The Anatomy of Desire 1 - Introduction

24 Jul, 2025

In my long career as a writer¹, I've always learned best by pulling apart the work that other people have done to figure out how it works (and, perhaps more importantly, why it doesn't work). As a young writer I used to sit and retype my favourite passages from my favourite writers, wanting to know what it felt like to put those words in that order onto the page, trying to figure out what they were actually doing by replicating them. During both my degree and my post-grad studies I loved getting down in the muck, elbows-deep into a text, pulling it apart and figuring out what made it tick.

Some of my favourite books about the craft of writing (and by 'favourite' here I mean the ones that I've found to be the most useful in approving my own craft, rather than the ones that I simply enjoyed reading like the oft-cited On Writng by Stephen King) are those which also get down in the muck with whichever texts they're talking about. I'm not the kind of person who learns well from abstract concepts and non-specific advice. I'm a nuts-and-bolts kind of writer. I want the guts spilling out on the table where I can rearrange them and take a look at how they're all connected. That's why I'm drawn to books like George Saunders' A Swim In A Pond In The Rain, in which he dissects and analyses short stories by Russian masters, and Benjamin Percy's Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction, in which he turns a critical eye to the works of writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and Cormac McCarthy across 15 essays that dive into the nuts and bolts of writing "literary genre fiction".

It's only recently that I've begun writing erotic fiction, and since I began I've been attempting to write 'literary' erotica. I've also been seeking it out to read, because - as already established - I learn best by pulling apart the work of other writers and seeing what makes it throb. In my quest to find good literary erotica I came across (pun intended) The Mammoth Book of Erotica, edited by Maxim Jakubowski. This tome of 30 short stories was originally published in 1994, and with a new edition in 2000 (I have the 2000 edition). In the introduction, Jakubowski writes of his delight to find "a thirst within the reading public for literate erotic stories". He goes on to say that, "erotic writing at its best is not pornography. Yes, there is sex, tons of it, but it's also about people, flesh and blood, with feelings, imagination, and a radiant sense of discovery of the joys the flesh can bring". (I'm not going to allow myself to become diverted by responding to the "it's not pornography" part of this statement, because I could go on for days on that topic. I also won't be distracted by the fact that Jakubowsik is primarily a crime author, other than to note that I need to dig further into the link between crime fiction and erotic fiction at some point. But that point is not today.)

I believe that erotic writing can be every bit as beautiful, complex, and literarily significant as any other genre of fiction. It deserves the same careful attention, the same serious critical analysis, and the ame respect we afford to other art forms that explore the human condition. Sexuality and desire are fundamental aspects of human experience, and it seems self-evident that literature which examines these themes with nuance, skill, and artistry should be taken seriously. (And so, too, should the literature which puts sexuality and desire on full display and says, "don't you think this is fucking hot?")

This belief feels particularly urgent today, as we've just seen itch.io bow to pressure from conservative activists to pulls NSFW content from sale. We live in a world where we're increasingly seeing restrictive policies being enforced that treat any content dealing with sexuality as inherently lesser or more dangerous than other forms of artistic expression. When we dismiss erotic literature (or film, or visual art, or games, or or or &c.) as unworthy of serious consideration, we participate in the same puritanical thinking that drives these censorship efforts.

So what's the point of all this? Well, I want to get better at writing smut. And the best way I know to improve my craft, as I've already established, is to study the work that's gone before me. Unfortunately there isn't a George Saunders book on erotica to start from, so I'm going to have to do the work myself. Over the coming weeks and months, I'll be working my way throuh Jakubowski's anthology, applying the same close reading techniques I use for other literature. I want to pull apart these stories with the same care and attention I'd give to anything else, examing what makes them work (or fail to work), both as literature and as vessels for arousal.

Of course, it's worth acknowledging that this anthology, even in its 2000 edition, represents erotica from a different era, and many of these stories are now over 30 years old. The literary landscape, social attitudes toward sexuality, and our understanding of consent and representation have all evolved significantly since then. As I work through these stories I'll be bearing all of that in mind, and trusting that craft is craft and that we can still learn from older works.

But I don't want to limit this exploration to 'vintage' erotica. If you know of contemporary erotica that deserves serious literary analysis or that you think I can learn from, please feel free to share your recommendations in the comments or reach out to me directly. I'd love to expand this project beyond Jakubowski's collection to include voices and persectives that reflect our current moment.

This post marks the beginning of that series, and I invite you to come along for the journey. Whether you're a writer looking to improve your own craft in this genre, a reader curious about what makes literary erotica tick, or simply someone who believes that all good art deserves serious consideration, I hope you'll join me as we explore what this collection of erotic fiction can teach us about desire, craft, and the complexity of human sexuality rendered in prose. I'll be starting with Alice Joanou's "A", and I hope you'll join me!

#the craft of erotica