Contemplations on porn and arousal, sparked by sithjawa

[azurelunatic]

Steph, you mentioned that you thought that erotica that gets inside the head of one of the characters would be a big turn-on for people, in the situation where you have the two people, and the viewer/reader is identifying with one, where the person whose mind was revealed the most would be the fantasy partner of the viewer.

That would work excellently well for those people whose turn-ons include the getting inside the head of the partner. However, for the person whose turn-ons were primarily related to the vicarious experience of the character being identified with, the trip inside the headspace of the partner might be a distraction from the loss of self inside the mind/body of the other character.

OK, that was unnecessarily convoluted.

Anna and Betty are getting it on in the erotica, and Carol is the viewer. Carol identifies with Anna. The bit of erotica details not only the physical things being done to/with Betty, but also inside Betty's head and motivations for the scene. Carol likes the psychological closeness to a fantasy partner; it makes the experience more intense.

Now we have Cindy. Cindy identifies with Anna, but wishes to submerge herself within Anna's physical sensations, thoughts, and feelings, rather than getting inside Betty's head. If Cindy were in the place of Anna, she would not be reading Betty's mind; she would be taken up in the moment and feeling and doing everything herself.


When writing erotica, keep in mind the audience. Are they likely to want to skip over the details of the character that they identify with and concentrate on the partner, or are they going to want a vicarious experience through the thoughts, actions, and feelings of character they identify with?

Comments

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

Actually, I thought what I was saying was it would focus on identified-with-person's perception of other-person.

Like, they don't want the feelings of the person they identify with spelled out TOO much because they can fill in those easily, only enough to clarify that they identify with that person. And then they want to see the actions of other-person through identified-with-person's eyes.

[azurelunatic]

Ah. That's where my extension-of-empathy comes in. I'd be attempting to get inside my partner's head, were I focused on perceiving them. Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. If the situation is one that I psychologically want to be in, then it's all about the other person, if they're someone that I could fall in love with.

If it's not a situation where I could be in love with the other person, then I focus greedily upon my own body. I like, very much, to be on the receiving end of pleasure and sensation, and I'm not always good at filling in when I have written material in front of me. If I was horny to start with, I'll fill in no problem, but if I wasn't, there's nothing there to help me work from.

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

So then the question is what audiences are empathic tending or not?

(incoherency free with every comment!)

[azurelunatic]

'Zactly.

Or, at least, tending to focus more on the partner than on the self.