 Super Newbie

Joined: Mar 04, 2008 Posts: 2
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I realize that this might be a dead topic, but seeing it made me start to think, as a writer and as a reader.
Anne Rice's Vampire novels and the Sleeping Beauty triology. The SB books were straight up erotica, with a vivid storyline but blantent sex, and very graphic sex to boot. The vampire novels could be looked at as a type of erotic novel in that there is a sensualness to it felt by the characters.
That said she is still one of my favorite authors. I am also a big fan of Marion Zimmer-Bradley the author of Mysts of Avalon as well as many other books. Mysts was a King Arthur story but it had some sexy scenes in it, and they fit the book as well as the storytelling of it. I have also read some books from newer authors, who seem to be putting more detail into sex scenes than every before. One book I picked up actually shocked me at the language, with F bombs being dropped and slang terms for body parts being used. Not that I object to these things, but I wasn't expecting it when I first read it.
To me the sex scenes, whether in a labled erotic novel or in a regular novel, do not make the book. What makes a book for me good, is it's ability to transport me into those characters world...for me to feel what the characters are feeling...for me to completely lose the fact that I am reading a book! I want the words to transport, to come to life off the page and in my mind. If the sex scene is well written and fits the story, then it belongs there, detail and all. If it appears, like some movies do, to just be thrown in there for the sake of having a sex scene, then it does nothing for the book and shows that the writers wasn't all that good.
I am re-reading Mysts of Avalon for the fourth time, in hopes of picking up on some of her writing skills, but I find myself so drawn into the book that I can't focus on how the sentences are structured or what kind of wording is used! To me this is a sign of a great book, sex scenes and all.
Jennifer |
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