ABSTRACT
Pornography is an aspect of literacy. All the literate societies of Europe and Asia from the time of the ancient Greeks have had pornography as one aspect of their literature. Since pornography is an aspect of literacy, it is confined to the higher civilizations; it is not a human universal, found in societies of every stage of development, as is obscenity. Obscenity impinges on pornography because in many societies some aspects or actions of sexuality are regarded as obscene. Asian pornography, from Arabia to China and Japan, has sexual interludes embedded in narratives of which they only form a small section. The greatest amount of pornography in all media is produced by hacks with no pretension to aesthetic skill or competence. In most literate societies, pornography has been both legally forbidden and obtainable through certain channels.
