How Come Good Literature Has to be Ruined by Bad Sex

[n_maw]

I recently wrote a post on my book blog and it seems to be getting a lot of conversation going and I thought why not start that conversation here as well.

I enjoy reading a lot of contemporary literature, but it seems that authors and readers alike are dealing with a lot more sex! Right when I'm getting into a really great story with really great writing, I'm confronted with a very graphic sex scene. I'm not talking about suggestiveness, etc., but pretty graphic. Off the top of my head, a few I've read recently are Water for Elephants, The Almost Moon, and The Three Junes that have graphic scenes that I don't think are necessary to the story.

Why do authors feel the need to spell out every single, graphic detail? I’m okay with innuendos and suggestiveness. Just leave it me to fill in the blanks. But why does everything have to be, well, just too much! Is this really okay? Where has our brazen culture taken us? What would have been outrage 50 years ago is accepted and normal now. I just don’t enjoy reading what I would consider to be very sexually explicit material.

I'd like to know what your opinions are!

[Dark Muse]

Personally such things really do not bother me in a book. Depending upon how it is used within the story. Though I am not offended by the presence of sex, if I think it is over used in a story or just thrown in for the sake of putting it there then I think that is a little stupid. But if it is a good story, that happens to have sex in it, then it does not bother me.

And if a person is really bothered by such things then they could choose to just skim over the sex parts if they are enjoying the rest of the book and story.

[B-Mental]

I think I sometimes feel the way you do N_maw...I sometimes come accross a book that is simply splendid, and think..."Wow, You don't get many of these without a horrid sex scene or plot." Then 40 pages later there is some ridiculous tale of sexual conduct that has no meaning whatever to the story, and it was like the editor said...put some sex in it, and it will sell otherwise forget it... I blame editors for everthing!

[LadyWentworth]

I honestly skip over it, or if I choose to read it, I find the scenes amusing. The way they describe them sometimes are quite laughable.

It bothers me more when they put a random, graphic sex scene in a very good film rather than in a very good book. I never get the point to those.

Generally, when I am watching those scenes, I am in the theater and I can't fast forward them. That is very frustrating. Yet, like I said, with a book, I can just skip those parts.

For some reason, and I really don't have a clue as to why, it seems that authors and filmmakers feel that those scenes are necessary now.

[amanda_isabel]

well, sex has become a more dominant force today than it could ever have been a decade ago, so yeah, i guess the editors feel like it would need it to help add to the sales and stuff like that.

personally i don't mind sex in books; then again i haven't really run into a book where i've felt that descriptions were unnecessary or detrimental to the plot.

i have this latest script that i'm directing and it has to do with sex, except now i'm not sure if i want somethig that leans nearer to suggestive or outright. i'll probably go for suggestive though, considering that my audience is comprised of high school students... but then again, suggestive is really a relative measure so i have noea if what suggestive is for ever so outrageous me is beyond olerable to the admin.. not that i have any plans of inviting them, lol

[johann cruyff]

That is exactly the problem I have with contemporary literature: the characters are no longer burdened with philosophical questions,existentialist problems etc.,but the writers more generally turn to the ordinary,the mundane,and although that may be quite realistic,I just don't find it that compelling.

Of course,one of the elements of such writing is sex - and lots of it,along with sexually highly frustrated characters(Houellebecq,anyone?).

That is why I think literature is generally on a slump ever since postmodern writers appeared.

[Goodfella]

This has to do with people--readers of nowadays. We franckly like such scene thats why even the writers do include them in their novels.

[Simao]

I have the same feeling, although I don't really read that much of contemporary litrerature. I feel that the writers who make these kind of "scenes" in their books are neglecting the quality of the book and just want to sell more copies. It is the Hollywood effect where it is all about sex and money and this hugely effected the taste of many readers as well. I think you described it very accurately when you said "very graphic sex scene" it is true! It is like a porno movie lol and here you don't even to use your imagination it is all there.
I am not saying that these kind of books are necessarly bad, rather that these are some of the things that make them bad.

[Aiculík]

Sometimes the sex scene is not really about sex... and sometimes something quite "innocent" or banal is in fact a symbol of a sex... My "reading experience" is, that the more graphical the description of sex is, the higher probability it's in fact about something else. If you feel that the sex scene is somehow strange or doesn't fit in the story - that's quite clear signar the author wants you to stop there and think about it...

Try to ask yourself "what the author wanted me to see when he put that scene there?" Because he probably did have some reason for doing so. And while your answer doesn't necessarily be the "correct" one (in the sense that it doesn't have to really be what the author meant - however it is correct for you), the process of thinking about it itself will open your eyes for things in text you may have ignored before.

For example, when I first read Ian McEwan's Cement Garden few years ago, the incest scene was just that - and I was disgusted, labelled him as "mad pervert" and ignored him ever since. But last week I had to re-read it recently for my exam... and I was surprised that I understood it quite differently. The sex is still there; but now, it is so clear to me that it has different meaning that I can't understand how I didn't see it before.

[Kafka's Crow]

The age-old question pops its gray head up: What is literature? Thanks to marketing and general brainwashing that our generation is subjected to, all books are labeled 'literature'. You go to literature discussions and find people going ecstatic about books that were printed for nothing else but making money. Our standards and critical abilities are at the stake here. But then critical thinking only makes it more awkward for the marketeers, lets do away with it. Why do we have to count everything as literature? Call it by its name, 'trash'-fiction. Anything that was written to excite sensuality instead of creating thoughtful critical response is not art, why should we call it literature? Sex sells and that which was primarily created for selling and selling fast instead of being critically appreciated is not art or even literature. Call them books, call them fiction, call them 'bestsellers', you have so many choices.

[Splendour]

I feel similarily, and the interesting thing is every contemporary lit I've read in school since Gr.10 have involved some degree of sexual description. But, we must also bear in mind that even Shakespeare has blatant sexual languages, we are just not used to them.

I suppose we could also blame Freud...his almighty sex-dominant psychology theory then took over the literature and popular thinking...he sort of "scholarly legalised" the present day outlook on sex, whereas in the days of old classics, they are much more culturally unacceptable to bring out into open day light.

[Tersely]

Sex never bothered me during reading and I've always felt that -under the right circumstances- its just the next logical step in some cases. Just like Dark Muse said, it only pisses me off if its placed out of context. Besides. Its how we all got here anyway.

[Nightshade]

AS opposed to being helped by good sex?


Actually fairly recntly we had an enquirey someon wanted a modern book adult book with no sap or sex scenes, we stood there a good ten minutes before we could only come up with Agatha christie, and even that is debatable really.

[Shea]

The age-old question pops its gray head up: What is literature? Thanks to marketing and general brainwashing that our generation is subjected to, all books are labeled 'literature'. You go to literature discussions and find people going ecstatic about books that were printed for nothing else but making money. Our standards and critical abilities are at the stake here. But then critical thinking only makes it more awkward for the marketeers, lets do away with it. Why do we have to count everything as literature? Call it by its name, 'trash'-fiction. Anything that was written to excite sensuality instead of creating thoughtful critical response is not art, why should we call it literature? Sex sells and that which was primarily created for selling and selling fast instead of being critically appreciated is not art or even literature. Call them books, call them fiction, call them 'bestsellers', you have so many choices.

I totally agree. You said what I wanted to.

[Kent Edwins]

I'm glad that sex isn't such a Taboo now- imagine how much better Tennyson's Arthurian stuff would have been with a few raunchy scenes. However, I do agree that authors are becoming a bit to fixated on it. Especially when it comes to males. I know as well as anyone how sexually driven men can be, be we honestly don't think about sex half as much as most people (including James Joyce who isn't so modern) seem to think we do. I'd like to see some of the focus taken off sex. It's a good thing that sex isn't such a shocker anymore, but it is being taken too far. Especially in the media.

Then again, I do think that a good piece of writing can be helped by a good sexual plot. For instance, anyone see Juno? I dare someone to tell me that the sexual aspect of its plot was uncalled for, or not necessary, or anything but incredibly meaningful, wonderfully sentimental, and just plain good story writing.