“You’re such a contradiction,” my client told me as we ‘did’ lunch the other day.

“Really?”

“Of course!  You’re a porn-writing opera-loving radical feminist Leonard Cohen fan.”

“Yeah… so?”

In my mind, those elements aren’t so contradictory. Can a feminist not love a ladies’ man? Can an opera connoisseur not enjoy some filthy raunch?  Why do we need to place every artistic endeavour on this spectrum of high to low culture?

I don’t see opera and porn at opposite ends of some scale of artistic valour.  Neither do I see “erotica” and “porn” standing in opposition, though many people out there –readers and writers alike- do.

So, what’s the difference between erotica and porn?  I believe the standard definitions go something like this:  Porn is down and dirty, sex for sex’s sake, blow-by-blowjob smut.  Erotica is explicit sex within the context of a story, usually with accompanying emotions and motivations.

What do I write?  I write erotica, but I also write porn and I feel no shame in saying it.  Even my grandmother will tell you I am a proud pornographer.  What’s more, I don’t set my erotica above my porn.  I don’t set opera above Leonard Cohen.  It’s a big world; they can coexist.

We don’t go through life wanting one thing exclusively.  Sometimes we want Die Fledermaus, sometimes we want Anthem.  Sometimes we want Carmen, sometimes we want Who by Fire? Sometimes we want long, languorous sexual encounters, sometimes we want a cheap fuck.  One thing isn’t better than another, it’s all about what we’re in the mood for.

Okay, you’re right, it’s more complicated than that.  It’s also about what has greater social value.  In academic/social/intellectual terms, literature has a very high social value.  Erotica manages to feed off that a little bit, but it’s a sliding scale:  High Literature has greater social value than literary erotica, which has greater social value than porn.  However, the scale is reversed if your social group values porn and looks down its nose at literature.

When will we dispense with pretensions?  None of this, “I’m too smart for smut” or “I’m to badass for the ballet.”  Let’s just admit that we like what we like.  I am Giselle Renarde and I love Leonard Cohen, social justice, opera and porn!