Literature is About Sex

[Katie-Ellen]

I like the new front page. I'd tweet it if there was a button. As there isn't, or at least, not at this time, maybe @AgentPete doesn't want it tweet-able.

On the new front page, Peter says that Literature is mostly About Sex, which gives me pause for thought.

So much hinges on it; sex as procreation is Life itself. Garden birds fight, even to the death in the case of robins, for territory. Without territory, the male bird won't get a mate. Death preoccupies Literature, as the frame of the canvas that is a life, and that canvas hangs next to other canvases, wall after wall in a continuing if not endless exhibition.

Life, Death, Sex and Desire, Identity, Territory, Belonging, Friendship....what would you say is the key central theme of your work in progress, or your finished work, if you had to put it in a nutshell? What are the experiences of the human condition that occupy your thinking, that made you want to write?

 

[Marc Joan]

The bitter-sweet permanence and transience of memory. And spooky stuff.

 

[1408]

Nice post! I appreciate seeing anything that makes me try and think about what I've written as a whole and not as, well, this -->

From the words you've listed I'd say: Identity, Territory (with this comes Desire, I guess), and Friendship.

Honestly, I suppose something that was in the back of my mind a lot while I was writing was hypocrisy. Which is kind of weird given I wrote a fantasy book for children.

 

[Carol Rose]

Love conquers all.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Identity, love, loss, re-orientation. Interfaces of differing perceptions and realities. People as rocks or chameleons.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Nice post! I appreciate seeing anything that makes me try and think about what I've written as a whole and not as, well, this -->

From the words you've listed I'd say: Identity, Territory (with this comes Desire, I guess), and Friendship.

Honestly, I suppose something that was in the back of my mind a lot while I was writing was hypocrisy. Which is kind of weird given I wrote a fantasy book for children.

Kinship, and our wildness within seems to be among your deep preoccupations, as well.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

The bitter-sweet permanence and transience of memory. And spooky stuff.

Marc, if you had to choose whether to see sunrises for the rest of your days, or sunsets, facing east OR west, how might you choose?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I like the new front page. I'd tweet it if there was a button. As there isn't, or at least, not at this time, maybe @AgentPete doesn't want it tweet-able.

On the new front page, Peter says that Literature is mostly About Sex, which gives me pause for thought.

So much hinges on it; sex as procreation is Life itself. Garden birds fight, even to the death in the case of robins, for territory. Without territory, the male bird won't get a mate. Death preoccupies Literature, as the frame of the canvas that is a life, and that canvas hangs next to other canvases, wall after wall in a continuing if not endless exhibition.

Life, Death, Sex and Desire, Identity, Territory, Belonging, Friendship....what would you say is the key central theme of your work in progress, or your finished work, if you had to put it in a nutshell? What are the experiences of the human condition that occupy your thinking, that made you want to write?

Someone once said that every love song is really about fucking, which if you consider the morality and censorship in place when pop and rock and roll emerged in the 1950s would make sense. For instance, Little Richard's Tutti Frutti had some rather too explicit lyrics in the original version, which went :
"Tutti Frutti, good booty
If it don't fit, don't force it
You can grease it, make it easy"
They were replaced with:
"Tutti Frutti, aw rooty
Tutti Frutti, aw rooty."

Sex is most definitely a part of life, and can be used by a writer as a useful barometer of the state of play of a relationship, and how that affects a character's interaction with the world.

My novel The Perfect Murderer is about several themes, including trust of friends, family, colleagues and strangers. I also tackled how people with mental health issues cope and get through life. I have a depressed detective, a fantasist serial killer who has been warped by war atrocities and a psychopathic and homicidal member of the establishment. None of these three have sex lives - largely out of choice, as for various reasons they don't want to let anybody that close to them.

Several of my supporting characters do have active sex lives, though I allude to their pleasure in passing, rather than making things explicit. I also included a key witness who has what is known as a paraphilia - an unusual sexual fixation on something. I put this in, partly for comic relief and to alter the gruesome atmosphere of the narrative. I needed a way to explain why my lorry driver had been at two murder scenes, and his strange turn-on provided some much needed humour. It's not so much phwoar in atmosphere, as huh, do people really do that?

After I wrote it, I had the thought that readers would make the assumption that this kink was what I'm into! We all tend to do this with anything erotic. Who hasn't looked at E.L. James and thought really? There's also the potential drawback that my novel will be remembered only for this bit of deviancy - ah well, it's better to have them talking about you, than not at all.

 

[Marc Joan]

Marc, if you had to choose whether to see sunrises for the rest of your days, or sunsets, facing east OR west, how might you choose?

What a fascinating question! I’m not sure if I can give a coherently reasoned answer. My gut response is that I’d rather have the sunset view. Does that mean I’m backward-looking? I think I just associate sunsets with a bit of relief at the end of a hard day, whereas a sunrise speaks of travails to come. Not sure! How about you?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

What a fascinating question! I’m not sure if I can give a coherently reasoned answer. My gut response is that I’d rather have the sunset view. Does that mean I’m backward-looking? I think I just associate sunsets with a bit of relief at the end of a hard day, whereas a sunrise speaks of travails to come. Not sure! How about you?

It's a facer. On the one hand, dawn = hope (?) RESURGAM. But then, so that they may face the rising sun'... Christianity points the feet of the dead to the east. And maybe not just Christiamity.
On the other hand, 'there's a feeling I get, when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving....'

Lands of the summer people.

I grew up in the north-east with sunrise on the sea. Now I live in the north-west with sunset over the sea. I think I'll have to choose west, Marc, and sunset.

Evanescence holds all manner of possibilities, as well as farewells. It is the precursor to a new dawn. Even if that dawn is an Unknown, as in, conciousness surviving physicality, the seeming impossibilities of this being so; the other side of Death.

Whether the journey of the unborn is any less spooky, I doubt.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Several of my supporting characters do have active sex lives, though I allude to their pleasure in passing, rather than making things explicit. I also included a key witness who has what is known as a paraphilia - an unusual sexual fixation on something. I put this in, partly for comic relief and to alter the gruesome atmosphere of the narrative. I needed a way to explain why my lorry driver had been at two murder scenes, and his strange turn-on provided some much needed humour. It's not so much phwoar in atmosphere, as huh, do people really do that?

After I wrote it, I had the thought that readers would make the assumption that this kink was what I'm into! We all tend to do this with anything erotic. Who hasn't looked at E.L. James and thought really? There's also the potential drawback that my novel will be remembered only for this bit of deviancy - ah well, it's better to have them talking about you, than not at all.

I'd read it and think, well, as they say, nowt to queer as folk. I wouldn't think you were into it. When one considers all the peculiar and sometimes disgusting things that happen in fiction...eeeh, it's enough to put you off your tea. I've looked up death by drowning, decomposition in water, how long does DNA last, do faces really turn green, and other unpleasant things....Any adult writer's search history could make for pretty colourful reading, I suppose.

 

[AgentPete]

FYI, actually a quote from Anthony Burgess, I take no credit. And mostly just proof-of-concept that the top trumpet area can be customizable. Watch out for quotes-of-the-day...!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

The quote set hares away. Job done.....

 

[Meerkat]

Mine is probably about the fact that we are all essentially alone and that society is basically a bunch of rats in a cage.

Yeah, I'm not a very optimistic writer.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I'd read it and think, well, as they say, nowt to queer as folk. I wouldn't think you were into it. When one considers all the peculiar and sometimes disgusting things that happen in fiction...eeeh, it's enough to put you off your tea. I've looked up death by drowning, decomposition in water, how long does DNA last, do faces really turn green, and other unpleasant things....Any adult writer's search history could make for pretty colourful reading, I suppose.

Given that we're all on Big Brother's watch list these days, I can't help but wonder how many writers are on governmental shit lists. Writing is often treated as a subversive activity anyway, and with the keyword algorithms that snoops use to identify people with dodgy search histories, then there must be many an author who's aroused suspicion.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Loneliness is part and parcel of the human condition; occasional, temporary or all the time. It needs writing about.

 

[Meerkat]

Given that we're all on Big Brother's watch list these days, I can't help but wonder how many writers are on governmental shit lists. Writing is often treated as a subversive activity anyway, and with the keyword algorithms that snoops use to identify people with dodgy search histories, then there must be many an author who's aroused suspicion.

I've had to google some strange stuff. Sometimes I've forgotten to use Safe Search.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Given that we're all on Big Brother's watch list these days, I can't help but wonder how many writers are on governmental shit lists. Writing is often treated as a subversive activity anyway, and with the keyword algorithms that snoops use to identify people with dodgy search histories, then there must be many an author who's aroused suspicion.

Could be. I understand from a UK Police officer dealing with anti- terrorism, that the Police do share 'dodgy' lists culled via FB, though they simply don't have the resources to do anything about them, except note them, unless it looks as if they're actually about to do something. If then.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I've had to google some strange stuff. Sometimes I've forgotten to use Safe Search.

 

[Jennifer Stone]

I'd say my book is about learning to be comfortable with yourself, by accepting and embracing every aspect of your character. Something I had to do when I left home and had to start thinking for myself, no mummy and daddy to bail me out of trouble. Not that I needed bail or anything lol. I left home at the age of 21, couldn't cook, sew, iron, I had no idea how to pay bills or what food I should be buying. I had to learn to be independent and self confident, thankfully I had my now hubby to guide me along the way.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Ahhh. 21 is an adult but still such a baby in some ways. The quest of self arrival. Stories are perhaps all about quests when it comes down to it.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Given that we're all on Big Brother's watch list these days, I can't help but wonder how many writers are on governmental shit lists. Writing is often treated as a subversive activity anyway, and with the keyword algorithms that snoops use to identify people with dodgy search histories, then there must be many an author who's aroused suspicion.

I am positive the US FBI has a list out there somewhere with my name on it. Between all of the random Google searches on how to kill people and the books I buy online (ahem, "the book of poisons"), I'm definitely on a list.

 

[Jason Byrne]

I am positive the US FBI has a list out there somewhere with my name on it. Between all of the random Google searches on how to kill people and the books I buy online (ahem, "the book of poisons"), I'm definitely on a list.

YUP.
"Good evening, Ma'am — Homeland Security, how are you doing tonight? Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"

 

[Nicole Wilson]

YUP.
"Good evening, Ma'am — Homeland Security, how are you doing tonight? Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"

One of my main characters is an FBI agent and her and my other MC get shot at, so I believe I have two successive google searches of "do FBI vehicles have bulletproof glass" and "what bullets penetrate bulletproof glass" plus I watched a YouTube video right after that of shattering bulletproof glass so.... yeah, I'm expecting a visit at any time now.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

We'll, um, vouch for you, Nicole.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

We'll, um, vouch for you, Nicole.

Haha! Thanks. Not sure how far recommendations from other people with questionable google searches will go, but every bit counts

 

[Jason Byrne]

One of my main characters is an FBI agent and her and my other MC get shot at, so I believe I have two successive google searches of "do FBI vehicles have bulletproof glass" and "what bullets penetrate bulletproof glass" plus I watched a YouTube video right after that of shattering bulletproof glass so.... yeah, I'm expecting a visit at any time now.

Yeah... those are tacked up on their office "best of" cork board, at least....

 

[Katie-Ellen]

We would be what is known in our line of work as, unreliable witnesses.

 

[Jason Byrne]

"Democratic Republic of Congo" and "Libya" show up a lot on mine, but luckily their followed by stuff like "hierarchy of djinn," "Mokele-Mbembe," "jungle survival," and "taxidermy using animal brain."

 

[Nicole Wilson]

"Democratic Republic of Congo" and "Libya" show up a lot on mine, but luckily their followed by stuff like "hierarchy of djinn," "Mokele-Mbembe," "jungle survival," and "taxidermy using animal brain."

Yeah, you might be on their "watch" list, but I don't think those make the "best of". But as soon as you start mentioning diamonds and revolutions and the like, you can come join the big boys