Admittedly, "practical parenthesis" is a bit bizarre, and the part between brackets after that needs to go as well. But by pulling the scene out of context like that, it looks worse than it really is, I would imagine, and if one writes literature with a big L and has a certain elegant writing style and all, obviously one has to write the sex scenes in that vein as well, and take some risks with unusual descriptions or images. I think PhotoJim's critique fails to take that into account - of course Lassie isn't written in language like that, but then Lassie isn't Nobel Prize material.
So apart from those two things, I think it's an attempt that isn't without merit - of course it's not very erotic, but then that doesn't seem to be the goal.
So apart from those two things, I think it's an attempt that isn't without merit - of course it's not very erotic, but then that doesn't seem to be the goal.
It didn't fit with the story at all, I felt, and while it is debatable if Gordimer intended the sex to be perfunctory, the language of the encounter did not fit with the scenes before and after. It felt awkward, not awkward in the sense of trying to capture the awkwardness of first-time sex with someone, but the awkwardness of using euphemisms in a novel that often eschewed them.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
How bad would you rate this sex scene?
- 31/03/2010 08:25:07 AM
1143 Views
- 31/03/2010 08:39:43 AM
834 Views
- 31/03/2010 08:39:43 AM
834 Views
*NM*
*NM*
I'm gonna be the dissenting voice and say, not that bad.
- 31/03/2010 03:34:25 PM
718 Views
In context, it was even worse. Trust me.
- 31/03/2010 08:30:29 PM
758 Views
