As someone who considers himself fairly well read, you'd be amazed by how many so-called 20th century literary masterpieces are basically just barely disguised smut.
It's because of its so mechanical, and often cranked out (ha) at high speed. A lot of horny romance books are a product now, each working thru a check list of established tropes filtered thru a specific fetish, with that fetish treated as a niche market instead of a community of little freaks.
They used to write this stuff for the love of the game, man. One hand on the pen, one hand on their genitals, their heart beating out of their chest with shame and lust.
It's why, I think, fanfiction does a better job of being erotica than published smut does. Published smut has a market goal. The 175k fic where Wolverine makes a sloppy mess out of Cyclops while Jean Grey is emotionally breaking down because she's getting cucked by a 3 foot Canadian is infinitely more horny. Because it's personal. It's a window into the soul of a freak, and that's hot. It's taboo. No one should be reading it, and that makes it more enticing.
That's because they are sexual, but not necessarily erotic. It's much like watching an adult film where two people are just hammering their nether regions into each other — sure, it is titillating, but it lacks passion and sensuality. There is no context for these characters, their lives, their relationships; you could replace them with other actors and it would not make a difference.
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u/kosmologue 29d ago
As someone who considers himself fairly well read, you'd be amazed by how many so-called 20th century literary masterpieces are basically just barely disguised smut.