What Do You Know About Them?

[dr_mabeuse]

The other thread, "Who Knows ABout You?", asked about who knows that you write porn (okay, erotica). Apparently, not a lot of people. This means that someone close to you might be a cryptopornographer right now, and you might not know.

If a lover, say, came out of the closet to you and told you they wrote porn, would you automatically want to read it? Would you want to read it if they were just a friend? A relative? Would what you read change your idea of them?


---dr.M.

 

[Just-Legal]

Hmm, good question.

If my fiance told me he had... gods, I'd ask if he'd had it edited. I love him to death but his writing work needs several proofreads.

A parent or close family member... eww... no...

A friend, probably. But then again, I have several female friends I'd like to sleep with LOL

 

[deliciously_naughty]

If it were a lover I'd totally want to read it.

Friends; yeah probably

A family member, no probably not...


I don't know that it would change my feelings about them...but it might give me more insight into them, as I think my writing gives people an insight into me.

 

[The_old_man]

When I reach that point of the story where I am no longer competent to find: Homonyms, punctuation,other grammar errors, I give it to my wife to edit.

I then take two or three Viagra.

 

[MlledeLaPlumeBleu]

I clearly have no shame. Everyone knows. Well, not my dad- but he's presumably up to his own shennanigans, considering his penchant for submissive english-challenged asian chicks half his age. We have a deal- I don't tell you mine, and please don't tell me yours...

 

[TheEarl]

Read it? Hel I'd want to edit it . Anybody apart from my parents really. One of the things I'd really like is to discover that someone I know and like on Lit is actually someone I know IRL.

However no-one here lives anywhere near me .

The Earl

 

[Guest]

However no-one here lives anywhere near me

Earl, you nice trusting lad, you. You believe profiles, eh? You really do think MG and I live in California? (We've done well then disguising our written accents.)

Did you enjoy those tomahtoes the other night? I picked some up right after you left.

Pear

 

[Chicklet]

I definitely wouldn't want to read a family members erotica, but friends and lovers YES! My opinion of them could only improve, although I think I would tease mercilessly.

 

[gauchecritic]

I would be very very surprised if anyone I knew socially wrote erotica. I would definitely read it given the opportunity. But never, ever, would I admit it or offer an opinion.

Gauche

 

[bridgeburner]

Depends on how close the friendship is.

I don't like to read the writings of people I love no matter the content because I hate to be in the position of either not liking the work or finding it badly written.

How snotty is that?

 

[Rainbow Skin]

One of my friends: posted here, I helped edit them, and we were enjoying a bit of cyber... ah, contact... on which some of them were based.

Another friend: admitted having written one but after seeing what I sent her she claimed to have destroyed hers and refused to let me see it. :curious:

If someone said they'd written something it would depend very much on hard-to-define things: just closeness of friendship or acquaintanceship isn't it. Partly, how in advance do I think they'd write? Generally, my friends are intellectually literate, so I think I'd be willing to risk it for most of them. But it'd still make me feel funny in some cases.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

If it were a lover I'd totally want to read it.

Friends; yeah probably

A family member, no probably not...


I don't know that it would change my feelings about them...but it might give me more insight into them, as I think my writing gives people an insight into me.

That's interesting. What kind of insights? About their/your sexuality and sexual fantasies, or about them/you as a person?

I'd definitely want to read a lover's stories to see what she hasn't told me or what she fantasizes about. I'm still trying to figure out if I'd want to read a friend's stories, and like other people I think I'm more afraid of finding out that they're a horrible writer than that they have really outre sexual desires.

Isn't that weird that we're all more concerned with how we're seen as writers than we are for the supposedly forbidden stuff we write about?

---dr.M.

 

[bridgeburner]

"Isn't that weird that we're all more concerned with how we're seen as writers than we are for the supposedly forbidden stuff we write about?"

Maybe not. I mean, I know my sexual tastes are outside the norm somewhat. I like what I like and I can't change that so I've accepted it. Consequently I accept that about others as well. I might not find someone else's kink personally accessible, but I'm not inclined to pass judgement on other people's fantasies.

Writing, however, is a skill which one performs either well or badly. There is a certain amount of objectively quantifiable technique in writing. The root of your fantasy is what it is, but how you describe it is a performance and we all have anxiety about that from time to time.

We also have anxiety about the performance of those we care for and respect. We don't want them to be humiliated. You don't want to watch your best friend enter a talent show and get booed off the stage --- especially if he deserves it.

I'm sitting here right now with a file attachment that's 8 days old that I'm in sheer terror of reading. My sister in law is a writer but I've never had the opportunity to read any of her work. I'm terrified now that she's sent me something to look at. I absolutely adore her and I'm scared to death I won't like her writing.

 

[Guest]

I have no concerns here. I'd be deligted to find erotica writers among friends or family, even by my sons (who both write well). As for my own writing I have no qualms about being judged, not when the best writers I know in person think I'm exceptionally good. Two former English Professors (Sh're and 18th c.) admire my writing, including my erotica and even give me plot bunny ideas. They are 76 and 48 years, and have published a couple dozen books between them so I take their praise *and* criticism seriously. One of my brothers is a published writer and we are each other's best reader. He doesn't write erotica per se but there is much erotic in his work.

Hey, I feel quite fortunate,

Perdita