Writing the Non-Visual Senses

[polynices]

One of the standard pieces of advice in creative writing courses is to include the non-visual senses - particularly smell and touch - in descriptions. This seems especially relevant to erotic writing, since so much of the experience of sex is tactile and - though, perhaps, to a lesser extent - olfactory. And, in the case of erotica, the sense of taste is surely relevant at times as well.

Although I haven't done a systematic survey, my impression is that most of the stories on Literotica largely ignore touch, smell and taste. I'd guess that's because visual porn is such a dominant influence on a lot of writers - and you can't smell, touch or taste the flesh in pictures. I'd include myself in this. I don't think I've exploited those senses nearly enough in the pieces I've posted here.

I wonder, though, if emphasizing the non-visual would lead to a different kind of writing to the Literotica norm - and, perhaps, to a style that wouldn't appeal to the majority of readers. More generally, I wonder if the erotica of the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is characterized by an emphasis on the visual to the exclusion of the other senses. That's pure conjecture, of course, but I wonder if photographic porn has skewed the way erotica/textual pornography is written?

It's crossed my mind that writing an erotic story from the point of view of a blind person might be an instructive, if difficult, exercise. I also wonder if any blind authors have posted stories on Literotica and, if any have, what kind of reception their work received.

Any thoughts?

- polynices

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Lotsa folks fuck in the dark.

Psychologically, depicting everything visually invites dissociation; smell and touch are the most powerful depictions.

 

[bronzeage]

It's all part of the craft. All senses must be considered.

Using sense words to show what a character is feeling puts the reader in the character's head. Instead of watching the action from above, the reader sees the story at eye level.

 

[driphoney]

I'm not sure your premise about the current popularity of visual porn skews the way today's porn/erotica writer writes it. Most art is taken in visually, and nudity has been part of art and culture, oh, pretty much forever. As a matter of fact, it would have been socially more acceptable than written erotica in certain time periods.

I think what you're describing is just typical beginner writing done in a porn format. Writing is a craft and describing a porn scene quickly brings out all the weaknesses of the writer which are those deeper, more nuanced emotional triggers you bring up. It sure is hard for me, anyway!

 

[JackLuis]

OK try writing about two blind people having sex. Touch, smell, sound are all they have. No long descriptions of anything, unless the description of the foreplay...

Yeah Blind people fucking might have some appeal.

 

[The_Fool]

Been there, done that, put it in the book.

 

[polynices]

I'm not sure your premise about the current popularity of visual porn skews the way today's porn/erotica writer writes it. Most art is taken in visually, and nudity has been part of art and culture, oh, pretty much forever ...

Yes, I do take that point. The nude really has been around forever. In fact, thinking about it, it's remarkable that pictures like the Rokeby Venus were publicly acceptable - hanging in museums and so on - during sexually 'buttoned up' periods like the pre-sixties twentieth century. That said, though, I think it's undeniable that the proliferation of video porn over the last thirty years or so was a new departure and has had a profound effect on our collective imaginations - even though it probably isn't completely clear yet what that effect is.

More generally, wouldn't you agree that, although visual art is almost as old as humanity, the moving image is relatively new? I've wondered for a long time what effect the advent of cinema had on the human imagination - on how we dream, for example. Did people dream differently before they'd seen movies? And I'm pretty sure that the development of the novel was heavily influenced by film. In fact, my guess is that the modern emphasis on showing over telling in novel and short story writing was a more-or-less direct result of the development of film from the early twenties onwards.

- polynices

 

[polynices]

OK try writing about two blind people having sex. Touch, smell, sound are all they have. No long descriptions of anything, unless the description of the foreplay...

I'm thinking about it, actually. I wouldn't find it especially arousing that the protagonists are blind, but it would be a challenge for a sighted writer to attempt the description from a blind person's point of view. As I said earlier, it would be interesting to see what kind - what style - of story came out of it.

And blindfolds are used from time to time in sex, I hear ...

- polynices

 

[polynices]

Lotsa folks fuck in the dark.

Psychologically, depicting everything visually invites dissociation; smell and touch are the most powerful depictions.

Yes, I see that. As an initial, slightly trivial response, I'm thinking of the feeling I sometimes get when I leave a cinema after watching a film and step out into daylight. The real world seems unreal for a while.

As I said just now, I think film has probably had a subtle but profound effect on the way we perceive and relate to the world, and dissociation may be a major part of it. A film is real and it's not real at the same time. Does that mean that, with eyes 'trained' by film, we relate to the actual world around us in the way we would to a movie?

I think one of the most important functions of all successful art - visual, literary and even musical - is to make the world immediate again - to bring us closer to things, feelings, people: to make them real. But maybe bad art - however you care to define 'bad' - has the opposite effect: to dissociate us from the world.

- polynices

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

POLYNICES

We've pretty much isolated and dissociated ourselves into oblivion by altering our environment, cleansing it of offensive sounds, smells, temps, sights, and feelings. And all of this sanitizing numbed our emotions.

 

[polynices]

POLYNICES

We've pretty much isolated and dissociated ourselves into oblivion by altering our environment, cleansing it of offensive sounds, smells, temps, sights, and feelings. And all of this sanitizing numbed our emotions.

Yes, I've thought that for a long time too. And unfortunately, despite all their advantages, I think computers have made a major contribution to our dissociation. In a sense, they've 'digitized' our responses and reasoning processes - metaphorically, at least.

I keep thinking of Huxley's story, 'The Machine Stops', though it's a long time since I read it. The modern age in general has isolated us inside our heads. As Eliot said in 'The Wasteland': " ... each in his prison, thinking of the key ..."

- polynices

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Yes, I've thought that for a long time too. And unfortunately, despite all their advantages, I think computers have made a major contribution to our dissociation. In a sense, they've 'digitized' our responses and reasoning processes - metaphorically, at least.

I keep thinking of Huxley's story, 'The Machine Stops', though it's a long time since I read it. The modern age in general has isolated us inside our heads. As Eliot said in 'The Wasteland': " ... each in his prison, searching for the key ..."

- polynices

Thats it exactly but the story doesnt end inside a prison cell, it ends inside a coffin.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

polynices

Visual porn is not a good example as it is not aiming to tell a story and often is pretty lean on even hearing with limited dialogue.

TV/film drama can't give you senses beyond sight and sound but the screenwriters pull those strings like a violin to get you empathizing with the characters and involved in the plot. Just try an episode of 'House'.

Perhaps a man would see it differently, but given the basic uniformity of copulation, I look for a writer to excite my passions by explaining how 'his fingers languidly sliding down my spine sent tremors through my body' and suchlike. The same applies to other senses.

In fiction you have to draw the characters into 3D reality. The same applies to erotica, where it only works if you get into the minds and senses of your characters. Sex/erotica is a mental thing and perfect for the novelist's nib.

 

[JackLuis]

How would it be different if only one of the "participants" were blind?

Or if female room mate of blind guy likes to run around naked in front of him. He catches her and finds thru his fingers she is naked? This would allow you to explore both sides?

Or his sight is returning and he can see that she is naked, imperfectly. Weeks go by and she gets more an more casual about being naked in front of him. As his sight improves?

Or he convinces her to wear a blindfold, to 'see' his world? He shows her that tactile sensation is more... satisfying.

 

[jimmyjoyce]

polynices

Visual porn is not a good example as it is not aiming to tell a story ...

In fiction you have to draw the characters into 3D reality. The same applies to erotica, where it only works if you get into the minds and senses of your characters. Sex/erotica is a mental thing and perfect for the novelist's nib.

I do accept that fiction requires much more than visual description. I haven't been making an argument for the superiority of video porn over writing. In fact, I think I've been arguing the reverse. My point is just that, maybe, modern writers of erotica/pornography - at least, those who post on Literotica - are influenced by their experience of video porn and put too much emphasis on the visual as a result, to the exclusion of the other senses. Earlier, pre-video writers of erotica may have exploited those other senses better - though, I have to admit, I can't present examples of that because I haven't actually read much pre-video erotica.

My more general point was that cinema - which does, of course, tell stories through moving pictures - has probably had a significant effect on the way we think and dream - and, probably on the way novelists write as well. Unfortunately, it would take a Ph.D grant and about three years' research to prove that.

- polynices

 

[jimmyjoyce]

How would it be different if only one of the "participants" were blind?

Or if female room mate of blind guy likes to run around naked in front of him. He catches her and finds thru his fingers she is naked? This would allow you to explore both sides?

Or his sight is returning and he can see that she is naked, imperfectly. Weeks go by and she gets more an more casual about being naked in front of him. As his sight improves?

Or he convinces her to wear a blindfold, to 'see' his world? He shows her that tactile sensation is more... satisfying.

Write it, Mr Luis. Write it. I'd be very interested to see the result.

- polynices

 

[jimmyjoyce]

Oh what a give-away! I've just blown my cover! But it's too late now. I admit it: polynices is also jimmyjoyce.

(Apologies for any momentary confusion this may have caused.)

- polynices/jimmyjoyce

 

[elfin_odalisque]

How would it be different if only one of the "participants" were blind?

Or if female room mate of blind guy likes to run around naked in front of him. He catches her and finds thru his fingers she is naked? This would allow you to explore both sides?

Or his sight is returning and he can see that she is naked, imperfectly. Weeks go by and she gets more an more casual about being naked in front of him. As his sight improves?

Or he convinces her to wear a blindfold, to 'see' his world? He shows her that tactile sensation is more... satisfying.

There was a really good entry in a Xmas Holiday contest here with the protag as a blind girl. It was very well done. I'll try and find it.

 

[sxyoldguy]

In an as yet unfinished piece I used the blindfold as a methodoloy of awakening. It's a tough write and I'm not completely sure that I did it justice. As a highly visual kinesthetic I think its easier, but its still tough to "visiualize" what the unsighted sees in their head.

I think a true blind person will "see" things vastly differemt than blindfolded sighted person. Their frame of reference is different. I also think that that the unsighted's "visions" will be much more influenced by touch, smell etc, than a blindfolded sighted.

 

[JackLuis]

In an as yet unfinished piece I used the blindfold as a methodoloy of awakening. It's a tough write and I'm not completely sure that I did it justice. As a highly visual kinesthetic I think its easier, but its still tough to "visiualize" what the unsighted sees in their head.

I think a true blind person will "see" things vastly different than blindfolded sighted person. Their frame of reference is different. I also think that that the unsighted's "visions" will be much more influenced by touch, smell etc, than a blindfolded sighted.

That may be what make a sighted and a blind coupling interesting.

A blind Vet is 'adopted' by a sorority and he stumbles thru the scents and tactile feel of the silks as they pass by him in the hall, despite the hall being over eight feet wide, they all seem to press close to him. "Oh shit, I forgot my pants!" he thought.

I've got Way Too much to write now, but you others could try it. Go ahead it is only phosphors of you imagination, you wouldn't be wasting paper.

 

[raphy]

As a primarily cyberpunk writer, I've often found myself concentrating on the non-visual senses. To me, cyberpunk isn't about high-tech and gagdetry. I've always felt that cyberpunk is more about a particular writing -style-, more about the assault on the senses (all of them) by the myriad of sensory input found in whatever setting the protagonist is in than specifically about technological gadgets and gizmos.

This translates into erotica, or at least I think it can, fairly well - Well, that's the theory. I've never really written anything that makes me say 'Yeah, that's it. I got it right' yet - But I'm still working on it. An example would be from Right Now:

Slick. Hot. Sweat. Skin on skin. Harder, faster, more forceful. The feel of her hair against his skin. Her lips against his lips. His body pressing hers down into the soft plush rug. The roughness of his thighs, scratching the smooth inside of hers. Her body, so soft, pliable, willing. Her ankles, locked behind his back, pulling him deeper. Her breath, hot and heavy, breathing the words in his ear.

and

She was pure sensation. The touch, the feel, the smell of him. The taste of his sweat, the sight of his face, his eyes boring into hers. The power. The intensity, like a living thing between them, around them, in them. And then he was nothing but his cock, nothing but the solid swollen head, deep inside the wetness of her pussy, tight and hot and hungry, his universe contracted to that one perfect point of pleasure.

I don't write first person very often - and so when I wrote What I Love, it was very much an experiment for me in both fvirst person, and writing from a woman's point of view.

I only mention it here because there are practically no visual elements in the piece at all. I've found that over the years, it's garned quite a lot of positive feedback from readers.

This isn't really me pimping my stories. Honest. They're old and outdated now anyway. I just felt that.. maybe they were relevant

 

[laurafairlie]

For me, writing the non-visual senses is the most interesting and erotic aspect of the work. My own attractions to people are seldom based on the visual, though I am as guilty as the next person of liking a well-turned ankle or a sexy face. It's the tactile, olfactory and non-verbal aspects of a person that truly compel me though. Hence, that is what I focus most on in writing.

 

[CharleyH]

One of the standard pieces of advice in creative writing courses is to include the non-visual senses - particularly smell and touch - in descriptions. This seems especially relevant to erotic writing, since so much of the experience of sex is tactile and - though, perhaps, to a lesser extent - olfactory. And, in the case of erotica, the sense of taste is surely relevant at times as well.

Although I haven't done a systematic survey, my impression is that most of the stories on Literotica largely ignore touch, smell and taste. I'd guess that's because visual porn is such a dominant influence on a lot of writers - and you can't smell, touch or taste the flesh in pictures. I'd include myself in this. I don't think I've exploited those senses nearly enough in the pieces I've posted here.

I wonder, though, if emphasizing the non-visual would lead to a different kind of writing to the Literotica norm - and, perhaps, to a style that wouldn't appeal to the majority of readers. More generally, I wonder if the erotica of the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is characterized by an emphasis on the visual to the exclusion of the other senses. That's pure conjecture, of course, but I wonder if photographic porn has skewed the way erotica/textual pornography is written?

It's crossed my mind that writing an erotic story from the point of view of a blind person might be an instructive, if difficult, exercise. I also wonder if any blind authors have posted stories on Literotica and, if any have, what kind of reception their work received.

Any thoughts?

- polynices

All of my sex stories (before I took them down) touched on the tactile senses and never, but once, did a story of mine go below a 4.75 on Lit. I adore the sight of a lover in a story every bit as much as the sound of their moans, the feel of their body, the scent of their sex and the taste of their kiss. These ARE the things that make sex so exciting.

 

[driphoney]

I think one of the most important functions of all successful art - visual, literary and even musical - is to make the world immediate again - to bring us closer to things, feelings, people: to make them real. But maybe bad art - however you care to define 'bad' - has the opposite effect: to dissociate us from the world.

- polynices

I, personally, would put 99.9% of porn in the "bad art" category; therefor, it's visual effect, with it's disregard for most of the senses, probably has had an effect given the apparently huge numbers of people frequently viewing it. However, if writing can evoke all the senses, then good film should also, yes? We take in literature through our eyes and recreate it in our minds. Film does all the creating, it's true ... does this mean the other senses are left out? Or can they be activated in the same way literature does? If a film completely pulls you into the created world, is it bad because it leaves you feeling dissociated when you leave the theater? Do you feel that same effect when you watch the same film in your living room? Does this never happen when being consumed by a good book? Can't it make you feel closer to people, things, feelings and yet momentarily separated from your life, feelings, people?

I'm kind of simpleminded (just ask JBJ), so good art just makes me feel more alive.

Great topic, thanks for bringing it up and "working" the thread. Why do you need an alt?

 

[polynices]

... if writing can evoke all the senses, then good film should also, yes?

Oh yes - absolutely. After all, all art is artifice. Film is patterns of light on a screen; literature is patterns of marks on a page. Both suggest real life; they aren't it in actuality.

The art, of course, lies in how successfully the artist - the film-maker or the author - manages to convey sense impressions (among other things) through the limited means available to him/her in the medium s/he uses.

That said, each medium has its peculiar strengths and weaknesses. I should think it's easier to evoke a smell in writing, for example, than it is through film. But, on the other hand, film obviously presents pictures more effectively than even a tour de force of visually descriptive writing.

Why do you need an alt?

I started out as jimmyjoyce, but then I wanted to post a different kind of story - something edgier and more transgressive. I thought at the time it would be best to invent a new persona, in case the story got a lot of abuse. In fact, it didn't - so in retrospect the alt wasn't necessary.

I'd say jimmyjoyce's stories are better on the whole, by the way. I use polynices for experiments mostly - so the quality is rather more patchy.

- polynices (aka jimmyjoyce)