1-Most of it looks the same as everything else. This is a result of the producer's disrespect for his subject and his audience. Most producers of porn see the sexual act as some meaningless set of actions between two(or more) interchangeable participants. As a result the audience is subjected to the same poses and activities over and over again with the only differences being the actors and models.
2-The positions and activities have nothing to do with an actual healthy sex life. The reasons for this are varied, but ultimately boil down to laziness. Most of the positions chosen for pornography are chosen because they are easiest to photograph, or because they lend themselves to allowing the audience to "see everything." So while virtually no one would grab their testicles and pull them up passed their penis while fucking a girl doggystyle in their actual sexual life, you see this practice in many pornos. Directors don't often try to hide the fact that the actors are fucking in a way which implies that they are cognizant of an observer. I also get the feeling that the popularity of facial cumshots is simply an unimaginative way of answering the question: "Well, where should I come?"
3-Lighting and set design is unimaginative, safe, and boring. Again, born of laziness and the default on thinking.
What separates the best erotica from the worst of porn is the way it approaches the subject of sexual enjoyment and avoids the issues listed above. Most of the issues are a result of a certain level of disrespect for the importance of the sexual act itself, and more narrowly; the importance of the mind in the sexual act. The reason everything looks alike is because the sex act is treated as a bodily function, and the body responds to pussies and tits, and not individuals or situations. The reason the positions are as such as they are is because the fact that the actors don't like, let alone love, or truly even lust after each other is not important, what is regarded as important is the fact that a big dick is pounding a slut.
What good erotica brings to the table is the inclusion of the mind and of actual sexual values into the art, and a consideration and respect given to every aspect. What I hope to achieve with my erotica is the concretization of exactly those things that make sexual enjoyment and romantic ecstasy a value to human beings. The fact is that sex is an activity that includes both the mind and the body, both your chosen values (and the emotions that spring from them), and the pain/pleasure mechanism. Good art, good sexual art will not ignore either of these aspects.
-CV
