Non-erotic poetry

[dr_mabeuse]

About what percentage of the poems here are non-erotic? Anyone know?

Isn't it remarkable what good discussions of poetry and writing you can have with a bunch of supposed pornographers?


---dr.M.

 

[The_Fool]

When I looked:

Erotic = 5901
Non-Erotic = 6117
Illustrated = 48
Audio = 81

Seems like here was a thread awhile back asking about erotic vs. nonerotic and why writers wrote the style they did...

 

[Angeline]

Define Erotic

Seems like here was a thread awhile back asking about erotic vs. nonerotic and why writers wrote the style they did...

Yes there was. A poster was asking--somewhat lamenting--why there seemed more of an emphasis on nonerotic poems here, given that this is after all Literotica. And nonerotic does have the slight edge, if one believes the numbers.

I'm a bit suspicious of these numbers as empirical evidence though because they are--as they say--self-reported data. People have very different ways of defining erotic vs. nonerotic in poems (and everything, I imagine, lol). Some people would not call a poem erotic unless it is explicit. I know this because I almost never write explicit in my poems. It's more of a challenge for me as a writer to see how hot I can write (when I'm trying to write an erotic poem) without being graphic. And sensual, albeit not explicit, writing can be quite erotic--it's all about word choice. But sometimes I get feedback saying: How can you call this erotic?

Furthermore I read the new poems most days, and sometimes the classifications (again self-selected by the author) seem surprisingly off to me. I wonder if anyone ever has the classification changed (presumeably by Laurel) after they submit a poem. I know this happens with story submissions because I submitted a story (well the first part) about a woman who was sold to a brothel in Storyville, N'awlins that was reclassified after submission. (I classified it as "Erotic Coupling" when I submitted it; it showed up posted as a "Romance." Go figure.) Anyone know if this happens with poems?

So these numbers aren't exactly being produced under lab conditions, eh? Still my anecdotal sense in the 18 months or so I've been around is that there has been a slow but steady shift toward nonerotic poetry.

P.S.

Isn't it remarkable what good discussions of poetry and writing you can have with a bunch of supposed pornographers?


---dr.M.

Yup. It's what keeps me posting.

 

[Guest]

Personally I don't like the terms erotic or non-erotic for poetry. Mostly I choose non- because I presume Lit. readers want sex or overtly sexual language when they see the label "erotic poetry".

There's plenty of erotic literature w/o sexual scenes and plenty of pornography lacking eroticism.

I know it's all words but on a writing site it's pretty limiting, delimiting, whatever.

Perdita (at a loss for words lately)

 

[OT]

Although the revenue of Literotica is based on providing explicit sexual content, I (and I gather that others) hang around and view the site more in terms of sexual content is allowed, but not required. Even when I'm not in the mood for a drink (yeh right), I still prefer restaurants that serve alcohol ( just in case the mood should strike).

I tend to mostly read poems as they are posted and rarely notice the category. If I find it erotic or sensual, then I may look to see how the author categorized it.

On the story side, I've heard it lamented that categories are too limiting in that they don't handle mixed themes (e.g. "Romantic BDSM"). Since poems are short enough to bail if they are not your cuppa, I'd be in favor of no categories at all. Hmmm, or now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder what keywords I'd like to see next to poems:
Happy, Sad, Explicit, Silly, ...

 

[Maria2394]

title changes

dr.M., I have had my description for stories changed several times, ( always to something better suited) and once a title was changed. I didnt know what to think about that, but I guess they have their reasons maria

 

[Angeline]

Labels

I've been thinking about these posts and while I realize, this being Lit, the categories will stay--OT's point about what pay's Lit's bills is well taken--it *is* all so arbitrary.

Some of us here at the poeting board (like me, for example) are not focused on erotic poetry per se. Sometimes I feel like writing an "erotic poem" (erotic, at least, from my POV), generally not. Very often though I will use phrases or images in what I'd call a nonerotic poem that are sexual or sensual or both--and I know that when I write them and it's intentional. I like trying to write poems that can move the reader through different feelings; in fact trying to create extraordinary effects (visual, emotional, sexual, whatever) in a single word or short phrase may be what separates poets from writers in other genres. (Just a thought.)

So labelling always sucks cause it's misleading (not just in writing, either lol), but I bet this is much more an issue for Lit poets than Lit story writers. Poetry is often ambiguous and some of the best poems startle readers with contradiction, but show me one "erotic" story here where, having read it, you say "Was that about sex or not?"

But I think OT has it right about Lit--go somewhere where alcohol is served because even if you're not in the mood for a drink now, you don't want to be denied one when you are. And I don't want to have to censor myself in order to post a poem.

 

[Rybka]

Erotic Writing

I've been thinking about these posts and while I realize, this being Lit, the categories will stay--OT's point about what pay's Lit's bills is well taken--it *is* all so arbitrary.

Some of us here at the poeting board (like me, for example) are not focused on erotic poetry per se. Sometimes I feel like writing an "erotic poem" (erotic, at least, from my POV), generally not. ...

But I think OT has it right about Lit--go somewhere where alcohol is served because even if you're not in the mood for a drink now, you don't want to be denied one when you are. And I don't want to have to censor myself in order to post a poem.

I agree in general. I am not a writer of erotic poetry, however defined. I certainly am turned off by "explicit" hardcore poetry. If I knew of a site with as an active and interesting interchange as this forum, then I would probably disappear from Literotica.

Regards, Rybka