|
Return To the Celestial Review (This does NOT open a new window) Return To the Index (This does NOT open a new window) Note, to make reading multi-part stories easier, story links (links with dejanews.com or www.qz.to, NOT the review or profile links) will open up a new browser window. When you are done reading the story, or section of the story simply CLOSE the story window. |
|
"Mother and Son" by Ann Douglas.
"Mother and Son" by Ann Douglas. Perhaps its my background as an educator, but I'm normally repulsed by stories about incest. The basic problem is that once you set aside the fantasy, in real life the adult is almost always engaging in some sort of gratification at the expense of someone he or she should be caring for. We get upset at the clergy and teachers who molest children, but then we're supposed to consider it to be titillating when we read a story about mom teaching her son "what it's like to be a man." That's how I usually react, but this story surprised me. It's about a mother who comes home early and sees her son getting head from a boy whom she doesn't know. She tries to respect his privacy, but she becomes aware that the son is likely to take the plunge into a homosexual lifestyle that may not be appropriate for him. As the only reasonable solution she can think of, the mother herself engages in loving sex with her son. The story ends with... no - you'll have to find that out for yourself. What won me over was the objective, non-moralizing aspects of the story. The author wasn't suggesting that every mother should screw her son; but she showed that this was an unusual situation. Nor was she suggesting that it would be awful if her son would adopt a homosexual lifestyle. The mother just didn't want her son to make that choice without thinking about the alternatives. The story reminded me of the movie Summer of 42, in which a wife loses her husband in the War and then makes tender love to a neighbor boy. When we saw that movie, my husband and I discussed the ethics of an older woman seducing a younger boy - when the boy obviously loved ever second of it. We eventually decided it was just a pretty good movie and that we didn't need to pass moral judgment on it. This was just a pretty good story. (Rating: 10) |