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"Desire Eternal" by H.D. Meister (ghostly sex) 8, 8, 9
"Desire Eternal" by H.D. Meister (dez187lm@hotmail.com). Guest review by Bronwen (bronwen@anon.nymserver.com). This story expresses the thoughts of a ghost who wanders the streets, still chained to the earth. One link in his chain is Dianne, his true love; the others are unspecified. He is preoccupied with a sexual experience he had with another woman during which he contracted a fatal sexually transmitted disease. At least I'm pretty sure that's what happened - because this story is a bit of a puzzle. Unanswered questions often heighten the sense of mystery in ghost stories, but in "Desire Eternal" there were so many I found it a difficult to work out exactly what was going on. The tenses can be troublesome also, and this element would benefit from an edit. OTOH this is a very short piece - more of a fragment than a complete story, I suspect. Maybe it is a sketch for a longer work. The story ends with a grim warning against infidelity: >I am dead. This is my tale. This is my warning. Love is the one >possession mankind can hold on to even after death. Know this... for >no wet twat can replace it. No blowjob can compare to its eternal >power. Know this... or I shall see you here... within the shadows. Even in so short a piece the author has done a splendid job in delineating the narrator - a convincing portrait of a particularly nasty man: a sentimentalist who projects his own mistakes and lusts on others, who despises women on the basis of their sexual experience and enthusiasm. I suspect the author means the reader to perceive that the ghost has misinterpreted his lesson - he does not understand that it is his own hatred and anger which hold him earthbound - the implication being that he still has much to learn. This is a chilling little tale, full of the ghost's warped personality. I take my hat off to the author for his skill, though I'm not sure I'd actually enjoy reading a longer version! Ratings for "Desire Eternal" Athena (technical quality): 8 (watch those tenses!) Venus (plot & character): 8 (character great = 10, plot confusing = 6) Bronwen (appeal to reviewer): 9 (horrid, but well-done) |