If you thought porn originated in 1972 or 2017 or with the invention of the pizza delivery man, goodness madam are you mistaken. We’re reading John Cleland’s Fanny Hill (1748/49), which reminds us that porn has existed ever since the media to make it have been around (see also: the very hornt paintings from Pompeii ca. 79 CE). Our young heroine Fanny boinks her way through this touching novel, revealing a staggering knowledge of profuse pubes and metaphors for penetration.

We discuss the bildungsroman, sex and commerce, eighteenth-century liberal philosophy, John Locke, and John Cleland being a shameless size queen. We also feel the need to mention that this is a listener request, and we take those extremely seriously except we still won’t read Infinite Jest so don’t ask.

We read the Oxford edition edited by Peter Sabor. For a landmark account of the interlinkages between eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pornography and philosophical discourses, see Frances Ferguson’s Pornography, the Theory: What Utilitarianism Did to Action.

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