Dazed and Confused

[kokopelle]

I was listening to the book "Incubus Dreams" by Laurell K. Hamilton. The book is supposed to be about Anita Blake, the heroine of the story, hunting down serial killer vampires. Well, I got up to CD #7 and all I heard was relationships, energy interaction that acted like sex, and actual sex. I had to leave the story when Anita was getting it on with her primary vampire lover. Based on the previous CDs, I could only surmise that the action was going to last another CD or two.

wulfwalker is a fan of the series that includes "Incubus Dreams". She did says that the novel was written like a bad porn movie - lots of hot & heavy with very little plot. She also said that the novel was not representative of the earlier books. Apparently the later books, this one included, became a big orgy with sexual encounters with more vampires and all sorts of were-creatures.

I am struck by a weird double-standard represented by this book. This is basically a soft-porn adult novel. Guys can buy such things, but we have to go to the "adult bookstore". The Laurell K. Hamilton books can be purchased at most any place selling novels, including chains like Wal*Mart. wulfwalker tells me that the field of "paranormal romance" is getting hotter and hotter. I'm not surprised as I've known people who loved "beastly" love making with a bit of vampire biting. The authors are feeding a need, but how are these adult novels remaining in the mainstream book outlets? I don't know.

Comments

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd rather see more adult literature in the mainstream; instead of the reverse where adult literature currently accepted in the mainstream is forced back into its 'adult bookstore' (or some equivalent) box.

Hamilton's stuff is essentially soft-core porn, but I must admit that is one of the things I like about it. Heh. But then I'm weird that way.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

I have many issues with that series (I am a member of lkh_lashouts, but my main issue is the fact that Hamilton is writing straight porn while trying in vain to pass her books off as urban fantasy. Honey, the urban fantasy part is long dead. It's just porn. And bad porn at that. Hamilton is getting burned out. She needs to end the series. It's sex interrupted by plot and it's getting worse. I feel sorry for her. Especially now that she is pushing her moral values into it. Creeps me out. I don't read the books anymore, just reviews and summaries. People are getting tired of it. If you are going to write hardcore porn, write hardcore porn, but don't try to pass it off as something else.

[elegy-of-flames.livejournal.com]

It's wish-fulfillment to an extreme degree. I've read some of the "paranormal romance" crap in an attempt to hunt down more urban fantasy, and was really shocked to find out that it's basically chick-lit with any supernatural elements serving as nothing more than a MacGuffin to get the female protagonist laid.

Tbh, whilst I think people have the right to read porn if they wish to, I find the stereotypes perpetuated by such "literature" - especially the ones with the "tall, dark, handsome alpha male (append vampire/werewolf/etc)" to be enormously offensive, in the gender roles it forces the readers into and in the fact that it seems to suggest any female interested in the occult is really just after some hot nonhuman cock. I don't know, maybe unconventional sexual habits are less marginalised if at least one of the participants is "not human", and therefore the same standards are not applicable to them?

Grrr. If you want urban fantasy, try Charles de Lint if you haven't already. Or this entire list.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

I was loaned a copy of that book by a friend who raved about it. I was bored stiff. It seemed to be sex stitched together with a few expository scenes. I lost interest about three chapters in, and gave the book back.

Bleah. I don't care for porn in any form- literature or otherwise. It bores the hell out of me. But I'm a techno-geek, and prefer good world-building and character studies, not bed-hockey with mythical critters.

In spite of my personal distaste for such things, I wonder if labeling them 'adult' would be pandering to the Puritanical bias in our culture? I'd see the label as a warning for me- to pass the material by. That would be worth a grown-up discussion.

[chimerae.livejournal.com]

I am a lifelong feminist. Many of my straigh "feminist" friends are active in the anti-porn movements, some through feminist mechanisms (one of these friends is a former president of NOW in a major city) and some through anti-abuse mechanisms.

Hamilton isn't porn because they are fierce anti-porn warriors . . .and they LIKE Hamilton. Thus, Hamilton is not porn Q.E.D.

And this and my insistance that responsibility matters means I am a traitor to my sex. Like I care.

http://www.ponderingpool.com/p_pool/newcards/card19.html

I don't talk to reporters or argue with drunks either.