said_scarlett | Jul. 2nd, 2006

I've been carrying on discussions on this in a couple of places on LJ, and I decided to bring it back to my LJ.

It's no secret that I don't subscribe to the idea that 'all NC-17 fic is written to be masturbation material'. I've never understand that mind-set, and I never will. I know I'm definitely not thinking about that when I write adult scenes, no matter what sort of scene it is.

I've often wondered where this idea came from. Definitely there are fics out there that fall into the 'porn' category - PWPs, for example - but not all NC-17 fics are PWPs. If I look back at every actual fic I've written this year, not one of the NC-17 fics could be classified as PWP. Leyna nearly got an NC-17 warning for language and violence and questionable themes, rather than smut. Since there isn't any smut in it. Home is NC-17 and somewhat graphic, but it's a story about two people who are still picking up the pieces of their lives and find it easiest to do so together. His Father's Son is very sexual in nature, but the core of the story is about one woman's driving and overpowering obsession with a man she thinks she's in love with. The Hunter Takes His Prey was actually supposed to be a PWP, but it turned into a power game of emotional and mental manipulation.

I use sex scenes as just another literary tool, I've realized. There are some aspects of the human psyche that work best when showcased in adult situations. There are some points that are best illustrated by adult situations. I can no longer look at writing a sex scene and think 'does this sound hot?'. Rather I find myself thinking 'does this flow with the structure of the fic?' or 'is this really the best way to say what I want to say?'. But I write mostly het and slash, and neither of those fall into the 'hot' category for me anyway. I don't look at it and think about how sexy it is, rather how well it's written and how the language flows and if it fits with the rest of the story.

I remember exactly when I started using sex scenes as illustrative tools. It was in Time Heals All Wounds. I got a lot of complaints from random people about the sex scenes in that fic, since they were cold, clinical and sterile. Which was the point. The relationship between Snape and Remus was cold, clinical and sterile. It was unhealthy and twisted and distant, so the sex reflected that. But again, NC-17 = Porn raised its ugly head again.

I remember reading an NC-17 fic with plenty of warnings for realistic portrayal of rape, and it was a good fic and the rape scene was brutal, honest, unforgiving and painful to read. And one of the comments was 'not really a sexy story...'. I hadn't been expecting it to be a 'sexy' story. Not with those warnings. And yet there are people who see NC-17, and no matter what, automatically leap to porn. And I know I used to do the same thing, and I'm not sure when I stopped, exactly. Or how it started. Maybe because the majority of NC-17 fic out there is PWP? Or it was when I first entered fandom, anyway, way back when. I don't read much NC-17 fic anymore.

Ah well. I don't know what the point to that was, other than to ramble on. And just so we're clear, I'm not condemning PWPs or smut-for-smut's sake at all. I write that, too, and I've spent many a long boring afternoon indulging in reading some pure smut fics.

In closing: it's all good.