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AIBU?

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Original poster

What would you think of a man who did this?

72 replies

CS12345 · 31/10/2018 07:44

Wrote a book with a gratuitous solo sex scene in it of an underage teenage girl? Fwiw, man is middle aged and it's his only book.

OP posts:
Thatwouldwork · 31/10/2018 08:54

Reminded me of this old thread, OP.

MrsJBaptiste · 31/10/2018 08:56

In all honesty, probably read it, carry on with the book and not think anything else of it.

RebelWitchFace · 31/10/2018 09:00

Nothing much. Maybe because I've been on the other side and actually fell out with a friend after she accused me of "victim blaming", "misogyny " "unconscious bias" and some other bullshit after writing a story about rape and kidnapping and the "reasoning" behind it. It was a shit story in all fairness but she was adamant it represented me and how I think. It was all bullshit.

SchadenfreudeUndeadified · 31/10/2018 09:00

The books Lolita and IT are two I can think of which have plot lines of teenage sexuality

Please do NOT equate these two books Zippy.

"Lolita" is a well-written exploration of a middle-aged man's inappropriate sexual obsession with a barely pubescent 12 year old girl. It is not, despite its reputation, a lewd book - it's actually not even very erotic.

"IT" is a load of shite containing sex and swear words the same way an adolescent comes out with foul language to shock and look mature.

BabySharkAteMyHamster · 31/10/2018 09:00

Would depend on the plot, just like tv and film books can cover all areas.

The only ones I felt was a bit odd were the Virginia Andrews books back in the 90's.

phlirty · 31/10/2018 09:05

Poetic licence? Or poetic licentiousness?

TatianaLarina · 31/10/2018 09:10

I really like Nabokov’s translation of Eugene Onegin, but there’s no question to me that Lolita is a pervy book, not just a book about a perv.

People write novels about their fantasies whether they’re young girls or brave exploits. Great writers are not immune from that.

ReanimatedSGB · 31/10/2018 09:11

Impossible to say without reading the book. Though it may be the case that the author thinks that including such a scene shows that he really understands young people and that he's a sensitive and 'truthful' writer - some amateur writers genuinely believe that putting a bit of distasteful/boundary-pushing/contentious stuff in a book shows how 'real' they are - and it isn't necessarily a sign that the author is a bad person if it comes across as gratuitous or icky, more a matter of the author's writing skills not being up to their intention.

If this is someone close to you I would advise judging him on his overall behaviour, not his fiction. Some of the posters on here are coming across like the sort of dickheads who would ban children from reading Lord of the Flies because it has a naughty word in it.

TatianaLarina · 31/10/2018 09:11

In this case I would just assume the writer had a fantasty about teenage girls. It’s hardly unusual.

DerelictWreck · 31/10/2018 09:21

I'm really surprised by these responses, lots of YA fiction has sex in it even if not explicit. Why do we assume this makes an author creepy but are fine with crime fiction etc?

LizzieBennettDarcy · 31/10/2018 09:23

I guess I'd rather he got his kicks from writing about it as opposed to doing it.

But I wouldn't choose to read it.

DrPeppersPhD · 31/10/2018 09:27

I think I'd have to read the book to find out. As a writer myself I've written some scenes that would be very disturbing if taken out of context, so I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt until I've read the whole thing in context.

TatianaLarina · 31/10/2018 09:31

I think some crime fiction is creepy. Depends how much pleasure they take in describing the crimes and the dead bodies.

I’m very much over police shows revelling in mutilated bodies of dead young women.

People get off on sexual violence in particular.

BackInRed · 31/10/2018 09:37

He sounds like a creep.

Scrumplestiltskin · 31/10/2018 09:50

Total pervy creep.

gendercritter · 31/10/2018 10:03

Was it written by a family member or friend? I'd be ok with a female author tackling the subject. Judy Blume, for example. Something written by a male author in a piece of underwhelming self-published book is straying into being very creepy and inappropriate. You'd have to be an exceptional and sensitive writer to pull it off.

Juells · 31/10/2018 10:06

I'd think he did a lot of wanking while thinking about teenage girls. What else is there to think?

TatianaLarina · 31/10/2018 10:14

Quite.

burnoutbabe · 31/10/2018 10:36

Judy Blume writes this sort of stuff about 14 year olds and the noobs are aimed at teenagers so not sure it's that bad in itself.

user23334444 · 31/10/2018 10:43

Julie Burchill wrote "Sugar Rush" with lots of underage girl-on-girl action

RatUnholyRolyPoly · 31/10/2018 10:59

I've been thinking about this... if I read a book - any book by anyone - with a gratuitous sex scene about a teenaged girl, I probably wouldn't think anything about the author at all. I might think it was a shit book. It might even be a good book; I thought Lolita was good, despite covering a pretty distressing subject; but I wouldn't think anything of the author on the basis of solely that.

ReanimatedSGB · 31/10/2018 12:36

THere are a lot of stupid people around who get terribly, terribly exercised about 'gratutious' stuff in books. This is usually because these people don't read many books, don't understand fiction and have very limited imaginations.
OP's aspiring author acquaintance might be a bit of a creep, but he might equally have heard that having something 'shocking' in a book is the best way to get it noticed.

longwayoff · 31/10/2018 13:06

Both even. An author always reveals more about him/her self than s/he thinks. DiscussSmile

JungDisciple · 31/10/2018 13:08

Would worry that he is trying to normalise sex between older man and underage girl, either in society 🤢 or inside his own head.

JungDisciple · 31/10/2018 13:10

Em judy blume writes about teens discovering sex with their same ahe boyfriends.