Chanting Lure Tales

Image by Alessio from Pixabay

I read a fair amount of erotica, some of it historical. I ran into The Horn Book: A Girl's Guide to the Knowledge of Good and Evil recently in an article or blog post and it sounded interesting. Despite its translation to English being firmly in the public domain, the only options I could find to get it involved paying money to shadowy groups who publish public domain works for ... variable amounts of money. I try to avoid paying less than scrupulous people for things that are in the public domain but sometimes it's unavoidable.

The Horn Book (at least the bits I've read so far) is a dialogue between two lovers. The more experienced man and the married woman who's having an affair with him. She asks him to teach her all the things about sex that she doesn't already know.

From a modern ear, it's pretty annoying. “Oh, Claude, even though we've fucked in every conceivable way thousands of times, I don't know anything, please teach me.” That level of annoying. Claud explains some anatomical things which, if I understood correctly, are definitely not true and very funny. Although, as an American, it exceeded my sex ed.

At that point in the story, Claude insists that they use only technical terms for body parts because if they're going to be so bold as to do these things to each other, then surely there's no reason not to.

And that's why I'm writing about it.

I've heard variations on that theme for years. “You should only use the scientifically correct terms for body parts!” Usually outside of erotica but sometimes in it too. There's a degree of irony in Claude saying it in The Horn Book. Even in the passage where he's complaining about the use of euphemisms, he's actually mostly using euphemisms straight when he's supposedly not.

There are some sexual euphemisms I'd just as soon never hear again but, most of the time, the euphemisms aren't there (in smut or dirty talk) to occlude meaning or shy away from uncomfortable topics, as Claude insists. The euphemisms you'd use in an erotica scene or when playing with partners aren't the ones you'd use to keep “tender ears” from understanding your meaning.

Instead, those euphemistic words and terms are there to provide variety and express different terms of meaning.

“I thought of you and now my penis is hard,” might be hilarious in the right context. It's not specifically the “right” way to say that. If pressed, I think even the author and the translator of The Horn Book would have to confess to that. Otherwise, both of them would have reverted to more technical language in that passage.

I've occasionally heard (from people I assume don't read erotica) that technical terms should be used in erotica (and, one imagines, romance too). When you use your foot to press the accelerator on your automobile and use your hand to activate the indicators, I'll take you more seriously on that.

There's a time and a place for technical language. Even I use it sometimes in my writing. Using the full nuance of the language isn't wrong, though. Unless you're into it that way. In which case, write those dirty, dirty words. 😈

#Erotica #Smut #Writing