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Ha, how should I label THIS subject, New Blogger? :-P
I need your honest opinion about some really deep thoughts about certain elements in our romance genre. Our genre has really, really grown, expanding into sci-fi, fantasy, and horror territory, with intricate worldbuilding that has grown from what I fondly call the "medieval alien from some other dimension here to kidnap and breed with his mate" to really layered heroes, from were-animals to demons, who really display that side of their nature and never stray away from the fact that they aren't human. That is to say, their appetites--physical and sexual--are reflective of what they are. The werewolf would do it in a certain way; the demon another; the vampire yet another.
The question is about the, ahem, hoohoos of our Non-Human Alpha Hero (NHAH).
In the days of "medieval alien," he was always pretty much Fabio in disguise with just violet contact lenses. LOL. Okay, I'm not going to cite any examples or incite any fans into bashing me. I'm truly not bashing because I love paranormals and fantasy romance and read them the most compared to other lines.
Today's NHAH, though, is written in a more "realistic" way. LKH's Jean Claude, the sexy vampire, is really depicted as a corpse when he sleeps. When the heroine, Anita Blake, touches him, she talks about how cold he feels. Of course, blood heats him up, but that only emphasizes his non-humanness.
After all, a walking dead hoohoo would look like a human hoohoo, so for those of us who can suspend their disbelief and not get grossed out about our heroine sexing it up with a walking corpse, we can accept their coupling. But then there's the were-animal NHAH. In most romances, the authors have the sex done in human form, so I, the reader, am still in a happy place enjoying the story.
My good friend, the wonderfully talented (and beautiful and sweet and yes, I hate her) Marjorie Liu, pushed the envelope in Tiger's Eye, her first published novel, when she had Hari in half-animal form while he was in bed with the heroine. It was very nicely done and I had no problem with it, but I remember that scene became a conversation piece in one of the forums I hang out in because everyone wanted to know whether Hari's hoohoo was in were-tiger form or not. I mean, have you ever seen a cat's hoohoo when they are, ahem, excited? A Big Cat's Hoohoo has got to hurt, yo (Yes, Marjorie, I have demented friends but we all LURV AND ADORE YOU).
Then lately, I've read a few reviews that brought up even more details describing the hoohoo of the NHAH. For instance, a barbed penis. I read this while drinking coffee. Never read about a barbed penis engaging in human encounters while drinking coffee. I think I still have some caffeine stuck behind my eyeballs.
A barbed penis? With a human heroine? Ow, ladies, ow.
Are we stepping into TMI territory? Obviously, we're reading about the supernatural here, so we have to accept some out-of-the-ordinary details, but must we go that way in love scenes? Will a hero's barbed penis engaging in romantic human love stop your reading pleasure for...oh a few minutes? Or are you able to continue without a flicker of your worldly eyelid?
I'm not being judgemental here. I'm just wondering how old-fashion I am. I'm having painful moments writing about seduction in a virtual reality environment where the sex is all in the mind because I know some readers are going to object to the way I'm doing it (yes, I know, the writer is supposed to write the story and not worry about her readers but nonetheless, outside the box is outside the box and I'm aware of how far out of it I can push certain readers before they refuse to budge. Especially in a romantic suspense).
I laugh at the thought of a naughty scene with a barbed penis, but I can't help but wonder what the next bold description of the hoohoo of a NHAH would read like. Green, with stripes? Scaley (Hey, you laugh, but there's already a female demon making love in scaled form--talons, forked tongue, red eyes and all--and the hero loving it)? Double-jointed? Wait, wait, double hoohoos, one higher one lower? One with bunny ears, ala the Rabbitator?
Can you come up with some good description for a NHAH's hoohoo? ;-) Your imagination must be better than mine if a barbed penis didn't even faze you.
Read about any good penises lately?
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Uber Penis Description, or Should Penises Look Human?
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4 comments:
Heh, I've read both of the stories you mention, i.e. - the barbed penis and the female demon. Aside from the barbed penis bit (at which, I admit, my eyes bugged out), that particular story was pretty good.
The same for the female demon bit... for some reason the author made it quite believable that the hero was into it considering the characters' history of interaction with each other. (My eyes didn't bug out, just got a bit wider... =))
With the paranormal genre really exploding lately, I guess it's not surprising that some authors are going to push the envelope a bit. After all, the NHAH are not some sweet sensitive dudes wanting to talk about feelings... They're ALPHAS who have got enough "other" in them to NOT make them human.
Anyway, thanks for posting an interesting, funny topic!
JC
Ha I had this whole long entry but blogger lost it. Anyway, Octavia Butler (great author) wrote science fiction but had sex scenes in her books. Two sets may be useful (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago or Lilith’s Brood as published in one volume) have alien-human sex through direct neural stimulation by the aliens sensory arm (a specialized organ that can connect through the spine of the humans). The alien is covered with fine neural hairs like a giant koosh ball and so is the sensory arm (the first such scene is page 162-3 in Lilith’s Brood). The second set is Wild seed and Mind of my Mind. The heroine has control over her cells and can live forever and shape shift. The hero is a real lousy person and his soul jumps to other bodies to stay alive. They get together because she is the only one who he can have “sex” with and not kill her, basically he almost takes over her body but she is strong enough to live through it. The way she describes the interaction is kind of VRish (one of the scenes is 256-8 in Wild Seed).
Anyway sorry for the shorter, less helpful entry, but if you get a chance perhaps they would be useful.
Good luck :)
JC,
Yeah, I'm thinking there's going to be more and more of this sort of thing in paranormal romances as writers seek to push to envelope. I'm still asking whether a description of a hoohoo is getting into TMI territory, though ;-). But I question that in "normal" romance books anyway, when I read a whole paragraph describing the "beauty" of the hero's hoohoo.
Still, barbed penis should come with a YOWL from any reader, LOL.
Kim,
That series sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out for the first book.
When I write a long entry for blogger, I always click "Select All" and "Copy" several times before I publish it. I hate losing all that work to the cyber monsters!
For your information, Hari's penis was NOT barbed!!! Dude! His you-know-what was totally human.
But a barbed penis, for real? Ow.
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