I added an O T to the subject line because this really doesn't have anything to do with proofreading and submitting and even though I am one of those who has decried the cluttering of the list with off topic messages I am still a highly opinionated person who has a hard time refraining from participating. I want to say that the message to which I am directly replying reflects my feelings about sex and violence in books exactly. It is neither here nor there for me, per se, and I actually have a hard time understanding why some people find it so objectionable, especially the sex. Let's face it, it is something that nearly everybody does at one time or another. About the only people who get through life without sex are those who die very young before they have a chance to have sex and if they do that then it is likely that they have to die pretty young indeed. It was only recently that a woman was casually telling me about her first experience with sex. She was eight years old and had sex with her nine-year-old femalefriend. In other words, sex is a shared experience, so why does anyone think it has to be treated like some big secret and be made offended or uncomfortable by the very mention of it. I really fail to understand such attitudes. Even so, though, sometimes the sex in a book can seem out of place. I recall that in Stephen King's "It" there is plenty of violence, but no sex in the 1137 page book until nearly the end. Then a sex scene is inserted in a spot that seemed to be particularly unsexy. I was left wondering what on earth that was for. I suppose that was an example of gratuitous sex. Then more recently I read a book called "When Wizards Rule." It is in the Bookshare collection and I wrote a review for it. It is a fantasy novel, but it is more accurately a sex novel. There is so much sex that it is hard to follow the plot. It is about on par with the books I was in charge of selling back when I was a clerk in a certain bookstore called The Pleasure Island Bookstore, a porn shop. Honestly, that stuff is boring. However, boring as it may be, I really don't see how it could be offensive or how it could make anyone uncomfortable. Also, as I pointed out, if you remove the sex from a novel and consider the rest then what do you have left? For the most part, if a book has a lot of descriptions of sex in it, you don't have much. The plots tend to be weak and there is not much else to praise the book for. Unfortunately, though, the exceptions show that this does not have to be true. It is by no means necessary to combine poor writing with descriptions of sex. It just happens that it is usually done. Perhaps it is because the point to the book is the sex rather than a story.
_ _ _ "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the world" Virginia Woolf The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html----- Original Message ----- From: "Ali Al-Hajamy" <aalhajamy@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 1:26 AMSubject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Mindless frivolityRE: Re: 2 questions for the gang
Hi, For whatever reason the beginning of this discussion never reached my inbox, but I get the general idea, and figured I would just put my opinion out there. I don't like sexual content in books, and I don't dislike it either, if that makes any sense. Same goes for violence and strong language. Although in the case of language, I do dislike it if it makes the dialogue seem unrealistic. I seriously doubt that someone who is robbing a bank and pointing a gun at someone is going to say, "I'm gonna blow your goshdarned head off, you raskel!" In any case, back to my point. If sex, violence, and language is in the book, I won't skip past it, nor will I be repulsed by it, but I also won't read a book just for that content. In my opinion, it is just part of the book, and I have no issue with it. That having been said, it can get annoying after a while, especially the sex. I understand that sex is perfectly natural, and that most people will, at some point in their lives, have it, but it just seems quite pointless to rehash the same activity over and over again, unless it is a romantic or erotic novel, in which case, that is more or less the main point of the book. On 02/03/2010, Kim Friedman <kimfri11@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Speaking for myself, I don't care for sex or violence if it's gratuitous, i.e., when there's no reason for it. In romance novels I get, you pretty much know that sex will come up at some point in the story because of thefeelings of the protagonists. I can accept this as it fits. I really like it if there's genuine caring going on and sex is used to show there is not onlydesire but some sense of commitment and caring occurring. I feel uncomfortable when there's coldness and nastiness being praised. It distresses me when people are heartless toward each other and sex is a weapon. I also think it depends on what the author is trying to do in thestory. If violence is used but is not regarded as glorious then I think it's there for a purpose. I do have problems with some of James Patterson's books because he overdoes the psychopathic killer thing. I don't like this "Wellif you have one serial killer in the novel to scare the bejabers out of people, why not have two or more." This is overkill. I suppose that's why I'm unwilling to read horror novels. I don't like anything too gruesome. If I can't find something I like about the author's characters, it'sprobable I might not care for the book. If the writing's good, the story'sgood, and I care about the characters, I'll read a book even though I may not care for the language or there's descriptions of sex or violence. Regards, Kim. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shannon Curry Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 9:29 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: 2 questions for the gang I'd just like to put my vote out there for mindless frivolity. I enjoy itall--strong language, explicit sex, all of it. I figure there are volunteersout there who are better at reading and proofing serious work. Me, I likefluff. I can read more of it, and I read enough serious required texts thatI feel no guilt about asking for an explicit romance novel to proof. Shannon At 08:41 PM 2/26/2010, Roger Loran Bailey wrote:I am going to have to agree with you on that one. I have nothing against sex scenes and I have nothing against the very most graphic and explicit sex scenes, per se. But how many body parts rubbing against how many body parts described in how many ways can there be anyway. It also happens that the more sex scenes and the more explicit the sex scenes there are in a book the less interested in it I am likely to be. That is because the book as a whole is likely to not have much depth to it. That is to say, they tend to be mindless frivolity.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list ofavailable commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signaturedatabase 4903 (20100228) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signaturedatabase 4907 (20100302) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list ofavailable commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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