Yippee, research to be done!

[sheenaghpugh]

not a thing I would normally say, but dr_porn just accepted my proposal for a paper for the final Slash Study Day at de Montfort next Feb 25, and this is it:

Man bits and woman bits: the discourse of sex in fanfic and litfic

Modern (unlike ancient) writers who wanted to include sexual relations in the world they wrote about have always had a problem with terminology - what do you call parts and acts which by their nature are not much discussed in polite society? Those writers, both in fanfic and litfic, who do not simply choose to lock the bedroom door behind their characters and leave all to the imagination have always the problem of whether to use plain words or euphemisms, straight description or metaphor, in order to avoid causing the reader either embarrassment or hilarity. This talk will try to outline various approaches (if not solutions) to an ongoing problem on both sides of the litfic/fanfic divide.

I've been vaguely thinking of this ever since I read Rosemary Sutcliff talking about "woman bits" and recalled all the posts I've seen from fanfic writers (and readers)who had real difficulty with Certain Words when they started. Some of the attraction of the theme is also that I can give D H Lawrence a kick in passing. And I can revisit all those lovely compendia of misguided slash euphemisms etc... - tell me if you know of any new ones.


If anyone's got personal takes on this they would like to pass on, especially connected with their own writing experiences, I'll be most grateful. Send 'em to sheenagh @ gmail. com - unless of course you want to contribute to the gaiety of nations and entertain the general public, in which case do post here! Remember, the more you contribute now, the funnier the eventual talk will be....

Comments

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the acceptance. I would definitely be interested in that paper - I loathe Certain Words, but at the kind of euphemisms even John Cleland would have found ridiculous aren't much better either :).

I don't know whether you read fanficrants, but people sometimes post there about particularly absurd sexual descriptions they've encountered.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

The very first slash story I ever read introduced me to the 'throbbing tower' of manhood... which leaves me vaguely surprised that I ever recovered enough to read a second.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Crikey. It sounds terrifying - both the fic and the, er, tower itself.

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

Yay! Another slash study day! I was at the first but couldn't make it last year. You're such a wonderful speaker, I can't wait to hear your paper. (o:

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for the acceptance, and I'm definitely looking forward to your paper.

As for giving D.H. Lawrence a kick - surely not? I can't imagine that *anyone* at the Study Day would want to join you in doing that. :-)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I evolved from over-use of euphemism (I *hope* that I'd thrown out most of the worst of it before I sent my first story to an editor) to the realization that even when I'm writing erotica, I don't want the words to distract from the story. My main goal when writing is for people to empathize with the story to the point they forget they're turning pages or scrolling down.

So I attempt to use short, common, unambiquous, terms for the various anatomical bits in use and the action. Unless I want the story to be funny-- I do enjoy puns and silliness, and sometimes a giggle *is* the point of the story.

[manna]

[info]dr_porn just accepted my proposal for a paper for the final Slash Study Day at de Montfort next Feb 25

Ooh, cool! That sounds like something definitely worth attending.


The only absolute rule I have about what words to use is NO ALLITERATION. And there's also 'no metaphors', but that rule's only in lower case.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

You've just made my decision for me. I shall definitely be in Leicester.

[federhirn.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Maybe Alan Moore took the easiest solution with "Lost Girls", by making his slash fiction a graphic novel, thus saving himself some of the vocabulary considerations ;-)

[sheenaghpugh]

That of course was the Greek comedy solution - when you've got giant comedy phalluses on your actors, gesturing at them will suffice...