on sex scenes
Kristy of Sexy Grammar sent me this outstanding article last week from the Guardian.
I felt an immediate kinship with the writer. Especially this part:
‘More than this, surely it is absurd to claim that a central activity of human life, a territory of feeling and drama, is off-limits to art. Sex is a uniquely useful tool for a writer, a powerful means not just of revealing character or exploring relationships, but of asking the largest questions about human beings.” Garth Greenwell
I have no problem with the intentional artistic choice to not write about a topic. Like a painter choosing to use only black and white with, perhaps, one orange touch, restraint can be beautiful. Structure and rules can be freeing, especially when the artist plays within those guidelines. (“Oh, that’s the painter who only uses black, white, and one color.”) Hell, they can define a brand. A whole motif. A reason why people like your craft.
What does concern me is either inner or outer censorship. Those times when one wants to explore something artistically but doesn’t do so because of fear of what someone else thinks. Fear of judgment. Fear of being chased out of town by angry villagers yielding pitchforks and burning torches. Fear of being shunned.
Especially when that topic one wants to artistically explore is plain old sex.
Like money, like religion, like politics, sex can get our goat. It can light us up on fire and provoke emotional—and often irrational—responses.
I think that’s the point. I think that’s why it’s fascinating and fun.
As a romance writer, I just happen to be a serious fan of writing sex scenes. If I write love stories, and it’s a way of showing love, then by my way of thinking, not writing them simply because someone else might think it’s wrong is not okay—at least not for me. (Not writing them for an artistic reason is something entirely different.)
I understand some readers may not want them, the way I don’t want to watch seriously violent movies or horror. Not my thing. Sexy scenes don’t have to be your thing either.
But marrying the sacred and profane bits of sex? To me that’s where all the emotion is in my stories, and I wholeheartedly love it.
What about you? What do you think?
