Jae's dreams/Jaes Träume/Jae's dromen

This week, the Dutch literary world has been abuzz with the release of a new erotic trilogy of books by three young Dutch writers: 25 (written by Jamal Ouariachi), 45 (written by David Pefko), and 70 (written by Daan Heerma van Voss). They all depict the same female protagonist and her various erotic adventures, at three very different ages.

So far, so good, right? I mean, it's a cool concept to show the same woman at three different periods of her life (not to mention the fact that showing the erotic adventures of a 70-year-old woman is something that's probably rarely been attempted in mainstream erotica). And while the fact that three authors are men has been raising some eyebrows, I don't really have a problem with that, either. I mean, god knows that mediafandom produces enough porn about men written by women--it's all cool.

No, it's not the concept that's leaving a sour taste in my mouth every time I hear or read another piece on these books--it's the attitude. Specifically, the one laid out on the publisher's website (my translation), and represented by the authors whenever they're talking to the media:

Three young writers offer up a literary erotic trilogy

Since the success of Fifty Shades of Grey, the world of books has become overrun by clones, often even more poorly written than the original. Racy reading matter has become a hype: an enormous group of readers has come to associate sex in books with coarse literary entertainment.

Three young writers are calling a halt to this development. Daan Heerma van Voss, Jamal Ouariachi and David Pefko have written a trilogy that's already being talked about: three interconnected novels about the experiences and escapades of Hanna, a woman with a turbulent love life.

The men have shown that a literary style, subtle humour, and a willful composition don't have to get in the way of an erotic story.

...which is where I get off (and not in the fun way). I mean, never mind the snobbery--this publisher and these writers aren't the first people to get all elitist about the success of Fifty Shades, and they won't be the last (I've certainly made enough fun of it myself). But when you combine that snobbery with a "we can do it better" attitude and three male writers, it's very difficult not to read that as "don't worry your pretty little head about that erotic fiction stuff, E.L. James, the smart men will show you how it's done."

This is even more eyebrow-raising when you consider where Fifty Shades got its start, namely as a work of Twilight fanfiction called Master of the Universe. Or in other words, a work steeped in a culture in which women write erotica for women. In this case, it's a poorly-written work of erotica for women, but it's not as if you have to leave the fanfiction world in order to find examples of erotica with much more literary merit than Fifty Shades of Grey. Heck, the amount of X-rated fanfiction I've read in my day probably tops out at a few thousand words, and even I know that. Which makes the whole "we wanted to prove that erotica could be literary" thing sound even more arrogant and presumptuous.

I don't know. I'm a pretty crappy feminist (meaning that while I do usually agree with the various feminist writings I read, feminist issues aren't the ones I tend to feel moved to make a fuss over), and I don't care at all for fanfiction as porn, which probably means that I was the absolute wrong person to write this post. But if someone as resistant to outrage as I tend to be can feel a touch of it at what these guys are saying, that only goes to show how outrageous it is. They've been all over the place this week--every Dutch news source I've read or listened to has had a segment about them--and every time I hear something else about them, I feel more like I want to punch them all in the face. ;)