The Gilded Eroticism of Richard Sexsmith

A colleague of mine, Richard Sexsmith, writes "Shakespearean Smut" and "Over-Educated Eroticism".

Now you might wonder what that means, but essentially it comes down to this: It is erotic storytelling for people who have more discerning standards of prose.

No poorly written trash.

Instead think...

A retelling of Romeo and Juliet, if Romeo was a cyborg and Juliet was a clone, and the story was set in the far future when aliens have conquered earth and humanity has learned to speak in code in order to hide their true intentions from their Escalusian Overlords. In which Benvolio has a larger role as both an erotic character, and as a rebel seeking to overthrow the Escalusians.

That's a fairly decent summary of:

Starcrossed Cyborgs and Clones 

And then there's Richard Sexsmith's Golden Harem series, which includes:

The Gilded Assassin  

Golden Queen of the Ashes 

The protagonists of these two erotic fantasy stories features women bent on revenge, for different reasons, and the manipulative Emperor Titus who overthrows kingdoms just to further his empire and his erotic needs.

Blonde barbarian Seraphina is quite literally sleeping with the enemy she seeks to assassinate.

Queen Valentia seeks revenge against the people who massacred her kingdom and is using Emperor Titus to achieve that goal, but there are complications. 

 

Essentially what you are looking at here is "Smut with a Plot".

Which, considering the reputation that erotic tales usually receives, is high praise.

Eroticism in Art History = Awkward?

November 2014.

So I was browsing art history books on Amazon when I came across the book "Erotic Art: An Annotated Bibliography with Essays" by Eugene C. Burt, as seen below.

And as you can see, judging by the cover, it is quite possibly the least sexy book about erotic art you will ever see.

396 pages of essays about erotic art - quite possibly without even showing erotic art.

The white tag on the cover makes me think it was stolen from a library and someone is trying to sell it. Hence why there are 6 used copies available.

It got me thinking about how awkward it must be sometimes for university students to be writing essays on the topic of erotic art and then having to submit their essay to their possibly ugly professor. Or maybe the professor is totally hot and looks like Tom Selleck or Cindy Crawford (you know, once they got older, but still very attractive).

I can only guess some students will feel mightily embarrassed about handing in their essay about eroticism in the art work of [insert artist name here]. It could even lead to awkward silences or awkward conversations.

(Although to be fair I think the awkwardness would be even worse if someone was caught using a plagiarized essay from an essay writing company and then got kicked out of their university for academic dishonesty.)

I have a feeling students might feel more comfortable about talking about sex in art / eroticism in art if the professor swore once in awhile. A few F-words here and there might allow students to relax a bit more and be able to talk about eroticism without all the embarrassment.

Or maybe some of them will be like many typical (or stereotypical) university students and be drunk / stoned / sex-crazed maniacs in their early 20s who can eloquently talk about "the money shot" in pornography as if they were discussing 18th century French literature. With no awkwardness at all.

The type of people I have no doubt would get along with Flavio and Alexandra, the authors of "How to Read Erotic Art". I have a hunch, just guessing, but my hunch is that Flavio and Alexandra were dating (or maybe have an open relationship) when they were writing their book.

"How to Read Erotic Art" is just one of many books on this topic, but according to description it does go into depth into the idea of how interpret erotic art and possibly also how to talk about erotic art. It therefore might be one of the few books which 'breaks the ice' or 'kills the elephant in the room' when it comes to talking about erotic art.

Most people after all just sort of awkwardly stare at erotic art and then look away embarrassed. When asked what they liked about it they respond with something generic. "It was, uh, very realistic." or "I liked the symbolism."

Erotic art books often become top sellers and yet surprisingly most people only look at the pictures and never "read" the book in question. You should, in theory, do both just so you learn more from the book and garner all the knowledge that is to be learned on the topic you paid money for.

There are 1,225 books, art history books, graphic novels, manga and more on the topic of 'erotic art history' on Amazon.com. If I use eroticism instead of erotic, the list is reduced to 78 - and includes everything from paintings to pottery to Pompeii frescoes.

It is a big long list. The type of books you expect to see on the coffee table in your aunt's condo - you know, the aunt who never married and brings a new man to Christmas gatherings every year. And each year the men seem to get younger. (Another stereotype, huzzah!)

The same aunt who gave you "the talk" when you were 15 and was later scolded by your parents for overstepping her boundaries as an aunt. The same aunt who made raunchy jokes you didn't get when you were younger but now think are hysterical. The same aunt who gave you a giant box of condoms and an "how to guide" when you went off to university and just smiled and drank her wine when the other relatives just looked aghast and awkward.

If you managed to survive having an aunt like that, chances are likely you are surprisingly well adjusted, well-informed and "adult" when it comes to all things dealing with sex and eroticism. You probably didn't get your liberal-mindedness from your parents.

And if you've managed to read this post all the way to the bottom, you are most definitely liberal minded.

Eroticism in Fantasy

By fantasy author Charles Moffat.

When I say the word "fantasy" I don't mean daydreaming about hot sex in a Brazilian waterfalls... as nice as that sounds, what I actually am talking about is traditional "Sword and Sorcery" fantasy. ie. Conan the Barbarian by fantasy writer Robert E. Howard. (Or Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, although really, there isn't much eroticism to speak of in Harry Potter so it doesn't really prove my point.)

Basically fantasy, as it mostly marketed towards men in the same way vampire books are marketed towards women, often employs eroticism either in the cover art and/or the contents of the book.

Star Wars is an excellent example. (My apologies to anyone who thinks Star Wars is science fiction... there is no science in Star Wars. Its a fantasy. Force = Magic, Light Sabres = Magic Swords, etc. They never even bother to explain scientific concepts of how the Death Star actually works, hyperspace, etc.)

But back to my original point: Eroticism in Star Wars. Think scantily clad dancing aliens and Princess Leia in her slave costume.

To be fair there is also the kissing scene between Harry and Hermiome in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) which is carefully censored to make it erotic and yet not show any naughty bits.

So suffice to say fantasy writers (and fantasy movies) will frequently throw in something erotic to tantalize their audience. Some writers (ie. Stephen King, Guy Gavriel Kay, George R. R. Martin, etc) will even go into explicit detail and you might think you were reading something out of Penthouse Letters or some similar literary sex magazine.

I think however that adding such scenes to books really is more about the writer than the audience. The writer is living vicariously through their characters, imagining sexual fantasies that they desire to fulfill but knowing they never will.

ie. Robert E. Howard (the creator of Conan the Barbarian) is reputed to have had only girlfriend during his short career (he committed suicide in 1936 at the age of 30). The girl who was the object of his affections (Novalyne Price) didn't return his interest and broke up with him in 1934. One might argue that his lack of a serious love interest led to his depression and eventual suicide.

Howard's literary creations however, especially Conan, didn't just have women he had many women. But Conan only had one main love interest, a woman named "Belit", the heroine in the story "Queen of the Black Coast". In the story Howard even alludes to their relationship to having sadomasochistic undertones.

Unlike other Conan stories however where Conan essentially walks off into the sunset with the rescued damsel by his side instead Belit dies at the end of the story. Given a viking funeral no less.

It is interesting therefore to note that Howard wrote and published "Queen of the Black Coast" in 1934, shortly after being dumped by Novalyne Price. He also wrote the book "Almuric" shortly after in which he makes some interest comments about suicide (the book was later published posthumously in 1939).

But I digress!

Robert E. Howard, more so than other writers of his era, was deeply sexually repressed and was expressing himself via eroticism in his writing to make up for his lack of emotional connection to a woman in real life. His mother's coma in 1936 and the announcement that she would never awaken was the final nail in the coffin. He went out to his car and shot himself with a .380 Colt Automatic. He died 8 hours later, never regaining consciousness.

Speaking for myself I believe in a much more happy-go-lucky lifestyle. I firmly believe a person can always just start over anew. (Songs like "Eye of the Tiger" help for those who lack motivation.)

When I was living and working overseas I was missing my girlfriend back in Canada and wrote a series of short stories about an interracial relationship between a barbarian human named Brutus and an elf female named Avianna. Its true I was lonely and missing her, and thus expressed my loneliness through the stories which I emailed to my then girlfriend. But at least I never gave up hope for finding true love.

Years later the Brutus & Avianna stories are now available as an eBook on Lulu.com.

Some people might say sex and violence go well together. They're exciting. But I disagree. Violence only seems to work in fantasy pulp fiction when the hero saves the damsel and they live happily ever after. Morbid endings, however more realistic, are downers. (My apologies for the morbidness of this post!!!)

I firmly believe that love, sex and by extension eroticism are all reasons to live. Heroes in fantasy stories don't fight for gold or meaningless things. They fight for love, freedom, justice and ideals.

Take Don Juan as an example. He seduces women (usually virgins) and then fights their bigoted husbands / overprotective fathers. There are many variations on the Don Juan myth, but my personal favourite is the film version "Don Juan Demarco"... a modern fantasy with swordfighting and a happy ending.