Sexpocalypse Now

[SexyInTyvek]

I'm new here, and I'm working on my first stories, as a kind of stress reliever from what's going on in the world. I posted some minor thoughts previously that I got some responses that were...interesting. Those responses prompted me to write this post while I had a small bit of time.
I want to first make something perfectly clear, for any denialists of the issues we are facing as an entire species: please just move on from my posts & writings. I have neither the patience nor the desire to engage you on any level. My words are hopefully a positive and comforting balm for those who need to feel hopeful about our world and our society, who need an outlet, as I did when I found this space, a sense of connectedness and warmth in wanting the best for humanity and not the worst. Many of us have seen and experienced too much of this tragedy we are all caught up in currently to waste our precious energy to bother with nonsense, and if you and yours have personally remained untouched, thank your stars and stay safe, for I wish the plague and it's future ramifications on no one, and on that note, I want to ask: who else has developed a gas mask/latex affinity? I know I'm not the only one who has entered the zone of pandemic kink, and I would love to see what you think about it. Here is an inspiration point that I really love. Will link the source post in a bit, filter mine. When writing during a dystopic phase, can the writing be a point of hope and maybe mark this epoch as a dark age averted rather than a full blown societal breakdown? How do we, as authors, poets, philosophers, and artists, express our experiences of desire and capture that essence of eroticism while venting the pressure we are under, as most great literature and art has ever done?
Peace and Love <3
SIT

 

[lovecraft68]

Many of us have seen and experienced too much of this tragedy we are all caught up in currently to waste our precious energy

First, welcome.

I clipped your post to this line to flip your point. You seem to be saying by "denialists" that you have no tolerance of people who say "such and such is not an issue" You enforce that with "if you have not been affected by" so I think I have it right.

Now, for the flip, because most people have been affected or know someone who has by the shitshow life has been the last couple of years, the last thing they want to do is read about it in stories on an erotic fantasy site, or be preached to about it on the forums so if your plan is to fill your stories with current events, it may not go over too well. As for here goes, making your opening post a challenge of "if you're one of those move along" That may not sit well either.

My post is not an attack on you, its an alternate view based on how many people online and in person I hear saying they can't handle hearing about all the bad news anymore and need an ESCAPE they don't need more of it. That's not being an denialist, that's being human and trying to protect what sanity they have left; so your strategy may not work out as hoped for.

Regardless, good luck with your work here.

 

[Maxiine]

In 1929 when the bottom fell out of the global economy, bankrupting millions of people and prompting mass unemployment, years of hardship and even suicides, Hollywood entered a sort of golden age. The advent of talking pictures helped re-energize the medium and people, no doubt desperate for diversion, began flocking to the cinema in unprecedented numbers.

Even in the depths of the Great Depression, between 60 and 80 million Americans went to the movies once a week or more, and back in those days they really got value for money. In the early 1930s, an American movie ticket would buy you a cartoon, a newsreel, a B-feature and the main film, which amounted to something like four hours' entertainment for a nickel, the price back then of a gallon of petrol or a packet of cigarettes.

(The Dublin Independent May 21, 2022)

 

[Voboy]

How do we, as authors, poets, philosophers, and artists, express our experiences of desire and capture that essence of eroticism while venting the pressure we are under, as most great literature and art has ever done?

People love to fuck lustily in dystopias.

Well, at least they do if I'm writing about the dystopias.

The reason is built in: we're all gonna die, so let's take our pleasure where we can find it. It's a tale as old as the Decameron, or probably older. So I don't see despair and eroticism as being mutually exclusive in any way. People in extremis are looking for an outlet, an escape, and I can think of countless ways a smut writer can provide those kinds of things, both for our characters and for our readers.

The early, uncertain, "quarantine" phase of Covid spawned two or three really strong stories for me. Though, mask fetish is not at all my kink. I don't associate masks with safety. I associate them with compulsion. That's a personal hangup, but it's reflective of the larger truth that nobody at Literotica can be generalized.

 

[ElectricBlue]

When writing during a dystopic phase, can the writing be a point of hope and maybe mark this epoch as a dark age averted rather than a full blown societal breakdown? How do we, as authors, poets, philosophers, and artists, express our experiences of desire and capture that essence of eroticism while venting the pressure we are under, as most great literature and art has ever done?

Setting aside the hyperbole, a writer writes. It's that simple.

How much of the surrounding context they bring into their writing is another thing, but exploring the human condition through erotica has been quite common since the advent of the novel in the eighteenth century, and in poetry and song before that.

Write your erotica, but don't try to conflate it into something it's not. We're not in dystopia, we're not in a full blown societal breakdown - there have been worse times for humanity, we've got through them. It's what human beings do.

Write smut, if it helps, but don't put too much weight on its shoulders.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I'm not a "glass half empty" kind of person.

I prefer the line in the song from Pitbull: "Every day above ground is a great day. Remember that!"

 

[KeithD]

a writer writes. It's that simple.

And some can do it more succinctly and with more clarity than others can.

 

[jsmiam]

with paragraphs?

Sorry. Part bad joke, part truth.

Like more and more of the world, I’m on a phone. And blame my attention span if you want, I started reading, and just couldn’t finish. I don’t know the point you were trying to make. I don’t know what you were asking or saying. The wall of text got me.

So welcome. Write what you want. Watch this video.

. And Substitute “paragraphs” for “sunscreen”.

 

[SexyInTyvek]

I'm new here, and I'm working on my first stories, as a kind of stress reliever from what's going on in the world. I posted some minor thoughts previously that I got some responses that were...interesting. Those responses prompted me to write this post while I had a small bit of time.
I want to first make something perfectly clear, for any denialists of the issues we are facing as an entire species: please just move on from my posts & writings. I have neither the patience nor the desire to engage you on any level. My words are hopefully a positive and comforting balm for those who need to feel hopeful about our world and our society, who need an outlet, as I did when I found this space, a sense of connectedness and warmth in wanting the best for humanity and not the worst. Many of us have seen and experienced too much of this tragedy we are all caught up in currently to waste our precious energy to bother with nonsense, and if you and yours have personally remained untouched, thank your stars and stay safe, for I wish the plague and it's future ramifications on no one, and on that note, I want to ask: who else has developed a gas mask/latex affinity? I know I'm not the only one who has entered the zone of pandemic kink, and I would love to see what you think about it. Here is an inspiration point that I really love. Will link the source post in a bit, filter mine. When writing during a dystopic phase, can the writing be a point of hope and maybe mark this epoch as a dark age averted rather than a full blown societal breakdown? How do we, as authors, poets, philosophers, and artists, express our experiences of desire and capture that essence of eroticism while venting the pressure we are under, as most great literature and art has ever done?
Peace and Love <3
SIT

A scene of safe sex in our near future may actually look more like a research lab than any prepandemic notion should this timeline remain unaltered. People of like minds, who respect the tools of protection and have incorporated them into their lives in the most intimate ways.
Those who have disregarded the reality of HIV and such will also be more likely to disregard SARSCO2 protocols launching us into an age where those who practice safe living/sex are choosing our partners based on mutual need with a realistic filter. Denial will kill millions more and that just isn't sexy.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1293614009589968897

 

[gunhilltrain]

First, welcome.

I clipped your post to this line to flip your point. You seem to be saying by "denialists" that you have no tolerance of people who say "such and such is not an issue" You enforce that with "if you have not been affected by" so I think I have it right.

Now, for the flip, because most people have been affected or know someone who has by the shitshow life has been the last couple of years, the last thing they want to do is read about it in stories on an erotic fantasy site, or be preached to about it on the forums so if your plan is to fill your stories with current events, it may not go over too well. As for here goes, making your opening post a challenge of "if you're one of those move along" That may not sit well either.

My post is not an attack on you, its an alternate view based on how many people online and in person I hear saying they can't handle hearing about all the bad news anymore and need an ESCAPE they don't need more of it. That's not being an denialist, that's being human and trying to protect what sanity they have left; so your strategy may not work out as hoped for.

Regardless, good luck with your work here.

Shitshows have been a part of humanity since the beginning, but since we have a somewhat limited view of historical time, we have trouble imagining what the past was like. Consider the Mongols and their invasions, if you can stand it.

Americans have had tribulations (the Depression was mentioned above; slavery would be another) but we have avoided some of the worst of the wars, famines, disasters, and such that other countries have had to deal with. In recent years we have inflicted some shitshows on other nations while avoiding much of the blowback ourselves.

Recently the fear of nuclear war has returned. I've thought that the worst aspect of that is not the existence of the weapons themselves, but rather it's the launching systems. How did we reach the point of having ballistic missile submarines in the oceans, primed to fire at any time? Well, we have to have them so that they'll never be used. That's the hope, anyway.

 

[gunhilltrain]

To more directly, answer your post - well, about escapism in erotic literature. Without planning for it, I've noticed that a lot of my stories are about white ethnic working class / lower middle-class New Yorkers in the 1960s to the 1990s. I was / am one of them, so I know what they were like.

Nominally, they might be considered politically liberal. But while they (or we, or I) may notice certain things going wrong in the city (the 1977 blackout riots, which were quite extensive) they are mostly unable to imagine what to do about it all. So if they don't quite ignore it, they do sort of work around it. And that's the way I remember it.

It might be admirable if I could deal more directly with, say, the Black and Latino people of the city at that time, but so far I've been unable to do it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I have mixed feelings about Geraldo Rivera, but sometimes he tried.

The new myth about New York (and maybe other cities), is that with gentrification (including parts of Harlem), then everything must be going great. As usual, people see what they want to see.

 

[lovecraft68]

Shitshows have been a part of humanity since the beginning, but since we have a somewhat limited view of historical time, we have trouble imagining what the past was like. Consider the Mongols and their invasions, if you can stand it.

Americans have had tribulations (the Depression was mentioned above; slavery would be another) but we have avoided some of the worst of the wars, famines, disasters, and such that other countries have had to deal with. In recent years we have inflicted some shitshows on other nations while avoiding much of the blowback ourselves.

Recently the fear of nuclear war has returned. I've thought that the worst aspect of that is not the existence of the weapons themselves, but rather it's the launching systems. How did we reach the point of having ballistic missile submarines in the oceans, primed to fire at any time? Well, we have to have them so that they'll never be used. That's the hope, anyway.

I work across the street from General Dynamics AKA Electric Boat, they manufacture the Trident nuclear submarine. In the event of nuclear war Rhode Island is a target for that reason, we'll be going first. My company is right on the ocean, we can go out the back and wander down to the beach and have a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean, can see the Jamestown bridge. I often sit out there at lunch, have a coffee and stare at the ocean. The last few weeks I've had several instances of looking out at the ocean and thinking "There could be a Russian sub out there, under this peaceful water...the missile could be coming right now...

But hey, better to go first than be a survivor of a nuclear event. As I tell my wife, I always wanted to go down in a ball of fire.

 

[gunhilltrain]

There probably is a Russian sub out there, doing what for the moment is its usual patrol. I had to look this up, but besides the United States and Russia, the other nations with such subs are Britain, France, China, and India. What are the other nuclear powers? Pakistan for sure, maybe Israel, although they refuse to confirm or deny whether that is true.

I also found out that the first ballistic submarine was the USS George Washington which, as you probably know, was a product of Electric Boat. I see that they have a main facility at Groton, CT and their outfitting facility is at Quonset Point, RI, which is where you are.

Anyway, for a long time now, most of us, including me, have put all of this into the back of our minds - it's all become routine and seemingly not worth worrying about much. Now, suddenly, it's back on the table although I still hold out hope that the odds are against it. But, yeah, if it did happen, I'd like to go fast - instantly, in fact - but there are no guarantees.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'm new here, and I'm working on my first stories, as a kind of stress reliever from what's going on in the world. I posted some minor thoughts previously that I got some responses that were...interesting. Those responses prompted me to write this post while I had a small bit of time.
I want to first make something perfectly clear, for any denialists of the issues we are facing as an entire species: please just move on from my posts & writings. I have neither the patience nor the desire to engage you on any level. My words are hopefully a positive and comforting balm for those who need to feel hopeful about our world and our society, who need an outlet, as I did when I found this space, a sense of connectedness and warmth in wanting the best for humanity and not the worst. Many of us have seen and experienced too much of this tragedy we are all caught up in currently to waste our precious energy to bother with nonsense, and if you and yours have personally remained untouched, thank your stars and stay safe, for I wish the plague and it's future ramifications on no one, and on that note, I want to ask: who else has developed a gas mask/latex affinity? I know I'm not the only one who has entered the zone of pandemic kink, and I would love to see what you think about it. Here is an inspiration point that I really love. Will link the source post in a bit, filter mine. When writing during a dystopic phase, can the writing be a point of hope and maybe mark this epoch as a dark age averted rather than a full blown societal breakdown? How do we, as authors, poets, philosophers, and artists, express our experiences of desire and capture that essence of eroticism while venting the pressure we are under, as most great literature and art has ever done?
Peace and Love <3
SIT

Since you asked, no I haven't developed a gas mask/latex affinity, although I guess I understand where it came from. Actually, I haven't yet mentioned Covid yet in any of my stories because so many of them are set in the past - the recent past, depending on how one views 1965 to about 1995.

There can be all sorts of motivations for writing and reading. Relieving stress - well, one function can be to explain it rather than simply getting rid of it.

As I mentioned below - you can compare the American lockdowns, which barely qualified as such, with the ones now going on in China, which are quite extreme. The main problem is that the Chinese vaccination is far less effective than ours, and they can't afford to buy enough of the better ones, even if that was available in sufficient amounts.

The Black Death - I think one of those epidemics killed a third of the population of Europe. The weird thing is that there was an economic expansion right after it ended. There was suddenly a shortage of labor - a great solution for unemployment - and I assume there was a lot of free stuff lying around for the taking.

P.S.: You were going to link to something, and I haven't seen it yet.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Oh, since you mentioned more in another post - I haven't heard of anyone wearing, or even recommending, gas masks for Covid. Maybe in China, they seem to be doing it. The whole wearing of any masks in New York has become extremely uneven. It used to be that maybe 90% of the people in the street wore them, but it's gone down far below that. People will wear them around their necks until they have to get on public transit. Hospitals - yes, it's pretty strict in there. Stores - forget it, it's completely random. I'm not sure that those paper masks are really that effective anyway, although if someone has one, it's usually a paper one.

 

[AlexBailey]

Wearing a mask for covid made it more comfortable for me to dress as femme in public. I don't pass when I show my face but with a mask I look far more femme than many women do - so there's that.

I don't have a gas mask fetish but I can see how the pandemic could encourage it. I'm actually surprised that I didn't see anyone in SCBA equipment (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) or spacesuit styles while out and about.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Wearing a mask for covid made it more comfortable for me to dress as femme in public. I don't pass when I show my face but with a mask I look far more femme than many women do - so there's that.

I don't have a gas mask fetish but I can see how the pandemic could encourage it. I'm actually surprised that I didn't see anyone in SCBA equipment (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) or spacesuit styles while out and about.

I got used to having a mask hiding my facial expressions when in public, but that is sort of ending now. SCBS equipment is probably more expensive than the average person could afford. Even doctors, dentists, and nurses that I've seen didn't use them much. They might have anything from a facial guard (is that what it's called?) to merely a cloth or paper mask little everyone else. Hospitals are one of the few places now where any kind of a mask is truly mandatory.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm new here, and I'm working on my first stories, as a kind of stress reliever from what's going on in the world. I posted some minor thoughts previously that I got some responses that were...interesting. Those responses prompted me to write this post while I had a small bit of time.
I want to first make something perfectly clear, for any denialists of the issues we are facing as an entire species: please just move on from my posts & writings. I have neither the patience nor the desire to engage you on any level. My words are hopefully a positive and comforting balm for those who need to feel hopeful about our world and our society, who need an outlet, as I did when I found this space, a sense of connectedness and warmth in wanting the best for humanity and not the worst. Many of us have seen and experienced too much of this tragedy we are all caught up in currently to waste our precious energy to bother with nonsense, and if you and yours have personally remained untouched, thank your stars and stay safe, for I wish the plague and it's future ramifications on no one, and on that note, I want to ask: who else has developed a gas mask/latex affinity? I know I'm not the only one who has entered the zone of pandemic kink, and I would love to see what you think about it. Here is an inspiration point that I really love. Will link the source post in a bit, filter mine. When writing during a dystopic phase, can the writing be a point of hope and maybe mark this epoch as a dark age averted rather than a full blown societal breakdown? How do we, as authors, poets, philosophers, and artists, express our experiences of desire and capture that essence of eroticism while venting the pressure we are under, as most great literature and art has ever done?
Peace and Love <3
SIT

I'm not a "denialist" in any way because I fully acknowledge the many bad things that are going on in the world and I'm always ready to look at science and logic. But I have a problem with dystopianism, because it has a terrible track record.

We are not living, right now, in a particularly bad period of human history. We're living in the best period that has ever been. There has never been a time in the past where things were better by any objective measure: wealth, life span, access to health care, opportunities for entertainment, freedom of speech, democratic participation, access to food, freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, you name it. There is no such thing as the good old days. Those days never existed.

Dystopianism is interesting, but it's always rung false to me. Blade Runner, which came out in 1982, was supposed to be set in 2019. Well, it's 2022, and LA doesn't look like that. It's actually cleaner and more livable than it was 50 years ago, in 1972. Things are better, not worse. Which is not to say we don't face enormous challenges, like climate change, racism, aggressive dictatorships, insane violence (thinking about what happened in Texas yesterday), nativism, ignorance, etc. But we've always lived with these things. They're constants.

For me, it's less about trying to express eroticism under the pressure of the peculiar problems of the day than about expressing it against the background of the everlasting human condition, which I see as dark and twisted but also hopeful and offering the opportunity to make things better.

 

[XerXesXu]

There is no such thing as the good old days. Those days never existed.

Don't tell me about the 60s, you weren't there. You have to have been there to understand.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Don't tell me about the 60s, you weren't there. You have to have been there to understand.

I was there and yes, those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.