Can you believe it, I hit a pothole and sent my basket flying. Fifty dissertations on the erotic novels` contribution to literature fluttering down The Mile End Road. Do you suppose anyone stopped to help me? No, of course not. Would`ve been a different matter if I was scattering tenners in the air!
Now I think this deeply unfair. It`s not so much about the content but rather if the words indulge you. No matter what the criticism, it is still fundamentally words which take you on that journey. It makes the author no less valuable. It`s easy to blast criticism at cheap thrills and titillation but for many it is a healthy outlet. Love interest is a fundamental device in stories. If you can add the sexual interest then you can increase the tension. Why not take the tension to its peak and take it there well.
The deeply conservative manner of my profession doesn`t allow me to see beyond the carnal base. And yet beauty beyond there is. There`s nothing stopping an erotic novel being a good novel. If authors choose this genre it doesn`t make them sub-normal. It makes them brave writers prepared to take on the human obsession.