Thread by @seananmcguire

I really don't enjoy graphic sex scenes in books that aren't billed as erotica (I don't enjoy it there, either, but I don't read erotica because I don't seek out books I know I won't enjoy).

This doesn't mean there's not a place for really graphic sex in fiction! My enjoyment or lack thereof neither validates nor invalidates it as a literary device. It's just very much not for me. I am disinterested and bored by it.

I divide literary sex into "load-bearing" and "not." If it's load-bearing, I can't skip it and still understand the story, and the narrative is absolutely not for me. If it's not load-bearing, it's like picking onions off my pizza. My meal is not ruined.

Also, there's a difference between "I have read 100k of slow-burn courtship and now they bang" and "well, it's page six, someone's getting naked, let's talk at length about lube." One is more my jam than the other.

And I hate that saying "no, thank you, that's too fucky for me" is somehow seen as being a prude, and not just...having a preference. I don't care if you want fucking in your fiction. It's fine by me.

To cover some comments I'm seeing: this isn't because I have a hang-up about sex, or hate sex, or anything like that. I find it dull. It's like reading a book about parliamentary procedure. I know it's not my jam, so why would I do that?