4 ms·

Teenage-me once found a DOS porn text adventure on a used 286 I bought from someone up the street, at a garage sale. This was shortly before dual-core processor

Teenage-me once found a DOS porn text adventure on a used 286 I bought from someone up the street, at a garage sale. This was shortly before dual-core processors hit the market as a common item, so the 286 was already ancient by then. Never found it anywhere else, but I later scrapped the thing without thinking to preserve any of the stuff on the disk, in part because I didn't yet realize this was rare software, and just assumed it existed other places. It was really simple even by the standards of that kind of thing, just a single encounter that started with specifying some physical stats for your, ah, partner, which affected some of the in-game descriptions. For all I know the previous owner wrote it themselves in BASIC or something, and that was the only copy in existence.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> a DOS porn text adventure It's not porn if it's text. It was interesting explaining the English vocabulary in a Chinese class that covered how to refer to porn. 黄色的电影 ["yellow movie"]: "dirty movie" 黄色的图片 ["yellow picture"]: "dirty picture" 黄色的杂志 ["yellow magazine"]: "dirty magazine" 黄色的书 ["yellow book"]: "romance novel" There's a double standard in English, where pornographic books can't actually be porn because women don't consume porn. The other interesting aspects of that lesson were that I wouldn't really have expected a module in a class formally offered through a Chinese university to focus on this topic, and that -- in the textbook's opinion -- the correct English vocabulary should have been "blue movie", "blue picture", "blue magazine", and "blue book". (The module also covered phone sex! But for whatever reason, that isn't "yellow" in Chinese; it's "pink".)
- kmeisthax 5y ago
  Meanwhile in English, "Yellow journalism" is an old-timey synonym for clickbait.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    Yellow journalism refers to something more malicious than clickbait does.
- retrac 5y ago
  > It's not porn if it's text. Well the Greek roots are literally "writing about prostitutes". I'd argue explicit depiction of sex for the sake of getting off is porn. In literature, drawing, photo, or video. There's even the audio form. English also has "erotica". Which is... porn which has some non-porn value? Semi-clothed porn? Most romance fiction is more to the clothed than unclothed end of the erotica spectrum, anyway. I wouldn't class most as porn. Though there sure are some pornographic books. I was surprised to learn how many synonyms for the genitalia there are.
  - TaylorAlexander 5y ago
    I guess with text we sometimes use the term smut?
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > Well the Greek roots are literally "writing about prostitutes". I mean, if you want to follow the etymology the graph root means "scrape", because you write by scratching marks into a soft surface. But the word (actually) refers equally to writing and pictures.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > It's not porn if it's text. Actual English usage rather emphatically disagrees with you. [0] > There's a double standard in English, where pornographic books can't actually be porn because women don't consume porn. No, there’s not. But “romance novels” aren't that, though arguably an adjacent category (whereas “erotic fiction” is an overlapping, but not identical, category to “pornographic fiction”.) But English does not hold that what woman consume is not porn (and, in fact, you’ll find extensive English language studies of how women consume what is uncontroversially porn.) > The other interesting aspects of that lesson were that I wouldn't really have expected a module in a class formally offered through a Chinese university to focus on this topic, and that -- in the textbook's opinion -- the correct English vocabulary should have been "blue movie", "blue picture", "blue magazine", and "blue book". “blue movie” is correct, if somewhat dated; the rest are, at best, never as widely used. [0] e.g., https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pornographic_novels https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pornographic_novels
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > But English does not hold that what woman consume is not porn (and, in fact, you’ll find extensive English language studies of how women consume what is uncontroversially porn.) You can find extensive English-language studies of many phenomena that people prefer to pretend never happen. That doesn't mean the pretense isn't there. > “blue movie” is correct, if somewhat dated; the rest are, at best, never as widely used. As best I could tell, the "blue" terminology is correct Indian English; I would have no qualms about labeling it incorrect American English. No one I've mentioned this to has ever even heard of the term. > Actual English usage rather emphatically disagrees with you. [0] This would be a more convincing rebuttal if the page was willing to describe more than 12 books as "pornographic novels".
    - toast0 5y ago
      > As best I could tell, the "blue" terminology is correct Indian English; I would have no qualms about labeling it incorrect American English. No one I've mentioned this to has ever even heard of the term. Mostly Indian, but I've seen ocassional British reference to blue as an adjective for pornographic movies. Usually not 'blue movie', but "that's too blue for me" or something. Also, a DVD by mail service originally based in San Francisco, GreenCine, had a sister site, BlueCine, which was porn. Otherwise, never seen it used in American context.
- bdowling 5y ago
  > It's not porn if it's text. One of the first erotic text adventures is literally named "Softporn Adventure". [0][1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-odd-history-of-the-first-erotic-computer-game/383114/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-o...
- softcell 5y ago
  > in the textbook's opinion the correct English vocabulary should have been "blue movie", "blue picture", "blue magazine", and "blue book" That instantly brought to mind Soft Cell's song "Seedy Films". It has the line "Blue films flicker / Hands of a stranger / Getting to know you / And I'm getting to like you". It would be amusing if that is a reference that got immortalized in your textbook. Good song btw ;)
- marginalia_nu 5y ago
  Well clearly people are referring to textual porn. That means there can be text porn. Convention is the only thing that determines the meaning and usage of words.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> a DOS porn text adventure It's not porn if it's text. It was interesting explaining the English vocabulary in a Chinese class that covered how to refer to porn. 黄色的电影 ["yellow movie"]: "dirty movie" 黄色的图片 ["yellow picture"]: "dirty picture" 黄色的杂志 ["yellow magazine"]: "dirty magazine" 黄色的书 ["yellow book"]: "romance novel" There's a double standard in English, where pornographic books can't actually be porn because women don't consume porn. The other interesting aspects of that lesson were that I wouldn't really have expected a module in a class formally offered through a Chinese university to focus on this topic, and that -- in the textbook's opinion -- the correct English vocabulary should have been "blue movie", "blue picture", "blue magazine", and "blue book". (The module also covered phone sex! But for whatever reason, that isn't "yellow" in Chinese; it's "pink".)

kmeisthax 5y ago
Meanwhile in English, "Yellow journalism" is an old-timey synonym for clickbait.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  Yellow journalism refers to something more malicious than clickbait does.
retrac 5y ago
> It's not porn if it's text. Well the Greek roots are literally "writing about prostitutes". I'd argue explicit depiction of sex for the sake of getting off is porn. In literature, drawing, photo, or video. There's even the audio form. English also has "erotica". Which is... porn which has some non-porn value? Semi-clothed porn? Most romance fiction is more to the clothed than unclothed end of the erotica spectrum, anyway. I wouldn't class most as porn. Though there sure are some pornographic books. I was surprised to learn how many synonyms for the genitalia there are.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  I guess with text we sometimes use the term smut?
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > Well the Greek roots are literally "writing about prostitutes". I mean, if you want to follow the etymology the graph root means "scrape", because you write by scratching marks into a soft surface. But the word (actually) refers equally to writing and pictures.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> It's not porn if it's text. Actual English usage rather emphatically disagrees with you. [0] > There's a double standard in English, where pornographic books can't actually be porn because women don't consume porn. No, there’s not. But “romance novels” aren't that, though arguably an adjacent category (whereas “erotic fiction” is an overlapping, but not identical, category to “pornographic fiction”.) But English does not hold that what woman consume is not porn (and, in fact, you’ll find extensive English language studies of how women consume what is uncontroversially porn.) > The other interesting aspects of that lesson were that I wouldn't really have expected a module in a class formally offered through a Chinese university to focus on this topic, and that -- in the textbook's opinion -- the correct English vocabulary should have been "blue movie", "blue picture", "blue magazine", and "blue book". “blue movie” is correct, if somewhat dated; the rest are, at best, never as widely used. [0] e.g., https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pornographic_novels https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pornographic_novels
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > But English does not hold that what woman consume is not porn (and, in fact, you’ll find extensive English language studies of how women consume what is uncontroversially porn.) You can find extensive English-language studies of many phenomena that people prefer to pretend never happen. That doesn't mean the pretense isn't there. > “blue movie” is correct, if somewhat dated; the rest are, at best, never as widely used. As best I could tell, the "blue" terminology is correct Indian English; I would have no qualms about labeling it incorrect American English. No one I've mentioned this to has ever even heard of the term. > Actual English usage rather emphatically disagrees with you. [0] This would be a more convincing rebuttal if the page was willing to describe more than 12 books as "pornographic novels".
  - toast0 5y ago
    > As best I could tell, the "blue" terminology is correct Indian English; I would have no qualms about labeling it incorrect American English. No one I've mentioned this to has ever even heard of the term. Mostly Indian, but I've seen ocassional British reference to blue as an adjective for pornographic movies. Usually not 'blue movie', but "that's too blue for me" or something. Also, a DVD by mail service originally based in San Francisco, GreenCine, had a sister site, BlueCine, which was porn. Otherwise, never seen it used in American context.
bdowling 5y ago
> It's not porn if it's text. One of the first erotic text adventures is literally named "Softporn Adventure". [0][1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-odd-history-of-the-first-erotic-computer-game/383114/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-o...
softcell 5y ago
> in the textbook's opinion the correct English vocabulary should have been "blue movie", "blue picture", "blue magazine", and "blue book" That instantly brought to mind Soft Cell's song "Seedy Films". It has the line "Blue films flicker / Hands of a stranger / Getting to know you / And I'm getting to like you". It would be amusing if that is a reference that got immortalized in your textbook. Good song btw ;)
marginalia_nu 5y ago
Well clearly people are referring to textual porn. That means there can be text porn. Convention is the only thing that determines the meaning and usage of words.