Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Is writing about Sex a weakness or an irrestible strength?

In the past 50years the taboos of Literacy have dramatically changed. D.H.Lawrence "Lady Chatterley's Lover" novel was put on trial because of its obscenity trial during the 1960's. Through his usage of local vernacular and an in depth look at the true relationship between two humans. Lawrence successfully portrayed sex as sacred in a world where sex is viewed as nothing more than physical pleasure. Susanna Rustin truly believes that this trial granted Lawrence the media attention which brought the masses to purchase his novel. Even though writing about sex was such a taboo in his time, he still could not resist the temptation. The buyers gave in to the very same temptation as they secretly bought his books and then latter on devoured his every page. Sex is a human motivator and hence made this novel an overall great success.


According to Sarah Duncan, men have a tendency to write extremely mecanically about this subject. She explains that it is not very interesting to hear about the exact directions to get somewhere or taking out the instructions for DIY Twister. Using metaphors such as "The big Boa Constrictor slivered his way in...etc" can be ridiculous at times and franky misleading to inexperienced readers. On the other hand, bad sex literature are awarded prizes which offer them great publicity. For example the Bad Sex Fiction Award in the United Kingdom was given to Rowan Somerville for sentences such as "Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her" he has recently sold five times more books then expected. As a writer, he has now become a well known author often asks to speak in lectures.


Susanna Rustin then mentioned that the act of sex is something personal and that it is impossible to convey into a universal emotion, "Everyone understands it but various people will have different experiences towards it". She strongly critsis Tony Blair's "sexing up" Iraq's War documents as being insensitive and commercial. This strongly weakened Tony Blair's public image and most probably his professional image. Many authors loose themselves as they adventure themselves on a path of representing erotica for financial means. This is human nature but sadly it is taken at times too fare as it is impossible to convey the personal loss of self consciousness in the act of sex. Hence it can greatly damage the reputation or the actual literature story piece. More and more fiction novels are seen as "trashy" as the use of sex in novels is becoming a norm and no longer something explicit. According to Sarah Rustin, drugs is increasing becoming a subject of interest attracting financial incentives.

So what do you think? Do we admire the Boa Constrictor's strength or hate it for squeezing the life out of good Literature?    
 

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