I think there’s a massive instrinsic problem with talking about erotic romance/ erotica which is that readers don’t really want to address the issue of arousal. At least, I don’t want to address it, frankly. And for that reason, I find James Lear’s words refreshing and provocative and difficult. My natural reaction to your post is to post a comment that ‘justifies’ this book on artistic grounds – and I absolutely do think it is beautifully written book (and incidentally I am sorry you didn’t reach the end because there is a moment of pure romance near the end that I found hugely gratifying). But the difficulty is that the uncompromising words of Mr Lear make it rather difficult to go through that exercise.

I have to say that Lear is not the only erotic writer who writes lovely prose and is unapologetic about its purpose. Kristina Lloyd is a wonderful wonderful writer who writes frankly, persuasively and beautifully on her blog about her erotic books.

I think this may be something I have to consider further given the importance of sex scenes in the genre…

It seems kind of sweet when someone says they snuggled up to their husband after reading a hot book, but so what if they, you know, snuggle up with themselves?

This discussion reminds me of a few review sites that rate books based on levels of reader arousal. I’ve seen “5 vibrators” or “wet panties.” TMI, people!

I have nothing against Mr. Lear’s frankness, or using erotic material to aide masturbation. I guess I just don’t want to know the specific details.

However explicit it might get, however powerfully it might arouse the reader — and a good sex scene really should — erotic romance should ultimately be about much, much more that simply sex. Like Katie said, there should be an emotional connection there. That’s why we read romance, after all.

I also don’t share the view that all erotica and/or erotic romances are “porn.” Porn is generally plotless and the characters devoid of personality and emotion. Whereas with erotic romances, for example, the reader gets into the head of one or more of the characters, experiences their thoughts and emotions, discovers their personality, etc. There’s a depth to them that doesn’t exist in pornography.

Maybe that Ikea-instruction-sheet approach (“insert Tab A into Slot B; repeat with the other seven Tabs…”) does the trick for certain male readers. (I’ll admit, when I first read your penultimate paragraph, I thought you’d written “knowing wankage” — which involves manipulating a different part of the body than the eyelid.) But for me, I’d rather know about what he’s feeling more than what he’s thinking. And the “Oh, I’m such a slut,” self-congratulation schtick gets very tired very fast.

I think whether or not a reader reads erotica (in its various forms) for sexual pleasure or not, depends upon the reader. Personally, I fall into the group of readers whose primary purpose in reading erotica is not for sexual pleasure — which, I think, is why I gravitate towards erotic romances. I need there to be more than just sexual gratification between the characters, because I’m not reading the book for sexual gratification. If there’s nothing else to the story than a purely physical sexual act, I’m just not interested.