Pornography or Erotica?

[kreemi_pi]

Is it erotic or porn?
Opinions, they seem to be torn
Tonight let me taste
Take my time, with no haste
I'll give my opinion cum morn

 

[nice90sguy]

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/the-first-duty-of-a-writer.85728/post-1911615

 

[BobbyBrandt]

My own personal (and sometimes professional) definitions can be summarized as:

Erotica encourages the development of thoughts, and feelings of passion.

Pornography stimulates or promotes arousal and provides enticement for physical pleasure.

I have written both, but find writing erotica more rewarding from a creative perspective.

 

[iwatchus]

I'm gonna be pedantic and say they're two different things. The "graphy" part comes from the Greek word for images, hence the word "graphic", so strictly speaking it's only pornography if it involves videos and photographs. That would also mean that erotic audiobooks are technically "pornophony", even though nobody uses that word. If it involves the written word, then it's erotica or smut.

Okay, you turned on my pedantic side. The greek root graphos (γραφοσ) means writing. Think about biography. It's not a picture of a person's life. It is the story, the written story, of their life.

 

[iwatchus]

Mostly these days, I am like @THBGato. I write romances. Just not nearly as well as he does. Some of mine are Lesbian romances, as he writes, others are hetero. But I have been dabbling in lots of things recently. I don't think I would classify any of it as pornography, and only some of it as erotica, because I'm more interested in the range of human emotions, not just eroticism.

 

[TheLobster]

(…) @THBGato. (…) he (…) he (…)

Sir, I strongly suggest you turn around and run as fast as you can

 

[000zing]

Words like angels, dance and pin come to mind...

 

[iwatchus]

Sir, I strongly suggest you turn around and run as fast as you can

My apologies if I misgendered them, but I had thought at some point they had indicated that they were male. I thought in a discussion sometime ago about some of the LS stories being written by males.

 

[TheLobster]

I thought in a discussion sometime ago about some of the LS stories being written by males.

They are, and as far I understand this is a rather touchy subject among female authors in LS, since it is said that those stories cater too much to the so-called male gaze.

This is why I jokingly suggested speedy vamoosing, but I'm sure THBGato will be understanding of your unintentional mishap.

 

[Off_base]

Erotica = sex is part of the story.
Porn = sex IS the story.

In my mind, they're not the same, and often determine whether I'm interested in reading the story or not. I want feelings with sex, as a reader. Maybe I'm too emotional?

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Is it erotic or porn?
Opinions, they seem to be torn
Tonight let me taste
Take my time, with no haste
I'll give my opinion cum morn

The joker in my brain expected the last line to be the following punchline: "I'll give my opinion to my mom."

I guess my muse wants me to write incest, even though it's one of my icks.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

When I simply must label it, it's 'erotica'. "Porn' is what other people write.

In any case, who can argue with The Bard? What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

The Guardian once asked their readers to draw the distinction between erotica and porn. Some of the answers:

- Erotica uses a feather, pornography uses the whole chicken.

- The height of the bookshelf.

-Etymologically, pornography is the depiction of prostitutes but Umberto Eco has a more interesting definition. He defines a pornographic film as one which spends most of the time avoiding the main action.

- Erotica has better production values.

- One is crack for the addict, the other is morphine for the sensuous.

- Erotica is brunettes in silk, pornography is blondes in nylon.

- What he likes is pornography. What you like is erotica. What I like is none of your business.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I write smut. It's 20% less dignified than erotica (by volume).

 

[EmilyMiller]

Erotica is what people claim they write when they are too embarrassed to admit they write pornography. It’s all splitting hairs.

 

[AG31]

Do you consider what you write “pornography” or not? How about what you read? Is some erotica “pornography” while other erotica is not? Is there a meaningful distinction in your mind between erotica and porn? I’d be fascinated to read some genuine thoughts on the matter.

I tend to think of pornography as visual and erotica as literary. I'm not visual, so I'm not drawn to pornography (in my meaning of the word). I'd be interested to find out whether any female AH members like to watch pornography.

 

[AG31]

I write porn, often absurdist. I've written one sex scene at the end of a story I would call erotica, but the other sex scenes in that story are definitely porn.

What qualities make that one story erotica?

 

[Erozetta]

I write emotional pornography.

 

[StillStunned]

I write emotional pornography.

I try to write stories that make the reader wipe their brow, their eyes and/or their fingers.

 

[Erozetta]

I try to write stories that make the reader wipe their brow, their eyes and/or their fingers.

I just write whatever comes to me, it's typically emotionally charged with lust or desire, but often has some backend feelings that should make the reader momentarily question what's wrong with them for continuing to jerk off.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I try to write stories that make the reader wipe their brow, their eyes and/or their fingers.

This is essentially identical to my 3 fluid standard of excellence.

EDIT: yes, as we all know, happy tears and sad tears are biologically distinct fluids.

 

[ToddEverman]

I considered my stories "erotica " until my wife read them and told me they're definitely porn

 

[Rob_Royale]

I don't worry too much about defining it. I write what I write. Erotica is how I describe it to people, pornography is how my wife describes it to people with a wide smile. She's a bit more brusque than I am by nature, which makes her great fun at parties. I'm now her 'husband in the porn biz'.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

Okay, you turned on my pedantic side. The greek root graphos (γραφοσ) means writing. Think about biography. It's not a picture of a person's life. It is the story, the written story, of their life.

While you're totally correct, I think focusing on the visual quality of pornography is correct - because pornography was originally the depiction of prostitutes. It required real people being paid to perform sex.

Pornography is 'writing with prostitutes', in the way photography is 'writing with light'. For me, that means porn has to be visual. As Justice Stewart said, 'I know it when I see it'; he didn't say 'I know it when I read it'.

It doesn't seem to convincing to argue that X story is pornography because the characters in it are paid to perform sex, while Y story is erotica because the characters are having sex with each other out of love.

Ultimately, unless we're trying to redefine the words based some level of explicitness or emotion, there's not much point trying to distinguish between written porn and erotica.

 

[AG31]

Do you consider what you write “pornography” or not? How about what you read? Is some erotica “pornography” while other erotica is not? Is there a meaningful distinction in your mind between erotica and porn? I’d be fascinated to read some genuine thoughts on the matter.

On further reflection, I think there's usually an air of ridicule in reference to pornography when it's compared to erotica (when the distinction between visual and literary isn't being made). It almost always has to do with the absence of plot and/or character. But why is that? Why are stories about sex worthy of ridicule? Dunno.

But, to answer your question, no, I don't think my writing is worthy of ridicule, even though it lacks attention to plot and character.