Must sex always have a happy ending?

[CharleyH]

I've written stories with very happy endings for both characters (or all characters depending on the orgy), stories with very happy orgasms for one character, but not so great for the other. I've written some, perhaps depending on one's POV, not so happy orgasms for some characters and even great sex scenes with not so happily-ever-after outcomes. The reason for my choices were part experiment as a writer and because ... because life is, well it is like that, no?

Commercially, I realize that sex must lead to the happily-ever-after-for-all orgasm, but I am interested in what AH writers and readers think. Does good, no let's say great erotic fiction, require a "happily ever after" to be enjoyed, to be (for lack of a best phrase) gotten off on?

 

[shereads]

Sex never has a happy ending. Its happiness is during the moments of intimacy. The ending is separation.

 

[Vermilion]

Many of my stories have an unhappy or unresolved ending. Sex, after all, is a chapter ending, not a story end. I like the reader to feel sexually satsified, but emotionally/mentally unsatisfied...

x
V

 

[neonlyte]

What happened to good old philanthropic sex? The sex could be awful... but you'd feel good about giving.

Answer: No - happy endings are for movies

 

[CharleyH]

What happened to good old philanthropic sex? The sex could be awful... but you'd feel good about giving.

Answer: No - happy endings are for movies

Ahh. Well, I agree.

As for Shereads? I'm just wanting a one night stand. I don't HAVE to care. In fact, I won't. Just want to see you in a corset and stockings, maybe give some burlesque moves for me and my friends before I totally shove them briskly out of the room. One night. ONE night and you can go your separate way after I love up your stockings and you!

 

[CharleyH]

What happened to good old philanthropic sex? The sex could be awful... but you'd feel good about giving.

LOL. I always feel good about sex. Not so certain about some lovers. Should we write about those not so happy endings?

 

[CharleyH]

Many of my stories have an unhappy or unresolved ending. Sex, after all, is a chapter ending, not a story end. I like the reader to feel sexually satsified, but emotionally/mentally unsatisfied...

x
V

As a writer, I know what you mean, but can you describe it for those that might like to know?

 

[Vermilion]

As a writer, I know what you mean, but can you describe it for those that might like to know?

Well the story I was thinking of was an incest one I wrote and I tried to make it as close to real as I could whilst still making it consensual and sexy. The brother and his younger sister have this massive build up to explain the sex then, after the act has been completed, he just gets up and walks out saying that he should never have done it while she lies there...

I may never write any more of that story, but I don't want the reader thinking that they had sex and it was all fine and lovely with no repercussions and no further issues. The suggestion is that the sex was by no means the end of the story...

Is that what you wanted Charley?

x
V

 

[CharleyH]

Well the story I was thinking of was an incest one I wrote and I tried to make it as close to real as I could whilst still making it consensual and sexy. The brother and his younger sister have this massive build up to explain the sex then, after the act has been completed, he just gets up and walks out saying that he should never have done it while she lies there...

I may never write any more of that story, but I don't want the reader thinking that they had sex and it was all fine and lovely with no repercussions and no further issues. The suggestion is that the sex was by no means the end of the story...

Is that what you wanted Charley?

x
V

Does not matter what I want, V. Thank you.

 

[Vermilion]

Does not matter what I want, V. Thank you.

Course it does, I like to oblige

Is it just me, or have you not been around much recently? Everything OK?
x
V

 

[CharleyH]

Course it does, I like to oblige

Is it just me, or have you not been around much recently? Everything OK?
x
V

The question is general, lets get back to it.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

In the case of Harry Dick, sex is a let down for him as well as the woman. That's why he never gets a second shot

 

[TxRad]

Must sex always have a happy ending?

Quick answer: No

Like life the long answer is just that, long and convoluted. Its also as varied as the people that live and love in our stories.

 

[Belegon]

Erotica certainly does not require a happy ending, even to be published. San Francisco Surrender ends quite ambiguously, but has sold comparitively well. If you intend to market it as Romance or Erotic Romance, you need an HEA to fit within how the market defines the genre.

Certainly, a sad or ambiguous ending is less commercial. I don't buy into the idea that it is more artistic. Depends on the story. I am learning to write the ending the story demands, as opposed to trying to make it fit into an HEA. Because my nature is to be a pleaser. I want it all to end happy. But life don't work that way.

I have not,as of yet, written a piece where one character enjoys the sex and the other does not. However, I'm sure that will come as my writing experience broadens. Like I said, if it is right for the story.

 

[3113]

Commercially, I realize that sex must lead to the happily-ever-after-for-all orgasm, but I am interested in what AH writers and readers think. Does good, no let's say great erotic fiction, require a "happily ever after" to be enjoyed, to be (for lack of a best phrase) gotten off on?

Depends on the category, I think. Almost every time I post a Romantic story (in the romance section) someone sends me feedback saying, "Predictable!" and my personal response is to wonder what they heck they thought they were reading. I mean "um..duh!"

Because it's a romance. Yes, a romance *can* be unpredictable, but readers of romances aren't reading such stories in hopes of that. In most romances the reader knows from the onset (1) who's going to end up with who, and (2) that there will be a happy ending. So a reader who thrives on unpredictable or downbeat endings should avoid the romance category because that cat is rarely going to satisfy them.

Likewise, readers of the erotic-horror category are probably not looking for a predictable, happily-ever-after romance. They're looking for something creepy and weird and scary. If it ends horribly, so much the better.

I think the point is this: you can write whatever story you like, but readers also like what they like. And if you categorize your story as a certain genre, then you are placing an "ingredients" label of sorts on it. What does this story contain? It's "erotica" so it will contain sex, and they have a right to expect that. But what else is it? If it's "horror" then they have a right to expect something scary. If it's romance, then they have a right to expect a happy or at least bittersweet romance, not a tragic downer. The same goes for the sex. If it's erotic horror, none of the sex needs to be happy, it can all go horribly wrong (it did in my erotic horror story); if it's in romance, some of the sex can be unhappy, awkward, bitter, etc. during the course of the story--but the sex between hero and heroine is expected, by the end, to be happily-ever-after.

Does that even come close to answering the question?

 

[slyc_willie]

I've had stories in which the characters have great sex and enjoy a happy ending, stories where a character dies at the end, stories in which the sex was so-so and the story ended badly, and of course, some NonCon stuff (in which the sex is only about one person's pleasure).

I'm with Vermilion. I want my readers a little shaken up in some way most of the time.

 

[Wandering Star]

Your question brings to mind the scene in some Asian massage parlors: I don't believe the masseuse is given a "happy ending," but her clients usually are.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I'm working on a story right now with unhappy and unsatisfactory sex. But-- it will, eventually, have a happy ending, because I'm a sentimental fool

Another story I'm plotting will have good sex that leads to one person trusting another-- never should have done that.

And I just read something that was angsty and spooky and the sex was unpredictable-- good, bad, angry, loving-- really, really erotic and it's stuck in my head right now.

 

[Weird Harold]

Commercially, I realize that sex must lead to the happily-ever-after-for-all orgasm, ...

Whatever gave you this idea?

Maybe if you're writing formulaic bodice-ripping romance novels, "bad sex" isn't "commercial" but in any other genre, the characters should determine how good the sex is.

For example, I imagine it would be rather difficult to combine a tragic heroine who can't seem to find a good man with HEA orgasms.

 

[amicus]

I've written stories with very happy endings for both characters (or all characters depending on the orgy), stories with very happy orgasms for one character, but not so great for the other. I've written some, perhaps depending on one's POV, not so happy orgasms for some characters and even great sex scenes with not so happily-ever-after outcomes. The reason for my choices were part experiment as a writer and because ... because life is, well it is like that, no?

Commercially, I realize that sex must lead to the happily-ever-after-for-all orgasm, but I am interested in what AH writers and readers think. Does good, no let's say great erotic fiction, require a "happily ever after" to be enjoyed, to be (for lack of a best phrase) gotten off on?

~~~

I tried to stay away from this thread, for several reasons, first of which is because it is your thread, CharlieH, and secondly because I know my take will most likely be in opposition to most thoughts posted thus far.

3113 offered the best view, but I felt that was offered in the context of Literotica, and limited to that, while I take your thread in the total context of art in general and literature in specific.

Most likely I am wrong, as usual, but...

First off, to telegraph my direction, what would you say is the purpose and function of art in human society?

Since I have read some of your work and exchanged a few thoughts with you, I know that you can and do think in these terms although your intentions with this thread I can only surmise.

So if we accept that literature is art, what is the purpose behind the writing of a story or a poem of fiction or a reflection of life from the artists point of view?

What do you want to convey to your readers?

The first story I ever submitted to Literotica won a $100.00 first prize for October 2003, I believe. I deposited the check in a savings account for a six year old grand-daughter and it cleared the bank; I was one happy camper.

The story was called, "Susan" which I later removed as it became part of a collection of short stories published soon after.

"Susan" was a romance story, a love story, with tentative and then good sex but without a happy ending as both main characters had other obligations to fulfill. I recall many comments of "awwww...they should have found a way to stay together..."

So the story did not have a 'happy ending' in the common understanding of the term, but it did reflect an aspect of human life and events that can and do occur.

There is something else too, illusive to capture and describe, but for me, my stories usually begin with an idea for a story but the resolution only comes later when the characters interact and then, they, seem to begin to write their own story and choose their own endings.

Now I can, as you can, force an ending if I choose, but if I do, then by what values and standards do I project the 'author's message', as the underlying theme of the tale?

Now you and everyone else can blow this off by noting that 'stroke' stories also have a purpose and they don't need a plot or a deep philosophical or moral or ethical foundation and ignore my thoughts, that's fine.

But even a wank story says something; about the author and about his or her sense of life and chosen message.

So, dear Charlie, et al, do you wish to portray life and love as an uplifting experience, bringing out the best characteristics of man...or something else?

Yeah, I know, like my little friend says, SUA Shut Up Amicus!



Ami...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I've said it before: The purpose of art is for individuals to express their experience of experience, enriching the commonwealth in the process. Plagiarism, consequently, adds nuthin to the fund. So! It follows that unhappy sex or whatever might increase the fund. God knows! it would be different.

 

[amicus]

You cynical old shit, you are starting to try my patience.

Are we the only two fruitcakes up this time of the morning?

Sure seems that way.

ahem...

 

[Guest]

What happened to good old philanthropic sex? The sex could be awful... but you'd feel good about giving.

Answer: No - happy endings are for movies

You haven't watched many movies recently. I've been to a couple just recently where the ending was really sad, like Lions for Lambs and ironic like The Mist. That ending really got to me.

 

[SensualCealy]

A commercial last night made me think of a post for this thread.

My answer to your question is no. Have you watched or read , Bridges of Madison County?

Lustful story, with a not so happy ending, well until the sequil, but it still wasnt a really happy ending either.
C

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

AMICUS

Life was so much more fun when I was a liberal and my head was stuck in my ass. I was narcissistic enough to believe it was all my fault. When thieves stole everything I owned (to buy drugs), I felt empathy and compassion and love for them. I was so pathetic my local commune rented a tractor and chain to pull my head out of my ass. Even the comrades wouldnt go as far as me.