Augustine describes his past as being very lustful, having had many romantic partners. He places little value on eroticism except as being sinful and distracting from being a good Catholic. He compares reading fiction to sex in that it is distraction from being one with God. However, there is some value to eroticism in his writing in that he is using the discussion of sex to reach out to young readers, who like him in his younger years, are caught up with the same temptations of the body. It is used as an appeal similar to the way he discusses the story of him stealing the fruits to appeal to everyone who has temptations for “forbidden fruit”
Great Works of Literature I, Spring 2020 – Online – Two
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