Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible"

Rating:
Summary: Young Porn Fan in Oklahoma
Review: I am only 16 and haven't really seen much pornography, but after reading Linda Williams book I am enthusiastic about learning more. She writes about pornography in a way that is clear and easy to understand, even for a high school student like me. I learned alot about how complicated a porno movie can be and the pictures were great!

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Summary: Unfettered Academic Insight
Review: I never thought that this would happen to me...but I must share my pleasure with "Hard Core" in an online review. The author takes up a discursive thread generally reserved to the letter columns of Adult Entertainment mags, and develops a unique anaylsis that provides the reader unfettered access into the manifold issues of power given in the presentation of human congress onscreen. If Max Weber had written on porn, this would have been his work!

Rating:
Summary: eXXXtremely provocative
Review: I should probably look more closely at the covers of the books that I am ordering online. Any reasonable individual might naturally assume a book entitled "Hard Core" would contain information regarding the apple harvesting industry; however, such is most clearly not the case with Doctor William's book.

Despite the initial mix-up, I found this work to be quite titilating. Prior to reading Hard Core, I was only familiar with pornographic films (or "pornos") as an avid viewer. Hubby Rick and I now devote a significant amount of money and time on pornos in the hopes that we might one day fully appreciate, as does Linda Williams, the pornographic film. And our marriage has never been better!

Rating:
Summary: eXXXtremely provocative
Review: I should probably look more closely at the covers of the books that I am ordering online. Any reasonable individual might naturally assume a book entitled "Hard Core" would contain information regarding the apple harvesting industry; however, such is most clearly not the case with Doctor William's book.

Despite the initial mix-up, I found this work to be quite titilating. Prior to reading Hard Core, I was only familiar with pornographic films (or "pornos") as an avid viewer. Hubby Rick and I now devote a significant amount of money and time on pornos in the hopes that we might one day fully appreciate, as does Linda Williams, the pornographic film. And our marriage has never been better!

Rating:
Summary: eXXXtremely provocative
Review: I should probably look more closely at the covers of the books that I am ordering online. Any reasonable individual might naturally assume a book entitled "Hard Core" would contain information regarding the apple harvesting industry; however, such is most clearly not the case with Doctor William's book.

Despite the initial mix-up, I found this work to be quite titilating. Prior to reading Hard Core, I was only familiar with pornographic films (or "pornos") as an avid viewer. Hubby Rick and I now devote a significant amount of money and time on pornos in the hopes that we might one day fully appreciate, as does Linda Williams, the pornographic film. And our marriage has never been better!

Rating:
Summary: comprehensive and engaging
Review: i think if there is one book someone reads about pornography, linda williams' hard core is it. she uses a number of theoretical lenses to examine pornography (including marxist theory, foucauldian theory, and feminist theory). her text remains, despite all of the theory she relies on, incredibly read-able and very interesting. williams also traces the history of hard core pornography from stag films to the present and her newly added afterword updates the book and reflects upon hard core's ideas insightfully.

Rating:
Summary: Enthused reader
Review: It has been quite some time since I have had the chance to read such an enlightening tome...I found this to be a veritable porn-ucopia of information, not to be missed by Hard Core fans...

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book on Pornography I Have Ever Read
Review: Linda Williams gives a scintillating evaluation of the politics of porn. Her detailed and insightful analysis goes beyond mere recitation of plot points and totaling of body parts to an in-depth engagement with the semiotics of pornographized couplings. The pictures were really helpful in conveying the cultural work done by this underevaluated art form. Porn-tastic!

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Summary: Review of Harcore
Review: This book changed my my mind about I saw pornography. This is a smart and sexy book that dispels many ideas we have about pornography and how the feminist anti-pron rhetoric not only endangers the First Amendment with their calls for taking this protection from porn, but retains the patriarchal concept of female purity that promotes a sexual double standard. This books opens a dialogue and forum for women to talk about pornography. I only wished I hadn't read it ten years earlier, because my copy doesn't have pictures.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: This is an easy to read, comprehensive analysis of visual pornography. Williams is thorough and openminded, and clearly shows that this isn't a homogenous and stereotypical genre. On the contrary, she maintains that all trends visible in other types of movies exist in pornography as well. An interesting read.