12/7/97 -- Spare the Rod (Jungle Kitty); Kelly Gets a New Pair of Shoes (Tony Wang); A Passing Thought (UXOclean); Damage Control (MK); Table for Two (Solstice); La Kajira (Carol Parsons); The Master's Castle, Parts 1 and 2 (endemoniada69)
12/14/97 -- Nicole's Cotton Panties (Day Dreamer); Anathema (Kathy B); Blackmailed Saleswoman (Writer); The Arcade (Marc Tremaine and Terry Nicks); Smiling at Both Ends (Mr. Spraycan)
12/20/97 -- The Choice (Gambler); Trade Show (Wolf Whistle); The New One (Tim Chadwick); Janet in Training, Chapters 1 and 2 (SFmaster); The Palace (Akasha)
Hiya gang. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.
A new newsgroup has come to my attention-- alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated. In case you haven't guessed, it features erotic fanfic (including slash) set in the Star Trek universe with NO SPAM, unlike the unreadable alt.sex.startrek.fetish. Since I am still on my Star Trek slash kick, I'll be reviewing stories from this newsgroup every now and then, beginning with the one below.
Spare the Rod [A]
When posted: 12/2/97
Where posted: ASCEM (alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated)
Author: Jungle Kitty
Poster Address: jkitty@accesscom.com
Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are spending a quiet evening playing chess when Kirk decides he wants to play footsie.(!) Spock gets annoyed and threatens to spank him. Kirk thinks he's teasing and is very surprised when Spock carries out his threat: "Jesus, Spock! It's supposed to be *playful!*" They later fuck and make up.
This was a fun story, slash and spank combined. As I just can't visualize Kirk and Spock physically having sex--the same way I can't picture Jane Jetson physically having sex--after a while I just thought of them as two actors playing the roles of Kirk and Spock, which in a way they are. The dynamics of the relationship were handled skillfully--Spock being alternately smartass, wistful, and logical--and there seemed to be sly references to the conventions of K/S stories as well. I far prefer reading Star Trek erotica to watching the show, as the fanfic characters are a lot less wooden.
Kelly Gets a New Pair of Shoes [A-/B+]
When posted: 12/2/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Tony Wang
Address: tonyw44@prodigy.net
A blonde receives a mysterious pair of red "fuck-me" shoes from an anonymous admirer. She puts them on and becomes immediately entranced. At this point I thought the story would concern shoe or foot fetishes, but things took a different turn. The shoes soon begin to control Kelly, transforming her into a total slut. In the time-worn manner of total sluts, her pubic hair falls out, her tits and buttocks grow, her IQ falls, she wears gobs of makeup and provocative clothes, and blows and fucks every man she meets. Finally, a mysterious trench-coated man comes to collect her...he's the one who gave her the shoes, and now that her transformation to sluthood is complete, she's going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Ah, we should all be so lucky.
It's always enjoyable to read about normal women (and men) being slowed turned into empty-headed fucksluts, and this story didn't disappoint, ending on a bit of an ominous note. I've got three quibbles though. 1.) The lead character was already a tanned, slim, leggy, well-toned blonde--which equals hot slutty chick in most contemporary porn--so why the hell does she need the shoes? 2.) It was annoying that we kept getting "Kelly this" "Kelly that" "The leggy blonde did..." "The slut sucked..." What is wrong with using "she" and "her?" 3.) Why do all sluts have to look like Penthouse Pets?
A Passing Thought [C]
When posted: 11/28/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: UXOclean
Address: uxoclean@aol.com
In this story, a man tells a woman he's met in cyberspace what will happen when he meets her for real-life sex in his natty silk boxer shorts. Their adventure wasn't bad in the sex department, but it was simply awful in style, sounding like the stacatto utterances of a robot: "Your wetness gushes onto me. We are hot and sweaty. You are just beginning. You eye my cock. We lay together for a while. You finally decide to move. It is time to abuse me. To exert control. You want to see me lick up my sperm." Danger, Will Robinson! Red alert! Red alert!
The author wanted advice on this, and I say, Get rid of that second person voice!!! It's stupid and annoying. A good edit wouldn't hurt, preferably by someone who knows how to write stories.
Damage Control [unrated]
When posted: 12/2/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: MK
Address: martinkn@james.stud.ntnu.no
I won't even try rating this, because it made no sense. A sort of long Allen Ginsburg/ William S. Burroughs freeform poem. Some interesting use of the English language. Otherwise, don't bother to read it, as there's no porn. There, I can throw it off my hard drive now.
Table for Two [A]
When posted: 12/7/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Solstice
Address: solstice@frontiernet.net
Three Stooges-like slapstick meets mind control in this story, told entirely in the dialogue between a waiter and his customer. The young lady sees hypnotism occurring at another table and demands that the waiter do something about it...while he, in snobby-tux style, refuses to acknowledge anything alarming is going on. Very short (just a bit over 300 words) but funny.
La Kajira [B+]
When posted: 11/27/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Carol Parsons
Address: myescape@voyager.net
The Master's Castle, Parts 1 and 2 [A]
When posted: 11/29/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: endemoniada69
Address: endemoniada69@hotmail.com
John Norman is science fiction and fantasy writer who's been pushing out books since the late 60s, all on the same theme-- beautiful slave girls in sexual thrall to the manly barbaric masters of the savage world of Gor. They've never won a Hugo (or good reviews from critics) but over the years have amassed a small but faithful cult following, mainly on the strength of the erotic scenarios they contain. The main one is this: all women, even the most intelligent, independent and powerful, secretly desire to be sexually submissive slaves who serve their master's every whim, and it's pounded into the reader again and again like the writer thinks it's the most natural order of things in the universe. If, as a woman, this attitude makes you see red, you're not alone. I felt the same the way until I realized the books were total trash suitable only for the titillating D/s thrills they contain...a sex toy made of pulp paper.
Anyway, in the books (there are about 30) Earth women are kidnapped, branded on the thigh, tied by the wrists and ankles, dragged around by the hair, whipped, forced to dance erotically, and are thrown in bundles of furs so their masters can screw their heads off...and if they fail to be pleasing or submissive enough, they can be sliced into fish bait and used to catch sharks. They're also traded among their masters like baseball cards, and one of concepts Norman emphasizes most is how they are treated like consumer goods: caught, chained, branded, auctioned, distributed to god knows where, suffering such indignities along the way as being constantly renamed things like Butter-pan or Honeycake while remaining as interchangeable as McDonald's hamburger patties. Geez, all this is getting me wet.
The strength of this scenario lies in its conception not in its execution, as Norman is a lousy writer. I'd give him a C-. You have to wade through paragraphs of boring barbarian posturing, stale, repetitive dialogue, and windy prose before you get to the good stuff, i.e. the slave girls. In spite of the bad writing, the concept definitely strikes a primal chord in a lot of people's fantasies. Here they've inspired not one, but two imitators.
"La Kajira" is written by a gal who does phone sex fantasies for a living, and if the story is any indication, she's competent if none too creative. The narrator decides to submit erotically to her lover, and he buys a shiny new collar so she can play the role of his slave girl. Unlike the Norman books (which avoided actual sex; we never even hear the word "breast") the master goes down on the slave girl first. Well, you know what I say about the Lion's Share Rule.
Celeste really mocked this story, but to me it was an adequate execution of its type and better than the original, because you didn't have to put up with the boring We-Are-Barbarians-Hear- Us-Roar storyline. If you're wondering about the title, "Kajira" is Gor-ese for slave girl, but the "La" seems to have wandered in from south of the border.
On the other hand, "The Master's Castle" was a cross between Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty books and Gor...with a young slave girl welcomes her master back from the hunt and tries to please him, feeling the fires of passion burning within her but not knowing how to quench them (or something like that.) It was better written than "La Kajira" but I didn't like it as much because the pacing dragged. In that way it was similar to, but more colorful than, Norman's leaden prose. Anyway, slave girl Miranda goes with Master to an inn, where she ogles another slave girl and is spanked. He sells her casually to another Master, who whips her when she fails to properly mop his castle floor, then has her suck his cock.
The story was OK, if slow, but I couldn't believe the ending. After weeks of worshipful servitude and fiery passions, she still hasn't had an orgasm? Yet when the Master ejaculates down her throat, she feels completely fulfilled without having her own release? No way.
Anyway, if you're really interested in Gor, there's a newsgroup for AOL subscribers dedicated to the books, where masters and slaves role-play their fantasies. They got so steamy the group was actually forced to close down briefly last year. This is a true story. honest!
News from the front:
A few writers have asked me about guarding their web sites against intrusions by underage surfers. Here are the three services that I know of:
www.safesurf.cm
www.cyberpatrol.com
www.surfwatch.com
When you visit these web sites, you are asked to submit the name of your site on an email form. Safesurf has a long questionnaire rating your site's takes on nudity, drug abuse, adult language, etc. In cyberpatrol, you simply submit the name of the site for their staff to visit later--they create the rating, not you. In both sites, although they ask you for your "real" name and address, you don't have to give them, just your email name as a contact. So don't be afraid about registering your site. On my website (http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh) you can see a sample of the identifying gif they give you.
This month has also seen the introduction of two new review services, The Polyandrinous Reviews and The Critical Review. Sorry for calling these services, I don't know what else to call them. The Polyandrinous Review seems to express the personal opinions of one reviewer, while The Critical Review focuses on giving ASS writers personal feedback on how successful their erotica is, from a fellow writer. The more critics the merrier.
It is my intention, for the upcoming year to review *all* sorts of net erotica, including sites and newsgroups, and present my findings as a public service, because someone's gotta chronicle this phenomena, which echoes the explosive growth in the video camera market in the early 80s that came about when people wanted to tape themselves fucking. Pictures of their kids for grandma? Birthdays parties? Sheesh, we know better.
Nicole's Cotton Panties [A]
When posted: 12/5/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Day Dreamer
Poster: Commander Jameson
Address: cmndr@nym.alias.net
A man staying temporarily in the home of his divorced sister notices his sexy 17-year-old niece cannot afford to buy sexy lingerie...she's still wearing little-girl style cotton panties. So, being the doting uncle he is, he gives her a $100 bill and tells her to go shopping. Afterwards, she models each item for him, and they have sex.
I usually don't like incest fantasies, for a number of reasons I won't go into here, but this one was very well done and quite enjoyable. It stayed firmly within make-believe land (there was no way I could picture a teenager talking like this, acting like this, or not getting the sexy underwear herself if she wants it so much...for example, through shoplifting or the money from her part-time job) but it was the very unreality of that made the story work. Everyone had a good time and no one was exploited. I found it a pleasant, sexy read, and you probably will too.
Anathema [B+]
When posted: 12/8/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Kathy B
Address: kathybxx@aol.com
This was a short, surprise story of the trick-ending sort. A teacher gives a student a low grade in English class for a essay she wrote advocating homosexual behavior, which the teacher finds abhorrent. Attending an out-of-town conference later that day, the teacher meets a man in the hotel bar, is attracted, and goes back to his room to give him a blow job. But...is the teacher male, or female?
This was a cool play on typical Western culture ideas of sex roles and behavior, marred only by descriptive brevity and the rather wooden dialogue.
Blackmailed Saleswoman [B-]
When posted: 12/7/97
Where posted: ASSB
Author: Writer
Address: writer@home
Every once in a while, it's enjoyable to read a juicy blackmail story. You know the type. A boss, salesman/woman, teacher, law enforcement officer, or teenage runaway is caught stealing, cheating, or bribing, and as payment for the whistleblower keeping his or her mouth shut the victim agrees to be the whistleblower's sex slave and submit to whatever perverted fantasies they desire. The story usually goes on and on for dozens of pages detailing every act and when it's done the victim and whistleblower part ways, the victim humiliated for life, the whistleblower with a smirk on his/her face. That's what happened in this story.
A delivery guy catches a saleswoman at his store stealing some leather coats, and as payment for keeping his mouth shut about it, she's collared and chained like a dog, has to give him blowjobs (her ineptitude at this is mentioned again and again, like it's a requirement on the diploma for Real Womanhood), couch-dance for him and his friends, be raped by two lesbians, wear nipple clips with a chain between them that bounces on her chest, fetch rawhide doggy chews, etc. Titillating all this is the fact she's about to be married and doesn't want her fiancee to find out. I don't know about you, but going through what she did just isn't worth keeping a job or a future husband.
The best blackmail stories are the kind that have a light, cartoony attitude towards all this (like "The Pet," which I reviewed a week or so ago) or those that come up with intriguing characters or novel methods of torture. This story sounds like it was written by a jerk who's simply out to get literary revenge on a well-dressed snooty blonde who's got more money and class than he does. It was also really annoying that the dialogue was all lumped together, like: "What do you want" she said in a pissy voice. "Look at this, I think you will be interested" I said. She watched for a minute and said, "Where the hell did you get this?" I have a few more just like it at home" I lied. " YouĂre gonna do time for this for sure" I said." This might have been a fault of the mailer, I'll admit, but it does make a story very hard to read.
The Arcade [A]
When posted: 12/7/97
Where posted: ASSG, ASSGM
Author: Marc Tremaine and Terry Nicks
Address: tremaine@mindspring.com
Two guys go to a gay video arcade for some action--one older, one younger. We know nothing about them except their names. They meet in a video booth, and an intricate dance of lust, trust, and D/S games is played out, told in the alternating first-person narration of the participants. The younger guy becomes the sub who's handcuffed (amidst other things) and led out of the place as a party toy for his master, where all can see...and comes to a rather surprising conclusion in the arcade's parking lot.
The story was mostly about sex, and submission; the slash Paris/Kim story I read a week was a puff pastry in comparison. It was a little like Markjo's work, too. D/S doesn't quit at hets. The alternating viewpoints enhanced the story and, oddly for all the pissing and slave-making going on, the story ended on a positive note. I'm not going to reveal what it is, except it infers that even the most stalwart pillars of society need their secret jollies in order to perform their jobs better.
Smiling at Both Ends [A+]
When posted: 12/6/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Mr. Spraycan
Address: mrspraycan@mailanon.com
Website: http://spraycan.sinewave.com
An out-of-towner in Boston notices a woman exposing herself in a Starbuck's window, hoisting up her short skirt so he can see her....pubic smile. (Get it?) She's an exhibitionist, and they go back to his hotel room together so he can take pictures and later spank her for her implied naughtiness.
Like much of this author's recent work, the story dealt the behavior quirks that women adapt to deal with their desires to expose themselves and be "punished" for it. The funny thing is the characters always keep a certain whimsy about them, even when they're walking around with bruised butts. It's as uplifting, in its way, as Maryanne Mohanraj's the- world-is-an-erotic-banquet attitude she presents in her stories. It's also a nice change to read about female body hair after a spate of shaved-pussy stories.
Now about that pubic smile. There's really two. The inner and the outer....
Happy Holidays to everyone at the ending of the year! Time is
short right now, so there will only be one more posting before I
leave for a much-deserved vacation. I will resume posting after
January 6th. As to where I'm going for that period, suffice to say
that if anyone of you is visiting Disneyland on the weekend of
the 27th of December, you may see me, Lady Cyrrh herself,
fucking goofy with happiness. ** (Joke at end of reviews.)
The Choice [A-/B+]
When posted: 12/9/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Gambler
Address: GAMBLER@UNCWIL.EDU
In this brief fantasy story, a man is enchanted by a sorceress who leads him through a dimensional portal for a few hours of passion. His mate follows, but the sorceress captures her and offers her a choice: either join in the shenanigans, or she will keep her boyfriend prisoner forever.
The story was too brief to get a good handle on; it could have easily been two and three times the length it was with more description of the sexual acts, as the atmospheric erotic buildup was promising.
Trade Show [A-]
When posted: 12/12/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Wolf Whistle
Address: zeist@aol.com
A man goes to a dentists' trade show. Feel frustrated by the lack of attractive dental hygienists, he goes back to his room to spend a lonely night. But in the elevator he meets the woman of his dreams, and they have hot sex. He wakes up alone, to find out...she was a ghost.
As a ghost story this wasn't very scary, but then, it wasn't meant to be...it was more like a comedy of errors told in a slightly offbeat style with some unusual elements (those schmoozing dentists) which made it different from the run of the mill out of town/one night stand story. Some of the metaphors, however, were more incorrect than offbeat. "A different type of disturbance overtook me now, a raging passion that coursed through me like cheap Mexican food?" I don't know about you, but cheap Mexican food brings to mind other bodily reactions than sexual arousal. Then there was "I shot my cum inside of her, canon-blast after canon-blast." Was a Canon camera meant, perhaps? Or was it blasts of religious dogma?
The New One [A]
When posted: 12/12/97
Where posted: ASSG
Author: Tim Chadwick
Address: tchad@gte.net
On the world of the dark chrystal, underneath the light of the three moons, the gentle Urru practice the arts of healing while the decadent Skeksis emperor lays dying...no, sorry, wrong movie. Anyway, in this story a young man is initiated into the sacred rites of his people by an elder of his tribe, which involves shafts of light from magic chrystals, chakra-like aura reading, and ritual prayers...ending with a gangbang by the other members of the tribe. A sort of gay New Age Robert Bly myth of coming into manhood. This sort of story is always interesting even when it's amateurishly done (which this story wasn't, it was very smoothly written) and the author states it may grow into a longer work. I agree; there is definitely territory here to explore.
Janet in Training, Chapters 1 and 2 [A]
When posted: 12/14/97
Where posted: ASSB
Author: SFmaster
Address: sfmaster@worldnet.att.net
In these two chapters, which are the start of a BDSM novel that the author promises to post, Janet Davis enters the service of a charismatic mistress to experience erotic fulfillment. Like most charismatic mistresses, she has a mansion and a staff of slaves to clean it. (No doms live in hovels.) Janet discovers what being her slave entails when she's harnessed, gagged, and suspended in various configurations for a whipping, with the focus being on physical punishment rather than the sensual aspect of the lifestyle.
The story was very readable, and more literate...if not as *literary*...than others of its type, and if you want to read some enjoyable BDSM without all the frou-frou, then this is it. I sneaked a peek at a later chapter, and the storyline eventually grows into a murder-mystery with eventual conflict between the doms and their subs. You see, there's good D/S, which is about mutual participation in power games, and bad D/S, which is about doms getting off by irresponsibly abusing those under their power...which eventually leads up to a showdown between the forces of good and evil which is not that much different than contemporary morality tales such as those found in genre fantasy novels. It made me wish the whole thing was a movie I could pop in my hungry little VCR.
The Palace [A+]
When posted: 12/1/97
Where posted: SSBB
Author: Akasha
Address: akasha@netcom.com
This was one of the most female-oriented BDSM stories I've read so far, and I enjoyed it immensely, with a big grin on my face. It was unusual in that it depicts a powerful, successful women domming young male fucktoys, a sort of role reversal combining the couch-dancing adult "gentlemen's clubs" of the 90s with the BDSM staple of a powerful, rich dom or domina that tops luscious, eagerly submissive young females. Except the subs are luscious, eagerly submissive young men.
The story's rationale is that in a near-future America women have become the new corporate and political leaders and they acquire a man's appetite for convenient, private--and *heterosexual*--sexual adventures as well. The Palace is one such club where these gals go to unwind. The young male hosts all wear different colored bracelets indicating how far on the BDSM scale they'll go, and they're for hire by the hour. The narrator is taken to the club by two friends as a lark, but she soon grows attached to it, relaxing there after work first with Race, then a young man named Maus who accepts the worst she can dish out. She begins to grow attached to him. But her feelings are dashed when she goes in one night and sees him with another, more successful woman who has hired him. The story ends with her feelings of hurt, with more to come later.
The emotional D/S underpinnings of this story were similar to Torch's slash "Playboy series" that I reviewed a few weeks ago, save that this story bravely brought them into the open in a heterosexual relationship; the fig leaf of homosex was no where to be seen. No points were made or reasons offered for the behavior; just the attraction of surrender, pain accepted freely, and the thrills it brings to both parties...along with the tenderness that underlies even the most hardcore humiliations.
The author sated that she often writes fragments of things and leaves them unfinished, which is too bad, because this is one of the most interesting stories I've seen this year. I suspect it taps into many women's private fantasies (many more than you'd think) and it's a shame to leave it go.
** One day Minnie Mouse calls up Daisy Duck. "Daisy," she says,
"I'm going to have to break up with Mickey. I think he's gay."
"Why?" Daisy Duck says. "Mickey's a great guy...er, Mouse. He's straight as an arrow as long as I've known him. What makes you think he's gay?"
Minnie Mouse tells her.
"Wait a minute," Daisy says. "Just because you drop in on him unexpectedly and he acts a little silly doesn't mean he's gay."
"You don't understand," Minnie says. "I didn't say he was acting silly. I said I dropped in on him and he was *fucking Goofy.*"