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"Dancing In the Dark" by "Weird Writer" (Sex by Braille)
10, 9, 9
"Dancing In the Dark" by Weird Writer (reposted by Bookman Productions). Guest review by Bookman. "Dancing In the Dark" expands on the anonymous 'zipless fuck' of Erica Jong and _Fear of Flying_ fame, placing it this time in a more aristocratic setting. The unnamed narrator receives an invitation to a 'private party'. Once there, he is escorted to an empty waiting room where a waiting note informs him of the rules: "You have been invited to an orgy. . . Do not converse. Do not ask names. Do not ask questions." He undresses and walks into a totally dark room, where, quite simply, anything goes. No orifice barred, but all unseen. Sex by Braille, as it were. The idea of totally anonymous sex is a powerful one in the human psyche. Yeah, yeah, in the real world, one wants to know one's partners quite well, indeed. But these are worlds of fantasy we deal with here, and this is a rich one. And like most sexual fantasy worlds, there's a strong tinge of the adolescent behind it. For almost all of us, the first sexual experience comes from masturbation. The 'zipless fuck' is really just an extension of that. There's still no element of personal interaction, even though it's someone else's hand or touch doing the nerve-ending manipulation. Here the narrator fucks and is fucked, pleasure given and taken, but pleasure is all that is shared. No names, no identities, nothing to tie the experience to a real person, just flesh, touching and being touched. No commitments, no responsibilities, no requirements to say or do the right thing to manipulate the other person into doing what you want of them. Mutually agreed prostitution, without the intrusion of monetary concerns. For those a bit tired of the Mating Dance, the respite may seem attractive. But it's also hollow. Like it or not, we live for interaction with other human beings, and the individual who can voluntarily live as a total hermit is a disturbed one, indeed. We need to connect with somebody else, or we ourselves remain undefined. "Dancing In the Dark" is certainly well-written. No typos that I noticed. No characterizations, either, but that's fitting with the theme. The only cavil I would have stems directly from the situation. The sex is a bit mechanical, a bit dry, 'I did this, then they did this', that sort of thing. But that's nearly unavoidable when you leave out the personal factors that gives sex its meaning, its connective power. All in all, I found this story arousing on a deep, selfish level, but ultimately, a little unsatisfying. When I reposted this tale from the Archives, I noted that it came without authorship attribution. Reading it again for this review, I noticed at the very bottom, in among all the signature chatter, this: "public discussion: alt.sex.stories.d email: shelbyb@iglou.com "to Weird Writer" That email address looks a lot like one for Thomas Shelby Bush, a well- respected A.S.S. author. Shelby, are you responsible for this story, or do you know who is? Ratings for "Dancing In the Dark" Minerva: (technical skill): 10 Aphrodite: (general appeal): 9 Apollo: (appeal to reviewer): 9 |