Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Thoughts on Erotica



For the past several months I have been browsing my erotica library and rereading old favourites in search of spanking fiction to share with you. I've made some observations too, and here's what I found.

Much Victorian porn intertwines spanking with copulation to a greater or lesser extent. Sometimes, it's so intermixed that if I were to try to retain just the spanking and omit the rest, the result would be very disjointed and quite short. Not that there's anything wrong with sex. But this is a spanking blog, and I assume that people who come here want to read about spanking. I usually omit the steamy passages and cut to the chase.

The same Victorian porn also contains quite a few descriptions of children being spanked. That is outside the scope of this blog, and I will not post anything related to children.

The third strike against the Victorians is the frequent description of copious amounts of blood drawn during a punishment. That's too extreme for me. I find it a turn-off, not a turn-on. Fine if it happens accidentally, or is mentioned in passing. But the descriptions I have side-stepped talk about, well, let's say generous amounts of blood. The reason for this excess is to make the description more dramatic and exciting, because words are unable to match pictures for impact. Gerald and Caroline Greene, in their book S-M: The Last Taboo, explain it this way:



In the course of memory the actual pain gets buffered by the subconscious. In fantasy, in pornographic writings, it grows accordingly intense in order to compensate for the sheer physical loss involved. In fantasy pain has to be extreme to be brought forward again at all. Story of O is a case in point... A lot of what happened to O would have hospitalized a real woman for life... It is not the S-M story to read first, interesting as it is.


I don't agree with the need for excess; the right words can have plenty of impact. (And as I recall, Story of O was my first exposure to S-M literature.)

So, having said that, there's still quite a lot to be said for Victorian spanking erotica. I love the language, the society of the times, the clothing, the use of implements we don't commonly use today.

As for erotica in general, the language, choice of words and general writing styles vary greatly from author to author. Some writers are repetitive in their descriptions. What happens in one chapter happens again and again, with little variety. Some writers are more eloquent than others; this week's post is a good example of beautiful writing.

It's fun for me to reread long-forgotten passages and note the effect they have on me today. For the most part, they don't make much of one. Take 9 1/2 Weeks, for example. At one time I thought it was a revealing spanking novel. Upon rereading it, I could find very few actual spanking references. It was all innuendo. After having been exposed to so much other spanko writing on the internet, it seemed very tame by comparison.

Still, it's fun to reread and remember, and I will continue to do so until the top shelf is empty. That could take quite a while!




From Hermione's Heart

7 comments:

Karl Friedrich Gauss said...

I too read "Story of O" early on and found it was in many respects too much. I'm wondering how you feel about the Beauty trilogy. Does it have a place on your "top shelf"?

It'd be interesting to know what you consider the best in spanking literature. Were you by any chance following Alison Tyler's erotic memoir that she posted on her blog over the course of a year and a half a couple of years ago? For me, that was THE BEST spanking erotica I'd ever read.

Too bad it's offline now. I keep hoping to see it out in book form someday, although I realize that unless it's a multi-volume set, it's going to have to be an abridged version.

Hermione said...

Karl - I have the Beauty trilogy but have yet to read Beauty's Release. I simply can't relate to the fantasy world/fairy tale theme. I prefer reality-based fiction.

No, I missed Alison's memoir, unfortunately. On the whole, these days I prefer reading blogs and real people's spanking experiences to fiction.

Hugs,
Hermione

Karl Friedrich Gauss said...

I'm all for real life accounts myself. But I read the Beauty books before I discovered the internet.

Anonymous said...

I agree that books like 9 1/2 Weeks were once very titillating, but they just don't seem quite as steamy now that I've been exposed to so much more explicit content. And, I am not very happy with that state of affairs. Life was more exciting when so many more things got me, well, excited!

ronnie said...

Hermione, I've had "The Story of O" for a very long time and have only just recently read it or should I say started it but it was far too much for me, didn't finish it.

I'm finding the same as you I am drawn to real people's spanking blogs than fictional spankings books.

Enjoyed the post Hermione. Thank you.

Love,
Ronnie
xx

Anonymous said...

As we become more liberated, I hope you will delve more into the sexual aspect in accompaniment with the spanking. If I am not mistaken, it is a key part of your spanking desires, just like mine. Increasing our sex drive with our partner helps to make a much more loving relationship... so I hope you go for it girl... No one knows your real identity, so little to fear...
RED

Hermione said...

Red - Yes, spanking and sexuality are entwined for me, but many of the descriptions are far too explicit for me to enjoy reproducing them. I enjoy sexually titillating passages in moderation.

Hugs,
Hermione