Using as a case study the experience of teaching Jane DeLynn's "Leash" (2002), a "pornosophical" novel about a sadomasochistic lesbian relationship, I argue in this essay for the pedagogical value of shock. I argue that shocking works of pornography can unsettle not only students' comfortable understandings of sexuality, but also comfortable assumptions that we as teachers and critics of literature might have about our own practice. Additionally, I use my experience of teaching "Leash" to reflect on the teaching of pornography within the context of literary studies and on the place of written pornography in the growing academic field of pornography studies.