Common Misconceptions of Erotica and its Writers
Greetings
my merry wanderers of the net! Sorry about this post being late, but life’s
getting a wee bit hectic. A quick fun-sized update on my life:
Hamlet went beautifully. I had a ton of
fun being the manliest man in Denmark and Laertes ended up being one of my
favourite roles. I nearly lost my voice during the weekend though, because of
all the yelling I had to do as the hot-headed noble, but I pulled through. It
was a very entertaining production and I’m going to miss it.
 |
| Both photos by my amazing buddy Chase! chasegphoto.com |
 |
| Best. Picture. EVER! |
 |
| A slight contrast to me the week before the show! ;) |
Chicago stuff is happening! I set a
mini-trip in July with my parents and the boyfriend (I know he has no nickname
yet) and have started filling those two days with appointments with apartment
brokers. Doing so is making reality smack me in the face in a way. I’m moving
in with my boyfriend whom I’ve only been with for two months at this point
(that’ll be doubled by the time it actually happens, but still). The
commitmentphobe in me is screaming in terror. But it’s happening! And…holy
shit, I’m moving to a new state! A new city! I’m not going to say I never
thought I’d leave Ohio, but it’s still weird to think that I’ll be living in a
different time zone than my parents. I’m scared about a job, and how expensive
the city is, but I can’t wait to be in the middle of such an amazing place.
The
Pet Bed Project is going really
well! I’m doing the finishing touches on a TV bed, and I have a freshly-gutted
iMac just waiting for me to sew a pillow together once I find the right fabric.
I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having with this project. I’m not sure if the
beds are going to sell, but creating and decorating these things is
ridiculously entertaining. Though I’m not going to lie-dissembling all these
electronics makes me nervous, especially with the CRTs being so dangerous. The
boyfriend helped (read: totally sneak-gutted while I was on the phone unawares)
the first TV, but I’m determined to learn how to safely do it myself. After all,
it’s my personal project. I should be able to do every step myself, right?
Anyway, it’s a blast.
 |
| The TV pet bed so far! |
I got my fifth Tattoo on Wednesday! It was done by my amazing buddy Shep at On the Edge. He and I were both giggly and nerdy about it, naturally. To date, this is my largest, but not most elaborate, tattoo. I adore it, but due to the location, the healing process is a flaming bitch.
 |
| Yes...they are the Harley Quinn diamonds. My love for the Joker--officially blatant. |
He he, see? I actually made it fun-sized.
Now
to the meat of the post.
My imaginary/invisible blog
followers are by now well aware of my erotica project, working title Demetrius
and Chloe, the adventure of a young woman kidnapped and trained as a sex slave.
Now, this story is in its infancy, and I’ve been writing it in teensy baby
steps for over a year now (Jesus tap-dancing Christ, it’s been that long?!) Because my very first
dabbling in erotica isn’t even finished yet, let alone published and on
bookshelves, I don’t consider myself an erotica writer. I’m also not much of an
erotica reader, besides the research I did for this project. However, even
dabbling in the genre has made many of my friends and acquaintances uncomfortable,
and I’ve been hearing the same prejudices and misconceptions that erotica
writers have had to deal with since the genre was created.
Ladies and gentlemen, the aesthetic
paragraph break.
One that keeps coming up is “Erotica,
isn’t that just porn?” (which reminds me of another misconception that’s
plagued me for eight years-“belly dance, isn’t that just stripping?” Ugh.)
Erotica authors have always been treated like seedy sub-par writers akin to
writers of fanfiction. All they write is useless smut, they’re not to be taken
seriously. The truth of the matter is that erotica is…dude, writing a novel is
hard, no matter what the content. As opposed to pornography, which is simply
created to get people off with close ups of vaginas and bouncing boobs, erotica
is still a full-length story, complete with character development, thoughts,
and reactions, not to mention a plot. You still have to create a world, and
adhere to the rules within that world. You still have to have a story arc. It
isn’t simply a cum shot and an author’s note. Far more talent and effort is put
into it, and though the sex is prevalent, if not the main focus, there are
other things happening. To use Demetrius and Chloe as an example, if it were
porn, it would be nothing more than a few chapters of Demetrius and his staff
(of people, not just his…well, anyway…) doing sexual things to Chloe and the
other slaves. Obviously, there’s more to it than that. Chloe’s in a fuck ton of
danger, and she tries to escape repeatedly, gets to know the other slaves and
their stories, and is the focal point of the corruption of Demetrius’ integrity
as a slave trader. Demetrius also has his own storyline, a deeply internal psychological/spiritual
one, not to mention the betrayals of his business partners. You won’t see
anything like that in pornography, and if someone in porn ever looks like they’re
thinking…they’re just wondering how best to fake an orgasm.
Other myths about erotica focus very
harshly on the authors themselves. This kind of thing has to do with our
society’s horribly negative view on sex, which I’ve frequently bitched about in
this blog. Authors of erotica, especially
women, are seen as promiscuous, perverted nymphomaniacs who are merely putting
their own personal kinky fantasies on paper. I can just picture some of you
nodding in agreement. Author Laurell K. Hamilton, who isn’t technically erotica
but is known for lengthy and graphic sex scenes often involving many people,
has frequently been thought of as a pervert throwing her own fantasies or
sexual experiences into her Merry Gentry or Anita Blake books.
My response to this is….really? Seriously, why do people think this way? Do you also think Stephen King dreams
of being a child-eating clown/spider or butchering his family with an axe? Did
Ray Bradberry travel through space on the Starship Enterprise? Does Thomas Harris
want to eat people or gets off on sewing pieces of women together? Since when
do we believe that imagination is limited to our own experiences and desires? I
mean, come on. Come on! Erotica is no
different than any other genre in that you can make shit up that you have
no personal affinity for or connection with. ……….DUH! I can’t believe I even
have to point this out! Why is it so different with the topic of sex? Does that
subject just not exist in the imagination and we as human beings absolutely
cannot write about anything we haven’t experienced ourselves or would never
want to do? Sweet zombie Jesus, come on, people!
 |
| Totally Thomas Harris' secret fantasy. That's the only way he could've written about it, right?... |
Look, we all know that I’m pretty
open about my own sexuality and that I drift a wee bit into the kinkier aspects
of it. But Demetrius and Chloe has lesbian sex, slave training, clamps and
weights, breast sensitizing, anal sex, exhibitionism…and a shit ton of other
stuff that I’m not into at all. Just as J.K Rowling doesn’t need to wield a
wand against Voldemort to write about it, I don’t have to be a dungeon shouting
“Thank you, Sir.” to some guy whipping me to create a novel with that kind of
theme. That’s writing, people. If we were only able to write about what we
knew/secretly desired, there’d be no SciFi channel, no slasher films, no over-the-top action movies…no Die Hard.
And
I don’t want to live in a world without Die
Hard. Do you?
 |
| I didn't think so. |
Erotica
is just like any other literary genre. It’s imaginative, complex, and weaves a
rich tapestry in which you can lose yourself. The authors aren’t sexual
perverts or repressed housewives any more than writers of horror are zombies or
serial killers. If it isn’t a genre you prefer to crawl into (I’m not a big fan
of science fiction myself), then don’t. But don’t judge people who read or
write it.
Comments
Post a Comment