The Heart of the Erotic

[dr_mabeuse]

I'd be interested to know how close you can come to putting your finger on the very heart of what you consider erotic, if there is such a thing.

In another thread we were talking about common themes we see in our work. I don't know if you could call my 'thing' a theme, but I always seem to have a scene where my characters get so excited that they transcend their normal personalities; they just go insane with desire. That to me is the very achetype of eroticism. I just love it when people are overwhelmed by passion.

For other people it might be when a woman (or man) loses their innocence. Or (apparently) when a brother gets to bed his sister. Or maybe it's the idea of seeing someone masturbate.

Anyone else aware of their erotic archetypes?


---dr.M.

 

[BigTexan]

This is probably some weird Freudian thing but mine is when a "prudish" or "Prim" woman sheds her constricting societal role and becomes a truly sexual person.

To me, reading those kinds of stories is very stimulating

BigTexan

 

[Guest]

heart of erotic

For erotic writing, it needs to be sensual for me. I need to taste, touch, see, hear and smell the contact. I need to feel my pulse speed up as I experience the story.

What the story is about is not as critical to me as how well the activities are fleshed out. Mind you, I do pre-screen a story based on genre and there are some things that just can't be arousing to me no matter how well fleshed out.

I must be fairly shallow, because I prefer the "zipless fuck" for short erotica. I am not distracted by the questions of whether it is "right" or "possible".

 

[PaulX35]

Nice thread...a few thoughts

Dr,

While you tickled a very nice subject, it made me wonder if the heart of what you're looking for is necessarily within the writer. To a certain extend it is of course, but what I also mean to say is that careful and good erotica writing always seeks to describe, make imagine or suggest that heart. I often find myself imagining when writing, trying to picture what feelings, details, scents or events I would find particularly erotic in a particular situation.

You return to the writer again then, when claiming that it is he/her who places characters into these situations, but for me there's still a subtle difference. One that comes forward e.g. when you are forced to picture/paint a scene from a female perspective.

 

[Angeline]

Interesting Thread

I am only beginning to write erotic prose--as opposed to poetry--but I think in either medium sensuality is key. Expressing with precise word choices what the characters experience with all their senses heightens the erotic impact overall.

I guess for me though the "heart" is that moment in an encounter where the participants drop the pretense or nicety and show their true desire. We overlay our daily lives with so many proprieties--to see them fall to raw honesty is very sexy to me.

 

[wildsweetone]

for me, each character has his or her own heart of erotica. if i wanted my own perspective in writing, i'd write an autobiography.

one of my characters has a heart of erotica in giving pleasure and forgetting is own needs in the process.

i have another character who's erotic heart lies in the lack of choice she has to her body's responses.

 

[ronde]

Like Angeline, my idea of the erotic is sensuality. I'd much rather read or write about a clothed couple who have that "air" about them, than about pulsing, naked bodies.

Sensuality can be discovered, developed, hidden and then exposed to the right person, or lost and found again. All these can make for an enjoyable read as well as a good wank. Endless graphic descriptions of the interactions of body parts quickly becomes repetitive and boring to me. There are only so many variations on this theme, and it's difficult to differentiate stories if this is the only content.

Sex should be the destination; eroticism is the journey.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Nudge

I appreciate the answers, but allow me to nudge this discussion back in the direction of my original question.

I'm was curious as to whether other people have "archetypal" erotic schemes; if you can put your finger on the part of an erotic story that you always think is the essence of the erotic. I know that sensuality and richness of language are important--vital, even--butthat is more of a stylistic issue.

Angeline mentioned that moment when two people connect, when the social shields come down, and I can see that. That is a very sexy and exciting moment (especially in real life where it can almost unbearably exciting, especially when it happens in a big social setting).

I don't know. Maybe I'm just extrapolating from the way I work. Maybe other people aren't as specific in their tastes.

---dr.M.

 

[DanielOrme]

Two different things seem to be being discussed here, but it turns out I agree with both of them.

As far as story goes, I agree that the most erotic thing for me is the shedding of inhibitions. That moment when the true hidden sexual desire is released is what I enjoy most.

As far as what makes the writing erotic, sensuality is what most appeals to me. The best writers are the ones who can get across the sensations their characters are feeling, and, even better, how those sensations are affecting them internally,

 

[wildsweetone]

the part of an erotic story that is the essence...

whew, toughie question that can be read different ways by different people.

i think the essence could be where i loose all conscious thought of the outside world. my surroundings cease to exist. i am purely a tool and reading or writing without any conscious effort.

this can happen to me either when i am reading a well written story, or when i am writing one.

does that better answer your question dr?

 

[KillerMuffin]

My archetype is one guy doing another guy. Twisted, but I'm all over that like white on rice in a cheap, polyester suit. Even stuff that's written desultorily at best.

While some women can write good gay porno, I like it better if I think it's from a man cause it's just like I'm getting to see into his fantasies of gay maleness, not other women's fantasies of gay maleness.

 

[quintessential]

dr_mabeuse,

What I find to be highly erotic is the seduction - the chase. For me, reading all of what happens before the act itself is consummated, if it ever gets to that part, is what I find romantic as well as erotic.

The arousal comes when I read about the sensuality of the person/people involved. When a character completely lets his or her hair down and they allow their inner feelings to become exposed through the writer's fingers, that to me is very sensual and erotic.

I enjoy the different sensations being displayed for us to read as well as their thoughts as they are eating supper - watching their partner's mouth, their lips, the way they swallow. It can be so highly charged just knowing what they are thinking through words. Something else I adore is a person being observed from across a room or across a table or bed and how he/she looks to the person observing. How they are viewed, their hair, the way they stand, how they are holding a glass. If it's written in the proper way, that can really stimulate my imagination and my insides as well.

Past memories of sexual moments that are remembered due to something that has been triggered by the person they are with. This all lends itself to a highly erotic moment for me.

Maybe it's because I want to feel like I know the complete emotions of the characters, I'm not sure. I guess you could call it written foreplay. It's capturing the kiss, the touch, the look, the sexual scents of the moment through what we see on the page.

When I write, that is how I approach it. That, to me, is what I enjoy describing when I write poetry, stories, or roleplay. For me, it's all in the description before they actually make love.