Sex in Postmodern Literature Is Usually a Sterile Affair - Essay Example

? Sex and sexuality in postmodern literature Introduction Literature just as any other work of art provides a representation of the society. In doing this, the authors develop constructive plots thereby addressing particular themes which represent the trends and features in the society. Throughout time, authors have expressed different opinions about the use of sex and sexuality in their books. Sex refers to the grouping of organism as either males or females. Additionally, sex is a verb that refers to the act of copulation. Sexuality on the other hand refers to the portrayal of either male or female in organisms in the works of arts. Sexuality therefore infers to the manner in which artists develop the characters in their works (Gordon 41). Characterization and the process of assigning roles to the characters in a novel for example, depend on the information that the author wishes to communicate through such characters. In doing this, the author considers the plot of the story and therefore apportions the specific characters their roles depending on the conceived information. Authors are creators and reserve the right to create characters that they deem best represents their ideas. However, the process depends on the observable features in the society that they wish to communicate. Different times in the history of man have had a diverse understanding of sexuality thereby influencing the manner in which characters develop their characters. Early human societies were conservative and had distinctive roles for each of the genders. Most societies had a biased orientation showing favor to the males while demeaning the women in the societies. Most literature works produced in such times thus gained relevance among the readers of the time by capturing the structure of the society effectively. Additionally, the conservative social structures restricted sexual intercourse. In such time, the act was sacred and therefore served specific purposes. However, as societies all over the world adopted liberal structures, the portrayal of sex and sexuality changed. Both men and women gained equal rights therefore began performing similar roles in the societies. Modern and postmodern literature therefore captures the liberal portrayal of sexuality in the society by creating indiscriminate characters and plots. Additionally, the modern and postmodern society became more liberal about sex. As the societies become increasingly sexually perverse, the portrayal of sex thus changed both in literature and in other film among other forms of communication. The claim that sex in postmodern literature is sterile and brings no gratification at all is factual as more authors and artists currently view the discipline as any other type of business. They therefore carry out exhaustive market researches to determine the trending social features most of which will their products (Nabokov, Brian and Jean 22). Sex for example is one such factor, which the modern generation prefers. This validates the common sex scenes in films and television programs among other types of mass communication. The same trend is therefore prevalent in literary works in which authors incorporate sex simply to gain readership but not to communicate any constructive and essential concept in the works. Sexuality on the other hand is more effective and provides an equal representation of the two genders. Currently, women can comfortably perform the roles previously performed by men. The essence of social, political, and economic equality among the genders therefore provide authors with the freedom to choose their characters freely. Written in 1962, Pale Fire provides an effective portrayal of the society at the time. The author chooses his characters effectively considering the nature of the society and uses both sex and sex and sexuality sparing and in recognition of the reserved nature in which the society vies the two. The portrayal of sex and sexuality in the novel contradicts sharply with the portrayal of the same in the more modern novel Watchmen by Allan Moore. Set in the postmodern society, Watchmen addresses the issues of sexuality as they are in the modern society with an effective mechanism of characterization and portrays sex as any other common tool in the society. The storylines portray sex and sexuality differently thereby depicting the different social structures in the different times. In Pale fire for example, the author is conservative and does not develop any sex scene in the entire book. Sexual intercourse was by then a private affair that most people would not like to read in public media. The author therefore succeeds in developing his novel without the inclusion of any sex scene. Watchmen on the other hand develops romantic and sexual scenes effectively using very descriptive language to develop the actual scenes within the minds of the reader. The author of the novel the watchmen sets his plot in the contemporary society with the aim of providing an actual presentation of the 1980 American society only that he incorporates the use of superheroes. In doing this, the author selects his characters effectively apportioning them their roles not necessarily based on their genders but their abilities. The 1980 American society had begun the transition to liberal societal structure in which the two genders enjoyed equal rights and privileges. Additionally, the portrayal of sex and sexuality is also liberal as the author tries to fuse the realistic themes to the novel thereby earning some relevance for the storyline among its target audience. In lieu to these among other stylistic devices that the author employs in developing the story, the novel the watchmen therefore obtains a different structure from the Pale fire which is more conservative and observes the earlier American social structure. The time lapse between the two novels witnesses a number of social changes most of which the later novel captures effectively. A comparison of the two works therefore reveals the great difference in the social structure and those epitomized in the growth and development of literature. Watchmen is a graphic novel implying that it runs on a comical plot. To achieve the comical aspect, the author manipulates different stylistic and literary features. One of such a feature is characterization; he selects his characters accurately laying emphasis on their ability to humor the audience. In doing this, he does not discriminate against the gender roles but employs different characters in the novel. The difference in the portrayal of sex and sexuality in the two novels do not only depict the difference in the social structures but also shows the expansion of literature through time. Just as stated earlier, arts represent the society. In doing this, they do not therefore influence the society but the society influences them. The two novels are primarily different and therefore must address sex and sexuality differently. While both are fictional, Pale Fire is in the classical genre and follows the structure of a poem novel. Watchmen is a romantic novel. Romance is relatively new genre in literary development and typically portrays sex and sexuality as their main concepts. The books therefore target specific audiences most of who are relevant to the ideas. The manner in which the two novels therefore develop the concepts of sex and sexuality therefore differ primarily based on their genres since romance requires an effectively descriptive language, which portrays the concepts as the author, observes them. Romance novels therefore communicate the acts of intercourse and addresses sex as its central theme. The development of romance as a genre in literature therefore dictates the extreme portrayal sex through descriptive language and the clear distinction in assigning roles to the characters in order to develop the themes effectively. This is an indication of the growth of the literature and is not an indication of moral decay (Crawshaw 12). Sex has been in existence since the origin of man. This implies that everyone therefore had knowledge of the act. The development of romance as a genre therefore provides the authors of such works an enabling opportunity to express their writing skills and represent the society in their own unique way. Viewed this way, sex in postmodern literature therefore gains relevance in the society and among the readership. Additionally, the genre viewpoint to sex and sexuality gives relevance to the extreme portrayal of sex in the postmodern literature. Such therefore contribute great gratification to achieving the primary objectives of the literature materials as intended by the authors. The gratification of any theme in a literary work depends on the author’s development of the same. The novel Watchmen for example has a number of pitfalls most of which influences the authenticity of the message that the author communicate. Such affect the portrayal of sex and sexuality and therefore either directly or indirectly affects the gratification of the novel. The key difference in the portrayal of sex in the two novels is the authors of Pale Fire deliberately fail to mention sex (Nabokov 12). The book has an interesting structure. Being a poem of nine hundred and ninety nine lines, the book is a short novella in which the two authors describe their life experiences. To communicate effectively, the two authors use vivid and descriptive language to describe their life experiences. However, it is conspicuous that the two describe their life experiences but fail to mention any sex scene or any emotional involvement with women. It is natural that men interact with women and hat the two authors had their own fair share of the interaction. However, they opt not to mention such episodes of their lives in the novel, an essential and deliberate omission in their plot that does not indicate their ineffectiveness but their consideration of their audience. The two authors have limited space a feature that arises from the nature of their novel. They have nine hundred and ninety nine lines within which they must describe their lives effectively and in accordance to the information, they wish to communicate. This therefore demands that they consider their plot effectively and include the most essential and relevant information to the plot to stay relevant to their course, they therefore opt to avoid sex from their plot. The feature works for their story since it gives them an opportunity to develop coherence in their themes thereby earning relevance among their primary audience. Shade’s poem, which is the first in the novel for example, provides a description of the events in his life beginning with his early life to his adulthood. His selection of events to describe provides a systematic revelation in the plot. He seeks to develop a sad novel and therefore chooses to espouse only on the sad events in his life. He begins by narrating his early encounters with death. After which he narrates how he subsequently survives supernatural visitations. He proceeds to talk about the death of his daughter. He further narrates how the events preceding the death had shattered his hopes. This develops a sad plot in which the author interacts with depressing occurrences. Such a plot therefore makes it difficult for the author to incorporate sex. Sexual intercourse is an exciting and leisurely activity that gives pleasure to the participants. Breaking the sequential flow of events in the plot to incorporate sex would therefore break the monotonous flow of the sad events thereby distracting the readers. The authors therefore decide not to refer to their sex lives despite their evident indulgence in such. The fact that Shade had a daughter inferred to a sexual experience; he however deliberately omits such in order to maintain relevance to his audience. As explained earlier, sexuality refers to the apportioning of features and behaviors to the characters that an author uses in the development of a plot. The two select their characters effectively thereby achieving effective communication of the ideas in the sequential plot. Shade depicts himself in his narration as a strong man. He survives some of the worst emotional tortures. After evading death in his early life, he survives admonition from spirits and later survives the death of her only daughter. His ability to resists emotional breakdown depicts him as a strong character. In the course of his story, Shade refers to his daughter who sadly dies soon after introduction. However, he fails to mention his wife or the mother to his daughter. This is deliberate as he fails to find the woman some relevance in the long story despite her relevance in testing and developing the strong emotional Shade (Boyd 44). This proves the bias in the social structure of the time. Men preferred discriminated against women, they apportioned women secondary roles. Most female characters in the novel therefore appear secondary and decorative. The authors do not mention females in their story, whenever they do the women perform secondary roles most of which the book could do without. Watchmen on the other hand is more categorical with its characterization. The novel tries to create a balance in the characterization by developing equal partners in the plot. Set in postmodern society, the novel strives to attain an equality of characterization. However, the portrayal of sex in some way affects the effectiveness of the development of an ideal postmodern society. The author strives to maintain the romance genre and therefore creates numerous sex scenes in the film. While it is common knowledge that sex is prevalent in the postmodern society, it is also evident that such literary works among other forms of work overestimate the quantity of sex in the society. The author of the novel thus loses some authenticity with her story by alluding to a lot of sex scenes (Bradley 12). In a comparison, the two books achieve their objectives despite the relative use of sex and sexuality in their development. Literature just as any other form of art does not restrict both the developers and the audience in interpreting them. The relative use of sex and sexuality in the two novels therefore does not influence their effectiveness in communicating their primary ideas. They however influence the structures of the stories thereby creating a distinction between the different genres of the two stories (Boyd 22). Additionally, the use of the two communicates a number of features of the difference in the societies within which the book are set. This is secondary to communicating the difference in the genres of the novels. While the pre modern society is conservative and therefore limits the portrayal of certain factors, the postmodern society is liberal and permits people to address every topic freely. The two therefore result in the conspicuous difference in the two novels. Works cited Allan, Moore. Watchmen . Warner Robins, GA: Samhain Pub, 1986. Internet resource. Boyd, Brian. Nabokov's "pale Fire": The Magic of Artistic Discovery. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. Internet resource. Boyd, Brian. Stalking Nabokov: Selected Essays. New York: Columbia Univ. Pr, 2011. Print. Crawshaw, William H. The Interpretation of Literature. Macmillan and Co, 1896. Print. Gordon, Jill. Turning Toward Philosophy: Literary Device and Dramatic Structure in Plato's Dialogues. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1999. Print. Lo, Yuet K, and Alan K. Chan. Interpretation and Literature in Early Medieval China. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010. Internet resource. Nabokov, Vladimir V. Pale Fire. London: Penguin, 2012. Print. Nabokov, Vladimir V, Brian Boyd, Jean Holabird, Brian Boyd, and R S. Gwynn. Pale Fire: A Poem in Four Cantos by John Shade. Berkeley: Gingko Press, 2011. Print. Read More