Last September, Douglas Rushkoff wrote in his Peer Review column that high definition interfered with his TV watching because the boob tube had suddenly become too realistic--once you can see the very wrinkles in Tony Soprano's suit, "the screen wasn't a symbolic mirror to my own life; it was a detailed portrait of a violent world I didn't belong in and didn't want to."
Now, further proof that HDTV is way TMI: Hi-def porn shows practically every flaw on every body part of every porn actor. Some porn stars are getting surgery to fix slight imperfections, and sometimes they have to switch positions (camera or otherwise) during a shoot to hide unfortunately placed pimples. "I’m having my breasts redone because of HD," confides Jesse Jane (emphasis added), who is apparently a major adult-film star (DiscoBlog wouldn't know).
Rushkoff cited renowned media theorist Marshall McLuhan's theory that the more information conveyed by a medium, the more "hot" it was--the more it provoked our passions. Perhaps watching porn in HD shows the upper limit of the hot/hi-def connection.
Bonus nugget: According to one xxx director, watching porn in HD can be quite a touching (ahem) experience: "People look to adult movies for personal contact, and yet they’re still not getting it. HD lets them see a little bit more of the girl," says Robbie D.
