Bangkok Haunts

nonconsensual sex, drug use, forced bondage and sex with minors.
    Analysts of electronic commerce and telecommunications say the mainstream sex market might be leveling off, but new technology is likely to bring in even more consumers.
    “The novelty of it has not worn off yet, and I don’t believe it will wear off,” said Sean Calder, a vice president for e-commerce at Nielsen/Net Ratings, which gauges the popularity of Web sites. “The numbers point to a huge personal need. We see lots of people logging on at 3 in the morning.”
    The $30 billion project to rewire the cable industry with lines capable of bringing more material, and allowing people to buy on impulse, will play a big part in the emerging home pornography market.
    “These companies like AT&T, they’re thinking ahead to a time, perhaps in 10 years, when 50 million Americans will have broadband capability and all their television and Internet will be interactive through one big box,” said Bryn Pryor, technology editor for Adult Video News, the trade magazine.
    “But it’s not just technology that made the big boys get into it,” Mr. Pryor said. “This just happens to be a business where you can’t lose money.”
     
    Correction: Wednesday, October 25, 2000: An article on Monday about investments by large companies in sexually explicit entertainment referred incompletely to the relationship between the News Corporation and the EchoStar Communications Corporation, which provides explicit films by satellite to subscribers. The article quoted a lawyer for a video store owner in Provo, Utah, as saying that his client’s prosecution was unfair because many companies that provided “adult” entertainment were heavily backed by large corporations, including the News Corporation.
    At the time of the trial, which ended on March 31, 1999, the News Corporation owned about 37 percent of EchoStar, but by the next reporting period, in June 1999, the holding was reported as 14 percent. The News Corporation’s last federal filing shows an 11 percent stake, but a spokesman said the corporation’s share in EchoStar was now down to 6 percent. The spokesman also said the News Corporation had no direct control over EchoStar and no direct financial investment in “adult” films.

FOOTNOTES
    *1 See Appendix.
Return to text.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    I first learned of the infamous “elephant game” in
The Damage Done
by Warren Fellows, published by Asia Books.
    Other sources of inspiration include:
    The Bangkok Post.
    Corruption & Democracy in Thailand
by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, published by Silkworm Books.
    The Dhammapada,
edited by Narada Thera, published by the Buddhist Cultural Centre, Thailand.
    The Funeral Casino
by Alan Klima, published by Princeton University Press.
    Guns, Girls, Gambling and Ganja
by Sungsidh Piriyarangsan and Nualonoi Treerat, published by Silkworm Books.
    Kum Chat Luk,
a Thai daily newspaper.
    The Sandhinirmochana Sutra,
under the title
Buddhist Yoga,
translated by Thomas Cleary, published by Shambala South Asia Editions.
    Very Thai
by Philip Cornwel-Smith, published by River Books.
    Welcome to Hell
by Colin Martin, published by Asia Books.
    Welcome to the Bangkok Slaughterhouse
by Father Joe Maier, published by Asia Books.

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    John Burdett is the author of
A Personal History of Thirst, The Last Six Million Seconds, Bangkok 8,
and
Bangkok Tattoo.

ALSO BY JOHN BURDETT
    Bangkok Tattoo
    Bangkok 8
    The Last Six Million Seconds
    A Personal History of Thirst

Constable & Robinson Ltd.
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com
    First published in the US by Alfred A. Knopf,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York, 2007
    First published in the UK by Corsair,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2012
    Copyright © John Burdett, 2007
    Grateful acknowledgement is made to the New York Times Agency for permission to reprint 'Erotica Inc. - A Special Report; Technology Sent Wall Street into Market for Pornography' by Timothy Egan (
New York Times
, 23 October, 2000).
    The right of John Burdett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
    All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a