tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post7320710368837811049..comments2024-03-26T16:31:13.865-07:00Comments on Mark Lawrence: SexMark Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16877925828353073272noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-68172791667650956252022-12-11T09:30:57.689-08:002022-12-11T09:30:57.689-08:00I fucking hate sex scenes in any media. Sex is the...I fucking hate sex scenes in any media. Sex is the most basic bitch, normie, zero-accomplishment thing people can do (and, related, having a child - oh, only everyone's ancestors in history have done this, so interesting!). I am fucking angry at how often he interrupts the plot for his faggot ass sex scenes and boring-ass navel gazing. I'm about to fucking delete the audiobook because I'm tired of this bullshit.<br />I read fantasy for war, philosophy, ubermensch protagonists and magic; I don't give the putrid shit of a dead dog about your literotica wank, you dumb cunt.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-39024631945989510992015-07-21T23:43:58.597-07:002015-07-21T23:43:58.597-07:00This is a great post, Mark - glad someone shared i...This is a great post, Mark - glad someone shared it again on FB. (Plus i'm going to have to carry on reading now to get to *that* scene*.<br /><br />I'm not sure what the psychology is behind the somewhat puritanical aversion to non-violent, consentual sex in fantasy, While GRRM goes into some fairly graphic detail on the non-consentual and the paid-for-in-coin variety, he's hardly the first to reference itin fantasy, and as far as I can tell, fantasy readers don't object. So why the aversion to the very normal, loving kind?<br /><br />Sure, if it's just a case of keeping the camera running rather than fading to black, perhaps it doesn't move the plot forward - but it certainly moves the characters forward! And that would also hardly make it gratuitous, not if compared side-by-side with other elements frequently found in fantasy where it is also questionable how far those details move the plot forward.<br /><br />I think my biggest gripe is this: I see alot of comments on fantasy sites where readers praise the "realism" of a given book or author - but somehow, loving, or at least moderately friendly, sex doesn't make the cut as realistic? <br /><br />Bizarre logic.<br /><br /><br />Piper McDermothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14601455867413178175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-84341251320371526152015-06-26T05:49:46.722-07:002015-06-26T05:49:46.722-07:00That's funny - Zachary Jernigan and I were dis...That's funny - Zachary Jernigan and I were discussing sex in epic fantasy earlier this month, and there was quite a bit of discussion around it when he stopped by for an <a href="http://beauty-in-ruins.blogspot.ca/2015/06/talking-sex-mythology-with-zachary.html" rel="nofollow">interview</a> on Monday. Like Mr. Martin, he made the comment "Frankly, I'm far more comfortable with a person who loves reading about sex than someone who loves reading about dismemberment."Bob/Sallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07830145891314387373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-13662076898116349492015-06-26T05:10:42.656-07:002015-06-26T05:10:42.656-07:00I haven't read your books, Mark, but in GRRM&#...I haven't read your books, Mark, but in GRRM's case, sex vs. violence is something of a false dichotomy. The scenes in his books that cause the most controversy tend to be sexual violence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-77720022209776161312015-06-25T09:38:16.106-07:002015-06-25T09:38:16.106-07:00If I read the word 'sexy' in a blurb or de...If I read the word 'sexy' in a blurb or description I'm out.Charlie Hhttp://www.areadingmachine.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-57478757193676172322015-01-16T19:44:45.625-08:002015-01-16T19:44:45.625-08:00I already like your writing quite a bit but using ...I already like your writing quite a bit but using the sex part of "The Sex Pistols" raises you onto an playing field very very few authors can claim. Shawnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08079639507582130489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-66904508110996503732015-01-14T04:57:26.244-08:002015-01-14T04:57:26.244-08:00Luckily the grimdark genre has some promise. R. Sc...Luckily the grimdark genre has some promise. R. Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing series has graphic sex scenes which actually have a place in the plot, unlike GRRM's meaningless sex scenes. They are also quite well written. I think the more authors disregard the puritanist religious mentality around, the better. I might include romance/sex scenes in my own trilogy, if my characters want so, since they write the story and not me. I'd include it if it was up to me, though.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16395877246343368097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-76589643793147986392015-01-08T13:49:00.404-08:002015-01-08T13:49:00.404-08:00It has been interesting to me how the Romance (sof...It has been interesting to me how the Romance (soft porn) industry was able to hop over to a fantasy genre but God(s) forbid should we add sex to Fantasy. I get real tired of trying to find a well written, non-repetitive, multifaceted character laden book to get my girly romance fix in the Romance section of the book store when it is a lost cause. I also know (am related to) a great number of religious extremists that tell me I am going to hell for having Harry Potter books whose very own book shelves are lined with Romance novels. WTH?<br /> Give me a good Fantasy/Sci Fi by a good writer and add the sex of a romance and that would be the perfect book for me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-71023942670770275522015-01-05T12:13:05.180-08:002015-01-05T12:13:05.180-08:00As a longtime reader of smut and romance and havin...As a longtime reader of smut and romance and having tried my hand at writing short stories that included sex scenes, I should say... I laud whoever is brave enough to try to write them. Sex scenes are very hard to write (excruciatingly hard) and more often than not a fade to black will work wonders. Yikes! I hate writing sex scenes.<br />Here is my masterwork: "Insert Tab A into Slot B, rinse and repeat. Have cows rate your performance*"<br /><br />*Inspired on the cow sex scene mentioned by Mr. Lawrence.<br />Vivianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17107996719996980748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-53585415508332262012015-01-04T11:37:12.555-08:002015-01-04T11:37:12.555-08:00I think it is more than accuracy though. When the ...I think it is more than accuracy though. When the Hot Coffee mod came out for GTA, someone made the observation that shooting people in the face with an Uzi was perfectly fine but pixelated breasts was enough to get a game torn off the shelves. We glorify violence, both in sports and in fiction. At the same time, we vilify sexuality as something shameful and disgusting.D. Moonfirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18331660237407942890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-80818877504555530782015-01-04T08:32:38.293-08:002015-01-04T08:32:38.293-08:00It might come from a similar mind set as 'viol...It might come from a similar mind set as 'violent video games encourage violence from the players', that publicising sex encourages sex.<br /><br />But this mind set is countered by the argument that a reasonable person can surely separate their light entertainment and their physical entertainment.<br /><br />In the same way that you can write about a dog being brutally murdered but don't actually kill dogs or otherwise maim domestic pets yourself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-71762646017250375992015-01-04T07:18:42.016-08:002015-01-04T07:18:42.016-08:00I think an additional issue is that stories are ad...I think an additional issue is that stories are advanced by conflict, peril and resolution. Since these are generally less likely to be elements in sex scenes, there is less narrative justification for any excess of detail and so greater risk of sex scenes being clearly gratuitous.<br /><br /><br />Fight scenes do have much more of an element of "will (s)he/won't (s)he how will (s)he survive this?" tension, which justifies a little axe thudding detail to flesh out the mechanics of the scene of conflict, (just as you would fill in ideas of colour, sound etc to fill in the context in any other scene in a book)<br /><br /><br />That said, some battle scenes do have over-blown details blow after samey-blow which does just get a bit tedious and looks like gore for gore's sake.TOMunrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16765922761332758600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-87795756628989329482015-01-04T06:25:59.590-08:002015-01-04T06:25:59.590-08:00I don't know, Mark. Is it because sex is a mor...I don't know, Mark. Is it because sex is a more universal action than violence? Maybe, but the prudishness about sex I think is a holdover from previous rounds of social mores (Victorian, Puritan) that have influenced and guided our current culture. It's not innate, I think, to human biology, but in a Oswald Spengler sort of Civilizational descendance, our current culture's reaction to sex is based on the previous ones. But it wasn't always so!<br /><br />Consider how much sexual material Bowdler had to, and tried to, remove from Shakespeare, for instance. <br /><br />Paul Weimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-16713128143784751412015-01-04T06:21:19.441-08:002015-01-04T06:21:19.441-08:00Yep, the puritanical streak, especially of America...Yep, the puritanical streak, especially of Americans, is beyond tiresome.Ted Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09022309459554237650noreply@blogger.com