As I reread the first 50k of my novel, I realized that it is fairly close to hard sci fi, but that it has two very erotic explicit scenes, so it doesn't fit into a single genre cast. The question is, would a few erotica scenes in a hard sci fi novel make you less likely to read it?
Yes I know there will be depends on how it's written answers, but im looking for instinctual gut reactions to the idea.
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50,675 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 15 00
Gut reaction? It doesn't change a thing. Sex doesn't magically make your hard-SF novel not hard-SF anymore.
Assuming the scenes aren't within the first few pages, I don't think it would affect my inclination or not to read the book. I mean, if they're buried half way in, then by the time I get to them I'm already invested in the book and even if I didn't want to encounter any sex scenes, I'd still want to know how the book ends so I'd keep going.
But personally, sex scenes don't bother me in the least. Well, unless they don't fit with the story. If they feel natural and organic to the characters and the plot, like "yes, this is what should be happening at this point; this makes sense to me," then fine. But if they feel like you just stuck them in there just because you were hard-up for words and feeling horny at the time, then that'll bother me because it's bad writing, not because of the sex. I'd feel the same about an ill-fitting fight scene, for example.
----------Crashdown (YA sci-fi / horror)
Stranded on an alien world, Ruve must deny his own humanity in order to survive. To get home, he'll need the help of someone back here on Earth. If, that is, he can convince anyone here that he's real.
50,137 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 15 43
Gut feel is going to depend on if I knew the sex scenes were in it before I started.
If I did then I would give the book a miss. Reason is simple, if I want to be titillated I am not likely going to want to read good sci fi at the same time. Plus to be honest I find it difficult to see why good sci fi should need such devices, but that is just me :)
On the other hand as a previous poster said, if I have already got an investment in the book *and* like it so far then the sex would not stop me reading the rest of it -- it might, depending on how well it was done and how well the rest of the book appealed, stop me reading anything else by the same author though.
Hope that helps
PG
50,405 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 19 40
Hmm - depends - what is he , she, they doing? Is it applicable to the story? Also, if you have the detail in the sex scene and none or little in the other scenes, well heck - what up wid' dat'?
If your story is overpowered by a scene or two then what does it say about the rest of the story ?
So it depends on the treatment of the scene...and who your intended audience is.
----------Johnny B
Rome didn't build a great Empire by having meetings. It built it by crushing all those that opposed it.
2008: (winner) Phoenix Rising
55,462 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 20 08
I have read "hard SF" (in the nuts-and-bolts sense, where all the laws of nature are properly respected) and still found pretty hot-and-heavy sex scenes. It's not particularly taboo anymore.
The question, as always, is whether the sex scenes do anything to advance the story. You might apply this test, based on a comment Sean Lindsay makes on his "101 Reasons to Stop Writing" site: remove the explicit erotic scene and replace it with the simple statement, "and then they did it." If the story no longer works, the details of the sex were important. If not, they were just padding--acceptable to get to 50K words by November 30, but maybe not needed for the finished book.
7,834 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 23 09
Do people in the future and in other galaxies etc. not have sex anymore? Actually, that could be a literal question. :P
I'd say it doesn't change a thing. Star Trek implied sex in practically every episode, and I'd call that fairly hard SF (not quite the same, I know, but close enough). In fact, leaving it out without an explained reason (like in 1984) would seem to me very very unrealistic and would actually turn me off more I think. But all in all, I'd say just go with it and throw the definition to hell. Who cares if it is or isn't "hard SF"? Its your novel, and your characters, and your plot. To hell with what everyone else categorizes it as.
----------"When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'One word at a time.' "
~ Stephen King
96,868 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 12 11
I might be a tad biased, as I just watched "Heavy Metal", but I really don't see why 'sex scenes' are such a taboo to begin with. If there's a culture on this planet with taboos about eating, does this mean it would be naughty to include any scene where the characters are eating? 'Does this story need to include food? Is the eating necessary to the story? Would the story still work without the eating scene?' Etc.
----------Title: Breaking Light
Goal: Finishing this novel. (Probably be 100k-120k at this rate.)
Sanity level: Do you even need to ask?
50,274 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 20 59
can i just say, you are all awesome for answering this question?
i'll take out the erotic scenes, and reread it, but since they are integral to the romance as it relates to the story, I think it might be a little weak.
7,252 / 50,000
Dec 3, 2008 - 07 46
Two erotic scenes in the whole novel, that I assume are erotica and not porn, no that wouldn't stop me from reading it.
If it was filed under erotic Sci-Fi, that would stop me from reading it (honestly, have you ever encountered anything under that label that would have done justice to either genre?).