Monday, January 18, 2021

The Lustful Turk

Episode 47: The Lustful Turk

The Lustful Turk is an 1828 pornographic adventure that presents readers with a cornucopia of semi-consensual sexual scenarios, fully intended to be read in a one-handed manner. Written by an anonymous writer at a time when publishing and selling pornography came with the risk of stiff legal penalties, this bodice-ripper tracks the turgid horizontal career of Ali, the Dey of Algiers, who ravishes his way through a veritable EU of virginal  concubines. Jack and Kate explore a world of highly specific and uncomfortable fantasies as they probe this classic of erotic literature.

How many virginities does a woman have? How elaborate is too elaborate when it comes to sex schemes? Do all Catholics imprison women in convents? All these questions and more will be answered in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.