Porn & Pong with author Damon Brown

Oct ’08
16
7:00 pm

McDonald’s has Fast Food Nation, the fish industry has Cod, but no book has successfully weaved the cautionary tales and humorous history of the world of video games into our modern society… until now. In Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture journalist Damon Brown spent five years exploring how the $20 billion video game industry traces our evolution in sexual mores, technological dependence and personal interaction.

The VCR and the dawn of the modern porn industry parallels the first Atari systems, Reality TV skyrocketed the same year as The Sims, and the surgically-endowed Pamela Anderson was only outshined by one other woman: Lara Croft. In one of the most stimulating moments, Brown examines Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2005 tirade against Grand Theft Auto, and how politics, hidden agendas and financial pressure affect all controversial art forms. “From TiVo to Google to Match.com, technology is now part of our everyday lives,” Brown says. “Technology is officially sexy now.”

Fans of pop culture, technology and modern sexual history will be addicted from page one. Author and regular CNN tech correspondent Scott Steinberg calls it “A stimulating look at two of today’s most controversial subjects,” while Playboy Senior Editor Scott Alexander says “…Brown shows the pivotal role erotic content has played in the evolution of this new medium, as well as the furor and controversy it inevitably stirs up.”

Author Damon Brown covers sex, music and technology, but he is first and foremost a pop culturist. A Northwestern grad, he regularly contributes to Playboy, SPIN, the New York Post, Inc., AARP The Magazine and Family Circle. Damon also writes the Inspector Gadget column for PlanetOut, the largest gay and lesbian website.

An in-demand tech commentator, Damon has been interviewed on CNN, NPR, G4 and BBC World, and has spoken at several conferences including the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association and Chicago Magazine Writers One-on-One. In 2006 he helped moderate the first annual sex in video games conference in San Francisco. Porn and Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture, is being released by critically-acclaimed indie publisher Feral House.

Porn & Pong Website