Sex Scenes...

[fajrdrako]

From Booking Through Thursday:

Do you have "issues" with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) "romantic" scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them? (grin)

Issues? No, no issues. I love romance. I love good sex scenes, and they are sadly rare. I'd like to find more.

I suppose I do have an issue with sex scenes that are written as if the author didn't want to deal with sex - metaphorical flights of fancy, contrived euphemisms, lack of inspiration. I think sex scenes need the same values of all other writing: good concepts, careful word choices, convincing characterization. Above that, they need a sense of sensuousness. Funny how many sex scenes just skip that.

Scenes in fanfic can be much better than sex scenes in published stories because they are not constrained by formula or censorship. I think the odds are greater, too, that the writer is writing about sex because they want to, not because the think they ought to for sales or genre expectations.

If I've closed a book because of the sex in it, it's because the sex was boring. Occasionally I have stopped reading a book because I found the language distasteful or the attitude to sex unpleasant, but in these cases I didn't like the writer's style with other subjects either. Invariably these writers are men. And the problem is not usually sex, but sexism.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it either, but my father was a social worker in central Scotland at the time, and said that some of the junkies he was trying to sort out actually regarded it as making them and their lifestyle look 'heroic', instead of just heroin-addled.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I guess when you're already heroin-addled, you tend to grasp at whatever cultural straws you can find.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I suppose so. I simply cannot, cannot understand why anyone would ever want to take illegal drugs, or deliberately get drunk.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've read enough books (from Thomas da Quincy onwards, and including the psychedelics of the 1960s) but never particularly saw an appeal. Especially since I react very, very strangely to drugs in general. And I've been into yoga for so long, it discourages ingesting odd substances. And I have a horror (a phobia?) regarding drunkenness.

That being said, I'm glad other people write about the experience, and mysticism too, because I find odd states of consciousness interesting.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

And I have a horror (a phobia?) regarding drunkenness.


It's only happened to me (mildly) once or twice: inadvertently, as in the time I went to a cheese-and-wine reception at an art gallery without eating first, and found a couple of glasses of wine made me slightly light-headed.

I find odd states of consciousness interesting

As they are, but one only needs to have an imagination to attain them. The greatest mind-altering drug in existence is the imagination: anything else is a cop-out and a sign of weakness.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree to both of these. My avoidance of drunkenness was at in part due to the fact that I have at least one grandfather who was a drunkard. Having a sugar-free and alcohol-free diet imposed on me before I became a teenager also helped.

I have seldom experienced odd states of consciousness, but I agree that a good imagination (and some meditation) is usually all that is required. Mind-bending chemicals are not really necessary.