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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Sex / Books Local Author Brings Home Bad Sex in Fiction Award

Posted by on Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 4:20 PM

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Local author David Guterson has won the 2011 Bad Sex in Fiction Award for a scene in his novel Ed King:

Presented during a ceremony this evening at the Naval & Military Club on St. James’s Square, London, the prize was granted for a 12-hour sequence of what Guterson calls “gyrations and five-sense choreographies” — including a morning shower during which she “abused him with a bar of soap.”

“Oedipus practically invented bad sex, so I’m not in the least bit surprised,” Guterson said in an e-mailed statement distributed by Britain’s Literary Review, which organizes the contest.

Good for Guterson for having a sense of humor about the whole thing. The more authors I interview, the worse I feel about the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Sex is maybe one of the most difficult things to write because it's (generally) so private, and people are so fucking touchy about it. It's important to include sex in fiction, but the last decade's worth of literary fiction has been depressingly sexless when compared to the 70s or 80s. How many authors have just deleted the sex from their books out of fear that they might win "that goddamned award," as one writer I interviewed described it? At the very least, shouldn't they have a Good Sex in Fiction Award, too?

 

Comments (6) RSS

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Will in Seattle 1
I thought that was HUMP?
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on December 6, 2011 at 4:28 PM
2
I haven't read Nicholson Baker's House of Holes yet, but I'm sort of shocked he didn't get it, just based on his other sexy writing. Not that I think it's bad - quite the contrary - but it's so hilariously over the top that I would think it would qualify for this sort of thing.
Posted by Levislade http://ballofwax.org on December 6, 2011 at 4:46 PM
3
Why is it important to include sex (by which you apparently mean long, detailed descriptions of sex acts) in fiction?
Posted by eptified on December 6, 2011 at 5:11 PM
Anne18 4
@3 Because fiction is life, and life, if you're doing it right, involves long, detailed sex acts.
Posted by Anne18 on December 6, 2011 at 8:02 PM
Shini 5
@3 and it can help with demystifying sex and keep people from thinking it's a dirty, awful thing
Posted by Shini on December 6, 2011 at 10:06 PM
Karlheinz Arschbomber 6
Great that a recognized successful author would get this 'recognition', and even better that he takes it with good humor.
Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arschbombe on December 7, 2011 at 3:41 AM

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