Adult literature

[Farseer]

I hope you haven't gotten the impression that I'm some sex crazed reader, but through the books I've mentioned (mainly SC and Lost girls) I've learned that an erotic novel can be much more than a bunch of sex scenes.

Not at all, joost!!

As for any genre, there is good and bad. Just as some people turn their noses up at fantasy, and therefore sadly forego the opportunity to read something of real value, people also run the risk of turning aside from a good read if they totally avoid all things labelled adult literature (and much the same could be said of refusing to ever watch an R-rated movie). As you have said, I imagine an erotic novel can be much more, just as fantasy can be so much more than magic and dragons. One element doesn't have to make it the only element within a well-written story.

I suppose the difference, for me at least, lies within the sifting process or working one's way through the bad to get to the good. I could stand ploughing my way through a pile of fantasy book to find something I liked but I couldn't willingly do that with adult books...and so I don't. If I saw something that interested me though, I'd pick it up and give it a try.

Hmm...I'm not sure if even that comment is fair (?) as it would be just as easy to come across a confronting sex scene in fantasy, or any other genre, as it would be in works labelled adult literature. A few things from 'Tandia' by Bryce Courtney come to mind, and by confronting I don't only mean the sex in itself but a reader's reaction to it and how they see it as affecting the character etc.

Still, sex as a subject is as worthy of inclusion in literature as any other social, physical, emotional or spiritual element. I don't think we can honestly say no to sex, at whatever level, and then happily sit through a chapter that contains a bloody battle or a murder at the hands of a knife-wielding lunatic. All is a part of human life.

I think this post has taken about two hours to construct in between other distractions!