![](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/American-Porn-by-Heathcote-Williams-Thin-Man-Press-2017400.jpg\" "\\"'American")
<\/a>Thin Man Press, 2017<\/p><\/div>On the day Twitter Fingers is sworn in as the preening el presidente<\/em> of a tin-pot United States of Trumpistan, enabling him to run the country like a division of his family-held company, Thin Man Press<\/a> will release American Porn<\/a>,<\/em> a collection of “investigative poems about American history, culture and politics” by Heathcote Williams. <\/p>\n The titular poem, “The United States of Porn,” reflects the fact that America “owes its very name to an early Italian pornographer” (Amerigo Vespucci) and that a nation “steeped for centuries in violence, artifice and greed has reached its apotheosis” in electing Trump. Or as H.L. Mencken once wrote (in the Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920): “On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart\u2019s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.” Here is Williams reading the poem, reminding us (per Susan Sontag) that “what pornography is really about isn’t sex but death”:
\n