Why I'll never get reviewed by the NY Times

The discussions that have gone on last week on various blogs but especially at Oh Get A Grip are important. These are erotic fiction writers attempting to grapple with the definitions of the genre, of where they situate themselves in the public sphere, of how erotic literature is perceived by the public, the critics and the academy. Many, many erotica writers – successful ones – don't mourn that their work will never be considered literary. They puzzle why there is minority of us who rage and kick and beat our heels against the floor about it. They are angry at us for what they see as a kind of 'class war'. Why should we – and the public, the critics and the academy -  place a higher value on literary fiction than on genre fiction. Post-modernism has attempted to level the field. To confiscate the authority of canon and critic and expert and proclaim the democratic will of the common man as arbiter of accomplishment, success, value.  And so, we are left with almost unreadable academic texts on the mythological aspects of WWWF and the sublime transcendence of authenticity in an amateur porn clip containing Paris Hilton. And, ironically, this [...]