Why do we seek the darkness

[DeLaFaye]

Could it be that women compete with each other the same way that men compete with each other?

I don't know, but I'm fairly certain that men and women compete with one another in fairly different ways.

 

[DeLaFaye]

Tall poppy syndrome, maybe? I don't know; I don't have the energy to deal with other people so I tend to just ignore them and go do something else

I'm not sure about the poppies, but I know I don't have the energy, or interest, either.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Getting back to my thread as clearly YOU women are derailing it and ruining everything (this is why women weren’t allowed to stonings and had to wear fake beards…for shaaaaame!)

There are some great points about dark themes and catharsis and resolution and usually I include those within stories but sometimes there is no resolution, the bad guys win, move along, nothing to see here.

We get that in the real world on a daily basis and often use writing (and reading) to feel something better. I find it interesting how we do slip back to writing darker subject matter that in the real world would piss us off.

 

[onehitwanda]

Getting back to my thread as clearly YOU women are derailing it and ruining everything (this is why women weren’t allowed to stonings and had to wear fake beards…for shaaaaame!)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/1c/00/7f1c0094ff6769f4bd5975f4ec964474.png

I find it interesting how we do slip back to writing darker subject matter that in the real world would piss us off.

I write darker stuff because it's safe to write it here. It can't hurt me. Words are just words; it's people who make them evil or good.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/1c/00/7f1c0094ff6769f4bd5975f4ec964474.png


I write darker stuff because it's safe to write it here. It can't hurt me. Words are just words; it's people who make them evil or good.

Mmmm, Miranda Richardson as Queenie…sorry, what was the question?

 

[djrip]

Getting back to my thread as clearly YOU women are derailing it and ruining everything (this is why women weren’t allowed to stonings and had to wear fake beards…for shaaaaame!)

There are some great points about dark themes and catharsis and resolution and usually I include those within stories but sometimes there is no resolution, the bad guys win, move along, nothing to see here.

We get that in the real world on a daily basis and often use writing (and reading) to feel something better. I find it interesting how we do slip back to writing darker subject matter that in the real world would piss us off.

Irl sometimes ( okay most times) the baddies just win, full stop, that's it, go home. But I think in fiction, even if the baddies win, there is usually some point to it. Hamlet dies but the audience learns something about the folly of revenge. Mullahs beat some kids, but we see the heroism of standing for something in the face of brutality.

 

[onehitwanda]

Mmmm, Miranda Richardson as Queenie…sorry, what was the question?

there are no questions, merely answers, and the answers are "yes, please, continue doing that to me, your majesty"

God I loved her.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

there are no questions, merely answers, and the answers are "yes, please, continue doing that to me, your majesty"

God I loved her.

Even though she was bonkers she was also vulnerable and beautiful in that role.

 

[onehitwanda]

Even though she was bonkers she was also vulnerable and beautiful in that role.

https://media.tenor.com/DhicgNjBaiMAAAAC/blackadder-executed.gif

I totally blame her for my thing for redheads.

Oh. Oh shit. We just derailed the thread again. YOU DERAILED YOUR OWN THREAD!

 

[Emilymcplugger]

https://media.tenor.com/DhicgNjBaiMAAAAC/blackadder-executed.gif

I totally blame her for my thing for redheads.

Oh. Oh shit. We just derailed the thread again. YOU DERAILED YOUR OWN THREAD!

NOOOOOOOO! Off with my own head.

 

[onehitwanda]

NOOOOOOOO! Off with my own head.

What will the expression on your face be?

 

[lovecraft68]

I believe in 'mood writing' or like actors "Method writing" become the character, but at times for me, its more like they become me. Everything has an air of melancholy and many of my characters for my serious works aren't very cheery in their thoughts, feelings, and observations. Lit can wipe this for being too long if they want, but I'm feeling rebellious.

You should be sleeping, she chastised herself. You’ve had enough…enough of everything. Get
some rest. Instead, her eyes opened and she stared at the nearby wall. It was dimly lit by a single Yankee
candle burning on the nightstand.

The candle had been a gift from one of Chelsea’s regulars at the strip club, and she’d proudly
showed it off like it was a rare treasure. The fact a ten-dollar candle given to her by a married
man she sucked off a few times a week could thrill her made Nicole sad.

Things like that had always made her sad, so she’d learned to quickly slam a mental door on
those feelings. There was nothing she could do about the world’s unending sadness.
What she could do, when given the opportunity, was remove some of the causes of pain and
sadness by putting down human animals.

Years ago, her uncle—the one truly good man in her life—had told her the strong must
always protect the weak. She supposed she still did, though not in the way he’d meant. He was a
third-generation cop in Boston. Several members of her family had been cops, and she’d wanted
more than anything to follow that tradition. She’d wanted to make a difference—to protect and
serve.

That dream had ended in a red haze of rage, and the blood and screams of a man killed by the
force of nature he’d unwittingly created.

Shortly after, Nicole had died—both legally to the world, and literally within herself.
Yet at the same time, her new life offered her other chances to protect and serve—not just her
neighbors, but her entire country. That version of ‘protect and serve’ was a much better one.
Predators weren’t put in jail where they’d cost taxpayers a fortune, then released again to commit
more crime. They were ended once and for all.

Murder in the name of God and country, her commanders believed. She’d learned early that
God was either a fairytale or the most negligent parent in the world who didn’t give a rat’s ass
what happened to his children. She did believe in her country, though, and would both kill and, if
need be, die for it.

Until it betrayed her as everything else in her life had.

“You’re drunk,” she whispered into the humid room that smelled of sweat, sex, Chelsea’s
chain-smoking, and the flickering scented candle.

The mixture smelled of desperation and hopelessness, of seeking comfort in another’s body
amidst a sea of vice and the failure of what could have been a beautiful life. It was, she thought
bleakly, the American dream turned shitty reality. The dingy two-room apartment’s cracked
ceiling, peeling wallpaper, and mix-n-match furniture that looked like trash dumpster rejects
reinforced that image.

Nicole herself was a stark contrast to the squalor around her. She’d been blessed with the
face of an angel with the body of a porn star. Her long blonde hair and blue eyes were
accentuated by high cheekbones and a model’s full lips. She was slender with long legs, full
breasts, and an ass firm enough to bounce a quarter off, as one ex-lover had commented.
Those attributes had served her well by allowing her to play a variety of roles.

Her only possible defect was her ice-blue, nearly transparent, eyes. Anyone looking closely would see
they were as cold as the ice they resembled. Her smile never touched them—but that could be
because her smiles were rarely real. Added to that, thanks to a horrific childhood ‘game’ of her
father’s, she rarely blinked.

Even the most captivated lover couldn’t stare into her eyes long without glancing uneasily
away, feeling like she wasn’t quite what she seemed. The military therapist she’d been forced to
see had called it a thousand-yard stare; a condition common in combat veterans or anyone who’d
seen more than their share of horror.

Perhaps he’d been right. From early childhood, she’d witnessed horrors only humans could
commit. She still remembered watching her father beat her brother and knowing he was going to
do even worse to her next.

A roach skittered up the wall. What’s a nice girl like me doing in a place like this? She plucked a penny from the change dish on Chelsea’s nightstand, balanced it on
her thumb, then flicked it at the wall. The edge cut the roach in half before bouncing off the wall. She snatched it in mid-air and dropped it back into the dish.
Another confirmed kill for the USA’s most-wanted femme fatale.

Yep, she was drunk.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Getting back to my thread as clearly YOU women are derailing it and ruining everything (this is why women weren’t allowed to stonings and had to wear fake beards…for shaaaaame!)

There are some great points about dark themes and catharsis and resolution and usually I include those within stories but sometimes there is no resolution, the bad guys win, move along, nothing to see here.

We get that in the real world on a daily basis and often use writing (and reading) to feel something better. I find it interesting how we do slip back to writing darker subject matter that in the real world would piss us off.

I can resonate with this, though it’s been a long time that I wrote a true to the core villain having their HEA. But I’m not against it.

Sometimes I just want to dwell in the darkness, I don’t always use darker prose in a cathartic manner. It’s just entertaining to me. I once wrote a very intense vampiric serial killer that I could not write for if I was in any sort of positive mood.

I can’t say all of my darker sort of work contains erotic elements, but I’m not afraid to touch base on homicide, suicide, addiction—whatever tickles my fancy. Not all stories are happy ones. Some of the most prolific pieces of literature through the ages are not happy stories.

I can write normal, feel good stories. I can write fluffy romance and smutty nonsense… but for whatever reason I’m always drawn to bizarre, morose, downright horror elements. I’ve literally had to fight myself to stop from going off on a random dark tangent. I wonder if Poe ever had these issues?

 

[nice90sguy]

I guess by "dark" people mean "sadomasochistic" or "violent" .

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I guess by "dark" people mean "sadomasochistic" or "violent" .

Not necessarily. In THE PROCESS it looks at the dark side of ambition, pushy parents, wants over ethics and such. Very little deliberate, direct violence will occur.

 

[Seadog777]

I'm not going to go back and read this whole fucking thing

This might have already been said.....I think people "seek the darkness" because it's fun to explore that side of ourselves. To write and imagine doing all the dark things that run through our minds and imagination.

 

[ElectricBlue]

People here constantly talk about wanting to entertain and please their readers. I don't. Occasionally, I may throw them a small token to appease them, but my goal is to provoke thought and evoke emotions. I aim to etch the story deep into their memory, ensuring it lingers within them for a significant duration, rather than just giving them a fleeting, trivial smile that fades away in an instant.

You can do that without having to cut your wrists, though.

Some people have enough shit in their lives already, and are using erotica to escape.

Not everyone wants sturm und drang and Tilan's grand opus. They just want an hour of their time with their fingers, a quiet O, then get back to it, whatever shitty little life they might have. You shouldn't disparage those that cater to folk who want that.

 

[LexxRuthless]

You can do that without having to cut your wrists, though.

Some people have enough shit in their lives already, and are using erotica to escape.

Not everyone wants sturm und drang and Tilan's grand opus. They just want an hour of their time with their fingers, a quiet O, then get back to it, whatever shitty little life they might have. You shouldn't disparage those that cater to folk who want that.

Let's clarify something: I focus only on actual stories that revolve around plot, conflict, and resolution, while you are referring to lengthy sex scenes.

When you mention people wanting "an hour with their fingers," you are implying those who seek a detailed and graphic portrayal of sex devoid of any dramatic elements. While I don't have any objections to that preference, it deviates from the essence of storytelling.

I always make it explicit in the tags or author's note that my stories contain minimal sexual content, and even if present, it will never overshadow the central narrative. Those looking for different content are more than welcome to move on.

I didn't feel like he implied that at all. A "good stroker" still has to have some dramatic elements to be successful here, and not everyone has the skills necessary to write a story like that. However, I think his point was that people who have plenty of real-life darkness to deal with don't necessarily seek it here.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm not going to go back and read this whole fucking thing

This might have already been said.....I think people "seek the darkness" because it's fun to explore that side of ourselves. To write and imagine doing all the dark things that run through our minds and imagination.

This, generally, is my attitude. It's not wallowing in despair and negativism. It's having fun with the naughty and the transgressive.

 

[LexxRuthless]

But the title of the thread is "Why Do We Seek the Darkness?" and not “Why Do We Seek an Hour with Our Fingers?”

Fair point, and we definitely strayed from the OP.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

it’s funny how “why do we seek the darkness” led to so many different views on what darkness is and a picture of Queenie from Blackadder.

Dammit! I derailed it again!

 

[LexxRuthless]

Most of my stories here aren't what I would consider "dark," but I realize after contemplating the original post that there are some dark themes that recur in much of my writing: Death, illness, addiction, depression, serious injury, and divorce. From some of the comments, it's clear that some readers assume I'm in therapy. Perhaps I should be, but I'm not. I don't think I'm particularly drawn to those dark themes, so much as they are plot devices. In one particularly off-the-rails chapter, one of my characters broke the "fourth wall" and suggested I need to have my ass kicked for putting them through all that.

 

[oneagainst]

it’s funny how “why do we seek the darkness” led to so many different views on what darkness is and a picture of Queenie from Blackadder.

Dammit! I derailed it again!

Sorry, did I miss something?

I was having a scrummy dream about ponies.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Let's clarify something: I focus only on actual stories that revolve around plot, conflict, and resolution, while you are referring to lengthy sex scenes.

No, I'm not. I'm talking about stories with intimacy, human connection, emotion. Sure, my stories present mood over plot, but this notion that a story is only valid if it has "plot, conflict, and resolution" is bullshit. It's erotica, for goodness sake, not Nietzsche.

Your idea of the human condition is clearly different to mine, but that doesn't make yours right, mine wrong.

Yes, the title of the thread is Why Do We Seek The Darkness - but are you saying that those who see light are lesser beings? Because that's how you come across.

Angels exist, as well as daemons.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I didn't feel like he implied that at all. A "good stroker" still has to have some dramatic elements to be successful here, and not everyone has the skills necessary to write a story like that. However, I think his point was that people who have plenty of real-life darkness to deal with don't necessarily seek it here.

Thank you Lexx.

I've only written a few stories that I'd regard as strokers, but they turned out to be typical EB - slow burn mood pieces.