What is the difference between pornography and erotica?

Erotica uses just a feather, pornography uses the whole damn chicken.

Pornography comes from the root words "porne" which means prostitute and "graphien" to write or draw, so pornography is writing or drawings of prostitutes.

Now, pornography is any form of media that depicts any kind of sexuality in a way that crosses an arbitrary line of acceptability- and that line keeps moving.

Films and books that would be considered pornographic in the past can be shown on TV now, and visa-versa: many modern TV shows and mainstream films would have been considered pornographic in earlier times.

Imagine if "Sex in the City" were to air in the 50's- between "The Honeymooners" and "I Love Lucy". :)

Erotica is just a "high class" term for pornography that has more artistic value. Rather than just being sexually stimulating, it's also aesthetically pleasing. It's the difference between naked and nude- in all practical sense they are the same thing, it's the context and quality that makes them different.

the cost

i always saw erotica as having more of a story line. some people like a little plot to the sex where as i find that strait up porn gets right to the point. now, i know there is porn that is themed but it is usually more visual, to the point, and real looking.
thats just my opinion of course.

Shot in B&W and/or soft focus it's erotic art.

Shot in clear focus and color - porn.

The root word is pornia. While in its simplest and earliest usage it referred to "temple sex" (usually sex with temple prostitutes, or participation in orgiastic religious rites), the Greek speaking Jews and the Christians after them used it to refer to ALL sexual immorality -- which was defined as anything other than covenantal sex (sex between a man and his lawful wife, his lawful betrothed, or his lawful concubine [a junior wife for life, but with no rights of inheritance, essentially a wife by morganatic marriage]).

Pornography is - technically - the visual and/or verbal/audial depiction of sexual immorality, typically with the intent to titillate.

Erotica may be pornographic, but is not necessarily. The Song of Solomon is an erotic poem, as are Shakespeare's sonnets, but they are not pornographic -- they present real life-long committed sexual love, not bestial non-committal sex. But most people today use it for "tasteful" pornography, which is to say, it presents stories and/ or images of illicit sex to excite similar appetites, but leaves some things to the imagination, enhancing rather than stripping away all mystique.

I will try and give an unbiased opinion.
Porn is disrespectful to people and characters. Basically, although some find it arousing, it is simply bodies mating.
Erotica goes a little deeper. It can just be one sex scene without a plot, but the CHARACTERS are what matter. They aren't just bodies mating, the characters are 3D and have thoughts and emotions.

Pornography seems to be very blatant, "in your face" and with no holds barred, so to speak. Erotica, on the other hand, seems to be more of a teasing nature.

Pornography is more hardcore. It's the stuff you see in adult bookstores. All the movies with anal, gangbangs, double-penetration, etc. Erotica is more along the lines of the stuff you see late at night on Cinemax or Showtime.

Pornography is any sexually explicit writing and/or picture intended to arouse sexual desire.

Erotica is stories of sexual acts intended to arouse sexual desire.

Erotica is artistic porn.

Personal taste/opinion

Between grades of love desire and lust and lechery beyond, fall erotica and porno xx and xxx hardcore.at age 14+ simple thought gets a hardon.last stage viagra is needed.somewhere in between again, dreams,fancy, fantasy,come into play when the actual partner is unavailable, or illpotent. then a person indulges in these artifices.the mind plays a big part, that when a person has plenty of blue stuff, he tires and wants new and different stronger each time, as the threshold of stimulation to satisfy rises. unless obsessed salacious leads to morbid erotomania...... These are good and need not be banned nor censored..

They're spelled differently.