h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What do you reckon from this lot?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/poll/2012/dec/04/bad-sex-award-2012-poll

or do feel free to offer any other nominations

literary or otherwise, if you think you can do better and we could have our very own poll

Historically, the all-time championship bad description of a form of sexual activity has to go to Philip Roth in 'Portnoy's Complaint'.

Nobody who read that could ever look at a piece of liver the same way again...

Peanut, you made me think again. (Shame on you. )

I admit I'd never heard of these 'Bad Sex Awards'. So I googled.

I found a thoughtful essay by one of the previous 'winners':

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/one-bad-sex-awardwinners-view-on-the-bullying-prudery-and-ignorance-that-tries-to-shut-down-literatures-erotic-side-8368319.html

He makes a lot of good points - including the fact that the judges hadn't even read his book.

What do y'all think? Is the author right? Is this just a form of bullying and sniggering designed to sell magazines?

And is there a reason why JK Rowling was not short-listed? (It seems to be a topic.)

Would 'Lady Chatterley' have made this award? Would Joyce? Would that be right?

The passages from Back to Blood, Rare Earth and then the Divine Comedy in descending order for me.

They're all terrible though.

I don't really read books with sex scenes in them sadly. Not since tittering over them at school anyhow. Never really noticed until now, I think the last I read may have been one of the Hitchhiker Books actually

Ah yes, it had occurred to me that those passages were ripped out of their context rather brutally. That is perhaps rather unfair.

It's hard to write about intimate topics - and to do that and reach an audience, well, doubly hard, I think.

Sadly, I'm at that point in my life when no sex is bad.....

Unless your name is E L James apparently

For me that last post raises the question,

what would make the Good Sex awards, perhaps two threads?

or could we cover it in the one

"I" was referring to the title of this thread.

...and if one was to start a 'Good Sex Award' thread, I would post 'Any.'

Also a good question: who wrote well about sex, in your opinion?

I'd recommend Nicholson Baker's 'Vox'.

Is this about the “perfunctory use” of sex in the “modern novel” home?

Big generative jockey.

B

I note that while I was out getting stuck in traffic, the award has been 'won' by a Canadian author:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/04/bad-sex-award-nancy-huston

I hope this nonsense will sell more books for her. She's won quite a few more serious awards.

I do read stories with sex scenes in them. To be more precise, I read erotic fiction on the Internet.



Did I just say that out loud?

TRiG.

yes, you did and would you like to provide any links for

h2g2 Bad Sex Awards

H2g2 Good Sex Awards

just so that we can judge of course

...and any examples must include the word 'turgid'.