The Perils of Writing Erotica

How many among us possess the obsession of the Marquis, for that matter? The proud and stubborn writer who, while incarcerated in the Bastille, without the benefit of electric light, laptop or a decent table, kept writing his "100 Days of Sodom" on tissue papers he pasted in one long continuous sheet, which he rolled and hid in the crevices of his rocky cell? Erotic writing at its rawest, crudest, and most malignant form—still made available to us throughout the centuries to admire the unstinting effort and treasure the imaginations.

Will it take another century, or perhaps, even more, before we can see Erotica as a legitimate form of literature, accepted as literary, and included as a genre of professional writing offered in colleges and creative writers' workshops? When will writers—professionals, published or unpublished—feel unafraid to delve in the genre, proud to see their real names and not their nom de plumes or pseudonyms screaming "bestseller" on a book jacket?

When can one read translations without censorship coming from foreign countries that have their own unique versions and brands of erotica? Can anyone imagine the wealth of pleasures and thrills reading Russian, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, or Arabic erotic literatures? When can honest aspiring writers like most of those who lingered in the fringes here in Literotica—enjoying enormous popularity yet wary of how to get rich and become a published bestseller—stop dishing out erotic writings that are easy and quick because the genre is viewed as such, rubbish and cheap?

When can our world look at sex in art and literature without disgust, shame, embarrassment, or hypocrisy? When can we start to understand and enjoy the intimate and personal joys and pleasures of reading what others considered, thought, and perceived for us as indecent, malicious, and immoral—without fear or doubt of our own—or the enormous harmful influences and unavoidable repercussions the stories/art will make?

When can a reader/writer/artist lift the veil of discomfort and embarrassment because the topic s/he chose to favour or indulge in is sex?