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

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's all in the perspective! Since I like sex stories, I don't see them as immature - or at least, it all depends on the maturity of the author, as in any kind of story.

There is of course a lot of really immature stuff 'out there', and - not surprising! - a lot of it is written by the very young and the very immature. Maturity not necessarily being linked to chronological age.

The rest, as you say, is a matter of taste.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think the prevalent fixation with body-image and physical gratification is a sign of immaturity; contemporary popular culture is nauseatingly adolescent. Stories about relationships are interesting because of the personalities/psychologies/lives of the characters involved. The physical mechanics of (to be crude) "A fucks B" are really only of interest to the characters themselves: it's just a basic bodily function. How they get there, or what happens afterwards, and what else they do in their lives are far more interesting.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I would argue - without any hope or expectation that you would ever agree - that a person's approach to sexuality can be part of their characterization, and to depict them in terms of physical intimacy is just as revealing and exploratory regarding their character as any other situation. If that's what one wants to do.

I also think it's as valid to explore sex in stories as any other topic - nothing should be off limits - it's like humour or action or anything else; it is whatever the writer (or reader) makes of it.

Besides, I think it's fun to read about - and that's the part where I don't expect you to agree!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think for it to be "fun", the reader has to be a voyeur/-euse.
Otherwise, it's only interesting if something particularly unusual or bizarre is happening.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've thought for a couple of minutes, and I just can't come up with a reply to this...

(Chuckling.)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking, for example, if the sweet-and-innocent-seeming heroine turns out to be a violent sadist, for example – when it radically changes your perceptions of a character.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes.