Critical Discourse: Erotica and Why We Can’t Get No Respect
*Warning: Public Spanking*
Back in early May, I wrote a post on why I felt having a ‘Best Male Erotica’ anthology was important to the genre as a whole. I said I felt that it was vital to the genre to have new, original male voices. It generated many thoughtful, interesting comments. One, however, stood out as unselfconsciously ironic.
Goodwriter
May 9, 2013 at 11:40 pmTry the new erotic romance WUTHERING NIGHTS, written by I.J. Miller, a male writer. It’s an erotic retelling of the Bronte classic Wuthering Heights.
I decided to ignore the fact that, considering the title and content of the post, the comment was a little comic. Since Wuthering Heights was originally written by a woman and erotic enough. I also decided to ignore what might be considered the rudeness of using my comment function for blatant sales promotion. Instead, I replied thus:
Wow, this is exactly NOT what I was hoping to engender in the erotica community. Because we so don’t need YET ANOTHER UNORIGINAL RETELLING of a classic tale with the sex dumped in. Wuthering Heights in its original form is an erotic masterpiece.
The commenter who I assume is in some way associated with the I.J. Miller, author of said ‘retelling’, responded:
Goodwriter
June 7, 2013 at 11:16 amSo sad that a fellow writer would label something an “unoriginal retelling” without having read the book. I’m sure you must really appreciate when people make judgments about you the same way.
I’m guessing Goodwriter and I.J. Miller may be one and the same person, since he took my criticism so personally. I never made a judgement about the writer at all. I made a judgement about what I didn’t think the genre required. Nonetheless, it would have been completely disingenuous to deny that I make judgements about the genre. I do, frequently. And so I responded:
I have no problem with doing so. I have a real ethical problem with retold, sexed up classics and particularly with Wuthering Heights because it is already overflowing eroticism. And if you haven’t noticed, I’m a VERY judgmental writer.
I do not give people cause to make those judgements about me, because I would never have the temerity to think that Ms Brontë needed retelling. The current postmodern fascination with recycling canonical literature disgusts me.
Still, I did feel that perhaps a longer explanation of why I disagreed with the practice of sexing-up classic literature was due and wrote a post about it. However, the commenter still felt the need to respond, and he did:
Goodwriter
June 9, 2013 at 11:06 amYou certainly do give people cause to see you as a sad jealous writer…
Right about now, it’s probably dawning on you why I put the warning at the top of this post. Yes, this is indeed a public spanking. Not of the commenter in particular, but of the level of discourse that pervades the erotica and erotic romance genre presently.
I have an opinion on certain literary practices; I’m entitled to hold that opinion and yet am very willing to hear rational, informed arguments to the contrary. What I am not entitled to do is personally attack a writer for indulging a practice I disagree with. There are quite a number of works within the erotica genre I find lacking in literary merit; I’ve also been harshly critical of certain types of formulaic erotic romance writing and some very narrow-focused types of fetish writing. But I never, ever attack the author personally. I critique the work, not the author. They are not one and the same anymore than a bad piece of plumbing is reflective of the personal character of the plumber.
Erotica writers, if you wish to be taken seriously within the literary community, please learn how to offer proper critique, not only to works, but to your fellow writers. Our inability to distinguish between our work and ourselves is professionally embarrassing. It makes us look bad, in a genre that already suffers greatly from a lack of literary respect.
* * Public Spanking Ends * *
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Most of my review of the rewrite centered on how wonderful the original was. But I possibly regret that I did not center more on why the rewrite is basically unethical.
I actually was kind on my review. I waffled between a 2 and 3 star rating (rated as 2.5 stars) and was actually pretty restrained with my review and comments.
Basically, I told readers to read the original 1st for FREE via Guttenberg or Amazon, etc. And why the original was better and how the things they object to were part of the times and actually pivotal to the theme and story.
I also pointed out that the "new" story is basically a classic fan fiction but even more invasive than a Twilight fan fiction for example, as in this case they have taken the original author's pose and copied and edited it wholesale. Dialogue was changed, scenes were dropped, character relationships altered, etc. - in addition to the addition of explicit erotica sex scenes. - which in total changed the basic story and theme.
I am frankly horrified that most of the readers did not read the original, and as the rewrite had no specific red lines or notes, they attributed the bulk of the preexisting author's prose to the revisionist!
The revisionist author was insulted that I was attacking their reputation. I let them know that they had a reputation for their original work and many of my GR friends liked them. But I had an issue with this work specifically.
I have to wonder, and frankly worry, about whether this author intends to do more classic erotic rewrites. I sincerely hope not. To do so really would I believe continue to damage this author's reputation in the long run. And frankly, few if any author's will respect this, as it is similar to stealing another artists work and frankly just unethical.