Is tickling OK in mainstream literature?

[Lazarus]

Then....

i agree with most people, its not a bad thing to have a scene in there. if editors really have a problem with it (which they shouldn't) its not too difficult to just downplay it and say its an important part of character development 😛

Take your book to a different publisher...

 

[tickledorange]

Yeah, I thought about it for a while. I've decided I have soooooooooo many ideas, it will be one of those "least important parts - has to do with details and why things are the way they are" kinda things, or part of one character's personality, and not a major part of anything. It's not that it's not important, there's just more important (interesting) things I want to do instead.

 

[Shem the Penman]

Heck, there's already been a thread about tickling in mainstream books: http://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=17082

And if no less a personage than Joseph Heller can do a tickling scene in one of his books (Good as Gold), so can you.

 

[Knox The Hatter]

Max is right: there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Orange, there's a monster hiding under your bed. It's name is Guilt. Now, go and slay it.
I'm gonna include it in my own mainstream literary project. My main character's extremely ticklish, and everyone knows it, and everyone gets a poke in at one time or another. It's just a nuance.
Do whatever makes you happy, and don't worry about Vanilla Nation.

 

[tickledorange]

Nahhhhh, before I was like "Does it work with the story? Does it fit in? I don't see it. What's the purpose?" Now that there is one, I can die happy and make it hopefully longer and better and wierder than it already was. No one would care anyway, alot of people would find it interesting, and those who don't are the kind of people who watched Jurassic Park and complained about people being eaten. 😛

Soooo yeah, I was gonna put it in anyway, I just didn't want it to confuse anybody like "Why do hot dog buns come in packs of 8 and hot dogs in packs of 10?" confuses me.

 

[Lazarus]

"Why do hot dog buns come in packs of 8 and hot dogs in packs of 10?" [/B]

Now THAT'S a melon-scratcher....

LOL

 

[duannewalton]

I read an R.L. Stine book that had multiple endings. Ya know...you read a few pages then it says "if you want to fight the monster turn to page 48. If you want to escape through the secret door, turn to page 116." and one of the endings had a girl remove her shoes and socks and get thrust into a room where she was waist deep in feathers. He locked her in and suddenly a wall opened and 40 monkeys were let into the room. They held her down and tickled her to death with the feathers. LOL Needless to say I memorized the exact pattern and page # to get that ending. LOL!!! But to answer your question, yes it's perfectly acceptable in mainstream literature. 🙂

I found that book in a used bokstore. It makes a good icebreaker:

"So which would you prefer: being locked in a roomful of feathers and having monkeys come in and tickle you, or running a maze being chased by German Shepards?" (one of the other fates awaiting you in the book)

"The maze. I hate being tickled, and I can turn any dog into a lapdog."

 

[crydun]

Tickling is in all of my novels. The key is to keep it natural so as not to raise suspicion

 

[duannewalton]

I found that book in a used bokstore. It makes a good icebreaker:

"So which would you prefer: being locked in a roomful of feathers and having monkeys come in and tickle you, or running a maze being chased by German Shepards?" (one of the other fates awaiting you in the book)

"The maze. I hate being tickled, and I can turn any dog into a lapdog."

That maze is a very popular choice. I asked these two bank tellers and they both chose it- unless the monkeys were replaced by Colin Farrell.

 

[tickledorange]

Wow, someone found a really old thread. (Don't dig into my past! LOL) But this:

The key is to keep it natural so as not to raise suspicion

makes a lot of sense. I'll have to remember that. Thanks!

 

[some1somewhere]

I remember Superman tickling Lois Lane once.

okay what comic is this?

 

[drew70]

When I was a kid I read a first edition of one of the Hardy boy mysteries called <I>The Great Airport Mystery</I> by Franklin W. Dixon. This was a book for grade school kids about high school kids. One scene was a high school picnic (sort of a senior class party) during which one of the lasses tickled her brother which exposed his weakness to the rest of the class which precipitated a gang tickling. Now that publication was from a simpler time in the United States, I think first written in the 1930's.

I bought a modern edition for my own kids in the early 1990's. Alas, that scene had been "blue penciled." For all I know that was a response to a more complex world, or perhaps tickling simply made the modern publisher uncomfortable.

Wow, I hadn't thought about that for years. But as a child, I reread that part many many times and can still remember it almost word for word.

"Maybe you guys don't know this, but I do. Chet is ticklish!"

"Don't, Iola!"

But Iola advanced on her brother and tickled him until he howled for mercy, whereupon the others. delighted at the exposure of this secret, pounced on the luckless Chet and rubbed his ribs until he was forced to make his escape.​

Of course, at the time I was excited at f/m tickling but nauseated at the group m/m gangtickle.

Another Novel from the 80s that had several f/m tickling scenes was called A Prayer For Owen.

 

[toyou444]

I am in the proccess of writing two different scripts and one book (Its how I pass my time) and I doubt I would ever get any of them published or made professionally, but each one has a tickling scene in it. The scene just make the flow of the story keep moving. Would they work without the tickling? Probably...but I like them!

I say you put in whatever you think will work and let the chips fall where they may.

~ toyou

 

[toyou444]

Another Novel from the 80s that had several f/m tickling scenes was called A Prayer For Owen.

An excerpt I found drew:

In Sunday school, when we held Owen up in the air—especially, in the air!—he protested so uniquely. We tortured him, I think, in order to hear his voice; I used to think his voice came from another planet. Now I’m convinced it was a voice not entirely of this world.

“PUT ME DOWN!” he would say in a strangled, emphatic falsetto. “CUT IT OUT! I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. PUT ME DOWN! YOU ASSHOLES!”

But we just passed him around and around. He grew more fatalistic about it, each time. His body was rigid; he wouldn’t struggle. Once we had him in the air, he folded his arms defiantly on his chest; he scowled at the ceiling. Sometimes Owen grabbed hold of his chair the instant Mrs. Walker left the room; he’d cling like a bird to a swing in its cage, but he was easy to dislodge because he was ticklish. A girl named Sukey Swift was especially deft at tickling Owen; instantly, his arms and legs would stick straight out and we’d have him up in the air again.

“NO TICKLING!” he’d say, but the rules to this game were our rules. We never listened to Owen.

By John Irving no less!

Gonna have to read that...the rest of it sounds very interesting.

I also just saw it was the basis for the film "Simon Birch". Good film.

~ toyou

 

[booberrytickle]

I don't think a tickling scene or two will get much attention, other than from the likes of us in this forum. And I wouldn't worry too much about the publisher or mainstream readers being too turned off.

There was a book published a few years ago called "My Name is Rand", which was a fiction book about intense, m/m tickle torture. I'm not into m/m, but the description includes intense bdsm involving tickling, which is the subject matter of the entire book. If that can actually get published and find a place on amazon.com, I think there's hope for a book with a simple tickle scene or two. As a matter of fact, I look forward to it.

 

[NeitherSparky]

There was a book published a few years ago called "My Name is Rand", which was a fiction book about intense, m/m tickle torture. I'm not into m/m, but the description includes intense bdsm involving tickling, which is the subject matter of the entire book. If that can actually get published and find a place on amazon.com, I think there's hope for a book with a simple tickle scene or two. As a matter of fact, I look forward to it.

Amazon actually recommended this one to me recently, which I thought was awesome. 😀 I was going to post a thread about it to see if anyone here liked it before I bought it, but I could piggyback on this one. Anyone? 🙂

 

[DEV]

okay what comic is this?

It was during the 'They Saved Luthor's Brain!' story arc.

 

[Amanda]

I actually read a book with a couple tickle scenes in it, to my surprise, and it was also a good book in general...
FYI, if you want it, its titled Bitten

 

[booberrytickle]

My name is Rand

Amazon actually recommended this one to me recently, which I thought was awesome. 😀 I was going to post a thread about it to see if anyone here liked it before I bought it, but I could piggyback on this one. Anyone? 🙂

I haven't read the entire book, but I did read an excerpt that was available on-line for a while...it's very dark and very much into the torture aspect of tickling. It is also all m/m (just an fyi). My recollection is that it is about an extremely ticklish guy who gets caught in an underworld of extreme bondage and tickle torture...torture to the point of insanity or being tickled to death. The excerpts were interesting to the extent that I haven't seen mainstream (if you can call it that) fiction devoted to tickling.

 

[Skipadeedoodah]

I thought of another 🙂 In one of the Sideways Stories from Wayside School books, can't remember which one, some girls stick gum on a boy's chair and he gets stuck. When the teacher leaves the room, a few girls get up and start tickling him because he can't get up. There's another mention of tickling in that book, but it has something to do with the walls LOL Not sure if that'll do anything for anyone 🙂

Another one is Grover and the Everything in the World Museum. He goes into a room called the Tickle Room, thinking that he's gonna watch people get tickled, but it turns out HE gets tickled by hands, feathers, and dogs licking his feet. Anytime I find myself in an old store that sells children's books I can't help but look 🙂