French author Jonathan Littell has won the 17 th Annual Bad Sex Award in Fiction for passages in his novel The Kindly Ones.

His passage “This sex was watching at me, spying on me, like a Gorgon’s head” won the prize. Another passage was noted: “a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg”. This is an allusion for a sexual encounter.

Other entries that Littel defeated, as reported by AFP, include:

“The size and texture of liquorice Jelly Spogs” as description of nipples in The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave. Another passage spoken by a character pleads to her lover to “pray, pray at my portal.”

“Appoints herself ringmaster and would not participate until summoned” by a character in The Humbling by Philip Roth. A description of “a motionless Cyclops” was also used.

The judges said the Littell’s work is “in part a work of genius.” Littell’s agent accepted the award, as the author has not yet made a comment regarding his win.

The award is given more as a form of laughter for sex rather than bad description or storytelling of sex.