As if people can't be intense with one another in a way that explicitly skirts the sexual. As if every sex act were always an affirmative expression of emotion. It's tiring, and it's a facile interpretation of the complexity of real-world emotions, and it makes me crazy that I have to wade upstream against the norm to bring even the most basic ambiguity into a relationship.

I definitely see your point there. And I think that really good fic that is sexually tinged leaves that open - when not even every act of sexuality is positive, or meaningful, when it's angry or bitter or hurtful.

So yeah, I think... the sexuality of a story does get coded for so many other things, replaces the deeper exploration of emotions and ambiguities and I can absolutely see the frustration wanting to convey those emotions and having people code something for simpler and less accurate on to what you write.

But yeah, what I want from fic and from lit are different. When I get something fantastic from fic, I'm thrilled, and I'll put down both forms for similar reasons even if I pick them up for the same reasons.