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by e40 2138 days ago
We're all home (probably), but that [1] is NSFW! (it wasn't totally obvious to me before clicking, I thought it would be a text description)
2 comments

There is a less know man with stingray(?) version of this from the same era.
Funny enough, there is a text description on the woodcut itself. If you click through to the photo on Wikipedia I believe there's a translation in the description.

For the lazy: it's pure, unadulterated smut

Incorrect. It's erotic art, but art nonetheless. Otherwise we wouldn't be discussing it.
Maybe I have a only a loose grasp of how those words are defined but in my interpretation 'art' and 'smut' are not mutually exclusive
Fair enough. In my understanding "smut" is typically a synonym for pornography, and pornography is generally only valued for its ability to arouse or titillate.
Also a good description of most art.
Can we please talk about NoSQL Databases now?
I've never quibbled,

If it was ribald.

When correctly viewed,

Everything is lewd.

Rhetorical question to make you think: where do we draw the line between smut and art?
That's something for parents to do for their children, and for me to not care about.
smut is gratituous and without meaning and has a singular purpose. It is pretty easy to tell apart.
It's not so clear; not only is there porn that has meaning or even a message(think some fanfiction, or certain hentai manga), but erotic art sits in a strange position. Philosophers still argue about whether 'erotic art' is art, or whether it can be delineated from porn at all. Not to mention, there are contemporary (last five years) arguments for and against porn itself being art. You can make a reasonable case (i.e. one taken seriously by experts in the field) either way.
Then this is art.
MAIDEN: You hateful octopus! Your sucking at the mouth of my womb makes me gasp for breath! Aah! yes… it’s…there!!! With the sucker, the sucker!! Inside, squiggle, squiggle, oooh! Oooh, good, oooh good! There, there! Theeeeere! Goood! Whew! Aah! Good, good, aaaaaaaaaah! Not yet! Until now it was I that men called an octopus! An octopus! Ooh! Whew! How are you able…!? Ooh! “yoyoyooh, saa… hicha hicha gucha gucha, yuchyuu chyu guzu guzu suu suuu….”
(Art ∨ smut)? At least it's consensual, unlike Dr. Hill's trysting with a bubble headed coed.

I don't see any hectocotyli so it's possible The Fisherman's Wife passes the Bechdel test.