Jean Auel Earth Children - Tomorrow?

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

IIRC, wasn't "the signal" in the movie a sort of palm-to-palm gripping of the fingers on both hands?

(One thing I do recall from the movie-- a scene where Ayla is looking at her reflection in the pond, contemplating how "ugly" she is-- she turns away quickly while running away from herself, her short "dress" flies up, and-- uh, the costume is authentic in the lack of undies. And let's just say that Darryl Hannah does a very short but explicit moment of "presenting"...)

(That sound you hear is the male members of the forum quickly clicking over to Netflix.)

The movie was totally pathetic. There was a scene where Ayla and the women made fun of Broud after he gives her the signal and then can't go through with the act because she isn't fighting him anymore. The women laugh and imitate a penis becoming flaccid with a stick. It was just so wrong given the male-dominant culture with women that don't even speak without permission that Auel described. While the movie sucked from beginning to end, that bit was the part that pushed me over the edge.

-Marcy

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by Ea

I read the first four books when I was 18-19(? - thereabout), and I honestly can't remember there were that much sex in them or that it was all that explicit And given my age I think I ought to have remembered...

It was seriously explicit, at least once Ayla and Jondalar began with each other. There were a lot of euphenisms, like pink petals for labia. But every detail was described. Endlessly. Enough that I started skimming the sex scenes because they became just as tiresome as the long descriptions of chipping an adze from flint.

The first book didn't have any explicit sex, because it was all the Clan men giving the signal. It was probably hard to inject anything romantic into a cave girl squatting on command. No foreplay. No post-coital cuddling. And Ayla hasn't yet invented the cigarette.

-Marcy

[Ea]

I might have to read them again (or at least give them a try). I simply can't imagine having read the first four books (at least twice) without the sex scenes making much of an impression on me.

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

I seem to recall reading somewhere years ago that the reason why the explicit sex scenes increase as the series progress is that when Auel first went to a publisher with her books, she had book 1 complete with little explicit sex, book 2 in rough draft (still little explicit sex, but rough drafts get edited/rewritten, right?) and outlines for at least book 3, and possibly book 4. She didn't really want so many sex scenes, but the deal she made with her publisher was that she could leave them out of book 1 since it was already complete, but she had to add them to book 2 and ongoing so the books would sell better.

Or something along those lines, anyway. I don't recall when or where I read this as it was about 15 years ago or more, but it's likely out there somewhere.

I heard the opposite -- that the first book sold so shockingly well, Auel's second, third, and fourth books were left entirely up to her and saw little editing.

We'll never know for sure, but I remember a mistake in book two that seemed to indicate little editing (highlight to see the spoiler) :

A Huge Deal is made of the fact that Ayla doesn't understand the word "love" when Jondalar tells her he loves her. But about 40 pages prior to that scene, Ayla uses the word "love" herself when talking about his brother: "It's hard to lose someone you love that much."

[Bald Eagle]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

you missed the cave lion?

Indeed.
Somehow an animal you could ride on didn't exactly register as a cuddly cat...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Bald Eagle

Indeed.
Somehow an animal you could ride on didn't exactly register as a cuddly cat...

Reeeally big cuddles?

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Bald Eagle

Indeed.
Somehow an animal you could ride on didn't exactly register as a cuddly cat...

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Reeeally big cuddles?

well I have big cats so I guess it's all a cuddle away for me!

[abookreader]

I just finished up Valley of the Horses and I'll be moving onto The Mammoth Hunters later today.

I'm finding quite a few OCR errors in these books, but they are still better than my obtained from nefarious sources old set. I'm glad they were pretty cheap but I hope Book 6 is of a better quality.