Dec 04 – Gib Lit Fest Star Wins Bad Sex Award
An award-winning author who has participated in the Gibraltar International Literary Festival twice has been awarded the Literary Review’s “Bad Sex in Fiction” award.
Ben Okri, who won the Booker Prize in 1991 and who was in Gibraltar last month speaking to local audiences, has been given the award for a love scene in his latest novel The Age of Magic.
Established in 1993 by Auberon Waugh, the award is meant to recognize what judges regard as badly written, redundant or unnecessarily detailed writing describing love making in modern fiction.
The winning passage from Okri’s book is as follows:
“When his hand brushed her nipple it tripped a switch and she came alight. He touched her belly and his hand seemed to burn through her. He lavished on her body indirect touches and bitter-sweet sensations flooded her brain. She became aware of places in her that could only have been concealed there by a god with a sense of humour.
“Adrift on warm currents, no longer of this world, she became aware of him gliding into her. He loved her with gentleness and strength, stroking her neck, praising her face with his hands, till she was broken up and began a low rhythmic wail … The universe was in her and with each movement it unfolded to her. Somewhere in the night a stray rocket went off.”
Okri issued the following short statement on hearing the news: “A writer writes what they write and that’s all there is to it.”
