~~wherein reena says dirty words.

[reenka]

so... i haven't really ranted on this before, but--
yes. hp slashy smut writing, realism, in-character kink and so on. w00t!


ha. i can't even believe i'm talking about this. well, there are several factors why. firstly, i'm thinking/writing my smutfic for aja. secondly, there's the discussion about the unrealistic sex prevalent in fanfic (on the `hp outer circle' list)-- ie, "monster cocks" and unrealistic bdsm and such in (hp) slash.
    well, as a smut reader, i haven't really found that unrealistic sex is the biggest problem, more like, really dry and unexciting and "and then slot went into conjunction with slot b" type of sex. but that's just me. as a writer, i'm of course, somewhat paranoid, because far be it from me to think i write realistic anything, forget gay sex. i mean, people may -like- it, but people are easy when it comes to smut. aren't they?

but anyway, there's always a lot of cross-fandom discussion about how to make gay sex more realistic and true-to-life and um... correct. these are typically also the people who want "realistically gay male" characters, and of course that is perfectly understandable, for who really -wants- "girls with dicks" anyway (er... ok, i won't go there).
    but it occurred to me that all this really doesn't matter to me. what matters to me is emotional realism and intensity and desire and power-play and passion. and when i say "power play", i don't mean bdsm, because that's just the shortcut people use. real power-play occurs all the time, between every couple, in a million gazillion different ways. but, in the case of harry & draco, it's inevitable-- they're competitive, they're antagonistic, there's going to be a struggle to dominate, and i don't mean who gets to be on the bottom.

far too many sex scenes are written less emotionally than some descriptions of soccer matches i've seen. and of course there are those that seem sappier than a care-bears reunion, obviously, as well. either there's lots of curt, minimalist description that seems to rely almost entirely on the reader's finding that particular set of actions extremely sexy (ie, you'd have to operate very visually, and need the barest suggestion of action in order to visualize not only the actual sex, but the emotions that go along). or, there's almost a complete dearth of visual/physical description, which not only tends to use euphemisms for what it -does- describe, but may even use metaphors and pat phrases for the -emotional- component as well (ie, "their hearts flowed like butter as they tenderly embraced, their bodies moving in unison as they reached their final, most soul-wrenching pleasure" or something).

i find that a bigger problem than what size of cock the writer describes, or whether they used lube or not. who bloody well cares if they used lube or how or why, if it's written like a cellphone-usage manual? what are you, filming it??! making a sex-ed movie? what??
    i've said this awhile ago, to earthquake1906. what i think is most important for a well-done sex scene is the transmission of the character's desire. a psychological portrait, showing their need, their fear, their desperation-- putting the reader in their heads, letting them see and feel and know what's going on. of course, describing the physical actions is also important-- as important as at any other time in the story. because sex is a mixture of inner landscape and body-language. that is it. there is no necessary dialogue, no rules and no framework, really. almost anything can be "sex" to the characters.
    the scenes i found most successful used the emotional momentum and drive of the previous scenes, of the rest of the story, to set up a situation where desire and circumstance come together and everything kind of connects and um... climaxes, so to speak. ahem. and you have some sort of reflection of their dynamic for the rest of the fic-- angry, empty, sad, desperate, tender, v. v. horny ("ack! have to have you NOW!").... i think when the sex is a basic part of the narrative, it doesn't matter whether there's lube or not, it's realistic.

and of course, conversely, the sex can be the most anatomically correct thing to come down the pike since the latest "big book of gay sex" came out or whatever, but if it doesn't seem to make complete sense that it's happening right then, between these two people, it's worthless to me (and a talented writer can set up this believability within mere paragraphs. it doesn't take chapters and chapters of set-up or anything)..
    maybe i just don't get it. i mean, it's not like i want to see endless orgies of neverending teenage-boy endurance, monstrous-sized penises and orgasms by nipple-biting, or whatever unrealistic thing. but what good writer does that? that's ridiculous. who even -describes- the size of the penis, for gahd's sake? that's just lame to start with. i mean, describing the penis is one thing, if you're using a character's pov who'd be looking at it and paying attention. suddenly turning the character into a porn-star is another.

also, i was thinking about bdsm in the context of hp slash and had to admit that i just "don't get it". i mean, i've seen people rant about how it's important to have realistic bdsm and so on... but what this doesn't bring into question is -why- and -how- you're using this in your story. the only people who'd have enough experience to possibly do it "realistically" is adults. as i haven't read any adult slash, i wouldn't know how it all works, but the major adult pairing is sirius/remus where i'd -seriously- doubt there'd be any humiliation/overt power rituals involved. since they're friends, and stuff.
    this brings up another point. why are you writing these characters into this scenario. just because it's a sexual scenario doesn't mean you could be out-of-character and it would be ok. and yes, i believe there's definitely such a thing as in-character sex. most definitely. and i think writer learning this is miles more important than writers learning the proper realistic gay male behavior during sex. more than a gay male, this is a particular character. a character who (like a "real person") has things they wouldn't be caught dead doing, sexually. things that they have "issues" with. things they probably would balk at. things they wouldn't know about. and so on.

i guess i just see a lot of sex-scenes written which are blatantly just an extension of the writer's happy little fantasy world. it doesn't matter to the writer -who- the characters are, as much as what they're doing. this is my impression from every draco/lucius incest and harry/lucius and draco/snape (and arguably harry/snape) fic that i've ever read. there is argument, even, whether liking draco is in character for harry at all. to make it -lucius-, and then to make it consensual, and then to make it bdsm, is completely disregarding almost everything about harry. of course, if it's nonconsensual pwp, once again i call into question why the author writes it, but it's ok, masturbation is a good thing (er, and just because it doesn't "do it" for me, doesn't mean that spreading the sexy is a bad thing either-- it's just worthless as far as literature goes).

so again. what is with this need for realism of bdsm scenes in a fandom like harry potter, where i would argue there is -no- realistic pairing that would easily incorporate it? this is realistic bdsm for the sake of realistic bdsm, and if you're that eager to write/read that, why not just, oh, i dunno, do it or something?
    and anyway. slash by nature is written about (seemingly) straight guys, who may or may not have had experience with girls, but certainly haven't had much (or, to be safe, any) experience with guys. these people are likely to be reticent and clumsy and inexperienced when it comes to their initial sexual interactions with another male. bdsm is a kink. it is something people do when "normal" sex isn't enough, isn't arousing enough, isn't exciting enough. they need... more. whereas for -these- guys, being attracted to each other at all is likely to be like a frying pan hitting them on the side of the head. um. overwhelming. shocking. (probably) very arousing, as in-- unusual and new and exciting.

you would have to justify two characters wanting to enact these elaborate power-play rituals with each other. why are they doing this? how does this fit into their relationship? are you sure this is what they'd want? and would they go about it in quite that way, or would they just act on the whole instinctual, natural power-play that occurs in any relationship?
    say it's tom riddle doing it with um... i dunno... ginny. there are not going to be any safe-words, that's for sure. i mean, in hp, anyone i can think of who'd want to be sadistic is basically a death-eater, and are evil to start with. this is a universe where evil is a very tangible thing. it's not a game. it's not a fantasy. it's life and death and it's happening all the time, completely outside of the bedroom. that is not so say, there isn't likely to be power-play in the bedroom just because some things are just a -tad- more... blatant than in "real life", already, in this universe. i'm just saying, in the potterverse, sadism isn't really a game, not even at hogwarts. being a slytherin, being mean, being cunning and amoral isn't a joke. it's all taken pretty seriously. you're in or you're out. slytherins vs. gryffindors, light vs. dark.
    you'd have to set up your s&m in that context. and if it's between main players-- especially characters on opposite sides of this divide-- you'd have to really question what you're saying, here. if they're adults, they're either sadistic and evil or good and kind (in most blunt terms). if they're teenagers, they probably don't have enough experience to get too kinky. anyway. i think i ran out of steam, again ^^;;

Comments

[earthquake1906.livejournal.com]

I have a tendency, and maybe a hell of a lot of us do

*loves the way you put things, precisely AND poetically*
*waves*