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I just like dragons 🥲 I’m not knocking the genre or the people that read these books. I read this books. But I kinda wish I could skip half of the sexy, cringey sections and just move on sometimes. I’m willing to lose a little character development.

It’s a little harder to skip that kind of stuff on audiobook which I primarily listen to but sometimes it’s even hard to find the right paragraph on paper. Libby, consider it lol

Sincerely, “Died on the parapet”

  • bortlip@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I predict in not that long (a few years maybe?) there will be audio book apps that will take the text of any book and read it too you. Text to speech is getting very good. Some can do this ok now.

    Then couple that with some of the GPT AI and it will follow directions like what you want.

  • tls518@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Oh no I just started Fourth Wing - is there a lot of cringey sex scenes coming my way?

  • Jujubeesknees@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    i moved in with a gay roommate, and he said i could read any of his books! so i picked a book about native american skinwalkers, kind of folklore scary. perfect, just my thing! damn book turned out to be homosexual erotica. i didn’t realize until i was about halfway through. actually a pretty decent book. It just wasn’t what i expected 😂

  • hauntingvacay96@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I don’t really get reading a book and skipping parts of it. The whole book is the experience even if it has parts you don’t like.p

    Like, sure I found the sex scenes in Colleen Hoover’s Verity cringe, but it would be a different book without them so why would I skip them. I was also able to give an accurate review of how absolutely terrible that book was lol.

    • Vathar@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I normally don’t skip, but why would I not if I felt like it? 20000 leagues under the sea is a book that I read and re-read during childhood, but the infamous fish cataloguing I did skip.

  • ken_mcgowan@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    To the people who are like “Sex is awesome, why don’t you like it, seek therapy,”: Maybe consider that a really, really important aspect of sex is agency. It’s okay to say “no” in fictional situations, too. :)

    There’s an “A” in LGBTIQA for a reason, right?

    • turbulentdiamonds@alien.top
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      1 year ago

      Thank you for recognizing that! These discussions always devolve into “well obviously you need therapy to work through the lies ~purity culture~ told you” and it’s like – yeah, that never touched me. I’m happy for everyone who wants to get laid, I’m glad they’ve got spice at whatever levels they want, but I personally prefer books that are lighter on the romance.

      • ken_mcgowan@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        “Asexual” has its own letter. Sometimes it shares that letter with “Aromantic”, but those are really two different things, too.

      • ken_mcgowan@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Which is…?

        Sex is personal, individualistic. If someone doesn’t like it and doesn’t want to read about it, it’s literally nobody’s business but theirs.

  • complitstudent@alien.top
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    1 year ago

    I’ve always skimmed sex scenes lmfao, even as a teenager reading fan fiction - my friend would send me stories and things she’d written, and she’d give me a warning if there was a scene she knew I wouldn’t like 😂

  • EternallyReturn@alien.top
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    1 year ago

    What is with young people nowadays thinking that sex is ‘cringe’?

    It’s like we’re raising another generation of prudes.

    It’s sex. It’s a part of life and usually part of the story.

  • Bubbarian@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I’ve made it past the parapet, but not to threshing. I haven’t gotten to anything terribly spicy yet. I’m willing to be patient.

  • KenDefender@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    It’s ironic that so many people in this thread that are saying a change like this would be good, are at the same time justifying their dislike of sex scenes by saying they are often unimportant to the plot or character development. Making sex scenes (or any scene in the book) a by default optional side story with special instructions in the book to skip would guarantee that they contain nothing of real import to the story.

    If you don’t like sex scenes that’s fine, there’s lots of content I don’t enjoy in books, sometimes I push through and sometimes I just choose to read other stuff. Asking for sex specifically to be relegated, contained within an easily skippable module (one that brings any reader out of the story with a meta acknowledgement of what is about to happen and how to avoid it) inside every book is silly. It would inevitably warp the medium. You already have the choice, when you aren’t liking what’s in a book, put it down.

  • belgianwafflestomp@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Wish there was a choose-your-own adventure version of this sub where all the “DAE not like sex scenes” posts were banned

  • JonathenMichaels@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Yup, I read audiobooks for a living and honestly the plots and action and characters of most of them are actually pretty good - but it’s hard to write spicey, sexy stuff that’s unique and interesting 2 or three times every book.

    Buuut, the minority of fans who want it will RAISE HELL if they don’t get it, and will torpedo a book’s reviews and ratings if it’s not there.