The Pitch - "Future Porn"

This title is a bit misleading since it has nothing to do with the adult entertainment in the future. Rather it's a short story concept about pornography and how it's evolved over time.

The basic premise is this: a man develops a time machine so that he can go back into the past and collect Tijuana Bibles. For those who don't know, Tijuana Bibles were pornographic comic books produced from the '20s through the '60s. But since currency has changed over time, he takes with him the only currency he knows that would have fair trade value: pornography. But since computers, DVD players, and VCRs don't exist in the past, he only takes print material, mainly dirty magazines. He expects people of the past to be appalled by modern day pornography, but is equally surprised at how skewed sexual morays were in the past as perceived by the present. Some of the items he trades for turn out to be quite graphic, whereas the most significant claims to his magazines are that they exhibit greater photographic fidelity and that the women have less hair. In the end he returns to the present with his collection of Tijuana Bibles and destroys the time machine so that it cannot be misused for more dubious acts.

I find writing about the story is far more fun that actually writing the story, although that still stands as a possibility. This is probably because it falls in line with my dreams of inconsequential time travel. If I could time travel, there are number of things I would like to do that don't stand to impact the flow of history at all. These are:

- Buy a pair of every single Air Jordan from the AJI to the AJXIV when it was originally released.
- Watch Napoleon's men use the Sphinx's nose for target practice.
- See the roof blow off of the Parthenon.
- Watch the 70th Academy Awards on TV.
- Catch the original airing of the last episode of "St. Elsewhere"
- Videotape Michael Jordan's first retirement ceremony.
- Watch the 1961 Rose Bowl game live from the Golden Gophers' side.
- Stand on line for the premier of "Star Wars."
- Watch that infamous performance of a local Peter Pan production as recounted on "This American Life."
- Eat at McDonald's in the '50s.
- Eat Ortolan before they became protected.
- Check out a Greek orgy.
- Ghost watch.
- Drink a Coca-Cola in the early 20th century.
- Ride a dinosaur.
- Ride a zeppelin.

So yes, maybe I would like to go back into the past to trade porn for porn. There could be worse things a person could do with a time machine.