Incest Reconsidered

[dr_mabeuse]

How about if I had sex with your Mum

She's dead, Joe. That makes it even better.

 

[Verdad]

I'm from the camp that doesn't get the appeal of incest stories. Prior to finding Lit, I'd never have guessed it was such a popular fantasy. I'd love it if someone could explain.

To my mind incest is just about antithetical to everything I find erotic. Which is not to say I don't get off on forbidden, taboo, and violation, not to even mention the power disparity, just rarely in this particular context. My first association to incest is familiarity, and familiar, unlike new/unknown/foreign/different strikes me as antisexy.

I think Doc is right on the money with parental figure as a power figure, except I'll never understand what makes it hotter that the mother or father figure be literally the mother or the father. Even in excellent stories like Varian's, if I want to get off, I catch myself mentally rewriting the relation into a non-familial in order to make the sex more appealing.

That doesn't mean incest is a gratuitous element in Varian's stories, for ones. Reading them, I'm reminded incest can be a great literary ingredient--as opposed to being the whole story, like in the run of the mill porn. Her incest stories certainly wouldn't be better stories without it--impossible with the stories so ecellently thought out--but they might be another bit more arousing for me. Such are sexual tastes.

Doc might be up against a similar challenge. His talents guarantee a compelling read, but whether it can be hot for us lacking in incest buttons seems like the real dare.

 

[y=mx+b]

How about if I had sex with your Mum

you can if you want. I still wouldn't be turned on by it.

 

[Corylea]

How about if I had sex with your Mum

Please do -- a good fuck might fix what's wrong with my mother.


I don't get the appeal of incest, but then, I've seen a lot of sexual abuse survivors in therapy, so I may be too close to the topic.

 

[Pure]

some sort of disconnect.

looking at the top 50 lit stories, almost all are about incest. they average more than a million readers each.

now that could be the same million incest junkies, but the time span argues against. some have been going since 2001, so if they now have 3 million, that means a GAIN of a half million a year on average.

every author here not only says 'does nothing for me', but 'don't understand the appeal.' yet some of us 'understand' it enough to write. (don't recognize anyone from AH except scouries and myself, in this top 50).

in fact, probably a number of us feed the incomphensible masses. as a sociological experiment, of course.

i have the image that (except for a few literary stars like doc and varian) we porn writers are like the cooks at mc donalds, saying, 'we cook the stuff, but never eat it.' i can picture a meeting of a guild of romance writiers; a bunch of them say, privately, 'we never read romances! (for our own pleasure)'

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I've seen a lot of sexual abuse survivors in therapy, so I may be too close to the topic.

So have I. But it helps if you can separate fantasy from reality.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

every author here not only says 'does nothing for me', but 'don't understand the appeal.' yet some of us 'understand' it enough to write. (don't recognize anyone from AH except scouries and myself, in this top 50).

*ahem*

 

[nancy3x]

how about sex

 

[Corylea]

So have I.

You're a therapist who specializes in seeing adult survivors of child sexual abuse? That's very interesting!

But it helps if you can separate fantasy from reality.

Whoa, sheathe the claws, kitty. I can separate fantasy from reality; the incest thing just doesn't appeal.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

You're a therapist who specializes in seeing adult survivors of child sexual abuse? That's very interesting!

I don't specialize... but I have seen quite a few in the past eight years since I was licensed as a psychologist.

Whoa, sheathe the claws, kitty. I can separate fantasy from reality; the incest thing just doesn't appeal.

That's fine, to each their own.

But to imply that it shouldn't appeal to those who have seen the ramifications of real sexual abuse is ridiculous. That's like saying lawyers who defend clients who have murdered someone can't enjoy murder mysteries.

 

[Corylea]

But to imply that it shouldn't appeal to those who have seen the ramifications of real sexual abuse is ridiculous. That's like saying lawyers who defend clients who have murdered someone can't enjoy murder mysteries.

The implication is something that you put in, not something I put in -- my sentence was descriptive, not prescriptive.