A thought or two.

[hellozombies.livejournal.com]

While discussing the idea of sex in novels with a friend of mine, I (of course) brought up LKH and her...um...lack of skills in that particular area. My friend said that it's extremely difficult to write sex--descriptive or not--and that she feels "awkward" while reading sex scenes. I (again) chimed in about Anita Blake--about how not only did I feel awkward, I also felt pretty damn squicked out.

We've all lamented over the boring, repetitive, gross sex. My question is, have you ever--in any novel that's ever been written--seen a decent, titillating, enthralling sex scene?

The more and more I think about it, the more I realize that I haven't seen one that's left me breathless and panting. I know that I'm much more of a slash girl than anything, but isn't that what they're supposed to do?

(It's much more fun laughing about bad sex scenes than it is hunting for good ones, I'll tell you that.)

Thoughts, dear lashers?

Comments

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

I definitely started reading m/m because it was new. It was stuff I didn't know, er... method and procedure, as opposed to the same old same old tab A slot B of the romances I was reading. Plust I'm familliar with het and the workings of my own body, so I could immediately tell when something being described was preposterous -- takes me out of the scene more immediately.

Plus the "forbidden" nature that m/m still holds, whether it's stated, or an actual plot point, or just a subtext, gives the whole thing an emotional intensity that het can't match any more -- we can read about "forbidden" het love, but it doesn't really happen in Western societies. By and large (although not universally of course) we can do as we please and so we can't grasp the pathos in the same way. The biggest rule of a romance is that something has to stand in the way of the protagonists getting together, and by far in the ones I've edited (quite lousy ones, to be honest) that "reason" is just... STUPID. It's never more profound than "I'm not ready!" or "I'm a playa, I want freedom!" versus "I want babies before I'm old!"

Plus, really the only thing that gives a written sex scene any real power is what's going on in people's heads. The physical stuff is played-out by definition. Not there's anything wrong with that! But it doesn't necessarily make for good entertainment.

And now I think I have gone full circle and ceased to make sense. Bedtime.

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

Forbidden love? ...Incest. Incest.

Ahem. Anyway, I definitely think that the 'forbidden love' thing is part of the equation, a sort of sense of 'other'.

After reading a lot of m/m and even after seeing all the cliches and the badly-written manpr0n, it still retains that sense of 'other' even though it's not new anymore... perhaps because it's not really in mainstream media and is something that only really abounds in fic.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

The whole Westermarck-ian "familiarity breeds contempt" idea stands in the way of me appreciating incest fic properly -- the mystery and discovery is missing, for me. I can buy circle-jerks and this-is-how-we-do-such-and-such sorts of things as rather realistic (oh, those boys!), but start with the "oh god how I love you" and "I need you" and mouth kissing and clinging to one another in the cold cold night and it loses me.

(However, I will admit I know a young lady who wrote some twincest that knocked my socks off despite my will and better judgement -- yeah, that telepathy angle tends to help a LOT -- so I'll just keep believing that anything that can be done can be done well or abysmally, whether or not it's my "thing.")

(Also, there is Middlesex. *applause*)

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

Well, there's always estranged family and long-lost siblings. (I mean, what soap opera HASN'T had some couple find out they're actually long-lost brother and sister? XD) In the end it rather depends on the characters, though.

(Even people who don't like incest like twincest. There's something... catchy about the idea - especially if they're identical twins.)

(Yes, YES! Messing with gender is fun and more fun.)

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Oh, those wacky twins... (It helped that one twin turned into a smiling psycho killing thing and his beloved twin had to kill him for the good of humanity, post-sexxin'. WHAT on earth did she do with that fic... I need to e-mail her...)