And a charming Friday to you all.
Thank you for coming by, always appreciated.
Since I'm still, yes, after all this time, still learning
our Erotic genre and what questions are best asked, I thoroughly enjoy talking
with those who know it better.
This week I asked our authors -
Emotional erotic…it’s more than getting off. What’s your
reaction to this? How would you expand on this?
Aka
As far as emotional erotic – sometimes I want my characters
to have an emotional connection, and sometimes I just want them to be in the
moment and enjoy the erotic encounter. I allude to it in Mavis and Max, but
everyone is cool with James Bond getting it on with the hot temptress and then
going about his business. The woman that acts like him is looked it as a slut.
Double standard and I refuse to follow it.
What now follows is more a conversation between myself and
our HOT author KURT DYSAN, Hot
author regarding this topic:
Kurt:
I think that erotica without emotion is porn. Emotional
connections provide the heart of the story. In fact the emotional connections
make the sex erotic.
Me:
Hi, Kurt.
Thanks :)
I agree, but something keeps hitting the back of my head on
the quick one-night stand and how there can be a connection which keeps it from
just a wham-bam non-emotional...still thinking on wording :)
Kurt:
That would depend totally on the people. If the people
connect, even briefly, you can have an emotional story. Perhaps one of them
provides something the other has been looking for and by experiencing it,
seeing that another person can provide that quality, even for a night, it gives
them renewed hope or at least solace. Consider Salinger's story THE DARING
YOUNG MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE... a depression-era and rather hopeless, yet
emotional story. His story is facing total failure. It could be rewritten in a
sexual context.
What I'm saying is that it's easy to pigeonhole erotica
because of its focus on sex. But sex is basically one form of human
interaction... an incredibly intimate one for most people. Yet even intimacy
itself is a relative concept. Some people resent the intrusion of an intimate
relationship or just don't do well with it.
Back to your example... the couple in your one-night stand
are both looking for an encounter that will give them sexual satisfaction. The
emotional aspect of the story involves whether or not they got it. And not
getting it, coming away unhappy or dissatisfied, is a profound emotional
experience.
What I'm saying is that humans have emotional responses to
almost everything they do, including writing emails, and according to
psychologists like Nathanial Brandon (THE DISOWNED SELF) we are constantly
training and retraining our emotional responses based on our experiences. My
terse reply should have said that when a writer ignores the inherent emotional
content of an erotic story, he or she is writing porn. When the writer elicits
the emotional responses and lays them out for the reader, then it is erotica,
or literature.
Me:
Nothing terse at all :)
I hear you about emails and agree, but will add, we also learn (when we
keep open minds) how to read those we only correspond with via emails.
I know I've said it before, but I look forward to your
replies because of your insight...especially regarding this genre. I'm
wondering if you would allow me to use our conversation as the blog posting for
this Friday Frolics topic on emotional erotic.
So many...and I have friends who think this...think erotic
as just sex or aka porn-stories. They can't see the human connections which are
different than their own. Even with my own attempts, I have a married couple
who have moved beyond just the two of them, but for them it's not a conflict
and some question how can there not be. Do I have that...could I have
that...nope. But I have watched documentaries on human relations and those who
have and I think I understand.
My stories are light...completely lighthearted silliness, I
can't seem to write these characters without laughter involved. But, I know
them underneath...only another writer can understand how we can talk as if
these characters are real and not think we're completely looney.
Kurt:
You're welcome to use my comments for a blog post. It's a
topic that some folks do skim over, never give it much thought, so this could
be good.
Again, I do hope we've prompted some thoughts or interest in
our HOT genre. Please feel free to share your thoughts, too.
Remember, if you have a question or anything you
want us to muse about just drop me a line at MuseChrisChat@gmail.com
Keep Frolicking