Friday BlogORama!
May
5
2006

So Stella Cameron sort of talks about the difference between erotica and literary porn at the Running With Quills blog. It is my general impression that she’s knocking erotica/romantica but I’m not entirely sure and I read the darned thing three times. It sort of meanders.

But this paragraph is what gives me the perception – “And I’ll stoutly announce that while one story of pornography/erotica (Why don’t we drop “erotica” which is meant to soften the idea of pornography? Be proud of whatever skill you practice.)–anyway, I’ll argue that there will always be different levels of brilliance in any art form, but an ass is an ass . . . isn’t it?”

Uh, why don’t I call my books something they aren’t because you think I write porn? I am proud of the skills I practice. But creating porn isn’t one of them.

As to the point of the entry, I could totally be misreading it, but I enjoy the discussion, the thinking over this stuff, nonetheless.

BUT, the comments are definitely interesting and worth a read. I know I’ve talked about this before (several times). But I suppose it sort of ties in with the review stuff – it’s in the eye of the reader. To me, the difference between erotica and porn is quite obvious (although I have no beef with porn other than most of it being stupid, plotless and poorly made (Comstock Films being the BIG exception, their films are marvelous).

Anyway, I must say that I love Elizabeth Lowell now even more than I did before, which is hard to do because I think she’s fabulous.

Oh! The new Pearl Jam is so excellent I’ve just been listening to it over and over and over. Seriously, now I do love this band with all my little fangirl heart but this record is the best since No Code. As a unit, everything comes together so well. I can’t wait to see them live again (July 22nd, wooo!)

And the new Tool is amazing as well. Even better through headphones (as Tool always is, you miss so much through your stereo speakers). It hasn’t been since Sleater Kinney’s, The Woods came out that I’ve been so excited about new music.

I’m annoyed with Top Chef for their last cut. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it but man, they sent the wrong person home.

I took my middle child to get kindergarten registration paperwork yesterday. All this time I’ve been so excited about this but I did have a bittersweet moment when I realized that he was nearly five and it felt like I just gave birth to him last week. He’s so grown up. And then I got over it and thought, “Woo! Only three more years until she’s ready!” because I’m mother of the year, people.

I bought hello kitty tennis shoes for my daughter yesterday too. Because I can! (bwah!). I waited through the Star Wars and Spider Man and now I finally get to Hello Kitty and I’m going to let myself wallow in it, because I can only take so much gummy worm action and booger humor.

4 comments to “Friday BlogORama!”

  1. Samantha
    May 5th, 2006 at 8:54 am · Link

    The Stella Cameron thing… what the hell was she trying to say??? I read through it a couple of times and couldn’t figure out the point of it. I’ll have to go back and read the comments.



  2. Karen
    May 5th, 2006 at 9:17 am · Link

    I can’t figure it out either. But EL rocks!

    (As does Tool… love their drummer.)



  3. Karen Scott
    May 5th, 2006 at 4:11 pm · Link

    Thank the Lord I wasn’t the only one trying to figure out what she was actually saying. I think she wanted to say that erotica sucked, but couldn’t quite bring herself to open that can of worms.



  4. Tony Comstock
    May 8th, 2006 at 9:21 am · Link

    I left the following over at Stella’s place:


    “Pornography” is rapidly on its way to becoming as meaningless a word as “erotica” or “literary”.

    However, “good”, “bad”, “entertaining”, and “dull” are still useful descriptors.

    By this I mean that porn, erotica, literary don’t tell us much of anything about a work of art, or how the person using these words feels about the work of art. As descriptors of art or how one experiences art they are noncommital, yet value laden, and mostly worthless.