Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

hmm, those are interesting points. I want to step back and say that I really believe in individual writers finding ways to express themselves, particularly in terms of erotic fantasies that they may not be allowed to voice out in society. I recall the author of the story you mention really experiencing a lot of negative reactions. I think I ought to also say that it is every author's right to talk about whatever they want to, in whatever way they like. My shock in this particular situation was that I seemed to have a different view of this story than all the individuals who recommended it to me (which if I had known from the beginning would have changed my experience considerably). That said, you make really interesting and thought-provoking points here, which are worthy of entire posts of their own. Your point about 19th c. fiction particularly resonates with me, having grown up on a lot of those texts.