Forum: Author Hangout

As I get older and older I do seem to be moving away from visual pornography and more and more towards reading long-form erotica.

I don't have any strongly-felt opinions about the ubiquitous digital pornified world we've lived in that so many people do have - in a fair number of ways, my porn-watching has broadened my horizons and given me insight into my sexuality. And there are certainly some examples of truly admirable sexual athleticism on display out there that are fascinating. Porn can be fun, it's always been a fun thing to explore for me, I feel pretty lucky that I don't feel too many hangups or guilt or regret about watching it that some people do.

But it's interesting to me that as I get a little older (and probably more tired and more invested in a life with meaning) I seem to be turning more and more to the written word, that there's something a little more personal and vivid about character-based reader-interpreted sex. And I've started to feel a little bit superior about it?

Like I don't think that long-form erotica, especially written towards heterosexual men like me, will ever be more than a niche compared to the vast oceans of free wham bam thank you ma'am video porn at our fingertips, which is a little saddening. And I do wish it would become a little more popular, maybe a little less stigmatized. It's very clear that it's still very much a hobbyist form of escapism/creativity/expression (not that there aren't people trying - and likely mostly failing - to make some money off of it), and while that is probably what keeps it pretty marginalized (which sucks) there's also a certain purity to so many erotica authors mostly doing it for the love.

Thank you, erotica authors. I hope you're getting at least some coffee $$ out of your efforts, or some nice validation from readers and appreciators.

It is my impression, based on admittedly limited exploration, that porn videos have plots that would be classified as "Stroke Story" here.

Videos in the "No Sex" or "Minimal Sex" classification are produced as mainstream movies.

I suspect that nobody sees a market that would support videos with sex-to-plot ratios in between those. If you are looking for such stories, text is your best option.

Of course, text also offers the reader the ability to imagine their own preferred features on the characters.

And I do wish it would become a little more popular, maybe a little less stigmatized.

As Bob Dylan said: "The Times they are A-Changing."

If you search for the most sexually graphic mainstream movies you'll get after the list: "are widely cited by critics and audiences as the most graphically explicit non-pornographic narrative feature films ever released."

So why are they "non-pornographic"? Because the critics say so.

DH Lawrence was labeled a pornographer during his lifetime. His work contained explicit descriptions of sexual intercourse, used heavy profane and "four-letter" words (like "fuck" and "cunt"), and openly portrayed female sexual pleasure outside of marriage. That was porn back then. But "The Times They are A-Changing." Today those same novels are celebrated and taught in universities.

Jump to the 1970s and we have Erica Jong's "Fear of Flying" which coined the term "zipless fuck." It shocked 1970s readers but ended up selling more than 20 million copies worldwide. And when my wife was going for her masters in English Literature, she had the same professor Erica Jong had. That was unfortunate because he wanted my wife to write like Jong which she couldn't/wouldn't.

Today, it's almost mandatory for mainstream authors to throw in a sex scene or two even though they're not needed. But it's not acceptable to write the erotica you're talking about. Not unless you're one of the lucky few. Or maybe one of the "skilled" few.