The first duty of a writer

[Closet Desire]

A judge once said...

..."I can't define pornography but I know it when I see it."

This is one of those debates that will never be settled and, frankly, isn't even worthy of debate.

The flash of a woman's nipple or the crevice of a man's arse in a soap advert would be considered pornographic by some but not even raise an eyebrow in others.

There is no hard and fast rule which is why it is constantly being fought over. Each individual will "recognise" pornography when he or she sees it, but it will be different everyone else's.

The judge was right--nobody can "define" pornography. But maybe that's okay because English scholars can't really define other, less provocative genres of literature either. That's why English is fun--the borders are sort of like Europe--they keep shifting around.

 

[KillerMuffin]

My personal definition of porn and erotica seems to hold well enough for everyday use. At least here.

Porn is a story where the primary focus is the sex itself. The entire story is plotted to develop the sex scene(s). The sex, essentially, is the plot.

Erotica is a story where the primary focus is the character(s) and the relationship between characters or the character and him or herself. The entire story is plotted to develop the characters. The sex scene is there because it's a part of the plot.

There's a lot to be learned about writing from this site, I think. I'm with Trina on this one. I've learned a lot about writing here. Particularly in the case of pleasing the audience, what does and does not work when pressing the boundries of genre, and a lot of detail about the act of writing fiction itself. I'm not going to learn the meaning of life, but I'm going to improve how I string words together. Just because there is sex in a story doesn't mean that the story has no merit and neither does the learning that comes with it.

I don't delude myself with that "I write for myself" bit of ridiculousness. I write so that someone else will read it. I write because I love doing so and I feel better just by doing it. The stuff I write for myself; I only share it where it will appeal to the audience. I write for the audience and I try to cater to them as best I can. Of course, Lit's editors are very broad in their requirements. They just want stuff with sex in it and few grammar/punctuation errors.