The Literotica Universe

The Literotica Universe, like almost all universes, is a big place with bright spots, dark spots, and dusty corners. There is room for all things under any and all suns. Choose a color sun and there is a spectrum of stories to fit.

Tongue in cheek? According to which cheeks you are talking about points to how kinky it is.

Some people take so many things so seriously. No wonder the grumpy die young.

Bramblethorn said:

Pretty sure I've broken at least four of those "rules" at one time or another. Many of the others aren't applicable for me since I rarely write male characters or detailed physical description.

They're certainly common tropes, reflecting the fact that a lot of readers and writers get off on those particular elements, but I assume she has her tongue firmly in cheek when she presents them as universal rules. It came across to me as friendly ribbing rather than attacking those tastes, but YMMV.

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Only four? I think I've broken every rule or haven't written a story were the rule would apply.

To me, it's satire on how LitE writers keep using the same old tropes. I've made similar points, but she did with a lot more wit.

Honesty

I think there is a kind of honesty about Literotica. Yes there is exaggeration as has been pointed out. But there is not a lot of beating around the bush. Of course the stories do have an appropriate amount of background, set up, and dialog. But the site is about sex and erotic matters and no one pretends otherwise. I like this.

I think she was having some fun with that essay, and succeeded wildly. I laughed out loud several times. Such are the cliches of fantasy erotica. I'm guilty of following a few of the 'rules' she describes.

txgent101 said:

I think there is a kind of honesty about Literotica. Yes there is exaggeration as has been pointed out. But there is not a lot of beating around the bush. Of course the stories do have an appropriate amount of background, set up, and dialog. But the site is about sex and erotic matters and no one pretends otherwise. I like this.

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I've often thought that Literotica would make fascinating source material for an anthropological thesis. Where else would you get a twenty year profile of human behaviour, of attitudes to sex and sexual fantasy, the multitude of tribes, beliefs and dogma?

Beats the shit out of Kinsey with his questionnaires, that's for sure, and a far bigger sample set.

Seriously, Literotica should be gifted to the whatever library national treasures go to, because, hey, this is an important cultural archive .

Talking about sexy professions, come on all you anthropologists and sociologists, there's work to be done!

electricblue66 said:

I've often thought that Literotica would make fascinating source material for an anthropological thesis. Where else would you get a twenty year profile of human behaviour, of attitudes to sex and sexual fantasy, the multitude of tribes, beliefs and dogma?

Beats the shit out of Kinsey with his questionnaires, that's for sure, and a far bigger sample set.

Seriously, Literotica should be gifted to the whatever library national treasures go to, because, hey, this is an important cultural archive .

Talking about sexy professions, come on all you anthropologists and sociologists, there's work to be done!

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They have already been here at least four time that I remember.

electricblue66 said:

Seriously, Literotica should be gifted to the whatever library national treasures go to, because, hey, this is an important cultural archive

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I recall that a few years ago someone (in the UK, I think) downloaded the entire Lit content to use for some analysis. I can't remember exactly what it was. I do remember that the guy was absolutely overwhelmed by the incredible mass of smut he had to work with. It's almost 400,000 stories ranging from <1,000 words to enormous epics.

One problem with using that mass of words for anything is that you don't actually know the source. The locations, genders, ages, etc attached to the author's pen name isn't reliable.

NotWise said:

One problem with using that mass of words for anything is that you don't actually know the source. The locations, genders, ages, etc attached to the author's pen name isn't reliable.

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Understand that, but you sure could compile some fascinating profiles. It would be like archaeology to some extent - you might not know exactly what a person looked like, but you can make a whole bunch of conclusions from the tracks they leave.

TxRad said:

They have already been here at least four time that I remember.

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Any clues where to find them?

electricblue66 said:

Any clues where to find them?

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I noted them in passing but didn't take any notes. The one NW is talking about had some students start a thread. The rest are ancient history. The one from NW's noted thread became quite pissy when it was pointed out the data was flawed and how it was flawed.

I believe this is one of them http://markallenthornton.com/blog/sexual-demographics/

There's a bit of research out there by Aron Lischinsky that uses Literotica to analyse porn.

https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/who-fucks-who-and-why-should-we-care/

Here's another one - slides based on an analysis of Literotica stories (top 1000 in each category).

Page 16 shows the most commonly-used words in each category (looks to be excluding things like "the", "and" etc.)

Other findings: "Transitive uses of fuck take female patients almost three times as frequently as male ones. A majority of the instances of transitive fuck with female agents corresponds to uses of insertable sex toys."

Later slides starting at page 24 looks at how categories overlap in terms of vocabulary - e.g. both Non-Human and Erotic Horror use "vampires" a lot, and SF/F also has a lot of commonality with those three.

Every so often on the BDSM forums we used to get people showing up claiming to be students doing a "research" project. Most of them were obviously just looking for wank fodder but there were a couple who seemed to be genuine. One of them was associated with a professor who was researching consent in porn; he'd been studying how it's handled in Literotica stories but had missed the "no extreme NC" rule, so he was drawing some conclusions about authors that actually had more to do with site policy.

ausfet said:

I believe this is one of them http://markallenthornton.com/blog/sexual-demographics/

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I've seen this one before. There's some interesting information in it.

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Bramblethorn said:

There's a bit of research out there by Aron Lischinsky that uses Literotica to analyse porn.

https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/who-fucks-who-and-why-should-we-care/

Here's another one - slides based on an analysis of Literotica stories (top 1000 in each category).

Page 16 shows the most commonly-used words in each category (looks to be excluding things like "the", "and" etc.)

Other findings: "Transitive uses of fuck take female patients almost three times as frequently as male ones. A majority of the instances of transitive fuck with female agents corresponds to uses of insertable sex toys."

Later slides starting at page 24 looks at how categories overlap in terms of vocabulary - e.g. both Non-Human and Erotic Horror use "vampires" a lot, and SF/F also has a lot of commonality with those three.

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That's very unimpressive research. It's trying to make a huge claim about aggressor/passive based upon how people commonly define "fuck" in stories. I'd say that the common definition of who is fucking is the person who is doing the thrusting in and out. That tells you nothing about who initiated the sex or the amount of initiative shown by each party during a sex session.

8letters said:

That's very unimpressive research. It's trying to make a huge claim about aggressor/passive based upon how people commonly define "fuck" in stories.

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(noting that the paper refers to "active participant" not "aggressor", which has somewhat different connotations.)

I'd say that the common definition of who is fucking is the person who is doing the thrusting in and out. That tells you nothing about who initiated the sex or the amount of initiative shown by each party during a sex session.

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I don't disagree with you there, but I think that's kind of the point of that first paper? That our vocabulary for talking about sex tends to put the spotlight on the person doing the penetration (usually a guy) regardless of who initiated or directed.

RL sex is usually a collaboration between two active participants (at least, good sex is...) and women are quite capable of initiating and even directing the process, but the way we talk about it tends to frame it as "guy does sex to woman". Even when she's the one who propositioned him and told him exactly what to do.

ilamont said:

I think she was having some fun with that essay, and succeeded wildly. I laughed out loud several times. Such are the cliches of fantasy erotica.

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This, I think.

Sci-fi requires the reader to accept unlikely things like faster-than-light ships, phasers, time travel, shields, etc. Fantasy involves elves, wizards, underground dwarf kingdoms, dragons and orcs. Bodice-rippers have their own conventions. Even those appalling ‘Sgt Rock’ style comics of the 50s and 60s had ‘rules’ around which the stories were drawn. Erotica is no different.

If one is to write an historical novel set in 1960s Vietnam, is the hero likely to be a hard, professional Marine Recon sergeant in dangerous I Corps area or the historically-more-common bored PFC draftee shuffling supplies in a safe and secure logistics facility at Cam Ranh Bay? Don’t spend too much time thinking this through, the answer is obvious.

Real-world sex? A married couple, according to some studies, has sex just over once a week, often less. And it’s one orgasm for him, quite often not for her. The average bra size in the USA had climbed from 34B just 20 years ago to 34DD. Some of that increase is due to boob jobs being more common, but most of it is due to obesity. And his wedding tackle, studies suggest, is generally well under six inches long - and he’s overweight, too. In other words, a realistic depiction of sex isn’t something out of Cosmopolitan, much less Literotics; it’s two fat people spending a few minutes bouncing under the sheets for a few minutes every six days, with him immediately falling asleep and her lying there frustrated - again. Where’s the excitement for a reader there?

Breast enhancement is common, so why isn't penis enhancement? I know it would be more complex than slipping in a bag of saline but....

It raised a smile.

As to whether (regardless of authorial intent) this should be ‘required reading’ for would-be and current Lit authors; I think this (courtesy of TV Tropes) is probably better:
Tropes Are Tools (formerly Tropes Are Not Bad)

Requiax said:

It raised a smile.

As to whether (regardless of authorial intent) this should be ‘required reading’ for would-be and current Lit authors; I think this (courtesy of TV Tropes) is probably better:
Tropes Are Tools (formerly Tropes Are Not Bad)

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I had never seen this site or this article before. Very interesting as well as amusing.

SimonDoom said:

I had never seen this site or this article before. Very interesting as well as amusing.

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I warn you, TV Tropes is a time-sink. I’ve lost days to just reading articles there. It’s even worse than Wikipedia for that “just one more click... oh, that sounds interesting...” suddenly it’s 4am effect.

TarnishedPenny said:

This, I think.

If one is to write an historical novel set in 1960s Vietnam, is the hero likely to be a hard, professional Marine Recon sergeant in dangerous I Corps area or the historically-more-common bored PFC draftee shuffling supplies in a safe and secure logistics facility at Cam Ranh Bay? Don’t spend too much time thinking this through, the answer is obvious.

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A well-regarded World War II novel and movie was Ensign Pulver, which was set aboard a supply ship. The ship is described as sailing between "tedium and ennui and back again."

A lot of literature is about the "kitchen sink" side of ordinary life. Zola wrote about coal miners and railroaders, Steinbeck about farmers and cannery workers, Chester Himes, convicts and shipyard workers, Charles Bukowski, postal workers. Paddy Chayefsky had a memorable screenplay about the romantic life of a butcher.

I think there is a place for erotic and romantic writing placed in ordinary settings.

Your point is well-taken, of course. I might however respectfully note that there are very few writers on this site (and certainly not me) with the talent of Zola or Hemingway, the ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

I just came upon this thread.

As I explained in Chapter Two of Welcome to the Literotica Universe, it and the first chapter were intended to be wry and hopefully funny observations, not criticisms. As to those who saw the latter, you were not the first person, you were not the thousandth person, to see what I intend wry good-natured observation as criticism. It appears there is often an unintended edge to my sense of humor.

The conventions of Literotica stories as so many had observed, are there because they're fun and sexy; they certainly populate my stories.

A powerful engine indeed, but the handling left much to be desired.

oggbashan said:

One of my (wealthy) friends inherited a Black Lightning from his father. It was fitted with a dual seat and 'Bobby-dodger' lights so it could be registered for use on the road. Later a blower (supercharger) was temporarily added to make it go even faster. Why? An unmodified Black Lightning was the fastest production motorcycle in the world. The blower was removed after a couple of months.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Black_Lightning

He never let me ride it alone but with me as a pillion passenger we exceeded 110 miles an hour on the A23 London to Brighton Road. He wanted to do 125 mph but we ran out of straight road.

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I love comedy, and smut lends itself to black comedy. But generally ONLY if the sex is disappointing. I break Rule 3 all the time.

But I liked it. It’s funny, and like all satire there’s a grain of truth.