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Afroerotik
Regular Poster
Username: Afroerotik
Post Number: 62
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 04, 2008 - 07:03 pm: | 
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From the rhythmic tales of the sagacious griot, weaving tales of slaves whose love endured the horrors of chattel slavery, to the Harlem Renaissance with its unapologetic look at that mysterious element which made our natures rise, to the soul-stirring harmonies of R&B that have been the soundtrack to our seductions for decades, Black people have always had a long tradition of erotic expression. In 1992, an editor by the name of Miriam Decosta-Willis, published an anthology of erotica called Erotique Noire that was not only groundbreaking, it truly was a celebration of Black sensuality and set the stage for a new genre of expression. Today, if you venture into the African American section of any bookstore, it’s filled with shelf after shelf of degrading, crude, and offensive books that don’t even deserve to be called erotica. We’ve come a long way baby, but it certainly hasn’t been an erotic evolution.
One can’t have a discussion of the topic of Black erotica today without discussing Zane; she and Black erotica are virtually synonymous. For those of you who haven’t been in the African-American section of a bookstore in the last five years, Zane is the number one selling Black author who writes Black erotica. She says she is empowering Black women with her in-your-face brand of sexual writing. She certainly has done well for herself, selling over 2.5 million tittles and plans to launch television shows, plays, movies and a whole host of other branding opportunities from her tales of dark lust.
Zane’s story is one of triumph. She started out with rejection letter after rejection letter from publishers who told her that her brand of writing was too vulgar, that people wouldn’t buy such hard-core material. Self-publishing her books and selling them out of the trunk of her car, soon publishers were beating a line to her door to offer her a deal. Now she has her own imprint and is publishing upwards of 30 authors herself. She certainly deserves kudos for her good old-fashioned ingenuity and determination. She’s single handedly reshaped the face of Black erotica an opened the door for anyone, ANYONE who writes about sex to get a publishing deal, regardless of talent, or in most instances, the lack thereof. Sentence structure, spelling, grammar, and editing be damned. Publishers have taken the Zane story and capitalized off of it to the detriment of the genre and to the absolute degradation of any sort of example of healthy Black sexuality.
Writing Black erotica is a lot like rapping. Anybody who can come up with three words that rhyme can call himself or herself a rapper; anyone who uses the words dick, pussy, and •••• in a sentence can call themselves an erotic writer. Black erotic today consists of the same storyline told over and over again: super-beautiful women with abnormal libidos and superficial standards seduce their super-rich, lovers who always have super-sized genitalia complete with matching, heightened sexual appetites, and a non-existent commitment to being in a relationship. Throw in several dozen references to capitalist trinkets and you essentially have every erotic story on the shelves today. Black erotica has made being ghetto equivalent to being Black. We have a unique culture and experience that can come across on the page in our reflections, our words, and our perceptions. That, however, doesn’t have to include baby mamas, visiting day at prisons, spelling the words boys with a z, or eroticizing the N word. Instead of writing about our beauty, our pain, our history, we write about our dysfunction, throw in a few sexual escapades, and call it erotica. Yes, our stories need to be told, but glorifying behaviors that are unhealthy isn’t art. There certainly is more to Black life than what we are being force-fed.
The publishing industry has all but shut out writers with integrity to the craft who want to tell our stories in a way that don’t degrade but that celebrate Black and interracial sexuality beyond clichés and stereotypes. So terrified are the Black middle class of being associated with the freaks and nymphos depicted in Black erotica, so distanced are we from a healthy example of our sexuality, we sit in silence, never demanding more, never complaining about the proliferation of erotic literature that reduce our sexuality to nothing more than a sweaty, recreational activity.
When our literary diets consist only of poorly written, grammatically incorrect, inane tales of ghetto sex, it's not feeding our souls, it's poisoning our minds. It's reinforcing that the institutionalized, substandard education that we have been fed is acceptable. It's crippling us, as Black people, academically so that we will never be able to read and appreciate a well-written novel in our lives, let alone be able to construct a sentence that would be considered well-written. We MUST raise the bar when it comes to what we are feeding ourselves, what literary sustenance with which we nourish ourselves.
Even with the proliferation banal Black erotica and the horrendous mediocrity of it all, there are still those who value the melodies and harmonies of jazz, who feel the angst of Morrison’s Beloved, who treasure the beauty of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations, and who appreciate the artistry of true erotica. Long gone are the days when we dog-eared the pages of Erotique Noire and quoted passages to our lovers in steamy late-night phone calls. Truly empowering erotica lifts us up, paints a picture of our lives and our sexuality that have nothing to do with exchanging sex for money or adultery but that allows us sensual release and to mentally travel to a place of sights, sounds, sensations, and tastes that arouse all of our senses.
Scottie Lowe is the owner of www.AfroerotiK.com, a website dedicated to showing Black people in a positive sexual light and the author of In Loving Color, a cutting-edge book of erotica and photography for which she is seeking investors. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13169
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 05, 2008 - 03:47 pm: |
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Erotica is basically a fantasy. Vulgarity can be a turn-on that fuels fantasy. No matter how you package it, sex is sex. If 2 people have good chemistry they don't need the aphrodisiac of erotica; all they need behind closed doors are the pheronomes of each other. Venus has spoken. |
Emanuel
Veteran Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 673
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2008 - 11:37 am: |
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**Vulgarity can be a turn-on that fuels fantasy.
Exactly. The porn industry doesn't pretend to be art. People who read Zane's books might not necessarily be looking for art. They might just be looking to get their rocks off.
I've never read a Zane book. I've only read one erotica book in the last five years. However (rather you like her writing & subject matter or not) her journey is an American success story. From traditional rejection to self-publishing to selling millions, she took matters into her own hands and was successful.
Regarding what type of erotica Black people choose, I think our people are too easily dismissed as ignorant when they choose less high brow reading. Black people know that books by Cornel West, Edward P. Jones and other exists. However, they choose street lit, erotica and such because it's EXCITING to them. Their audiences range from high school kids to people with master's degrees. And when they want to feed their minds, they may choose the bell hooks book or the Tavis Smiley book. But when they want to escape or get their freak on they choose the other stuff. The beauty is, they have a choice. High brow is still being published. What people consider good writing is still being published.
Let's not be down on our own because they are having success. And if we're really taking the moral high ground,then the argument could be made that ALL erotica in film. TV and books and ALL violence in films, TV, and books is SIN. Let he without sin cast the first stone. Should we shoot for the PG Utopia? Is that realistic? Where does it end?
Like I said, I don't read erotica or street lit. I don't particularly care for the writing style or the genre myself but I'm not going to knock anyone who is having success at it. Before I cast the first stone, I need to take a long look at my own sh!t.
To say ya'll reading the wrong kind of erotica and ya'll should be reading the kind of stuff I'm involved in sounds a lot like Hateraid. I believe we need to take on an abundance mentality. There's enough room out here for all of us. And if what Zane does is so easy and so poorly written, then authors who want that same fame and fortune should take on a pen name and write the "bullsh!t" the people demand. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7586
Registered: 03-2004
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2008 - 11:41 am: |
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I define Erotica as female-friendly sex lit--the beautiful participants meet in romantic settings, there is courtship, dinner, entertainment, sensitive lovemaking, pillow talk--
Sensitive sex between sensitive adults in a rose petal strewn bed in the perfumed Presidential suite at the Grande Hotel on the Riviera with Luther crooning in the background
Porn is more male--two naked barmaids screwing in a pile of mud out behind the roadhouse while a bunch of yahoos in overalls chugging on brews stand around watching, beating and making crude jokes
Can I post this on this site? |
Afroerotik
Regular Poster
Username: Afroerotik
Post Number: 63
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 08, 2008 - 10:33 am: |
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Erotica is art or literature created to arouse the senses. There is no art in pornography. What Zane writes is not erotic, it's porn. I write erotica. It's not "female friendly" in that it caters to a Hollywood concept of romance, rather it's literature. I use words to arouse the senses, the story is my canvas. Men and women alike are aroused by my work because it speaks to their emotions and their passions. Street lit and the Zane genre are crap and the millions upon millions of people who devour her barely literate porn are non-thinking minions who wouldn't know good erotica if it bit them on the ass. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7594
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 08, 2008 - 11:41 am: |
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Street lit and the Zane genre are crap and the millions upon millions of people who devour her barely literate porn are non-thinking minions who wouldn't know good erotica if it bit them on the ass.
(Your books are sure going to be popular when all the Zaniacs and Street lit fanatics find out what you said about them--NOT!!!!
Don't worry about what somebody else is doing. Do your own thang and wish everybody else well--) |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7595
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 08, 2008 - 11:46 am: |
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Like I said, I don't read erotica or street lit. I don't particularly care for the writing style or the genre myself but I'm not going to knock anyone who is having success at it. Before I cast the first stone, I need to take a long look at my own sh!t.
(We have had this discussion before, and I guess it will never end.
To each his own. I love John Edgar Wideman. But reading him is work.
I am a writer and love the work. Everybody don't read to work. Some people are leading horrible, boring lives and seek escape or a little something to relax with right before they go to sleep.
Why begrudge them this small pleasure?
Be glad somebody is reading SOMETHING.
Further, I point to my own experience. When I was a young un, I read nothing but comic books and trash--james bond, Mandingo novels, etc.
But when I grew up, I looked for something challenging.
I remember being bored to tears with Moby Dick every time I had to read it in school.
When I read it again in the 80's I was enthralled and wished they had not taught it in schools, since schools excel in making stuff boring. |
Carey
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 1433
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 08, 2008 - 12:50 pm: |
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Ooooh, what a delicious topic. I think I'll stay out of this one.
NOPE, can't do it. Like Chris said, we've been here before. Few have taken swipes at Zane, I raise my hand along with Afro-Puffs. My stand was a liitle different from hers but Zane gets a pass on this board, I've always wondered why. Is it that others are affraid of the backlash? That could be a reason. Is it just like the hero status we give to the rest our glorified neighborhood Kings and Queen.
Let's see, there's Rev. Backstroke and Mr. Pimp-a-million. Can't you just see Rap Nasty doing his thang while Ho'ish Helen dances along. Who can forget Rock Candyman and King Heroin.
It's a great time to find Boostin' Big Butt Betty, gotta get those Christmas gifts.
While were on the subject of "good" why don't we throw in 2 great movies. Yeah, what about Halle's Sweet Sweetback, I mean Monsters Ball - great movie, huh. Heck, we might as well get another one that captured the hearts of many, especially black folk. How about Denzel's Training Day. Now that should stand right beside one of Zane's books. They could market them together, something like "Get your hands up, drop your pants, am a cop". Well, I don't know if that would be great title but you know what I mean. Yes sir, all of our glorified heroes sit at the top of our -- "Good File". Anyway, I guess it's to each his own. I only said that because I am a little short on money and I have to go find Food Stamp Francis, gotta eat, right? |
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