Well, it depends what you find arousing... Sex is much easier to get wrong than the insinuation of sex. One misplaced word, term that people find risible or overly-clinical or piece of impossible blocking and you've lost your audience. Whereas if you do the literary equivalent of fading to black, the audience infers the rest according to its comfort level, and no one makes with the mock.

I think this comment speaks to a big part of the problem.

Regarding Narnia, I can honestly say that my reaction as a child reader was the opposite. The inclusion of the alternate mythological characters was what caught my attention and interest. Sparked something that grew into a long term fascination.