Biblical Erotica? Is that pushing things too far?

By the Power of Christ, I command thee, lay some Pipe!

(this is totes gonna get me scolded..)

Hmm, in my opinion, I don't think there's such thing as "too taboo". Remember, there's a reader for everything. There's probably someone, or a lot of someone's, who would be interested in an alternate retelling of Biblical events like that.

That's the only bible related thing I would read!
Go for it.

Back in the day (mid 2000s?) I ran across a Biblical slash LJ community, all full of gay fanfic about Bible characters. And I know angel and demon stuff is a reasonably popular genre.

Go for it!

I read angels and demons stuff all the time. I love a good erotic m/m demon-angel pairing :S Guilty pleasure. Would I read a Noah, Moses, Cain m/m ... probably, yes.

Lucifer is a character in my ongoing PNR series and I've had readers tell me that he must be the star of his own book (with plenty of sex and an HEA). Plus, with Lucifer the show now on FOX (and performing reasonably well), I think you're in safe territory.

Too taboo? Yes, things you go to jail for. If it is legal do as you like.

I've only self-censored once in my lifetime. I'm not big on censorship, an artist must have freedom to work.

I'd advise to do your project as an illustrated book.

Um... *looks at TV shows like Supernatural and Lucier, etc*

*looks at video games/indie PC games where you can kill Angels and even play as actual demons and stuff*

*looks at erotic demon/angel stuff on the web and in ebooks*

*looks at various paranormal/urban fantasies with Angels and demons*

*looks at Japanses RPG series Shin Megami Tensei, especially Nocturne, where Angels are righteous and survival of the fittest, and where you can battle and punch out Yaweh (aka "God), lol!*

*thumbs up* I think you're all good!

Go for it. I once read a m/m STTNG fanfic where Captain Picard had gotten himself transported back in the time to the Garden of Gethsemane and seduced Jesus. It was surprisingly tasteful and insightful.

Biblical erotica already exists. It's called the Song of Solomon, and it's a whole Biblical book of steamy hot verses.

Your breasts are like two fawns
Like twin fawns of a gazelle

Blow on my garden, that it's fragrance may spread everywhere
Let the king come into his garden, and taste its choice fruits.

Your stature is like that of the palm,
And your breasts like clumps of fruit
I said 'I will climb the palm tree,
And I will take hold of the fruit.'

There's more...

Anyway, to answer your question, the Bible is public domain, and like all such works is open to any criticism, interpretation, or reimagining you please. I say go for it.

I seem to recall some beautiful fan treatments of David and Jonathan.

How thick is your skin? How much would vitriolic e-mails or rants in book blogs affect you? How about a plethora of one star reviews from people who have not read your book, but have jumped on the hatred highway because they perceive your books as an insult to the god they believe in, and therefore they will send you to Hell via trying to sink your novel with terrible reviews?

You're okay with that--and with possible cyber-stalkers who'll find you on FB and Twitter, and perhaps threaten you with physical harm? Yes? Then yay, and go for it! Not really okay with it? Then not so yay. Religious beliefs--and righteous moralism--can make reasonably level-headed individuals turn into pitch fork bearing sadists out for your hide. Believe me, I know, and I survived the experience of writing a book that was widely hated for a hero who commits adultery with the heroine. BUT, it was loved by thousands, and I don't regret writing the story I wanted to tell. However, the gratuitous negative *buzz* surrounding this book, and the subsequent hatred directed at me, personally, was very hard to deal with.

I would read your Biblical erotic retellings if I read LGBT--and if you write erotic Biblical retellings that are M/F or M/F/M, then I will probably devour them like manna from the sky. Just take into account there are a LOT of people out there who will take such books very personally indeed, and some of them *might* retaliate in very nasty ways.

In my experience, most people who would be scandalized by erotic treatment of Bible characters would also be scandalized by erotica in general. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

I think as far as Biblical erotica goes, Lucifer is a lot less "controversial" than, say, writing about Jesus having orgies with his disciples. If you wanted to do the latter, more power to you, but I think there are different levels of taboo. Writing about a figure that some people worship as a deity is going to come across as more taboo than writing about humans like, say, David and Jonathan or a figure like Lucifer. Lucifer has been fictionalized a lot, and I don't think anyone attaches idealized morality to him. Also, the popular view of Lucifer/Satan often doesn't have much in common with the actual depiction of those characters in the Bible, anyway. I'm sure some people would object because they see writing about Lucifer as immoral or something, but that's their business and they're probably not reading erotica, anyway.

I'm very new to this website and I only write for fun and for a few friends who like to read but I think you should write what you want. I have been playing around with a sort of similar idea for awhile now and I think it's very cool and I would be all over reading more things like this.

Also I agree that most people that would be offended by this sort of thing wouldn't come across it in all likelihood because they just wouldn't be looking in the right place. So go for it!

There's biblical erotica in the Bible.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song+of+Solomon+1&version=ESV

I think that there is a tremendous amount of interest in biblical erotica - particularly if you are able to present a traditional biblical tale in a sex-positive light, thereby "emancipating" the biblical characters from their undeserved shackles of prudishness. I have written fairly extensively of this on my blog, and I am about to publish my third short story of biblical erotica, with several more in the pipeline.

There is a probably a slightly lesser degree of interest in biblical fiction, but I think that would still be intriguing to many. If Lucifer is your thing, I can think of the movie "End of Days," with several erotic scenes involving the devil, or "The Devil's Advocate" - all of which were quite hot and fairly widely appreciated.

I'm currently reading Plague of Angels which is an erotic-tinted tale about Christ and the world after his crucifixion. I'm on page 99 and so far there have been multiple scenes of lust, love making, rape, homosexuality, and an implied lesbian threesome.

Steven Brust turned Milton's Paradise Lost into the fantasy novel To Reign in Hell and it was pretty good. So why not some erotica in that mythology. The primary text certainly has enough violence and the congregation in general never seems to be offended by that.

People blaspheme against the Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic, Hindu, First Nations, Shinto, Lovecraftian, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, pantheons. Why shouldn't any of the currently popular mythologies get some dirty lovin' as well?

I recommend Brust's novel, FWIW.

Song of Solomon is erotica and it's my favorite book.

Noizchild said:

Song of Solomon is erotica and it's my favorite book.

Click to expand...

Solomon's Song of Songs is fantastic erotica. In fact, in Under the Bed - my short story about a sage from the Talmudic era and his wife - I use quotes from the Song of Songs as his form of pillow-talk.