Define EROTICA

[StrangeLife]

What if I write an autobiography and call it THE MAKING OF AN ANAL-YST?

I don't care what you call it - I'm definitely reading it. And I'll be sure to catch the movie too.

 

[VenusButterflies]

I don't have a clue.

A reader recently crowned me Master Pornographer, but whats the difference?

The difference is what that reader thinks it means. The connotation of the word may be different to that reader.

But here's the copy+pasted definition & etymology from Google:

por·nog·ra·phy
pôrˈnägrəfē/Submit
noun
noun: pornography
1.
printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.
synonyms: erotica, pornographic material, dirty books; More
Origin

mid 19th century: from Greek pornographos ‘writing about prostitutes,’ from pornē ‘prostitute’ + graphein ‘write.’

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't care what you call it - I'm definitely reading it. And I'll be sure to catch the movie too.

All my stories are autobiographical, but I haven't got to the dregs yet....where the puppies die and the whore with the heart of gold has her skull crushed with a concrete block. Its a marvelous wake-up call at the Roach Motel. That reminds me!

I gotta include the part about the girl who services 10 different men in an hour at her motel room. I sat across the street at the Quickie Mart counting the city trucks that stopped to see her. One guy left her room, and another pulled up.

 

[Swilly]

All my stories are autobiographical, but I haven't got to the dregs yet....where the puppies die and the whore with the heart of gold has her skull crushed with a concrete block. Its a marvelous wake-up call at the Roach Motel. That reminds me!

I gotta include the part about the girl who services 10 different men in an hour at her motel room. I sat across the street at the Quickie Mart counting the city trucks that stopped to see her. One guy left her room, and another pulled up.

I'd say SHE was the Quickie Mart!

 

[oggbashan]

I though that non- erotic had no sex.

I don't agree. There can be sex, but incidental and non-arousing. If it is arousing, it isn't non-erotic.

But some people can be turned on by the oddest things, so although the author might put it in the non-erotic category, it might be erotic for a few.

Some people get aroused just by the proper use of words.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Just as there are levels of pornography with some pleasurable and others offensive, there are shades of erotica too.

I write erotica. I not only name, describe, and give my characters dialogue to speak but also I give my plots tension while lacing my story with imagery.

Pornography to me is an X-rated stroke story without any of the above. As quick as you see or read it, you forget it. Conversely, erotica will stay with you forever in the way of Flaubert's Madame Bovary or Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Other than Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, with all of them forgettable, I can't recall a memorable porn movie that I've seen.

Yet and unfortunately, too many writers on this site write pornography and too many readers on this site vote down a story while reading erotica when they thought they'd be reading pornography. They are actually angry with the writer for not having enough sex in the story.

 

[oggbashan]

...
Yet and unfortunately, too many writers on this site write pornography and too many readers on this site vote down a story while reading erotica when they thought they'd be reading pornography. They are actually angry with the writer for not having enough sex in the story.

I can and do write stories with implied instead of overt sex. Some readers find that too difficult.

I have had contradictory PCs and feedback with anon saying "Where's the sex?" and another anon replying "You missed it, dork!"

 

[jimliterotica]

Just as there are levels of pornography with some pleasurable and others offensive, there are shades of erotica too.

I write erotica. I not only name, describe, and give my characters dialogue to speak but also I give my plots tension while lacing my story with imagery.

Pornography to me is an X-rated stroke story without any of the above. As quick as you see or read it, you forget it. Conversely, erotica will stay with you forever in the way of Flaubert's Madame Bovary or Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Other than Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, with all of them forgettable, I can't recall a memorable porn movie that I've seen.

Yet and unfortunately, too many writers on this site write pornography and too many readers on this site vote down a story while reading erotica when they thought they'd be reading pornography. They are actually angry with the writer for not having enough sex in the story.

Yes!!!! Thank you.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Just as there are levels of pornography with some pleasurable and others offensive, there are shades of erotica too.

I write erotica. I not only name, describe, and give my characters dialogue to speak but also I give my plots tension while lacing my story with imagery.

Pornography to me is an X-rated stroke story without any of the above. As quick as you see or read it, you forget it. Conversely, erotica will stay with you forever in the way of Flaubert's Madame Bovary or Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Other than Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, with all of them forgettable, I can't recall a memorable porn movie that I've seen.

Yet and unfortunately, too many writers on this site write pornography and too many readers on this site vote down a story while reading erotica when they thought they'd be reading pornography. They are actually angry with the writer for not having enough sex in the story.

My thinking is this: My niche is trailer trash/ghetto luv. The players are the dregs of society, and none of it IRL is pretty. So! Is ugly love pornography?

Movies: THE INNOCENTS screenplay by Truman Capote from THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James. Children infected by ghosts who use them for carnal knowledge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvn-UFNJkM

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Non-erotic: Sex is incidental to the story.
Erotic: Sex is essential to the story.
Pornographic: Sex is all. What story?

Pretty good.

 

[SusanJillParker]

My thinking is this: My niche is trailer trash/ghetto luv. The players are the dregs of society, and none of it IRL is pretty. So! Is ugly love pornography?

Movies: THE INNOCENTS screenplay by Truman Capote from THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James. Children infected by ghosts who use them for carnal knowledge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvn-UFNJkM

Although I love the image you've given me with trailer trash/ghetto luv, I don't think those living in a trailer and making ghetto luv would be reading Henry James' Turning of the Screw or Truman Capote's screenplay, The Innocents (lol).

Still, there's another nice image you've created if there was a trashy couple living in a trailer and making ghetto luv while reading classic literature and/or erotica instead of flipping pages of colorful porn pictures.

Thanks

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Although I love the image you've given me with trailer trash/ghetto luv, I don't think those living in a trailer and making ghetto luv would be reading Henry James' Turning of the Screw or Truman Capote's screenplay, The Innocents (lol).

Still, there's another nice image you've created if there was a trashy couple living in a trailer and making ghetto luv while reading classic literature and/or erotica instead of flipping pages of colorful porn pictures.

Thanks

I actually have a story like that in progress. A Haitian refugee is placed in a trailer park, along with her elderly husband, where she meets a starving artiste, and things spontaneously combust. Yveline Soule is what we call Quadroon, African-French...so she looks Indian rather than black. Her husband is 40 years older, and watches tv when the lovers are together.

 

[squirrelzo]

I Quite Agree

To me it has a lot to do with the essential sexual idea. If your basic idea, the essence of your story, is Al Bundy scratching his nuts thinking "Damn I really need to get some," that's the quality of your idea right there. You can gussy it up with a "story," toss in a load of "dialogue," and delay the gratification for 6 pages, but it's still just Al scratching his nuts. That's using the veneer of erotica to do porn, but porn by any other name....

Its the quality of the sexual imagination plus the quality of the writing that makes good erotica. A good writer can make a story about ANYTHING erotic. A so so writer can come up with a hot, juicy, unusual sexual idea.

But most of the time, its just "Damn I'm horny."

Just as there are levels of pornography with some pleasurable and others offensive, there are shades of erotica too.

I write erotica. I not only name, describe, and give my characters dialogue to speak but also I give my plots tension while lacing my story with imagery.

Pornography to me is an X-rated stroke story without any of the above. As quick as you see or read it, you forget it. Conversely, erotica will stay with you forever in the way of Flaubert's Madame Bovary or Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Other than Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, with all of them forgettable, I can't recall a memorable porn movie that I've seen.

Yet and unfortunately, too many writers on this site write pornography and too many readers on this site vote down a story while reading erotica when they thought they'd be reading pornography. They are actually angry with the writer for not having enough sex in the story.

 

[Hypoxia]

We can't define it but we know it when we see it.
Of course, we all see it differently, personally.
If we all agreed, life would be so boring.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

If fiction is life with the boring parts taken out, then erotica is life with all the exciting parts elongated, thickened, and trimmed of unsightly hair.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OK, I thought about it a lot, and now know what erotic is, and how it differs from porn. Lessee if I can make what I know work. Stay tuned.

 

[SamScribble]

Some people get aroused just by the proper use of words.

Works for me, Og.

 

[SikFuk]

Porn focuses on fucking. Erotica focuses on the desire to fuck. Erotica doesn't necessarily require graphic sex. Porn does.

 

[Acktion]

Porn = Who did what to whom and in what order. (usually with synthesizer as the only musical accompaniment)

Erotica = Why it was done.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The difference is what that reader thinks it means. The connotation of the word may be different to that reader.

But here's the copy+pasted definition & etymology from Google:

por·nog·ra·phy
pôrˈnägrəfē/Submit
noun
noun: pornography
1.
printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.
synonyms: erotica, pornographic material, dirty books; More
Origin

mid 19th century: from Greek pornographos ‘writing about prostitutes,’ from pornē ‘prostitute’ + graphein ‘write.’

No, the answer is plain as your nose once you see it. Let me say this, the pornography is the part that comes after the change, after the awakening. The erotica is the force growing and seeking an outlet.