15 yr old boy: You had me at “heaving alabaster bosoms”.
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that might just be survivor bias though
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I dunno if my family is typical, but my brothers and sister and myself all read plenty of books with sex in them as teenagers. Parents were fine with it, basically.
My dad lent his Conan novels to my brothers and I, and my grandmother would give hundreds (no exaggeration) of her old Harlequin novels (and sometimes filthier fare) to my sister.
Probably not typical, because by college everyone but my middle brother had read on the order of hundreds of novels.
ETA:
Right? For me, Conan wasn’t just it. I read a ton of Piers Anthony, and he ranged from mildly naughty (Xanth) to somewhat deviant (Diary of a Space Tyrant). There was plenty of other stuff, too, which now I can’t recall exactly.
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I used to tear through collections of SF short stories as a teen, either individual authors (Bradbury, Asimov) or thematic collections. Most were very chaste with the occasional off-screen coupling or hint of boobs or whatever. So when actual sexy stuff popped up, it was rare and quite a surprise; I remember reading The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks by Dafydd ab Hugh in a collection of Nebula award winners and thinking that a story with a feral child mating with a talking wolf was probably not parent-approved.
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Piers Anthony came under a lot of criticism for sexual themes, but he was hugely popular. I started reading him obsessively at age 9… to no ill effect.* At the time, I thought that they were books for grown-ups. I was amused to read that some (the Xanth series in particular) were indeed written with a younger audience in mind, although that is not how they were marketed. That so many of us found sex in science fiction or fantasy is hardly surprising, though. There’s a long tradition of “pulp” genres (you can throw in horror too) going where “serious” books would not. This was even true in comics, before the Hayes code, which were frequently criticized for overly sexualized plots or images. The YA label waves a flag for people to scrutinize and judge whether it is suitable. I suspect a number of publishers understand this and, as in the case of Piers Anthony, market books that were indeed written for a younger audience as if they were no such thing. Saves a lot of hassle.
*(Although in fairness it was the Bio of a Space Tyrant that I think really raised hackles, and I never finished that series because I found it unappealing – maybe because of the sex, but probably not).
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Please. please give them books on how to recognize and have consensual sex. Way too many stories about a person forcing themselves on someone and the receiver growing to like it after the initial discomfort. Just no. If it feels wrong to one at that time, then it is wrong for both.
*leaps off high horse into the arms of my enthusiastic imaginary lover
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When I was a teenager, someone gave me a whole sack full of “Sword of Truth” novels. They’d found them cheap somewhere, used, and saw they were fantasy, so figured I’d like them, and clearly had absolutely no idea of their contents apart from that.
Which, weirdly, proves there’s a limit to Daniel Handler’s idea. I hated the first one so much, I never bothered with the others.
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I’m not the target audience here (cis-female) but I hated finding sexy stuff in books as a teenager. I was, emotionally and socially, a late bloomer and found anything more than kissing to be "icky."
I stuck to the children’s section for a very long time because venturing over to the adult section meant taking a big chance on finding something unpleasant. And boring, since most non-genre fiction was about a bunch of middle-aged people dealing with being middle-aged…snore!
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For the rest of us, does said lover have long flowing hair?
The kind that real, adult women don’t actually like in real life, except on book covers?
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Not sure if serious…
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Know your Old Testament, and which bits to quote. Without citing the source. Wait for it…
Then ask if they really want to ban the bible.
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Not entirely. But I had long hair from age 15 to 29, so…
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“Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”
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It’s usually not really all that much about the (length of the) hair.
Let’s face it, not a lot of guys can really pull off long hair. Other than in the literal sense.
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Well, there’s definitely some that were (self-professed) into long hair. I always found them to be a turnoff, or sometimes creepy. (Sometimes long hair was a proxy for being wayyyy younger than them)
Usually, people on the whole like you for who you are. I think?
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Somewhat!?
Anthony is a straight-up pedophile.
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I never made it to ‘Panties’. But I have no doubt that the ‘Tyrant’ series was more deviant. Pedophilia is sort of that guy’s baseline for deviancy. It was definitely there even early on in Xanth, albeit fleetingly. (I recall references about his first encounter with the illusionist, who took many tempting forms, including a 14 year old girl.)
I don’t think I made much hay of it at the time, as I was younger than 14, so attractive 14 year olds seemed quite nice in addition to the other forms of largely naked ladies.
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I take no issue with this…but seriously, Anais Nin is particularly rough even by today’s standards…
I took a college course where we read stuff considered risque / blue over time, which included rather mundane stories by Dreiser, Maugham, and Cheever, but also delved into Henry Miller, Nin, and D.H. Lawrence’s more infamous work.
While Miller drew a fair share “ewwwws” at points, Nin decidedly won that contest.
So, of course, I assume those of you who haven’t read their stuff will now seek it out post-haste.
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I grew up on the internet. I drink every night to forget the kinds of shit I’ve seen. Nin isn’t likely to be worse. I’ve never read Nin’s stuff. But why add to the pile?
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Oh definitely, I personally find men with long hair sexy. I cried when I saw Thor cut his hair.
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