(If you think this post is too long... yes, I know, no time... read the last paragraph. It's important!)
With all the conversations we’ve been having about “Fifty Shades of Grey”, I got curious about the actual definition of some terms.
From http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Pornography:
1 : the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2 : material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3 : the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction <the pornography of violence>
Erotica:
1 : literary or artistic works having an erotic theme or quality
2 : depictions of things erotic
Erotic:
1 : of, devoted to, or tending to arouse sexual love or desire <erotic art>
2 : strongly marked or affected by sexual desire
OK. So my takeaway? Pornography= sexual excitement. Erotic= sexual love or desire. One is impersonal, the other personal.
Smut:
1 : matter that soils or blackens; specifically : a particle of soot
2 : any of various destructive diseases especially of cereal grasses caused by parasitic basidiomycetous fungi (order Ustilaginales) and marked by transformation of plant parts into dark masses of spores; also : a fungus causing a smut
3 : obscene language or matter
Smutty:
1 : soiled or tainted with smut; especially : affected with smut fungus
2 : obscene, indecent <a smutty joke> 3 : resembling smut in appearance : sooty
So when I say I'm reading "smutty books", this isn't what I meant. I never knew the origins of the word.
I think I'll stick to "erotica" or "erotic romance" when I talk about these types of books. I never use the word porn, or "mommy porn" which is a phrase I think should die a quick death. I can also live without "bodice rippers", or the really offensive "bonnet rippers" which some people have used in relation to "Amish" fiction (Beverly Lewis, Wanda Brunstetter, etc.) Just don't use it. Just. Don't.
I'm still working on a librarians guide to kinky sex. I guess I'll have to look up the origins of "kinky" now.
Harlequin (publishers) has "The Curious Readers Guide to Erotic Romance", which includes a short dictionary... in case you need to know what BDSM stands for.
http://harlequinblog.com/erotic-romance/
They also recommend some books, which are "erotic romance", but not always a good match for "Fifty Shades" readers. (More on readers advisory later.) Just so you know...
BDSM: Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism. An umbrella acronym for the kink lifestyle. (from Harlequinblog.com)
This is a very simplistic definition of a really complex subject matter.
****** Important Part******
Word of advise... DO NOT use on-line lists of "Fifty Shades" read-a-likes without doing research so you know what you're recommending/ buying for your library. My ears are still ringing from the screaming from the patron who checked out Ann Rice's(as A.N. Roquelaure) "Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" because she thought it would be a "sweet... like a fairy tale." Not. Beauty is awakened with a bit more then a kiss, then is carted off to the castle to become a sex slave. This is erotica, with no romance. I'm still traumatized from reading "Panic Snap" by Laura Reese because it was advertized as a read-a-like, and given a new cover. In this book, the main character (female) is sexually tortured by the male character under the guise of BDSM. He rapes, beats, burns, cuts, chokes and eventually tries to kill her. It's taken me a long time to get those images out of my head, and I only skimmed the text. Know your "kink". You don't want to traumatize you patrons with what could be a very negative reading experience.
