Chuck Palahniuk’s Snuff – A Review

“At the heart of pornography is sexuality haunted by its own disappearance.” “Sex is everywhere else to be found, but that’s not what people want. What people deeply desire is a spectacle of banality. This spectacle of banality is today’s true pornography and obscenity. It is the obscene spectacle of nullity (nullite), insignificance, and platitude.” Continue Reading

The Critical Dismissal of Erotic Fiction: Fifty Shades of Ambivalence

Yesterday, the Guardian posted this: Ebooks roundup: Fifty shades of new erotica and roll the dice for a price Populist titles tick the genre boxes, publishers get creative with eshort tasters and price-setting takes a new twist It’s not unreasonable to expect, considering the title, that the article’s author would take some time to actually Continue Reading

Porning the Classics – Continued Reflection #sexinguptheclassics

We had some great comments and posts that emerged from the last discussion on ‘Clandestine Classics‘ decision to insert sexually explicit passages into classics such as Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre, A Study in Scarlett and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We got a lot of reactions – most of them negative. What Continue Reading

Porning The Classics: Examining the Phenomenon of the Sexed-up Canon

First, the fine citizens of Hertforshire were woken from the dead and plagued by Zombies in  Seth Grahame-Smith‘s parody novel, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” Then came sea monsters. Now ‘Clandestine Classics‘, a sub-imprint of Total e-Bound have launched a series of classic novels to which explicit sex scenes have been added. You can read Continue Reading

Erotic Romance Readers: Would you help me with my research?

I am exploring how Erotic Romance readers experience the books they read. Specifically, in the case of this study, I’m interested in finding out whether you feel ‘suspense’ while reading erotic romance novels, even though you know that one of the inviolable genre conventions is that the story will end with an HEA (happily ever Continue Reading

The Paradox of Suspense Continued

If you are interested in reading more about the Paradox of Suspense, there is a fabulous multi-part online article by A.R. Duckworth at The Motley View: The Paradox of Suspense I – Introduction The Paradox of Suspense II – The Problem The Paradox of Suspense III – The Problem Cont. The Paradox of Suspense IV Continue Reading

Why Good Writers Write Bad Sex: An Exploration of Literary Prudery

Last year, Arifa Akbar wrote an interesting article in The Independent: Bad sex please, we’re British: Can fictive sex ever have artistic merit? I’ll be honest, I’ve been ruminating over this piece for about a year. First, let me give you some quotes from prize-winning writers and critics as to why they purposefully write unarousing Continue Reading

Examples of Bad Sex Writing at Literary Review

The Literary Review has a page with a number of excerpts from recent nominees and winners of the bad sex awards. Writers include: Philip Roth, John Banville, Amos Oz, Paul Theroux, Nick Cave, Anthony Quinn, et all. Bad Sex Passages at Literary Review.

Rick Gekowski Ponders the Difficulty of Writing Sex Well

In his post for the Guardian, Gekowski takes a look at the 2011 winner of the Bad Sex Award, and ponders on why it seems to be such a difficult subject to write about well. One can cite examples of convincing writing about other kinds of heightened and intensely personal experiences: of love and the Continue Reading

Lee Rourke Says Good Literature Can’t Have Good Sex

Lee Rourke, of the Guardian, opines that literary fiction always presents sex in unbelievable ways. He spends a lot of time ridiculing examples of failed attempts, but he doesn’t seem to feel the need to give his theory on why that is. When authors try to turn sex into something literary – something it can Continue Reading