Friday, July 17, 2015

To write erotica . . .or not to write, that is the question



This has been an up and down week for me. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about writing (I know, writers write, they don't think about writing) and, more pointedly, thinking about what I write. It was triggered by a series of marvelous, thoughtful, posts by erotic writers I admire - Remittance Girl delved into the history of erotica and what it has evolved into, Tamsin Flowers wondered if E.L. James has broken the genre irrevocably, and finally Malin James delved into her reasons for writing about sex. If you haven't read these articles, take some time to do so as all the authors are far more eloquent than I shall ever be. 

The bottom line, though, is I have been rethinking whether or not I should continue writing . . .well, publishing. Writing will always happen, if only to get the voices out of my head. The question, of course, is whether there is any point to writing erotica that is more than a series of strung together sex scenes. Erotica divorced from romance (although not necessarily love - romance is a very specific subset of tropes and requirements that I, for one, cannot fit my stories into). Erotica that frequently strays to the dark side - non-consent, dubious consent, conflicted choices, and the results of those acts. For me, it comes down to two questions - is the sexual content in my work relevant or sandwiched in merely to titillate without advancing the characters or the plot, and would I be better off writing more mainstream fiction with a chance of reaching a wider audience?

Only one person can decide whether or not sex is relevant in a piece of literature, and that is the author. You may like or dislike a piece, but only the author knows the story they are trying to tell. Whether it succeeds or fails is always a matter of debate. Art is, after all, subjective. I definitely don't believe anyone has the right to censor an author's choices, no matter how offensive they may find them. Yes, there are things I find offensive (seriously, there are . . . just not much), and I exercise my right to choose not to read those topics. Once you allow censorship it opens a dangerous door, who knows what will next be considered inappropriate? I certainly don't want my writing constrained by any limits other than my own.

Since relevance is in the eye of the author, all I can really consider is why I think sex is an essential aspect of my own writing. Now, before you start screaming about 'the children, the children' – nothing I'm going to say is intended for anyone under eighteen, although, frankly, I don't have any problem with children reading about sex. I live in a city full of pregnant teenagers and, believe me, they did not have sex because of something they read. That honor goes to the media that bombards them daily - television, music, advertising, video games, those are the most powerful influences on today's youth.

I should come clean – I write erotica, explicit gay erotica. Before I go any further, let me clarify. I'm talking about sex in all its permutations, from barely consensual sexual torture to tender lovemaking and the entire gamut in between. My only real boundaries are no children and no women. I write about men exclusively because of the wonderful shifts of power and control possible in a same sex relationship . . . and because I love men. No offense to the ladies, but I don't think I could explore the same boundaries of pleasure and pain without seeming overly abusive, and that is at the core of everything I write. Beyond that, there is something wonderfully vulnerable and revealing about a man's decision to relinquish power that doesn't exist for women as they are already powerless in so many situations.

Remember the old ads in the back of comic books for x-ray specs? For me, sex is my x-ray specs. It strips a character down to his core truth and spotlights who they are with far more accuracy than pages of exposition ever could. Sex is the ultimate act of trust. Who we trust, why, and to what extent reveals much of our psyche that we would normally keep hidden. Sex is the catalyst for revealing hidden baggage, all the events and experiences we think are safely buried but which bubble to the surface under pressure. Our kinks highlight our transgressive natures, throwing into clear definition the whys and hows of our alienation from society in general. In short, it's the knife I wield to cut to the truth. 

So, can I write anything meaningful without that knife? This is where I flounder, because my way of looking at and shaping characters, my tools for revealing internal conflict, for shaping change, have always been rooted in sex. Would I be able to touch such highs and lows, and would the rewards for such a trade off be worth it? For now, at least, the answer is no. Not that I cannot write non-erotic stories, but, rather, I don't want to. They don't sing to me, and the loss of satisfaction with the work isn't worth the trade off of more readers . . .not to me. I think a lot of writers are struggling with these questions right now. Some will go on to mainstream genre, some will find success. Some will pander to the current erotica trends and will also find their audience. Me . . .I will continue to flounder in no-man's land for the time being, and when floundering becomes too painful, I will stop altogether, because I can't conceive of doing it any other way.

9 comments:

  1. Dear Sessha, except for your dark boundaries, I share all your motivations. I wish I could be one-tenth as good a writer, but that is not the point. The fact is, without the sexual parameters, our works would suffer. I firmly believe that those writers (and readers) who disregard the sexual side of our complex psyches are turning a blind eye to human nature itself. It must be explored. It must be tampered with and pricked and goaded and gutted and put back together again, in my mind anyway! But then, like you, I admit to being a literary deev.

    Please, never stop writing ... if only for a tiny audience who welcome what you have to say, and how you say it.

    ~Erin O'Quinn (Bonita Franks)

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    1. there are a surprising number of us out there - lost in a sea of dross and romance :(

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  2. Fantastic article. I'll go looking for your work to add to my reading list because I share your love for the emotional and heat possibilities of the M/M pairing and I came across this blog through the Erotic Lit Appreciation Society on FB. There are a lot of cracks between the genre continents. I think a lot of us fall into the fault lines.

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    1. a lot of cracks, and the pavement isn't well defined. Is it erotic just by being explicit? even if there are only a few sex scenes? I often wait 50 pages or more to get the main pairing together, because a slow build is its own reward. Does including the bad sexual experiences (non-con, dub-con, just awkward pairings) knock it out of the genre? We need other terms, or sub-genre, so our work finds those who will savor it and not walk away disgusted!

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  3. Thank you for the mention - this is a wonderful angle to come at this issue from. How sex functions in a story is just as important as any other aspect of a narrative, because the distinction you made is spot on. Either the sex is there to further some aspect of the work (be it characters, plot, or something else) or it's there to titillate. For me, as a reader, sexual content doesn't turn me on unless it's relevant to the story, and your comparison of sex to X-ray specs is exactly the kind of relevance I find most exciting, both as a reader and as a writer. Which is all a very long-winded way of say YES! How sex functions in a work is critical to understanding what kind of work you do. It's sort of like the content version of understanding authorial intent. For my part, I think the kind of pieces you write are exciting for all the reasons that they don't fit into the mainstream market - I love intensity and exploration and catharsis and I love it written through a sexual lens. For what it's worth, I will very happily read your work for as long as you feel compelled to write.

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    1. Thank you - I wasn't sure if I was actually making a new point or not ;) Sometimes as I ramble/write blog posts I fear I lose the track of where I was going!

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  4. I don't care what anyone says, that 'knife' is important, culturally relevant, and offers readers a way in to very complex questions. Keep doing it.

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  5. This is a wonderful expression of what I think all writers of erotica go through. Especially ones who look into what they write and how they can touch that open wound that allows your words to be as effective as possible. Keep at it. That's all you can do. Push your own boundaries and see if the light of truth you want to express is in the words in the best way you know how. I don’t think there has been a day that goes by where I don't ask myself the same thing but the only thing you can do it write through it, go deeper, and allow what you sense as what your POV has to offer radiates in how and what you say with your words. That is the value in what you do.

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  6. i really enjoyed your perspective on this. all of this debate, should be for the author to decide what stories they need to tell...

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