"Describing itself as “Britain’s most dreaded literary prize”, the Literary Review’s Bad sex in fiction award has unveiled this year’s shortlist, which ranges from Elizabeth Gilbert, the bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, to the acclaimed French novelist Didier Decoin.

Dreamed up in 1993 by the Literary Review’s the editor Auberon Waugh and critic Rhoda Koenig, the award is for “the year’s most outstandingly awful scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel”. It is intended to draw attention to “the poorly written, redundant, or downright cringeworthy passages of sexual description in modern fiction”.


This year’s contenders include The River Capture by Mary Costello, praised by the Guardian as “an audacious act of literary ventriloquism and one that Costello pulls off astonishingly successfully”; The Office of Gardens and Ponds by Decoin, a former Prix Goncourt winner; City of Girls by Gilbert, which the Guardian said was a “glorious, multilayered celebration of womanhood”; Pax by John Harvey, and The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith."


https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/27/bad-sex-award-shortlist-announced-for-britains-most-dreaded-literary-prize

I was active on this board years ago. Decided to come back. I'm moving back to Zion. Wish me luck

baldman Wrote:
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> I was active on this board years ago. Decided to
> come back. I'm moving back to Zion. Wish me luck

Much wished luck going in your direction, from rainy (!Yay!) Southern California.

Better you than me on the move, baldman.

Hope everything goes far better than you could now imagine probable.

This just in....
“Watching pornography rewires the brain to a more juvenile state”
https://theconversation.com/watching-pornography-rewires-the-brain-to-a-more-juvenile-state-127306
Those who have education in brain science will understand what this article is talking about. Mirror neurons, dopamine transmission, damage to the prefrontal cortex…

I realize it can be popular among some people commenting on this website to disparage the idea of the existence of Porn Addiction. My own experience, having had a husband who was indeed an addict and who gradually totally lost interest in his wife, tells me porn addiction is real. My father-in-law was also a Porn Addict who moved on to worse and worse addiction including using his own children.

So, for those who think that because the church rails against pornography, they need to poo-poo the idea, I suggest not dismissing it.

LTM; Thanks for your most excellent comment.

It' time if it hasn't been done already for some science-based research on this subject with all the social disciplines involved.

Excellent comment. I agree totally.

I will add I also completely disagree with the move to legalize marijuana in this country.

Just what we need in this country, another corporatized industry funneling wealth away from the poor, working poor, and lower middle class (most Americans) by hawking a worthless “product” that’s bad for them anyway.

Full disclosure: I’m a nevermo.

People will still use marijuana whether it's legal or not. At least if it's legalized, the government can tax it and put money into public services. Also, there are actual medicinal properties to marijuana, unlike smoking tobacco. I don't use it myself, but if you're gonna use the justification that it's bad for people anyways, then we might as well get rid of alcohol, even though most who do drink it aren't alcoholics.

Plenty of other ways to increase revenue without collecting more tax from those least able to pay it, the poor and working poor. I’m thinking raising marginal tax rates, wealth taxes, capital gains, etc.
Big difference between taking away a currently legal privilege and not legalizing another. We tried making alcohol illegal once before. You remember. Didn’t work.
Are you saying because tobacco and alcohol are legal, pot should be as well? Your relativism argues also for legalism of all drugs.
So tired of the old anti-nausea, pain reduction rationalization. It’s like when a former vegetarian tells me they they stopped because their doctor told them they needed meat to be healthy. It’s laughable. It’s not like we are lacking for legal pain meds in our medical care system. Now if you could show me evidence that pot has the potential to be the beginning of a new class of antibiotics, we can talk.
You misunderstand my position. I don’t give a rat’s ass if people smoke pot till they fall down. My concern is exclusively about the inevitability of the government becoming the agent that funnels money away from the poor and to corporations as is the default relationship between government and corporate America at the expense of the people.
I also know there is plenty of evidence that consuming pot and porn (among other vices) is bad for people. LeftTheMorg offered just one piece.

Whether it be chemical (nicotine, alcohol, drugs) or behavioral (gambling, sex), a person progresses, needing stronger and more frequent doses to meet the habit's needs ("high."), futilely pursuing the euphoria of that first fix.

Years ago, a cigarette brand had a very on-target advertising slogan: "Are you smoking more now, but enjoying it less?" Incredibly insightful! Implied message: "Your addiction has plateaued. Smoke our stronger stuff."

A poignant point for Progressive Boomers who say, "I smoked plenty when I was young, what's the problem?" The street stuff we smoked was very tame compared to what's out there now.

While porn and sex addiction are very real things LeftTheMorg,I'm really quite skeptical of this article.

First of all, we have to ask: what is porn?

Cause video of totally innocuous footage to the general population might be totally arousing to certain individuals. For example, people are aroused by balloons being blown up until they pop.

People don't necessarily need to specifically watch video of 2 or more people having sex in order to get aroused.

So for the research in the article mentioned, I'm curious if they involved videos of niche fetishes (and then there are the more common ones to talk about).

We also must remember, different people have different sex drives. There is a difference between a sex addict, and a person who simply has a high sex drive.

Then there are asexual people, who may still want a romantic partner, but have no interest in sex.

And then there are polyamorous people, which is becoming more and more common.

I highly recommend watching videos and reading research by sex therapists and sexologists (people who exclusively study sex).

Check out the YouTube channel 'Sexplanations'. The video in the link deals with sex vs masturbation. In this video, women actually say they prefer masturbation because usually their partner can't bring them to climax. It's a very informing video that has people of all backgrounds talking about their own experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlxrwJvgabI

You will of course need a YouTube account to see this.

Also, I need to comment about your father-in-law.

"My father-in-law was also a Porn Addict who moved on to worse and worse addiction including using his own children."

I'm not so sure that porn was the problem in this scenario. This makes me think of the idea that Catholic priests wouldn't abuse children (of any gender) if they were simply allowed to marry women.

I was wondering how you knew my ex.

Here I thought it would a discussion of some neighbors we had in Sandy, UT who said "we do it and wait 9 months to see if we have a baby - and if not we try again".