Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteflame
Basically, if you think that the topic of transformation isn't treated in great detail and without process nor eroticism, you don't know very much contemporary literature.
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I'm not talking so much about "contemporary" literature as "memorable" literature. I'm sure you could point out several dozen examples of erotically charged transformations in TV, movies or books, but if you tried assembling a list of ones that have remained within the public consciousness the way franchises like STAR WARS or DOCTOR WHO have, you'd come up painfully short. Some of the more famous/infamous TF's are usually a result of an impressionable nostalgic childhood, as opposed to fetishistic values - the donkey transformation from PINOCCHIO, for example.
Sure, there are novels about transformation like THE METAMORPHOSIS or ORLANDO that are recognized as great literature, but I haven't come across any interpretation of METAMORPHOSIS that analysed how the book was some kind of perverted metaphor for Kafka's own secret sexual fantasies. Even if there was some truth to it, both Kafka and Woolf did a helluva job at making their works accessible to the general reading public, while avoiding the usual "ick" factor that "normal people" would associate with TF/TG fiction.
I can admit that I'm into transformation, although more as a theme than a fetish
per se. The trick is to somehow prevent one from overriding the other, so a casual reader won't be looking at you as if you're some kind of oily deviant freak. Take DR. JEKYLL AND MS. HYDE (1995), for example: There's a film with great transformations, but I wouldn't
dare show it to any of my acquaintances, as it doesn't have any appeal beyond its TF content. ("Dude, why the hell are you making me watch this shitty movie? This is the un-funniest fucking comedy I've seen since MASTER OF DISGUISE." "Well, uh...don't you think Sean Young's kind of hot?")
You could cite AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON or THE FLY as two films that managed to defy the odds, but both flicks are still accessible to mainstream audiences as basic science fiction/horror thrillers. When you start getting into more offbeat territory like TG, it's tough not to weird out the viewer. But getting back to the OP's question: Other than instances where transformation shows up in some stories, it's difficult to find a work by a published author where the entire novel orientates AROUND the transformation.