Does Pornography Really Compare to Your Stories?

[madelinemasoch]

I'm starting to have a big change of heart about pornography in recent months. As I've realized that what I have in my heart and soul and my ideas are better and more attractive to me personally a lot of the time than pornography is, I kind of stopped liking it so much. I went through a time period where I had really broad spectrum of tastes and explored a lot of different things, particularly around different arrangements and words and roles to take on and things to express. I could get really attracted to any woman I found attractive. Since then, it's narrowed down exclusively to the characters. They're just prettier than any pornstar or random woman online could ever be. I don't say this because they're exaggerated, I say this because for me that's just the way it is. I can't really get super into pornography anymore.

Do you think our literature is actually better than porn in terms of its attractiveness? I'm wondering if anyone else on here feels the same way or similarly. Did writing erotica ruin porn for you? Maybe this is just a part of getting older.

 

[YmaOHyd]

No, not really. Of course, I'm a slow-burn romance writer mostly, so it's not the same genre. But even when writing purely sexcapades they're different mediums. Novels don't ruin movies or TV.

 

[ElectricBlue]

By pornography I assume you mean visual content. Video content does very little for me, it's trite, bland, repetitive. Visually, I find drawing or photography far more erotic (due, no doubt, to my age - my coming of age so far as visual content was concerned was Playboy and Penthouse magazines). Give me written erotica, any day of the week.

 

[Carson19820]

I've always thought erotica was more mental than visual. I can watch porn and be bored within a few minutes, but a good written story can keep my interest (and arousal) for hours.

 

[CyranoJ]

I write porn without apology and always have done. I largely do not care about the supposed distinction between "porn" and "erotica," which often seems vague and arbitrary. Some of the best work I've ever done was explicitly based on Victorian porn, and I'm still happy to have written it and I still stand by it. Some of the most pornographic writing I've ever read came from a romance novel by Johanna Lindsey that informs my kinks to this day. I mostly try to do porn with a bit of class, some creativity, and attention to detail. To whatever extent that makes it "erotica," fine, but I don't really give a shit.

 

[CyranoJ]

All of that said: my feelings about porn as an arm of the film industry are certainly a lot different now than they were a decade ago. I embarked on a writing gig for Nubiles.com, recruited from this very site, some years ago, and it was illuminating in how much that industry actually stifles creativity and utterly fails to protect its performers to whatever degree you might assume is happening. I would never again write for or work with an actual porn film producer for exactly those reasons. It was eye-opening and fucking gross.

(EDIT: And if you feel like your stories are doing better than what comes out of people who literally can't process an actual screenplay, there's a pretty good chance you're correct.)

 

[TheRedChamber]

I'm just going to flat out say that I enjoy porn.

 

[CyranoJ]

I'm just going to flat out say that I enjoy porn.

Huzzah! I think you'll like my stories, then. Maybe. Depending on your other tastes.

 

[NotWise]

I like to think my characters don't look like porn stars. But then, what does a porn star look like?

As videos go, it depends on where you draw the line. My stories definitely overlap with "golden age" porn and with quite a few French movies that would probably be considered porn. They don't have much in common with modern short videos.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I'm starting to have a big change of heart about pornography in recent months. As I've realized that what I have in my heart and soul and my ideas are better and more attractive to me personally a lot of the time than pornography is, I kind of stopped liking it so much. I went through a time period where I had really broad spectrum of tastes and explored a lot of different things, particularly around different arrangements and words and roles to take on and things to express. I could get really attracted to any woman I found attractive. Since then, it's narrowed down exclusively to the characters. They're just prettier than any pornstar or random woman online could ever be. I don't say this because they're exaggerated, I say this because for me that's just the way it is. I can't really get super into pornography anymore.

Do you think our literature is actually better than porn in terms of its attractiveness? I'm wondering if anyone else on here feels the same way or similarly. Did writing erotica ruin porn for you? Maybe this is just a part of getting older.

Curious you should ask this. I’ve gotten a few emails through the site in the past weeks asking me to tone down the sex in some of my published stories and release them in digital and hard cover. I’ve been thinking of taking a break from new material on lit for a while to focus on that.

 

[lovecraft68]

Erotica-the technical term for what we write AKA smut-is also pornography. Its just conveyed differently.

Porn is visual so its right there in your face no imagination because they're showing you everything, you get off to what your eyes see.

In erotica is written word meaning often times its the same acts, but its you who are creating the visuals guided by author descriptions and I think it tends to be more hit and miss because an author can put you into the story and action, but they can also take you out of it if they write something that strikes you wrong. Erotica, providing the story 'does it' for you can be more intimate because you're more involved in seeing in your mind what it is that arouses you rather than "Here, use this." of porn

 

[AwkwardlySet]

An interesting question, one that should be put into perspective. Into historical perspective, to be precise.

Which pornography did you have in mind? If you are referring to modern pornography, then yes I see nothing attractive about it.
If you look at it objectively, modern pornography is all about cams and Onlyfans. There are almost no studios making porn with an actual story anymore. I'm all for porn performers taking control of their income but the switch has degraded porn to abysmal levels. It all comes down to staring at some performers for hours until they strip and masturbate. Or watching an Onlyfans video where they have sex with the same person at the same spot, but wearing panties of different color. That's what porn is these days - mechanical masturbation/sex/filling holes with appendages made of flesh or rubber or plastic. But it clearly works for a good deal of people.

Most people here remember both erotica and porn movies from the 70's and 80's. Those were masterpieces of cinematography compared to anything you can see today. That kind of porn I could still watch.

To be honest, there was also a significant change in written porn and erotica. Erotica used to dominate (I think?) but now it's the other way around.
Sure, there is a lot more written smut these days, much of it very very simplistic. Those kinds of stories do nothing for me. But there is also a good amount of smut with a proper story and characters, so there is still plenty of content for everyone's taste. There is less pure erotica in comparison but the total amount of written erotica and porn is so huge that everyone can find the stories they enjoy.

So yeah, to answer your question, I don't enjoy visual pornography these days. Well, maybe like 0.1% of it. Written porn with a story is what I prefer.

 

[lovecraft68]

So yeah, to answer your question, I don't enjoy visual pornography these days. Well, maybe like 0.1% of it. Written porn with a story is what I prefer.

There's a site "Pure Taboo". People automatically think its all incest/pseudo incest content, but it explores all manner of taboos, using the word the way it was meant before porn turned it into incest only.

Many of the videos are 40-60 minutes and damned if they don't have some story, a slower burn to the action and even some decent acting. Some of the premises are fun, some our seriously out there as in I applaud the creativity and outright deviancy. They're not all 'happy' stories either, there's some train wreck shit involved.

I've been a huge fan of porn my entire life, maybe to the point of too much at times, but I was finally getting bored with it a couple years ago, then a I saw a clip from this site, did a trial membership and got hooked into it.

Like everything else, there's various degrees of quality.

 

[Erozetta]

Even when I was watching porn regularly, I was making up my own stories to go with the (often muted 'cause *eye roll*) videos I was watching.

I think my enjoyment has always been story-arousal-relief.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

There's a site "Pure Taboo". People automatically think its all incest/pseudo incest content, but it explores all manner of taboos, using the word the way it was meant before porn turned it into incest only.

Many of the videos are 40-60 minutes and damned if they don't have some story, a slower burn to the action and even some decent acting. Some of the premises are fun, some our seriously out there as in I applaud the creativity and outright deviancy. They're not all 'happy' stories either, there's some train wreck shit involved.

I've been a huge fan of porn my entire life, maybe to the point of too much at times, but I was finally getting bored with it a couple years ago, then a I saw a clip from this site, did a trial membership and got hooked into it.

Like everything else, there's various degrees of quality.

I know the site and yes, along with a few others, it falls into the 0.1% I can still enjoy watching.

I can see why it appeals to you. There are some dark/horror themes occasionally. I'm not really a fan of those though. For some reason, while soft erotica and horror were always a good combination for me, porn and horror never were.

 

[lovecraft68]

I know the site and yes, along with a few others, it falls into the 0.1% I can still enjoy watching.

I can see why it appeals to you. There are some dark/horror themes occasionally. I'm not really a fan of those though. For some reason, while soft erotica and horror were always a good combination for me, porn and horror never were.

I'm not into that flat out monster porn crap, but some creepy themes are fine.

I like how most of the videos are filmed darker and grittier like an old seventy's movie rather than the super bright mainstream porn, gives a different feel to it.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I don't find women caked in makeup so they look like Bratz or Barbie dolls attractive, nor gormless beefcake men. So that's both most porn and modern Hollywood films out the window.

Recently I was thinking I just had gone off visual eroticism - and then I watched an episode of Only Connect, looked at Victoria and the two teams, and was just like 'I so would'. Evidence of intelligence and a sense of humour, add a cheeky grin, and let's just say a wide range of body types can switch me on. I also prefer seeing the curves or planes making up a whole body, rather than zooming in on genitalia. Would I like to see a man coming? Sure, but I want to watch his face, not see the spooge.

So my stories represent what I'd happily see in visual porn, but easily-accessible porn doesn't provide. So I'll just have to watch another episode of Ted Lasso and apply some imagination (or read through the very large amount of fanfic that others have produced in the last few years...)

 

[SimonDoom]

I'd say it's very much in the eye of the beholder. Like Cyrano, I don't bother to make clear distinctions between porn, art, literature.

I enjoy visual erotica, including what is usually thought of as porn, as well as written erotica. They're satisfying in different ways for me. I'm very visual, so I enjoy visual porn, but the stories and characters are almost without exception flat and dull, and the acting is poor. So written erotica has, for me, much, much more satisfying stories. I wouldn't say it has turned me off visual content. I just see them as satisfying different aspects of erotic desire and fantasy.

 

[OffNSFW]

My stories are porn. As far as visual media goes, I have my tastes like anyone else. (Anything by Pink & White is miraculous; Brazzers, not so much.) I reckon bad porn is bad for the imagination and vice versa for good porn, just like any form of art.

 

[ronde]

I'm starting to have a big change of heart about pornography in recent months. As I've realized that what I have in my heart and soul and my ideas are better and more attractive to me personally a lot of the time than pornography is, I kind of stopped liking it so much. I went through a time period where I had really broad spectrum of tastes and explored a lot of different things, particularly around different arrangements and words and roles to take on and things to express. I could get really attracted to any woman I found attractive. Since then, it's narrowed down exclusively to the characters. They're just prettier than any pornstar or random woman online could ever be. I don't say this because they're exaggerated, I say this because for me that's just the way it is. I can't really get super into pornography anymore.

Do you think our literature is actually better than porn in terms of its attractiveness? I'm wondering if anyone else on here feels the same way or similarly. Did writing erotica ruin porn for you? Maybe this is just a part of getting older.

My definitions are these:

Porn - a lot of sex with maybe, but not necessarily a little story. The author paints the pictures for the viewers or the readers in glaring color.
Erotica - a lot of story with some sex. The author gives the viewer or reader a "sketch" and the viewers or readers paint the pictures as their imagination leads them to.

The porn of the 50's through the early 70's was reasonably good. Even the black and white so-called "stag films" had something resembling a plot. There was at least some attempt to define the characters and give them a reason to do what they did. The newer porn, both video and written seems to be more "What can I do next that nobody else has done or can I do it more times in the same film or story than any other author?" You see that in the progression from mostly "normal" sex to a lot of oral, then to continuous orgasms by both men and women, then to anal, and then to ....? There are supposedly "female friendly" porn videos, but most of them are just a little softer in the handling of sex and might have a hint of romance. None of it holds any attraction for me.

I don't think getting older has anything to do with which one finds the most enjoyable. I think it's just a refinement of taste brought on by experiencing too much of something too quickly. You might like rib-eye steaks, but having them every day would soon change those steaks from a treat to boring, and you'd be looking for something else.

 

[AG31]

our literature

erotica

A lot of people in AH would say what we write in literotica is porn. I like to make a distinction between stories where care is given to the writing, no mattere how explicit the story. I reject the notion that all stories that don't depend on plot or character are "stroke stories." Just curious about how you define "porn?"

 

[AG31]

Curious you should ask this. I’ve gotten a few emails through the site in the past weeks asking me to tone down the sex in some of my published stories and release them in digital and hard cover. I’ve been thinking of taking a break from new material on lit for a while to focus on that.

I don't think you need to tone it down. I've read sex scenes in mainstream books that are as lengthy and explicit as anything here on Lit.

 

[SimonDoom]

A lot of people in AH would say what we write in literotica is porn. I like to make a distinction between stories where care is given to the writing, no mattere how explicit the story. I reject the notion that all stories that don't depend on plot or character are "stroke stories." Just curious about how you define "porn?"

I have a personal principle when it comes to debates, after many years of experience with competitive debating, that debates over definitions are not meaningful. Debates over values are meaningful, and debates over facts are meaningful. How important is it to you as an author that your story can get the reader off? That's a meaningful value question. Do readers prefer good stories or good sex scenes? That's a meaningful fact question. Is it porn or erotica? is not a meaningful question. All it tells you is how each respondent defines each word. Who cares?

I think of what I write as "porn" in that all of my stories are fundamentally "about" sexual fantasy. I don't write stories with sex; I write stories about sex (broadly defined). That is, from the outset I introduce the reader to a sexual situation, usually one with some element of conflict or tension or reluctance, and the conflict resolves when the sexual experience occurs, and I try to write it in a way that will provide erotic pleasure to the reader, and, perhaps, help them achieve orgasm. I know from the comments I receive that this happens at least sometimes. I guess that's "porn." It's fine with me if people think of it that way.

I don't think there's any inherent conflict between writing a story of this type and writing a story to the best of one's artistic ability. "Artistic" and "literary" stories can have many purposes, and giving erotic pleasure certainly is one of them, in my view.

 

[ChuckWolf]

All of that said: my feelings about porn as an arm of the film industry are certainly a lot different now than they were a decade ago. I embarked on a writing gig for Nubiles.com, recruited from this very site, some years ago, and it was illuminating in how much that industry actually stifles creativity and utterly fails to protect its performers to whatever degree you might assume is happening. I would never again write for or work with an actual porn film producer for exactly those reasons. It was eye-opening and fucking gross.

(EDIT: And if you feel like your stories are doing better than what comes out of people who literally can't process an actual screenplay, there's a pretty good chance you're correct.)

That's interesting. I'm actually working on a story about someone working for a porn company.

 

[yowser]

The difference between urban graffiti and the Sistine chapel.