Emotional Attachment & Smutty Fic

[ithildin]

We discussed this on IM last night, and thought it was worth throwing out for conversation.  My musing is such: I've bought and read some of those 'erotica anthologies', and for the most part, they bore me to tears. So I've been wondering if there's a component of having an attachment to a character that adds to the enjoyment of such fic. As in: I find I enjoy 'adult' fanfic with a character I know and care about more than the 'professional' sorts of stories found in published anthologies. With many of those, it's virtually nameless and faceless and I just don't care enough about the participants for the story to be satisfying on any level.  Obviously, there are exceptions. but generally speaking that seems to be the pattern.

Thoughts?

And here's hoping the other participants of last night's conversation share their thoughts.

Comments

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

Well for me it's real simple. I *have* to care about the characters. Even non fandom related erotica. I need a story - a reason why these two people are doing what they are doing. I need to know who *they* are - they can't just be body parts doing this and that. Which is why I can't just follow the crowd into all these other fandoms. I have to care about the characters and see them that way.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Take a sex scene written for a short story that's just sex and read it as a stand alone story, or take that same sex scene ad place it in a novel where I've gotten to know the people involved and feel like I have something invested emotionally in the story -- whether good or even bad emotions sometimes -- and I'm going to want to read choice number two.