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"The Starry Night" by Nick (heavy allegories) 10, 10, 4/10
"The Starry Night" by Nick. Guest review by BillyG. Celeste's reviews are of stories which are, for the most part, submitted by authors from A.S.S.M. Largely sex stories, if not sensuous stories. After reading "The Starry Night," I wondered, 'What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?' Nick's offering, which takes its name from a Vincent Van Gogh painting, is not sensuous and not even close to being sexy. In fact, it has almost nothing to do with anything erotic. Oh, there are dark allusions to unnamed and frightening practices, presumably sexual in nature, for one of the central figures is a very expensive Oriental prostitute who has been hired for an afternoon of . . . well, we never really know. Other things happened, more compelling with allegorical currents that left me a bit bemused and with the feeling that something deeper and quite significant was happening just below the surface and out of my sight. The protagonist is a hard man who believes in very little outside himself, whose means always justify his ends, and who holds closely the right of force and the power of money. His dark and harsh nature are given expression when he hires a very expensive prostitute for uncertain and presumably dangerous acts - only later to discover the Oriental woman has an exceptional deep talent for art, thus his reference to Van Gogh's "The Starry Night." I'll avoid discussing the remainder of the story, for I think it must be viewed first hand to fully experience the feeling of despair and incomprehensible depression. The tale is neither light-hearted nor sexy. Rather, it's one of symbolic representation, a story of largely hidden abstract ideas, perhaps meaningful in some parallel deeper sense. My reactions to the story are mixed. It's well crafted and technically almost flawless. It's tense and moving to be sure. Yet, when it was over, I thought of Peggy Lee. "Is that all there is?" Ratings for "The Starry Night" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 BillyG (appeal to reviewer): 4 as a sex story and 10 as a compelling tale. |