Any Last Words?
Posted by: essemoh

Sounds ominous…

It can be a challenge to be a writer and creator in the erotic arts. Even in these times when one can be free to express one's feelings and love for another, in most cultures there is still prejudice and disapproval of anything that may have the intent to arouse and sensually entertain.  It is a long term gripe amongst those involved in the erotic field that all media are free to depict aggression, blood, gore, terror and violent death in its most extreme form and it is considered acceptable, clever and mainstream. Yet to describe or display passionate sex and climax in any detail is to be deplored, censored and excluded.

I was listening to an interview with Sir Ridley Scott (now in his 80’s) about his way of working, story boarding in detail every element of his movies. In particular was a discussion about the iconic 'Chest Busting' concept. The comparison drawn was between the scene from the first 'Alien' movie in 1979, involving the late John Hurt and a similar scene from the movie, Alien Covenant. It focused on how to be as realistic as possible in depicting the violent death by rupture from within of a human being. Blood, guts, hydraulic pistons and exploding backbones were lovingly described. Yet I recall the disapproval voiced by many, of the scenes from the 1979 movie where the character Ellen Ripley, played by the delectable Sigourney Weaver, was hiding from the Creature wearing not much more than tiny white panties and a torn tee shirt.

Then there is the filmic cliché of the slasher movie plot that has the naughty teenagers, who are making out and exploring their sexuality, being dispatched by the Beast in suitably inventive and gory fashion. Sex is horribly bad but foul murder and dismemberment is quite acceptable. The Movie, ‘Cabin in The Woods’ has its tongue firmly in its own cheek as it takes full advantage of every violent trope possible!

Amazon has its 'Dungeon' where erotic fiction is hidden away to languish out of the public gaze. Audible (an Amazon company) likewise makes it lamentably difficult to search for erotic audio products, lest they pervert and debouch the wider population. YouTube and others are also squeezing the content that they consider to be 'titillating' or 'designed to arouse'.

Publishers Alternatepress Limited and its (now sadly closed) subsidiary, eSensual Books, were founded in 2012 to be an antidote to this oppression, for want of a better word. It is unfortunate that the constant challenges of anti sex legislation and the growing reluctance of banks and credit card processors to get involved with negative PR over ‘naughty stuff’ became too much. (One among many is PayPal with their aversion to anything 'Adult', who additionally have a track record of high handed actions confiscating other people's money!)

AlternatePress Limited remains a full service publishers, having contractual arrangements with payment processors, banks, Amazon, Findaway, iTunes and Audible amongst others. (You can even find our audios over at Walmart!) This means, to some extent, we have to abide by the restrictions that these associations impose.

The 'rules' mean that content cannot be 'too extreme', covers and blurb have to be 'tasteful', as well as a long list of do's and don'ts. That is the sad price of being in business. 

Another frustration is the issue of long term tech support in a world where the 'new' is king and queen. Apps come and go, software companies stop supporting products, not because they no longer function, but because they can make more money by selling the same people something else, something supposedly ‘New’.

So why the rant and whinge?

Simply put, the restrictions on general publishing constrain some of the content we would like to produce and offer to our listeners.

Also, the particular technical support for the Blogging and IM feedback software I used on my two personal sites has been shut down.

We want to continue to Blog about topics that interest us and make them publicly available, we also want to get feedback and comments and interact with our followers and listeners.

After much debate we consider that the Patreon model (which has also introduced ‘Adult’ firewalls) might enable us to supplement the work we will continue to do at Alternatepress and the eSensual Group, while freeing us up from the restrictions and opening up our content to wider explorations.

To this end we have developed @Club_eSensual on Patreon. There we will host open public access blogs, just as I have on these pages, with similar content and quirky points of view. But in addition there will be for @Club_eSensual Members, new and unique content that is unsuitable for Alternatepress. Listeners, fans, the curious and the experimenters seeking to discover their boundaries, will have access to material that will entice, excite, arouse and satisfy their desires in ways we have not been able to offer to date. Become a Patron and get up access to hundreds of full length audios for a simple subscription.

You can find our regular blogs from now on @Club_eSensual, make it your go to web link for news of all things new and very naughty in DEV©. Just click on the name link and take a look.

Latest Public Blog & Updates Available now @Club_eSensual  Patreon Page.

Click on link above to listen, read and find out how to get access to 100’s of  full length audios for less than the price of one cup of coffee a week.