in their operation and economics. from those of 1957 as the modern motor car
These early stations will be closely followed differs from the Model T Ford.
by successors of different and generally im-
proved designs, so that within five years we Uranium for Coal
are likely to have at least ten nuclear power H E papers presented to the Conference
stations generating up to 200 megawatts in a
single unit operating in different parts of the
T have shown that we must not expect the
cost of nuclear power to be cheaper in the
world. next decade than power from coal. The con-
These will all be pioneering or demonstra- census of opinion is that capital costs will be
This article is the text of Sir John Cockcroft’s address to the United Nations Conference on
Atomic Energy in Geneva.
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