tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post6546887563321154253..comments2023-05-30T08:29:42.770-04:00Comments on The Erotica Readers & Writers Association Blog: The Apollonian & Dionysian Dialectic: Inner Conflicts and Revolutionary ActsCroco Designshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417265522875605547noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-55193614524803864602013-02-15T11:11:01.871-05:002013-02-15T11:11:01.871-05:00What a tonic this post is for me! Recently I'...What a tonic this post is for me! Recently I've been feeling rather dispirited about my future in erotica, because I started out with a romantic fantasy that since I craved more complexity and "reality" in erotica, other people wanted more of that, too. But as the genre explodes into respectability, the opposite seems to be the case.<br /><br />Garce, I hear you about not necessarily being able to write my own paper on the arguments, but I just finished a story where the two lovers are lying to each other and themselves to get together. They do achieve a temporary happy ending, but at least for me, I can see trouble coming down the line. I didn't write that part of the story, but it's lingering on in my mind as a kind of mystery (not that I claim this would happen for another reader, lol). So maybe that's part of it, a story and relationship that doesn't invite the comfort of cliche makes you think further so that the story becomes your own?Donnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13615190390845433428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-74878218086188879752013-02-14T22:41:26.975-05:002013-02-14T22:41:26.975-05:00" . . .Revealing the inner tension of each ch..." . . .Revealing the inner tension of each character's Apollonian and Dionysian side (and fighting your own Apollonian or Dionysian preferences to get them to a place of static commitment to either camp) will allow you to leave your reader with characters who will haunt them beyond the end of your story, because although the story may have ending, you allowed the universal battle live on. . . ."<br /><br />Can you explain this a little more? I'm really curious about this. When I read it I hear a big bell ring, but I'm still a little clueless. It reminds me a lot of some things Chuck Palahniuk writes.<br /><br />Garce<br /><br />Garceushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11160407485298015371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-61306606148045674062013-02-13T12:58:43.643-05:002013-02-13T12:58:43.643-05:00Clear and persuasive. I suspect many of us would d...Clear and persuasive. I suspect many of us would define the conflicts in our work differently, but conflicts within characters mostly boil down to: "Do it" vs. "Don't do it because... (it's too dangerous, you'll be laughed at, you'll regret it when you're sober, etc.). A resolution in one story doesn't have to suggest that the conflict has been permanently resolved for that character.Jean Robertahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08805088081675965859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-2918411597579656192013-02-13T12:06:01.094-05:002013-02-13T12:06:01.094-05:00This is fantastic. I feel like I've been given...This is fantastic. I feel like I've been given a whole new vocabulary with which to discuss writing erotic fiction.<br /><br />Extraordinarily thought-provoking. Thank you.Harper Eliothttp://itgirlragdoll.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-8906904017549444942013-02-13T11:40:00.469-05:002013-02-13T11:40:00.469-05:00Like all your essays, this is a very insightful, e...Like all your essays, this is a very insightful, erudite, and well-argued perspective.<br /><br />With all respect, though, I have to question from personal experience the absolute terms in which the paradigm is stated: "At the center of every good erotic story is a battle between the Dionysian and Apollonian forces within the characters." I've written many, many erotic stories—and hopefully some of them at least are good ones—and yet I don't think any of them concern themselves with this dichotomy, at least not as a central tension. (Though perhaps you're speaking more about full-length stories—i.e., novels or novellas—and I admit I have much less of a body of work to testify about there.) <br /><br />That's not to say that someone using the Nietzschian model couldn't find a way to accomplish the critical exercise of interpreting my work through that lens. But I can, as the undeconstructed author, attest that the Apollonian/Dionysian conflict, important though it is to much literature, does not drive my personal approach to storytelling. Frankly, I don't find the whole self-control vs. desire thing sexy or appealing, in and of itself—though of course it's at the heart of plenty of works that I do find most compelling because of other elements. It might even be accurate to say that I deliberately <i>avoid</i> A vs. D plot elements in my work.Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-5632229924827163742013-02-13T10:16:25.940-05:002013-02-13T10:16:25.940-05:00I agree we live with this kind of tension every da...I agree we live with this kind of tension every day, though mostly we remain in control mode. And that's why sex is so good! I was actually worried that I used too much of this battle in my stories, but I'm looking at them in a different light now. The Apollonian side isn't so bad, even in porn. :)Patricia J. Espositohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03265963157852022604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-6354385367533166482013-02-13T09:48:56.081-05:002013-02-13T09:48:56.081-05:00This really is the most compelling voice I've ...This really is the most compelling voice I've read from you on this topic. <br />I feel inspired. And maybe if more authors write erotica truthfully,more readers will find value in it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09908649297894652518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-37450165822043326302013-02-12T21:40:32.268-05:002013-02-12T21:40:32.268-05:00I get it. This is one of the clearest and most con...I get it. This is one of the clearest and most convincing posts you've written so far - and I think you're right. <br /><br />However, if an erotica author refuses to write an ending that reconciles the Appolonian and Dionysian forces, but nobody reads its... you're not going to have much of a revolution. <br /><br />I'm not implying that *nobody* reads your stories, or my stories that don't end neatly, for that matter. However, the people who suffer most from addiction to the ideal probably will not.<br /><br />(And this feeds neatly into the post I'm planning for later this month.)Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.com