REPOST 8/11/2006 Only PORN?

Is this guy for REAL? Let's start with his quote...

"Certainly it seemed to us [Moore and Gebbie] that sex, as a genre, was woefully under-represented in literature, even rarefied ones like detective, spaceman or cowboy have got whole genres dedicated to them. Whereas the only genre in which sex can be discussed is a disreputable, seamy, under-the-counter genre with absolutely no standards: [the pornography industry] which is a kind of Bollywood for hip, sleazy ugliness."Alan Moore, interview with Science Fiction Weekly

It seems to me that I was reading erotica in the 1980s, and it was an established genre then. How, then, does Mr. Moore justify the idea that the only genre where sex is central is porn?

In fact, erotic writing of other sorts (POSITIVE expression of sexual journey, discovery or trials) have been popular for a long time and have gained a more mainstream popularity in recent years.

Now, I haven't read Lost Girls, and what he writes may indeed be porn. I can't speak from experience, but that hardly qualifies Mr. Moore to speak for an entire industry he is sadly ignorant of...erotic writing. Oh, he claims his writing is erotic, but I say he's ignorant of what the market entails, because he thinks he's inventing something new by writing erotic fiction that he doesn't want labeled as porn.

Now that we've established that erotica has existed and has been sold in mainstream bookstores for quite some time, let's move on to the current market.

Erotic romance, and erotica by extension, are two of the highest growing markets in existence today. Believe it or not, there is even a market for Inspirational erotic romance, as incongruous as that sounds.

That growth started in indie press and e-publishing, but NY publishers (pubs that have never before published erotic content) are opening lines for it. You can read the articles about it in sources like Newsweek. Cindy Hwang (Berkely's Heat line), Hilary Sares and Kate Duffy (Kensington's Aphrodesia and Brava lines) are not at all shy to admit that they see the rising tide of these books and are embracing it. They fully admit that, in this case, the indie presses and e-publishers acted as something of a test market for the genres and did so well that NY took notice, the same as they did with paranormal/SF/F romances. Such test marketing makes good fiscal sense, as it reduces the risk to the NY publishers.

Footnote: Even Harlequin has started erotic romance lines to compliment their longstanding sensual and traditional ones.

It seems to me that there are a lot of REPUTABLE, tasteful, over the counter and on the bookstore shelves, romantic or even intellectually stimulating, well-written and edited erotic work out there. If Mr. Moore isn't writing it, it hardly behooves him to ignore those who are and claim he's being unfairly categorized as porn, because "nothing else exists." It DOES exist, and that is hardly a believable cop-out for anyone. It hasn't been for many years.