Against the Bad Sex in Fiction Award / TD Storm

Every year, toward the end of November, the British publication Literary Review presents an award for Bad Sex in Fiction. It’s given to high-profile literary novelists in an attempt to take them down a peg, really, though its purported mission is to “draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction.” As Natalee Cruz, writing for Electric Literature notes, “an evolution away from the idea that ‘sex sells’ . . . is still necessary.” I’m not entirely convinced that Auberon Waugh, the editor of Literary Review in 1993, the year in which the Bad Sex Award was first presented, had such noble ambitions, but Cruz is certainly right: the commodification of sex in storytelling likely has played at least some role in the dysfunctional societal narratives about sex and sexual relationships. ... [mehr] http://lithub.com/against-the-bad-sex-in-fiction-award/