X is for X-Rated: Erotica and Erotic Romance
I did a whole blog post on this earlier, but it has more
import now that Streetwalker is about
to be released. My family will have a member who writes smut. In their eyes. I’m
okay with that. For many people, X-Rated stuff just isn’t what they enjoy reading (though they may
enjoy doing!).
To me, the range of sexual experiences that partners engage
in is varied and incredibly powerful. When I write about those experiences, I
write erotic
romance. Hey, I’m a farm girl. Sex is normal, natural, wonderful. Why not try
to describe its richness?
Some call what I write smut. Some call it porn (rather
harsh, I believe, for my work).
Smut is “obscene or lascivious” writing (dictionary definition).
Okay, maybe I write smut--of the lascivious sort (luscious sounding word,
that!), but I take exception to obscene. By whose definition? It often comes
down to those connotations and denotations of word meaning.
I write erotic
romance because for me the relationship and the character arcs are the most
important parts of the story. The sex is hot and frequent, but it is in service
(so to speak!) to the relationship/character arcs. My books have either an HEA
or HFN ending.
Others write erotica. I have no problem with erotica, though I don’t read as much of it. Because erotica is more about the sexual arc of a character or characters
than about the relationship between them, I don’t find it as interesting. There
is relationship stuff in the story, but it is subservient to the sex. I,
myself, would call the 50 Shades books
erotica. You may disagree. Okay.
The dictionary also distinguishes pornography for us. Porn
is material “intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.” That sounds
right.
Porn? I find it boring. How many sexual contortions can the
author get characters into while displaying a panoply of parts? Ho hum! Not
that I find sex boring. Nope. I just love that sexuality is part of the healthy
human psyche.
We farm girls make good sex partners! X-Rated??? Pretty much anything goes! Yee haw!
3 out of 4 of my books are classified as sensual, though not erotica, but they all have a strong story line and character development within. One reader who wrote a review claimed to love the story after the erotic beginning. I personally was surprised at the term used but pleased she read and reviewed at 4*. So, yes, as you say there is a difference. Nancy at Welcome to she said, he said
ReplyDeleteNancy, I enjoyed your blog on this hop thing (though I didn't comment much). I found so many to follow that I just kept reading and hardly ever stopped to comment. I am searching for reviewers for my two books coming out soon. Would you be willing to share the site that with me so I can contact her? (one is mild as milk--a culinary mystery sans sex). Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again, even after this is over.
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