Erotica as a legitimate literature genre

[3113]

At first I thought the topic was running away with the subject a little.. but actually I think it's closer than ever to what I was thinking - overcoming the mediocre to create art.

The twists and turns this topic has taken may seem to be going off track, but I think you're correct that these detours are still going in the right direction.

There's really two points to investagate here:
1) Whether erotica/porn can be literary--meaning, have a story as well as sex.
2) Whether erotica/porn can be literary in and of itself--meaning, a sex scene that is both arousing and yet artful.

The answer to both is "yes," but the writer has to care about the story and the reader. Which brings us back to work and talent. This has been discussed among us before: that stories with flat, unbelievable characters, bad plots or no plots, a lack of art or versimilitude, etc., are stories written by the author for the author's pleasure alone. It doesn't matter if they're just stroke stories or if they try to tell a tale. You can tell that the writer either had no talent, or put no work into it, or both. They simply assumed that what gave them pleasure was all that mattered.

But, to reflect back on what Stella said, that's not the best way to make love to someone else. To do that you need to do some work and research. The same is true with stories. You don't need to surrender your own pleasure, but you do need to think of their pleasure, too.

Erotic stories that transcend are ones where the writer gave some thought not only to simulating themselves, but also stimulating the reader. So they put effort into engaging readers with interesting characters, and they added in versimilitude to make the reader really experience the sex (taste, smell, touch). And they took care with their wording to set the mood and make it more exciting. They invited the reader in to share the sex, rather than just masterbating in public.

Writers of erotica who put in the work, whether in telling a story or just making the stroke story a really good stroke story, are like lovers who make an effort to give their partner a good time. IMHO.

 

[English Lady]

I'm a fan of the notion that talent doesn't mean anything without execution, and execution is rarely brilliant without practice.

That is certainly sigline-able. Bravo!

 

[DanseMacabre]

Paranormal erotica is on the rise, I'm led to believe.

 

[SexSweetheart]

Thanks for the explanation

Even though the dictionaries treat them as equivalent, I've been trying for a long time now to establish a distinction between "pornography" and "erotica". It would be like this:

The term "pornography" would be confined to literature whose sole intent is to sexually arouse and titilate.

"Erotica" would be used to describe literature that explores what sex and sexuality mean in our lives; how we express them, how we experience them, how we use them. It's the literature of sex.

The terms overlap and blur, but I think the distinction is a very useful one.

.

I like your explanation for pornography and erotica. In writing some of my stories, I get from the editors that there is not enough sex in them, now I can understand their statement a little better.

With erotica, you develop a real story with describing the characters. There is always the placement of where the story is taking place. I have always enjoyed knowing what the person looks like, where they are and what the place looks like.

I believe in writing a story with sex == not sex with a little story.

 

[SexSweetheart]

Hi, well, uh, I'm a wannabe writer who hasn't actually written anything for Literotica (yet..)

See, I just like writing in general - I've written a few short stories and started a novel or two.. I hold no expectations of these things ever going anywhere, I just do it because I enjoy it.

But after reading some of the stuff here, I've noticed I somehow enjoyed the stories that seemed more realistic; instead of people sex-crazy for no reason having wild sex in all sorts of bizarre situations, the stuff that sounds like it could actually happen, where there seem to be motivations behind people's actions - this is the sort of stuff that tittilates me, for lack of a better word.

What do you think about the place of erotica in fiction, in general? More and more I'm starting to think, the stories I want to write aren't just random "quick and easy tittilation without substance" - I want to write actual stories, where sex plays an important part in them. And the sex would be arousing, it would make one, well, horny. But it would have real meaning, there would be consequences, the sex would serve a purpose to the story.

I think you are right, erotic stories that are more realistic with all the details that go with it are more interesting. Plus, they are more arousing.

Having a encounter that is one act after another with no lead in or giving the reader and idea why they are where they are, lose something. I guess that is why I like the stories that are more then one of Literotica's pages because there is more to them.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

My thoughts

The first story I ever wrote for Literotica back in 2003 started out as a "jack off" show place. As I recall, I got as far as the second paragraph before I determined that was neither very interesting nor worth while writing. The story ended up being two Lit Pages and had no sex at all, but a lot of innuendo. The story ended up in the Humor Catagory and has had an "H" since it was first posted. ( http://english.literotica.com:81/stories/showstory.php?id=90011)

The second story I wrote had all the elements of sex, but after it was written a reading showed me that the story would have been just as strong without the sex. This made me back up a bit and think, "Is the sex really necessary to have a good Lit story?"

Since that time, I've allowed the stories to take their own twists and turns as the see fit. I follow one simple rule: The character will do what the character would do next in real life? With the advent of that revolation I discovered ways to make the character seem alive and real. Would the character have sex? Not always, but sometimes yes if the action seemed appropriate to the make up of the character and the appropriate time and place.


I think the real difference between Porn and Erotica is one of skill level. I have to look back constantly to see how my stories have developed from the base rudimentary to something I like to think of as somewhat better. At this point I doubt I could write what would be rightly called "Pornography". But when that jump from Porn to erotica came, I know to be somewhere in the middle of the second paragraph of my very first.

 

[Alex De Kok]

I've come late to this thread, but have enjoyed reading through. I think my own work here probably occupies the middle ground. I like to put the sex in but I find it difficult if not impossible - for me - without putting some kind of story around it, and I'm not as good a story-teller as I'd like to be. Witness my four unfinished novels!

People seem to enjoy reading what I write, so I must be doing something right and will probably continue writing in a similar vein, but I find myself wanting to write more and more story. I've written a few Lit 'one-pagers' (11, actually, which surprised me when I checked, including my only prize-winning story here), but around half of mine (23) are two Lit pages, eight are three pages, and a mere two run to five, but those two are among my favourite pieces of my own work! Interestingly, both relate to other people's work. One was for a chain, the other for a Hangout challenge.

I think it is possible to 'tell a story' within a single Lit page and I believe I've done it but as someone said (the much-missed Killermuffin, I think) there are only so many ways to describe Tab A fitting into slot B, and without telling a story around the act I can bore myself, never mind the reader, very quickly indeed.

Jenny Jackson makes the point in her post above that she found her story just as strong without the sex, which is, I think, exactly how it should be. In one of my all-too-rare feedbacks the writer made the point that he judged stories by how well they would read without the sex and voted accordingly.

I guess I'm not going to change my way of working anytime soon.

Alex

 

[oggbashan]

Detachable sex

I have had the same problem as Jenny and Alex - stories where the sex can be removed without affecting the sense of the whole.

I am not happy with that. If the sex is removable, I think that the story isn't erotica. The sex should be integral and essential to the development of the plot and characters or else it shouldn't be there.

I don't mean implied sex where the action takes place off-stage or the story elicits the sexual feeling without overt description.

My own example of detachable sex is Bastille Day - an old Nude Day entry. I removed the sex and submitted it to a local writing contest. It was short-listed but not placed.

Whether I can write stories in which the sex is integral and essential?

I'm not sure.

Og

 

[rgraham666]

One of the reasons I write erotica is that it isn't a 'legitimate literature genre'.

Partly because I don't trust my writing skill enough to do something 'legitimate', yet.

And partly to cock a snoot at the people who decide what is 'legitimate' or not. I write what I damn well please.

 

[Aurora Black]

One of the reasons I write erotica is that it isn't a 'legitimate literature genre'.

Partly because I don't trust my writing skill enough to do something 'legitimate', yet.

And partly to cock a snoot at the people who decide what is 'legitimate' or not. I write what I damn well please.

Oooh, you're gonna get in trouble... You said "damn" and "cock." I'm gonna tell the teacher!

 

[rgraham666]

Oooh, you're gonna get in trouble... You said "damn" and "cock." I'm gonna tell the teacher!

I'm flunking anyway. Ask me if I care.