Incest has become mainstream.

The incest theme has been in the mainstream of literature for centuries:

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

And, yes, distributors don't hold it back when it's from mainstream publishers. The difference in holding it back from erotica writers most likely is in the graphic depiction or using the topic for arousal.

Yeah, and so has interracial, interspecies, homosexual, straight, cheating wife, loving wife, rape, and especially human-on-monster. That doesnt mean it isnt mainstream and boring now.

I hate the whole incest thing. Honestly, if thats ppl's thing, fine. But for me, it makes my flesh crawl and shudder. But that isnt what bugs me. What bugs me is if its not incest or futas or cringe-worthy HS kids, its ignored and thumbs-downed.

There's no room for wide inspiration or creativity.

Handley_Page said:

I quite agree. The thought of 'my Mum and I' can frighten me.
To my mind even writing about it is indicative of something that will take shrink to fix.
(Efforts in a purely writing context accepted, perhaps)

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Funny thing. I've never fantasized about my parents, but my aunt and one of my cousins, sure.

SEVERUSMAX said:

Funny thing. I've never fantasized about my parents, but my aunt and one of my cousins, sure.

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I remember feeling quite gutted when my cousin (a very pretty girl) told me she was getting married.

Dam_Fool said:

Yeah, and so has interracial, interspecies, homosexual, straight, cheating wife, loving wife, rape, and especially human-on-monster. That doesnt mean it isnt mainstream and boring now.

I hate the whole incest thing. Honestly, if thats ppl's thing, fine. But for me, it makes my flesh crawl and shudder. But that isnt what bugs me. What bugs me is if its not incest or futas or cringe-worthy HS kids, its ignored and thumbs-downed.

There's no room for wide inspiration or creativity.

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I agree - I cannot stand incest either. My theory on how it is so popular is that people read and watch so much erotica and pornography that two or more consenting, non-related adults engaging in sexual activity no longer does anything for them, so incest is the only thing that gets them aroused.

Having said that, I have used some incestuous themes in some stories - a bumbling voyeur obsessed with his cousins in one, a married man having an affair with his cousin in another and a spoiled young woman in another who has an uncomfortably close relationship with her father that only her long-suffering fiancée seems to see. But these are cousins in the first two instances and the girl and her father are just a bit close for comfort in the other, and in any case all of them I played for laughs not erotica.

But still, the popularity of incest on this site - the many new stories that appear every day to many views and likes, incest fan fiction about related characters from movies, TV shows and books, people discussing incest stories and suggesting new ones on these boards - always disturbs me.

There are many odd fetishes around, but unlike incest the appeal is limited. Vomiting is a fetish of some, and if somebody wrote a story set on a cruise ship where a group of hot girls taking their vacation get novovirus and suffer severe vomiting and diarrhea, to some with this fetish this story would not only be the most erotic thing they had ever read, but one of the greatest works of literature ever written. However, such a story would only appeal to very few people. There would not be a separate category for vomiting stories with many new stories with thousands of views, likes and comments, threads discussing vomiting stories and vomiting fan fiction, such as a King of Queens story where Carrie and Holly get gastro and Doug has to take care of them, holding their heads over a bucket while they vomit profusely and repeatedly.

I bet I could write the most stupid, sick, warped and badly-written Incest story I could think of (while staying within Literotica's rules) and it would still get likes. And it would still not be as sick and stupid as an incest story that the author genuinely thought was erotic.

@RetroFan: Mainstream readers may enjoy tales of murder, mayhem, genocide, pillage, rape, humanoid monsters, all sorts of nasty shit, without feeling inclined to emulate or participate. Erotica readers may similarly enjoy Incest, Interracial, BDSM, GLBT, fucking unicorns etc, also with no desire to include such in their sexual escapades.

These are *stories*. Different people enjoy different story themes. These are vicarious experiences, not real goals. Folks who don't like various themes need not read them. That's easy, hey?

RetroFan said:

But still, the popularity of incest on this site - the many new stories that appear every day to many views and likes, incest fan fiction about related characters from movies, TV shows and books, people discussing incest stories and suggesting new ones on these boards - always disturbs me.

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It isn't the popularity of incest fantasy that disturbs me, so much as the plenitude of people -- apparently countenanced by the site -- who not only refuse to differentiate between fantasy and reality, but apparently very seriously and earnestly think that actually promoting IRL incest is some kind of "marriage equality" cause. Those are the ones, like MindsMirror, that give me a case of the proverbial howling fantods.

RetroFan said:

I agree - I cannot stand incest either. My theory on how it is so popular is that people read and watch so much erotica and pornography that two or more consenting, non-related adults engaging in sexual activity no longer does anything for them, so incest is the only thing that gets them aroused.

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I can't speak for anyone else, but I wrote two stories in the category because, as a writer, I liked the 'challenge' of attempting to create a realistic relationship that, by all rights, should not exist. I did a short, three-page piece as a 'dip your toe in the pool' experiment, and when that did well I went all-in with my second effort. That one did even better, making the top list for the category. I'm proud of that because of the subject matter, not in spite of it. I'm personally not about to start banging any of my relatives, nor do I suspect they're interested in sleeping with me (though I obviously have no ability to read minds, so I guess I'll never know for certain). One can write about uncomfortable/taboo subject matter without a desire to wallow in it, after all. I presume one can also read about such things without wanting to experience them for real.

Areala-chan said:

I can't speak for anyone else, but I wrote two stories in the category because, as a writer, I liked the 'challenge' of attempting to create a realistic relationship that, by all rights, should not exist.

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That's why I've written in the category too. I write on all sorts of sexual practices and dilemmas I would involve myself in in real life for the challenge of thinking about them and writing them.

It depends on what you mean by incest. If you mean abusive, unbalanced sexual power dynamics where a parent or guardian is sexually controlling someone under their authority, then, no, that should never, I repeat, never be mainstream (regardless of gender, too). That, in my view, is inherently wrong, to the degree that anything can be wrong in an unquestioned manner. It is even more wrong than murdering an adult to force oneself on a child, regardless of blood relations, and I think that most people can sense that, to the degree that even in prison, these people are treated as scum.

That being said, an incestuous relationship between two or more consenting adults, where no coercion or pressure could be found by one of them on the others, why should that be treated as some kind of fundamental evil to be irrationally hated, condemned, and rejected, some kind of superstitious taboo that must not be violated? I don't think that it's society's or the law's business if a man wants to fuck his brother and vice versa, a woman her sister and vice versa, or yes, a brother and sister. Not my business, buddy, and I hate to break it to you, but none of your business or the State's business, either. The same standard, consenting adults, that applies to every other such consensual relationship, should be applied here and the legal reality of "consensual crimes" needs to be abolished altogether. It's not the State's job to be our confessor, pastor, parent, or arbiter of sexual morality.

SEVERUSMAX said:

It depends on what you mean by incest.

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I think my What Is Incest? answers that fairly well.

Maybe now that Amazon has entered the genre with 'Carnival Row', they'll change their policy?
-MM

MindsMirror said:

Maybe now that Amazon has entered the genre with 'Carnival Row', they'll change their policy?
-MM

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No spoilers, please, I’m still trying to catch up!