Sex loses all its power and magic when it becomes explicit, mechanical, overdone, when it becomes a mechanistic obsession. It becomes a bore.

In this remark Nin contrasts eroticism as an imaginative, emotionally charged experience with sex reduced to technique or compulsion. “Explicit” and “mechanical” suggest a loss of mystery, reciprocity, and inner participation—sex treated as performance, repetition, or fixation rather than a living encounter. The “power and magic” she values lies in nuance, anticipation, and the psyche’s role in desire; when those are replaced by mechanistic obsession, the act becomes dulled and monotonous (“a bore”). The statement aligns with Nin’s broader preoccupation with the difference between pornography-as-routine and eroticism-as-art, where suggestion, subjectivity, and feeling are central.