EROTICA OR PORN: THAT IS THE QUESTION…OR IS IT?

picture capture credit: from the 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey

You say tomato, I say, shut the hell up about tomatoes already. Really, when it comes down to the oft considered distinction between erotica and porn, I have no idea what the difference is, and what’s more, I’m not even sure that there is a difference.

I have always felt that porn is more A-into-slot-B kind of stuff, where erotica fills in the gaps between those slots. Still, I can’t offer a definitive consideration of the differences; to me, it’s a subjective eye-of-the-beholder kind of a thing (and as Woody Allen said, “If the beholder is blind, just ask the guy next to you”).

Unless a publication you are trying to sell a story to sets a hard and fast distinction with their guidelines, or you know well from past readings of their stuff how intense/detailed downright dirty your story can get, I wouldn’t be too worried about what it is you are scribbling. As I told you in my first installment, write it, then worry about what it is later. I see all too often writers trying to fit their latest opus into a specific category, metaphorically battering round pegs into square holes of their prose trying to keep things in line with what they think they are creating. This worry puts unnecessary, and an all-too-early restriction on your writing.

Porn, erotica, a mix, and matching of a few genres, let it fly, I say, and who cares, really, in the end, what it turns out to be?

Let me tell you a little story…

E.L. James, the writer of the super-popular Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, began that saga as fan fiction. She simply let fly her fevered imaginings across a “Twilight” series fan fiction page online but was told right quickly, that she couldn’t be appropriating the characters from that popular vampire/werewolf series in the way she was (if she ever hoped to do more with her scribbling in a professional manner). So, she excised the “Twilight” peeps and tropes, recreating an original tale and soon…well, the rest is history. The point here is that E.L. did not worry so much about what she was creating. However, she was metaphorically spanked over it later (and given what she writes about, one could assume she likes a good spanking, real or otherwise), and her further tweaking led to unimagined success.

I don’t think she ever much cared what it was she was typing, be it erotica or porn, let alone even if it was completely original, at least at first (and to be sure, this writing in the style of or even using characters and settings from an author you love is an ok way of beginning to build your writing muscles; just don’t try and pass these efforts off as original).

In the end, defining words like porn and erotica is akin to using a word like ‘kinky.’ A spanking between one couple might be the high-water mark of the wildest action either person has ever managed in their sex play. To others, it is a mere usual Tuesday night after-dinner activity. So, really, can we settle on a specific definition of what kinky means, when it seems the word would mean something different for each person? And as with what you might think is kinky as opposed to what I might, I can’t very well tell you what you will think is erotica. 

I’m not trying to be obtuse. I realize that I can’t sell a hot and heavy story (and even there, our definitions of ‘hot’ and ‘heavy’ are probably different) to The Saturday Evening Post when that particular publication’s readership is pretty much G-rated for families. What I am on about here is the consideration, first and foremost, if what you are creating is erotica or porn, what actually is erotica vs. porn, and should any of us care about the difference when creating erotica or porn?

The world needs both, as far as I’m concerned.

Porn or erotica, let’s call the whole thing off. Just write.

 

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