Gratuitous overuse of the frog analogy

[geoviki]

A recent book review in our newspaper read:

Wallace Stegner writes ... that the difficulty with explicit sex in novels is that it invariably usurps all else that the author is attempting to accomplish:

"The trouble with excessive sexuality, in novels or in life, is that it is so compellingly interesting and attention-holding that it makes everything else seem tame or dull; it crowds off the page whole areas of human experience and human feeling that belong there but can't maintain their foothold."

Such is the case in Sue Miller's newest novel, Lost in the Forest. Although Miller's exploration of grief and self-discovery is both compelling and insightful, the sexual trysts of 16-year-old Daisy are so unforgivingly explicit that Miller's attempts to uncover the depth of who Daisy is are muddled by a nipple here and an arched back there....

I thought this over and decided that somewhere, I had crossed over to where this wasn't true for me. I've noticed that after reading fan fiction for nearly two years, I no longer find excessive sexuality all that distracting. It's like the classic analogy of the frog in slowly heating water: little by little, I no longer notice the erosion of my ability to be shocked, tittilated, or even surprised by graphic writing. I have become comfortably numb.

How about you?

Aside: Does anyone have an mp3 of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven that I can, er, borrow? Got it. Thanks, Paula!

Comments

[mereol.livejournal.com]

If I'm reading a good fic, sex (whether graphic or not) becomes the cream filling in an oreo. Delicious and thoroughly enjoyable but not enough to distract me from enjoying the rest of the cookie.

"filling" is not "filler"

[gilded-kage.livejournal.com]

In a great fic, I agree sex is the filling, part of the whole. In some fics, on some days, I peel away the cookie entirely and discard it; I run my tongue over the chocolatey, fudgy inner part and slowly devour it until it's gone.

[hearts-n-roses.livejournal.com]

Here ya go:

Stairway to Heaven (http://s35.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=05292S7IIRBSU0L6OJVF7P0Y33)

Re: "filling" is not "filler"

[mereol.livejournal.com]

i would never ever ever throw out the remaining cookie. i need the two halves to remind me why i love to lick and suck and swallow the filling again and again.

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I've become comfortably numb, too--great way to put it! When I first discovered fandom I couldn't get enough of the sex, but now I'm kind of "eh" about it. A lot of times I'll actually skim/skip the sex so as to get on with the good stuff, and I'm much more inclined to fade-to-black in my own writing than I used to be. It's actually a bit sad, I think, as it's become very, very rare that I'm titillated by sex scenes anymore. :-/

Sad that you are so rarely moved by the sex

[gilded-kage.livejournal.com]

Then why read slash at all? That would be my question. Why not read books instead?

Not a criticism in any way, just a question. I often read slash for the great writing, myself.

[balfrog.livejournal.com]

I tripped over your post from the frog analogy (snickers at self), and wondered about the question.

Perhaps yes, fanfiction did get me over-exposed to sex, and published fiction really can't compete in the titilation area.

I'm reading Samuel Delany's Neveryon books right now, and for something that's bothered readers/critics for its explicit gay pr0nny sex, it doesn't seem at all "in the way" to me. Hey, gives me more time to think more about his nutsy critical theory writing style, instead. So maybe it helps.

Re: Sad that you are so rarely moved by the sex

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

I read slash (and het, too) because I adore romance and mainstream entertainment just doesn't have enough for me. (I suppose romance novels would, but I think I'd had my lifetime quota of that genre when I was 13 years old!)

Hello (hello, hello), is there anybody in there?

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

*sings* When I was a child, I had a fever...my hands felt like two balloons...

Okay, going to sleep, now.

[darkrhiannon.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree. Unfortunately, one of my formerly favorite authors has fallen off the deep end from this very thing. Laurell Hamilton, who first few books I adored, has turned into a porn queen Mary Sue hack, and I think the review you cite points to part of the reason why. I think sometimes the problem isn't so much that the reader is distracted by the sex, as it is that the *author* is...know what I mean?

-Rhi

Romance, yeah!

[gilded-kage.livejournal.com]

I like the romance, too, and the desire. When the sex is just body parts, it's no fun for me...it's got to be mixed in with issues of desire, personality, and, sometimes, power, for it to be interesting and compelling.

Romance novels have desire, but it's usually so cliched. Good slash fanfic is constantly trying to write desire in new, fresh ways. The whole subversiveness of same-sex pairings helps with that, of course.

Re: "filling" is not "filler"

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Foodsmut!

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

Actually, after reading fanfiction, the sex in traditional novels seems tepid, bland, and without creativity of any kind. I used to think while reading sci-fi battle scenes, "Insert galaxy raider here, two explosions, one death-defying race to ship, end battle scene." Now when I read "literary" porn, it's, "Insert Tab A into Slot B---wait! obligatory fight interrupts passion---resume fucking," or some such. I'm afraid I've been spoiled by the Internet; I can't think of any sex scene in any book I've read in the last two years that interests me.

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

The last Anita book was painful that way, wasn't it? *sighs*

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

I like the Oreo analogy above - I'm not only happily desensitized to the smut; if the cream in the Oreo isn't there, I'm not eating the dry cookie part! I want it all, damn it! If properly used, sex is the ultimate writer's tool. It enhances everything. It can be used so many different ways - for tension, for angst, for resolution, for crime, even. I love it. :)

Funny that you should have just posted, when I'm in the thralls of re-reading ATBT in completion again (i.e., rather than just my favourite scenes!). I love it. I love being lost in it. So glad you wrote it, and that's it's just there, whenever I need to read it. :)

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

A lot of times I'll actually skim/skip the sex so as to get on with the good stuff

See, that's what I've noticed myself doing more and more. Especially if it's more description of methodology than emotion. I'm really looking for that emotional hook to pull me in. If I don't think the build-up is there, I feel cheated somehow.

I like unique things in sexual description, though. But lately, it seems as if rimming is the new black. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't do anything for me.

I notice in my latest writing, I don't even go with penetration at all. Mutual masturbation and frottage get to come out and play.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I tripped over your post from the frog analogy

You know, I thought of you when I typed that in! Wondered if you'd prick up your ears. Er... do frogs have ears?

[balfrog.livejournal.com]

maybe ear slits (I think- remember from junior high bio)
.. actually have very little frog knowledge as have been consumed by frog-fear all my life.

:D

Re: Hello (hello, hello), is there anybody in there?

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Now I've got that feeling once again, I can't explain, you would not understand, this is not how I am...

Did I use these lyrics in my soon-to-be-posted fic? I did!

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I haven't read her books, but I wonder if I'd be more jarred by the porn or the Mary Sueism of it?

I know what you mean, though, about the author becoming distracted. I've read fanfics where I thought the sex scenes were there because...well...they've got to be there, right? Everyone else's fics have 'em.

The first Harry/Draco fic - actually the first ever HP fic - I read had a kiss as its culminating emotional point. And I found that entirely erotic and moving. And there are a few current writers who still stop there and move me just as much.

Maybe that should be my new mantra: penetration not required!

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I'm such a bimodal reader I have no basis to judge published fiction. Nearly all my reading of published books is non-fiction. And then I read reams of fanfic. But I suspect the fanfic smut writers are more advanced in sexual portrayal, perhaps because of the enormous amounts of practice we get - both in writing it and reading it. We have a lot of material to compare.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I think you said a lot by calling sex a "tool", though. It's got to serve the story. I know a lot of writers will slap on the "PWP" label on stuff that's short and graphic. But to me, if the story's got a point to make, and the sex helps make that point, it's not just gratuitous smut. However, if it truly is just "oh, here they are, let's get it on", then I do lose interest. I've just read too much of it.

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

Oh, most certainly. It needs to enhance the plot, and the plot, in turn, enhances it. One of my best friends is a gay man, and he's often said that straight sex in movies is better than gay porn, for the sole reason of one having plot and the other not. Even if it's PWP, I say it has to have some sort of context, something to give it fuel.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Thanks! My husband has learned how to play it on the guitar but wanted to try accompanying the original song. Does every guitar student learn this? Because I was taught it, too, years ago.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

And I'm glad you're enjoying a reread of ATBT. You'll be so far ahead of the rest of the class, because I'm really really (honest this time) going to post the sequel next week.