Educational Porn? Sweet!

I came across this article while flipping through some newspaper articles, and oddly enough it was the only one that made me chuckle. It got me thinking, can porn actually be educational? Could porn be the answer? If it is I'm sure several young university students would be a lot more willing to "hit the books" or erm... movies for a few hours than flipping through a sterile looking text-book. Perhaps they were on to something, the plots and dialogues between people in these films definantly does promote the language. It's like learning to read, it's my philosophy that who cares what they're reading? It could be a comic book, or a literary masterpiece, who cares so log as they're reading!? Perhaps there would be less language barriers even in Canada if such an approach was taken. All in the name of education right? It reaches an audience, that audience would learn the language... I'm sure that there would be a lot more French being spoken in the West if movies were made and shuffled around - media can be a fantastic thing, non?


Grant for porn in Catalan turns the air blue Graham Keeley in Barcelona,
Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:49am GMT 04/03/2007

It is homage to Catalana as never seen before. A Spanish pornographer has been given nearly £10,000 of public money to make a series of blue movies, promoting the Catalan language.


Pro-separatist authorities in the Catalan region of north-east Spain approved the grant as part of their agenda to "promote Catalan in every medium".

They awarded the film-maker, Conrad Son, nearly £7,000 to make one film and then a further £3,000 to show it along with two other examples of his work at a women's erotic film festival in the regional capital, Barcelona, last year. Details of the funding emerged when records of spending decisions by the regional government, the Generalitat, were made public.

It caused a national outcry, with critics saying the grants were the latest example of public money being wasted by hard-line Catalan nationalists, who hold power in the hung regional government.

In an editorial, the Spanish daily newspaper ABC said: "To give public funds for pornographic films when in Catalonia, like the rest of Spain, there are people in terrible conditions, is an error bordering on misappropriation of state money."
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Carlos Losada, a commentator on the local Cadena Cope radio station, said: "I don't think it is right that public money is used to pay for these pornographic films, never mind if it is supposedly to promote Catalan. It is a degradation of public money."

The films were The Sea is not Blue, about a couple's sexual relationship near the Mediterranean; Laura is Lonely, about a bored woman's sex-filled affair with a stranger; and The Memory of the Fish, about a married executive's sexual adventures. All were in Catalan.

Contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Son insisted the funding was for "legitimate" art. He said that unlike normal pornographic movies - which he also makes - the films had proper plots and storylines.

"These are erotic films, not pornographic," he said. "They have stories. I know the difference as I also make pornographic films."

He was backed up by the Generalitat's political linguistic department, where a spokesman said: "There is a difference between erotic and pornographic films. The grant was given for erotic films, which were not explicit."

But the Catalan government has chosen not to grant cash to more pornographic films this year.
Like the Basque language, Catalan was banned during the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, but is now the co-official language in Catalonia. In the past 20 years regional authorities have vigorously promoted its return as part of their campaign for autonomy from Madrid. Among its most aggressive advocates in the Generalitat are Esquerra Republicana Catalana, the left-wing nationalist party which wants Catalan to replace Spanish as the lingua franca in the region.

However, in echoes of the rows between moderates and nationalists in Wales, critics say the pro-Catalan lobby has been over-zealous. A political language law means companies face stiff fines if they do not print everything in both Catalan and Spanish, and Catalan is taught in all schools while Spanish gets the same amount of lesson time as English - just two hours a week.