Literotica Analysed

A new book has been published analysing literary trends:

http://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Nabokovs-Favourite-Word-Is-Mauve/Ben-Blatt/9781471152825

In a review in today's Sunday Times the author's views on Literotica are quoted:

"He downloaded every story on the site, or in his words "76m words of pure filth". He sorted the stories by author's location and found 3.200 from Britain and 15,000 from the US.

His findings may help to explain why psychiatrists are in such demand in America. While British authors of erotica used fruity words such as "knickers, suspender, settee, shagging, fancied and bum", the most distinctive American words included the rather repressed "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, closet and cops".

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-0538-8

oggbashan said:

A new book has been published analysing literary trends:

http://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Nabokovs-Favourite-Word-Is-Mauve/Ben-Blatt/9781471152825

In a review in today's Sunday Times the author's views on Literotica are quoted:

"He downloaded every story on the site, or in his words "76m words of pure filth". He sorted the stories by author's location and found 3.200 from Britain and 15,000 from the US.

His findings may help to explain why psychiatrists are in such demand in America. While British authors of erotica used fruity words such as "knickers, suspender, settee, shagging, fancied and bum", the most distinctive American words included the rather repressed "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, closet and cops".

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-0538-8

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So...just so that I understand. His, whomever he is, excuse for reading porn and such dirty and filthy stories was because he was doing research for his book (lol). I see, kind of, not really, not a all.

"Honey? What are you doing up there? The whole house is vibrating. Are you jerking off while reading porn again?"

"No, sweetheart, I'm, um, researching my book."

One of the questions the book is supposed to answer is: How can we judge a book by its cover?

With difficulty would probably be the most accurate answer, given that this book, like so many others, has different covers depending on which side of the Atlantic you buy it.



And an interesting price differential too. US list price $25, UK list price £16.99. Not bad at USD1.23 exchange rate.

oggbashan said:

A new book has been published analysing literary trends:

http://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Nabokovs-Favourite-Word-Is-Mauve/Ben-Blatt/9781471152825

In a review in today's Sunday Times the author's views on Literotica are quoted:

"He downloaded every story on the site, or in his words "76m words of pure filth". He sorted the stories by author's location and found 3.200 from Britain and 15,000 from the US.

His findings may help to explain why psychiatrists are in such demand in America. While British authors of erotica used fruity words such as "knickers, suspender, settee, shagging, fancied and bum", the most distinctive American words included the rather repressed "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, closet and cops".

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-0538-8

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I don't think I have ever used "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, or closet", I have used cops, but that was because it was a story about some cops.

I might have used motel once in a story, but none of the others, I'm sure.

Zeb_Carter said:

I don't think I have ever used "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, or closet", I have used cops, but that was because it was a story about some cops...

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That's your plot and vocabulary sorted out for your next story then.

Zeb_Carter said:

I don't think I have ever used "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, or closet", I have used cops, but that was because it was a story about some cops.

I might have used motel once in a story, but none of the others, I'm sure.

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I use 'motel' when my characters stay in motels, and 'trailer' when they live in trailers (as I do now). I mention closets because that's where we find clothes or voyeurs. I usually specify sheriff deputies or highway patrol or plainclothes detectives rather than the generic 'cops'. I don't recall if I've strayed from private bathrooms to public restrooms. Oh yes, I do have a cowboy character. He herded cattle (but didn't get too intimate).

Green_Knight said:

That's your plot and vocabulary sorted out for your next story then.

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It's so easy. We only need an ending now. Do the cops find the cowboy hiding in the motel lobby's restroom or in the trailer's closet?

I thought it was interesting to see the relative numbers of British and American authors -- 3200 to 15,000. That means the proportion is almost exactly the same as that of the populations of Great Britain and the US as a whole. Both countries are doing their fair share, erotica-wise.

As an American, I appreciate reading stories by British authors (I'm a huge fan of British fiction, generally), but the differences in word choices have, for me, an effect on the erotic impact of a story. To reflect on the words noted in oggbashan's comment above: I would never use the words knickers, shagged, or bum in a story. I would consider using them, as an American, to be forced and inauthentic. Also, they don't feel erotic to me at all. I prefer the American equivalents. When I hear the word "shagged" I think of Austin Powers, which is not what I want to think about when I read an erotic story.

At the same time, I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that the words "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, closet and cops" were found to be distinctly American. What does that say about us? There's a great erotic story for someone to write, based on those six words. Maybe that's a good idea for a Lit competition.

Whatever the differences in diction, it's good to know that stories about sex can bring people from around the world together.

Of all the words supposedly British:

knickers, suspender, settee, shagging, fancied and bum

I think I have only used settee frequently. I could be wrong but if I have used the others I think they appear rarely.

I wonder how he downloaded ALL lit's stories.

Perhaps I'll buy the book and explore further what he says about Literotica. However I wonder about other writers in English. There are many Lit authors who are Indian, Australian, and Canadian without counting those for whom English is a second language.

It would be interesting to know more about his method and how the words were declared "distinctive"? Was it based on the number of times used or a more subjective filter? I find it hard to believe the words listed are the most used. For example; shagging = fucking ... bum = ass ... knicker = panties

oggbashan said:

I wonder how he downloaded ALL lit's stories.

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Probably via an automated web scraper. There are tools around to make that relatively easy.

yukonnights said:

It would be interesting to know more about his method and how the words were declared "distinctive"? Was it based on the number of times used or a more subjective filter? I find it hard to believe the words listed are the most used. For example; shagging = fucking ... bum = ass ... knicker = panties

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I haven't read the study, but in this sort of context "distinctive" usually means relative frequency.

Say we sample a million words from American authors and another million from British authors, and find that the Americans used "fucking" 999 times and "shagging" just once, whereas the British used "fucking" 900 times and "shagging" 100 times.

Looking at "fucking", Americans use it 999 times for every 900 times that British authors do - i.e. about 10% more often. That's not much of a difference.

But for "shagging", British authors use it 100 times as often as Americans.

That makes "shagging" a distinctively British word. It doesn't mean it's common - in this example, British authors still favour "fucking" - but it does mean it stands out as a difference between the two groups.

Denny

The fucking cops were after me. I parked the fucking trailer behind the fucking American Inn motel then ran into the restroom after seeing an old British cowboy in knickers shagging a bum wearing suspenders sitting on a settee masturbating in the closet. Fucking fancy that?

oggbashan said:

.... While British authors of erotica used fruity words such as "knickers, suspender, settee, shagging, fancied and bum", the most distinctive American words included the rather repressed "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, closet and cops".[/I]

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Hmmm... don't think I've ever noticed Ogg being the one starting something (you know, insulting us Americans)... Good for you Ogg.

Denny

jsmiam said:

Hmmm... don't think I've ever noticed Ogg being the one starting something (you know, insulting us Americans)... Good for you Ogg.

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Originally Posted by oggbashan View Post
.... While British authors of erotica used fruity words such as "knickers, suspender, settee, shagging, fancied and bum", the most distinctive American words included the rather repressed "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, closet and cops".
[ That doesn't look like an insult to me. Maybe because we lived in a double wide trailer house in Florida so long and spent a lot of time with rednecks who acted like motel cowboys running from the cops. Of course we also knew closet gays and lesbians while in many smoke filled pubs, or bars, as we call them.

I can't remember hearing or using settee though. Mostly couch, love seat, and sofa.

The words described as typically British seem just as bad as the ones said to be American.

'Knickers' has overtones of Benny Hill and is very dated. 'Suspender' is normally found in fetish stories with seamed fully fashioned nylon stockings - again dated. 'Shagging' also has overtones, mainly of male banter than real life sexual encounters.

For motel we Brits would probably use hotel. Although we did have some motels in the 1960s they took up too much of our limited (and expensive) land space. Hotels replaced them as the place for a brief encounter.

But the analysis in the book was done by computer looking for frequency of use. As Bramblethorne said above relative frequency doesn't prove much - except perhaps that British and American English differ.

We already knew that.

having lived in both countries, I'm trying to see exactly what the problem is, lol.



and the proportions are probably more skewed based on population with the Brits having a higher percentage here, lol...must be due to the lack of sunlight in the fall, lol.

cheers!

Depending on the setting of the story, you need to use the correct language to make the characters believable.

For example, in one of my stories set in Australia a loser goes through the clothes hamper of his older brother's prissy fiancée and smells a pair of her panties, when she walks in on him. She asks him what is going on and he replies nothing, to which she snatches the panties out of his hand and says, "So getting my knickers out of the hamper and smelling them is nothing? You pervert."

Australian girls most frequently refer to their panties as their knickers, so this is entirely the correct thing for her to say and it sounds convincing. If the same story had been set in the UK, Ireland or New Zealand, again I would have had this character use the word knickers. But if I had set the story in the USA or in Canada, the character would have said, "So getting my panties out of the hamper and smelling them is nothing? You pervert." An American or Canadian girl referring to her panties as her knickers would sound out of place.

However, sexual slang misunderstandings can be used to good effect. In another story of mine, a New Zealand guy and an American girl are talking dirty during foreplay, and the New Zealander tells the American that he 'wants to fuck her fanny'. The expression fanny means vagina in England, Australia or New Zealand, but bottom in North America, so the American girl thinks he wants to perform anal and freaks out somewhat, before the misunderstanding is resolved.

RetroFan said:

New Zealander tells the American that he 'wants to fuck her fanny'. The expression fanny means vagina in England, Australia or New Zealand, but bottom in North America, so the American girl thinks he wants to perform anal and freaks out somewhat, before the misunderstanding is resolved.

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Yep, and don't ask for a napkin in a restaurant, that is a feminine product, lol.

It might be a good idea to compile a guide/ make a sticky

So if I moved to Britain and stuff would that make me a better writer cause I really want to get better and stuff and I could move move cause theres always clubs I can work at anywhere I go but I don't know where Britain is and stuff but as long as it's not near Cleveland its ok cause people were just mean in Cleveland.

Elloelle said:

So if I moved to Britain and stuff would that make me a better writer cause I really want to get better and stuff and I could move move cause theres always clubs I can work at anywhere I go but I don't know where Britain is and stuff but as long as it's not near Cleveland its ok cause people were just mean in Cleveland.

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I love you, too.

werdsmith said:

having lived in both countries, I'm trying to see exactly what the problem is, lol.

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Me too

Elloelle said:

...I don't know where Britain is and stuff but as long as it's not near Cleveland its ok...

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It's easy to find.

Go to Cleveland and hang a right - and keep driving.

Haulover said:

Me too



It's easy to find.

Go to Cleveland and hang a right - and keep driving.

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Unless you're coming off a steamer from Lake Erie, in which case it would be shorter to hang a left from Cleveland.

Haulover said:

...

It's easy to find.

Go to Cleveland and hang a right - and keep driving.

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One of the things that worries me sometimes is that some modern children who go on long haul holidays have no idea where in the world they have been.

When I was young, travelling around Europe was by train. I knew that I had to pass through France and Germany to get to Austria, or through France to get to Spain.

But now? Tunisia? Thailand? Egypt?

You put a child on an aircraft and get off with them the other end. They could be neighbouring countries. They all have beaches and the people speak funny English so they must be the same.

Denny

Elloelle said:

So if I moved to Britain and stuff would that make me a better writer cause I really want to get better and stuff and I could move move cause theres always clubs I can work at anywhere I go but I don't know where Britain is and stuff but as long as it's not near Cleveland its ok cause people were just mean in Cleveland.

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I once met a gal at the Harley shop in Cleveland. She was hot and I ended up stuffing her while at the beach. She was wearing panties and screamed when I told her I wanted to stuff my stuff in her fannie.
It's a nice place to visit but I'd rather spend a few weeks at Faulty Tower with the maid.

oggbashan said:

A new book has been published analysing literary trends:

http://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Nabokovs-Favourite-Word-Is-Mauve/Ben-Blatt/9781471152825

In a review in today's Sunday Times the author's views on Literotica are quoted:

"He downloaded every story on the site, or in his words "76m words of pure filth". He sorted the stories by author's location and found 3.200 from Britain and 15,000 from the US.

His findings may help to explain why psychiatrists are in such demand in America. While British authors of erotica used fruity words such as "knickers, suspender, settee, shagging, fancied and bum", the most distinctive American words included the rather repressed "trailer, restroom, cowboy, motel, closet and cops".

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-0538-8

Click to expand...

The author admits that trying to draw conclusions from the data is like reading tea leaves, but he's happy to choose which data to showcase and how it gets presented? This isn't academic. This is just a vanity project.

Brits enjoy sexy books just as much as the rest of us. They practically invented the genre.

OliviaM said:

The author admits that trying to draw conclusions from the data is like reading tea leaves, but he's happy to choose which data to showcase and how it gets presented? This isn't academic. This is just a vanity project.

Brits enjoy sexy books just as much as the rest of us. They practically invented the genre.

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It has been criticised for just that. The book is all about computer counting of word frequency of various authors and then the author's comments on what HE THINKS that reveals. It is a populist book, not a scientific study.

I expect that the section about Literotica will be very short and not very informative.