Unlike Justice Stewart, many people don’t know porn ‘when they see it.’ Yet we all see it all the time—and happily.
Not you? Momentarily lift your mind out of the gutter. What about food porn or decorating porn? Kitten porn or fashion porn? All around us is porn porn porn porn porn – including sex porn. These various porns share something basic: fans know what’s coming, and they find it satisfying. Continue reading
It’s easy to find awkward depictions of sex in literary fiction. The excerpts from this year’s nominees for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award represent a good starting point, as do previous years’ winners. But the bad sex-writing hardly ends there. Serious Novelists, being tellers of hard truths, can depict all sorts of horrors without flinching – and then get flustered at describing sex. All the ease leaves their writing, and out come the metaphors. And the euphemisms. And the metaphors serving as euphemisms. Continue reading
Tracy Duvall 