tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post6576594891760384478..comments2024-03-28T03:49:08.924-04:00Comments on Books, Inq. — The Epilogue: Hmm ...Frank Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18410473158808750903noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-83025202023657884402011-11-28T02:20:54.088-05:002011-11-28T02:20:54.088-05:00Didn't Katie Roiphe write this column two year...Didn't Katie Roiphe write this column two years ago? The argument then was pretty damn feeble too. <br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/books/review/Roiphe-t.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1322464795-duYPYcyNxi5e7I+fqYwK+A<br /><br />Although your point is well taken, Frank, about sex being inherently absurd on the page.Edward Championhttp://www.edrants.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-56230578837917003532011-11-26T20:03:37.548-05:002011-11-26T20:03:37.548-05:00Years ago I read a bit of Miller, Quiet Days at Cl...Years ago I read a bit of Miller, <i>Quiet Days at Clichy</i> probably being the largest chunk. It struck me that somebody should have endowed a chair for him at a land-grant university, an A&M somewhere, for all his metaphors for female sexuality were agronomic, for male sexuality hydraulic.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-36480711947316558622011-11-26T16:04:29.294-05:002011-11-26T16:04:29.294-05:00Laughing uncontrollably at the last bit of the pos...Laughing uncontrollably at the last bit of the post :D:DVikram Johrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12016674284703056882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-52217619053089794792011-11-26T15:33:48.126-05:002011-11-26T15:33:48.126-05:00Try Claude Simon and Alain Robbe-Grillet - specifi...Try Claude Simon and Alain Robbe-Grillet - specifically "La Route des Flandres", "Histoire": "Projet pour une revolution a New-York"ANDROMACHEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11418162966627932256noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-23778969400200863282011-11-26T12:25:02.117-05:002011-11-26T12:25:02.117-05:00I guess it depends on whether the sex scenes in qu...I guess it depends on whether the sex scenes in question are intended to be literary (read: fine art literary, which is what that usually means), erotica (which can be explicit yet have literary merit), or pornography. A lot of male writers are really good at writing bad porn. But I can also list some who are good at sex scenes, be they literary or erotic; Samuel R. Delany comes to mind, so does Paul Monette. <br /><br />That's because they include the emotional and spiritual and psychological components of the experience of making love. Including those aspects of the experience, especially the emotional and psychological, is what I think this question of bad writing is really about. As you say, Miller included those things.<br /><br />As the old saying goes, "It's all about the lighting." Porn just talks about the act. Erotica talks about the feelings around the act. Literary sex scenes talk about the context, including how silly it all can appear to be. <br /><br />One of the greatest writers on sensuality and sex I've ever encountered was Octavio Paz. Maybe the original question ought to be reframed: Why are Anglo-Saxon men so bad at writing about sex? Certainly many men of Latin cultural descent do it much better. So this question is at least partly culturally bound, it seems.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-83306492129093455842011-11-26T10:10:15.048-05:002011-11-26T10:10:15.048-05:00Thank you, Frank. What sensible words (and after t...Thank you, Frank. What sensible words (and after the most senseless day of the year).Cynthia Havenhttp://bookhaven.stanford.edunoreply@blogger.com