Well, people seem fairly mature and intelectual about discussing things, and here's a topic which hasn't been breached yet (or recently at least)

Gaiman's work deals with sexual issues/themes/scenes fairly often. This includes straight, gay, and masturbatory sequences. Do you think they add to the work, or detract? Are they well done, do they feel out of place, do you feel embarrassed or turned on by them, do they come from his working for adult magazines early in his career, etc? Are the sex scenes necessary to the plot, do they help move the story along, why do supernatural things happen so often with sexual energy?

Plenty to talk about

here is a partial list of sexual scenes to get you thinking:

AG: Ifrit sequence
AG: "Worship Me" sex scene
How Do You Think It Feels
Foreign Parts
Changes
One Life
Looking For The Girl
Eaten
Tastings
Troll Bridge (kind of when trading the girl)
Mouse
Snow Glass Apples

Definatly not embarrassed by them but not usually turned on either. Very few of Gaiman's erotic scenes are played for that value. They always seem very integral to the characters and something would definatly have been lost without them.

I feel they are coupled (sorry about the pun) with the supernatual/mysticism because it is one of the few things we do that is still firmly rooted in our past and in our more basic nature. Gaiman's magic is most definatly of the primal/instinctual kind, not the intellectual charts & formulas kind. This we need to connect with that aspect of ourself to interact with the magic.

After recently finishing AG, I got the impression that the sex scenes it in weren't for the sake of sex, but to further the narrative, and add to the feeling of the impending storm. In the hands of a lesser writer, those scenes could come across as gratuitous and embarassing, but Mr Gaiman handles them rather skillfully.

I find Neil's work explores our human-ness... and sex certainly plays a part in our individual AND collective nature, howver significant or INsignificant it may be. It is always a constant presence and so, it is in Neil's work, as well.

I think it personally makes his work more realistic. He handles it in a factual, but not erotic, way. It makes his characters seem more real.

One sex scene you left out is Rose Walker's dream in The Kindly Ones. *wow, I got the better of GMZoe, do I rock or what*

Err. Well. Tastings made me blush and laugh every second paragraph, but that's propabaly because I read it's introduction. Other than that, them sex scenes don't make me uncomfortable. A few even make me more htan comfortable, but let's not go there.

I suppose I agree with the general opinion, that they add depth to the characters and the stories. Not to get Neil-fanatic, but his sex scenes are, well, better than certain others. *cough*JeanMAuel*cough*

I remember a number of years ago going to a lecture by Joseph Cambell on the Goddess cults in history. He discussed menstral rites and sexual habits and such ilk. When walking out that night my mom sort of laughed, "Imagine what he's thinking about when he's having sex."

I agree with jello about Gaiman's sex scenes. They're aren't erotica, nor are they out of place in context of the tale.

Something Hollywood rarely accomplishes... A necessary sex scene. Maybe in "The Player". Surprisingly few stories in any medium accomplish this.

Gaiman's must be pretty good in this respect, because I've never thought about them.

Neil's characters, as we know, are very believable. But they wouldn't be if they never had sex, would they?

If he ommitted the sex, then his character's would probably get more cartoony, more like Terry Pratchett's.

Mind you, you don't have to "show" the sex scene itself. Jonathan Carroll rarely does, but his characters often say something afterwards about what it was like. If Neil adopted this approach, it would work just as well, but I don't mind his current approach at all.

quicksy "baggsying"..*grin*(grins at gmzoe and iskall eld)
brief lives - "spending their last moments copulatin in strawberry cream" or the like - can't remember exact quote but grabbing the reference NOW before anyone else
yes - sex in sandman and other works, not used to titilate, but then horror wasn't 'scary' either nor 'romantic' being 'slushy' - ok, some laid (again apols for pun) on with a trowel - but part of life not a focus for any story - just aspects of it.

The sex scenes in Neil's work seem to flow a lot better with the narrative than in certain other authors work. They feel like they're part of the story, rather than just a scene the author decided to write because he was getting bored (or horny, or both.)
James Herbert, while I enjoy his work, does seem to throw a sex scene into every novel, regardless of whether it is needed.

The only problem I had with Neil's work was in 'One Life', although not for the reason you might think. In the prose version, I thought Mr. Aliquid (sp?) came across much more subtly than the way P. Craig Russell drew him in the adaptation. So my problem isn't really with Neil, but the way Mr. P. Craig Russell interpreted it.

-SLASH-

I agree with the consensus of opinion: the sex isn't gratuitous and it is important and frankly . . . a bit dull. I mean, he's British, so I understand, but it's really not erotic at all, at least for me, even when it seems to be trying to be. It does further the plot considerably, though, and is sometimes central to it, as in Changes and Eaten.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dweller in Darkness:
I mean, he's British, so I understand,

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Sod off! I suppose he's got bad teeth for the same reason?
Bloody Americans....

-SLASH-

(geez, I said partial list and now everyones on my case when they see one not on the list)

quote:

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Originally posted by Omnislash:

quote:

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Originally posted by Dweller in Darkness:
[b]I mean, he's British, so I understand,

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Sod off! I suppose he's got bad teeth for the same reason?
Bloody Americans....

-SLASH-[/B]

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I'm Canadian, thank you very much! And we're not just Americans without guns, we're very much our own people.

I do apologize, but it was just meant as an off-hand comment, actually something of a paraphrase from Neil's own comment about the story at the beginning of Smoke and Mirrors.

And I think Neil has very nice teeth.

Nah, it's alright. I hear worse on 'The Simpsons.'
Besides, living in Canada is surely punishment enough...

-SLASH-

The sex scene in issue #3 of the Sandman.

Beat that for obscure.

His writing seems to be very much like fairy tales for adults. Sex is a very natural part of being an adult.
Ok, yeah. Tastings made me say, "oh, my", as did the scene in Sandman "Tales in the Sand" when the queen takes her own "maidenhood" with a sharp rock. (owwwww)
However, in his genre, while seeming a little strange, it really has to come up. On that note, I really haven't seen it come up too much, so I don't really find it too distracting.
I say, bring the nookie on. He could write about fishing or golf and I'd read it, at least sex is something I like to do.

Well,I see a very long discussion starting here.....sex never fails to capture our attentions! Sex is very well used in Neil's books,it is a part of the whole so of course he will write about it.What would be more interesting....Neil's personal take on the subject.

and discussing more about sex and sexuality with Gaiman, and mainly in ref to the Sandman (when you start studying it, it doesn't let you go ever again!), has anyone noticed how no heterosexual realtionship works in the sandman, ending in either death or the like, and all the homosexual rel'ships seem to end a bit better? not wanting to be risky or draw distinctions, (myself I am bi and give not one hoot about someones s.orientation) but in terms of academia, is Gaiman saying something about Morpheus's role? Desire? the only long term rel'ship that we see work in the sandman ref is the one betw. hazel and foxglove, and that goes through Death and the other side.. any rel'ships that don't sufer in the gaiman world???
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True, that Gaiman reflects life accurately, but we see each rel'ship in some way end, bar foxglove/hazel's. Anyone?

[This message has been edited by Crescent (edited 07-01-2002).]