What do you aspire to?

[AwkwardMD]

For example, I have this concept I keep tucked in my back pocket that I like to call "The Three Fluid Standard Of Excellence." If, in the comments for any given story, I get mentions of any three body fluids, that story has met this standard. I have other metrics as well (10k views, a 4.7+ score, etc) and I find them helpful because these are things I can judge for myself, though none of them intersect with critical acclaim.

That hasn't stopped people from using some very nice adjectives to describe my writing, but the adjectives aren't really the point for me.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Does that mean you think he never strived to be a literary genius, whether he thought of it in that fashion or whether he thought of it in another fashion of is he able to pull off his ambition?

I don't know anything about the man, and I am woefully deficient as a consumer of the classics of fiction. Sorry.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Does that mean you think he never strived to be a literary genius, whether he thought of it in that fashion or whether he thought of it in another fashion of is he able to pull off his ambition?

I do feel like it is categorically correct to say he acted on his ambition, and that his ambitions were lofty.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Really? If I don't love my own work, why would I even bother to show it to anybody else? How else am I to derive any satisfaction other than telling a story well? If I do not love the story I tell, why publish it at all?

Could the story have been better? Could you have improved it?
Can you accept constructive criticism about it?

 

[WCSGarland]

I don't know anything about the man, and I am woefully deficient as a consumer of the classics of fiction. Sorry.

I can accept that. Maybe then the more fruitful topic of discovery would be - "What is literary genius? And how do we denote it?"

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Does that mean you think he never strived to be a literary genius, whether he thought of it in that fashion or whether he thought of it in another fashion of is he able to pull off his ambition?

Do you strive to be a great artist, or do you strive to create great art?

 

[WCSGarland]

Could the story have been better? Could you have improved it?
Can you accept constructive criticism about it?

Definitely... but does that necessarily mean that I don't love my story? Indeed, I could probably have improved upon my story, but by the same token, I loved what I wrote, and I thought it complete, but I am still open-minded enough to accept that somebody else might see where it could have been written better.

 

[WCSGarland]

Do you strive to be a great artist, or do you strive to create great art?

I strive to create great art.

 

[WCSGarland]

Is it wrong to hope that people stand in awe of my art?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Definitely... but does that necessarily mean that I don't love my story? Indeed, I could probably have improved upon my story, but by the same token, I loved what I wrote, and I thought it complete, but I am still open-minded enough to accept that somebody else might see where it could have been written better.

The danger is some people fall in love and it blinds them to the faults.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I can accept that. Maybe then the more fruitful topic of discovery would be - "What is literary genius? And how do we denote it?"

I don't think the word "genius" is sacred.

The easy answer is something like "Near Universal Acclaim" but that's a high bar on a site where the content is so compartmentalized along kink lines (not a judgement, just the most applicable word I can think of right now). The GM readership probably wouldn't care much for any entry on the all-time interracial HoF, and that's not a dig on either the GM readership or the fine authors contributing to IR. Because of the way the site works, most acclaim is given in echo chambers.

Critical praise from fellow authors is one way of getting there. Any entry in the disparate What's the best story you've ever read threads that gets more than one nomination is probably worthy of consideration.

 

[WCSGarland]

The danger is some people fall in love and it blinds them to the faults.

I hope that it never happens to me. I also strive to remain open to constructive criticism.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Critical praise from other authors, as a system, suffers from a general lack of us reading each other. Even getting two of us to stand up and point at a single story is rare, and trying to use the opinions of two people to justify applying the term genius feels like a stretch.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

Is it wrong to hope that people stand in awe of my art?

Nothing could be wrong with that. For myself, I would rephrase it as "to hope to create art that I would stand in awe of." But maybe that makes too little difference to matter.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Is it wrong to hope that people stand in awe of my art?

There's nothing wrong to have that vision. There's everything wrong to imply everyone has to have your same vision.

 

[Bamagan]

Is it wrong to hope that people stand in awe of my art?

When someone tells you that they don't consider it awesome, do you believe the fault lies in your art or in your audience?

 

[WCSGarland]

Critical praise from other authors, as a system, suffers from a general lack of us reading each other. Even getting two of us to stand up and point at a single story is rare, and trying to use the opinions of two people to justify applying the term genius feels like a stretch.

I can accept that.

 

[AwkwardMD]

When someone tells you that they don't consider it awesome, do you believe the fault lies in your art or in your audience?

Fragility is probably a completely different concept.

The existence of dissenting voices loops back around to what I was saying earlier about the terms being sacred. If you think genius is only applicable if no one argues against it, then it'll probably never happen.

 

[crookedletter]

I wouldn’t say I have a fuck it attitude toward what I write to post here: I work hard on it, and I want it to be well received. But I don’t aspire to literary greatness in the erotica I write. I strive for good writing and good characters and a good payoff.

I’m more ambitious in other fiction I write. Literary genius is not a term I expect anyone to apply to me or anything I write. But I take it seriously and I work hard to get better and I don’t see why I shouldn’t hope for some success.

 

[WCSGarland]

When someone tells you that they don't consider it awesome, do you believe the fault lies in your art or in your audience?

Well, if the comment is along the lines of 'The ending is extremely weak ass........... come on......... that ending simply sucked hind cow titty........... which means no milk to the calf looking for it's milk which is unsettling to say the least......... drops down from a 5* to a 1 * for being an idiot.' - I tend to think that it speaks more to the quirks in the audience than to my art... but your mileage may vary. I keep hoping for constructive comments, but they are hard to come by in any of my works so far. Feel free to offer any constructive comments on any of my works.

 

[Bamagan]

Fragility is probably a completely different concept.

The existence of dissenting voices loops back around to what I was saying earlier about the terms being sacred. If you think genius is only applicable if no one argues against it, then it'll probably never happen.

Well, as mentioned, I'm fairly cynical and don't put much stock in the concept of 'genius' to begin with, especially when it comes to something as subjective as art.
I've read some great stories on this site in the last 25 years or so, some of which were better than books that companies paid money to print. But I doubt any of them will endure in the minds of students of literature hundreds of years later. Probably not even many decades. Maybe it's just misperception on my part, but everything on the internet feels so ephemeral it's hard to imagine it leaving much of a legacy, and it's hard (for me) to imagine descriptions like 'genius' being applied to such transient things. Then again, that might just mean that people looking back on this era will have a very different idea of what the best art was... which kind of goes back to my original position of not trying to do 'genius' things in hopes of recognition.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I've read some great stories on this site in the last 25 years or so, some of which were better than books that companies paid money to print. But I doubt any of them will endure in the minds of students of literature hundreds of years later. Probably not even many decades.

That doesn't really change the essential nature of great work, just that history is less likely to remember it.

That doesn't scan as a meaningful hurdle for me, if I'm trying to judge how good something is. The best burger I ever had came from a place that closed down 6 months afterward. Real shame. RJ was the man, and his food was legendary.

 

[dirk2024]

Do you aspire to be a literary genius even though you publish on this free site? Or is your attitude more like - It's only Literotica, so fuck it, who cares?

Somewhere to the left of that.

I needed a creative outlet. To build something. I enjoy reading. I also happen to enjoy reading erotica. This place seemed like a place where I could express myself, create, plus learn and improve what I put out there to entertain people.

So while I'm not seeking genius status, I do wish to do well and entertain someone.

 

[Bamagan]

That doesn't really change the essential nature of great work, just that history is less likely to remember it.

That doesn't scan as a meaningful hurdle for me, if I'm trying to judge how good something is. The best burger I ever had came from a place that closed down 6 months afterward. Real shame. RJ was the man, and his food was legendary.

To be remembered fondly by those whose lives we touched should be enough for anyone.

 

[AwkwardMD]

To be remembered fondly by those whose lives we touched should be enough for anyone.

Unironically, I'll drink to that.