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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Explaining the Explicit

The Essay: Explaining the Explicit: Episode 1: Julian Barnes

Explaining the Explicit

Episode 1

Episode 1: Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes

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Writer Julian Barnes asks 'Is writing about sex the same as writing about anything?'.

In a series in which writers consider the motivations for and challenges in writing about sex, Julian Barnes asks 'Is writing about sex the same as writing about anything?'.

Five different writers consider the reasons why and the challenges of writing about sex. In episode one, Julian Barnes asks 'Is writing about sex the same as writing about any other human activity - say, gardening or cricket?' and as a novelist 'what words do you use and what effect are you trying to have?'

In little more than a few decades, perhaps a generation or two, western culture has arguably progressed from a largely repressed and circumspect attitude to portraying the sins and pleasures of the flesh to an altogether more casual and certainly visually more permissive approach. How have writers and readers, adjusted to these changes and what are authors trying to say when they write about sex? Is the written word trailing in the wake of film, tv and video or have these media liberated authors from a more timid, and possibly less authentic way of writing?

These essays offer a chance to step back and reflect on some of the subtler arguments that can get lost amidst a sea of pneumatic imagery. Somewhere between the conventions of shock, titillation and comedy lie a whole range of other ideas that can be explored when writing about sex.

First broadcast in March 2013.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Series in which writers considers the motivations for and challenges in writing about sex

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Explaining the Explicit

Episode 1: Julian Barnes

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