Quote:
Originally Posted by abookreader
I'm not sure why you care what "women" think but I would define porn as something that is produced and consumed purely for the sexual thrill. Do you not understand that there are many men that read romance also or do you just not care about their opinions?
Romance is not porn although a good portion of them do describe the sexual act as part of the story and they can be titillating. Romance is about the relationship.
I think some would classify literary erotica as porn, although many of them also straddle the line of relationship development.
But as stated, when you are using the term porn simply to label it in a derogatory manner, then the conversation ends as far as I'm concerned because I'm really not all that put off by persons exploring sexual acts through literature - Not even Twilight inspired BDSM. If you aren't open minded enough to accept that such a book can shoot to the top of a bestseller list, well that is your right to sit there in your closed little box.
And as much as anybody wants to belittle the romance genre or even erotica, the power of the sheer numbers of readers of the genre and the sheer number of romance genre books sold makes "that dumb stupid stuff that nobody with more than 4 brain cells would want to read" crap just looks ignorant.
|
Let me start by stating that I unequivocably agree with pretty much everything you say. Yes, romance is an established, popular and valid literary genre and is clearly different to porn.
My only beef is with the argument in your final sentence. The equating of popular with good is just wrong. The most popular newspapers are not the best; by that logic, Dan Brown is one of the best modern writers and the best TV programs are all soaps and reality shows. You are correct, I just think your method of argument is flawed
