1/11/98 -- Doubts and Uncertainties (Ghost Ex Machina); Jemilsil, Parts 1, 2, 3 (Ruthless); Two on One (Mark Aster); Dueling Clits, Parts 1 - 3b (Jackie)
1/17/98 -- Bulls (Lord Malinov); A Treat for Marshall (Proculus); The Celestial Refuse (Mat Twassel); Sacrificial Lamb (Phil Phantom/Tiffany); The Aupair Guy (Trevor Moore)
1/21/98 -- Karla in a Heap of Shit (Karen); Buddy Long in Makin' Some Friends (Buck N); Wife's Training (Tezezzar); Violet (Thundershark); Mrs. Michaels (Grimace)
1/31/98 -- Double Blind (The Sandman); Whisper Island, Part One (Smoke Ring); The Priest and the Hustler (Alexis Rogers); The Red Room, Parts I, II, II, IV, V (SFarn37600); Please Watch the Closing Doors (Taria); School House Rock (John Morvillo)
I'm back from vacation, after a relaxing journey through the
southern half of the country overflowing with many strange
sights and scenes...among them the Frederick's of Hollywood Bra
Museum, sneak previews of the animator's sketches for the "Ace
Ventura: Pet Detective" cartoon show, $500 folk art sculptures
that look like they were constructed by autistic children, a
waving mechanical Santa that contained an embalmed corpse,
and Amtrak officials trying to bust a poor Latina Jehovah's
Witness woman because they thought she was an illegal alien.
Aren't vacations fun!
Beginning this year, I will be posting these reviews the newsgroups alt.sex.stories, alt.sex.stories.moderated, alt.sex.stories.gay, and alt.sex.stories.gay.moderated. I have dropped posting to alt.sex.stories.bondage because it was so overrun with spam I couldn't see anyone wading through all the dross just to read a cute review or two. Remember that these reviews can always be found at my website (http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh) as well, along with book reviews, website reviews, and other assorted fluff. If you missed the 1997 Cyrrheal Awards for Newsgroup Fiction, they can be found there as well.
Anyway, here's my offerings for the week. Note that I am slowing down this season, as I have some other things in my life I have to give attention to.
Doubts and Uncertainties [A+]
When posted: 1/1/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Ghost Ex Machina
Poster Address: Ghost@nym.alias.net
Apparently there's been a lot of talk about consensual/nonconsensual stories on ASSD lately. Exactly how much I don't know, as I haven't been online for the holiday season, but what is clear is that it is a subject that polarizes both writers and readers alike. In this story by Ghost, the pros and cons of literary sadism receive a workout.
The story begins on a classic femdom note: in a remote country woodshed, a man is chained to a workbench by his cock and balls while a woman gleefully sprinkles gasoline over the walls and threatens to immolate him with a match. Then the story picks up with the writer of the said story sitting at her computer pondering the consequences of what she's written and discussing them with her boyfriend, in a series of fantasies, some sadistic, that segue into each other like fever dreams. No conclusion is given; but when the original tale is picked up, it's revealed the inflammable substance was really water, not gasoline.
This story was an interesting commentary on the current debate, but an even more interesting one on the forum of that debate, which takes in an adult newsgroup dedicated to writing and discussing pornography. A story like this could never stand alone in a published anthology or magazine because readers not having current familiarity with ASSD or the ins and outs of alt.sex newsgroup culture wouldn't know what you were talking about. As such, this story could be considered a type of fanfic based around a venue rather than a TV show or movie, and to its intended audience--readers of the alt.sex.hierarchy--it speaks quite clearly as a personal editorial couched in fictional form. But! The drama of real life intrudes, as the writer has based certain characters and events on her own life, and the story becomes a multilayered journey through fact, fiction, opinion and public face; it reveals all, and reveals nothing. Stuff like this is why I read porn on the web--for what it says about human nature, what it reveals about the writer, and what the writer *thinks* it reveals about themselves.
However, it's hard to say exactly where Ghost stands on the consensual/nonconsensual issue, except that the whole thing can be mined to provide food for thought. My own opinion is that newsgroup writers have total freedom to write or say anything they want on alt.sex, and I am behind this right 100%, even if I ignore such spoutings or mock them.
I will say though, taking this story as a story (that is, for its entertainment value) a CBT'd man about to be cremated alive packs a helluva lot more dramatic punch that a conversation between a healthily communicating couple.
My conclusion? Ghost is more than a little ambivalent about the subject, too.
Jemilsil, Parts 1, 2, 3 [A+]
When posted: 12/17/98
Where posted: ASGM
Author: Ruthless
Poster Address: ruthless@nbnet.nb.ca
In this story, which is more fantasy than erotica, a young man, the son of a warlord, deals with some peculiar customs on his wedding night and eventually finds out that his new bride is not who she seems to be, despite his own naivete about female genitals look like. You'll probably guess what gender the bride really is long before the young man does, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story, which was rich, atmospheric, and plausible, with the matter-of-fact, nonjudgemental tone of Tigger's work. It also displayed a fine feel for history and anthropology in its examination of an imaginary culture. My only quibble is that the bride was still referred to as a "she" even when "her" sex became obvious, which deflated the idea of the same-sex couple somewhat; but overall this is an excellent piece that I was happy to start out the new year with.
Two on One [A]
When posted: 12/27/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Mark Aster
Poster Address: mailto:MyFrThAl
The Allens are back, or at least one of them is, or maybe they've just made some new friends. In this three-way scenario, the narrator goes to visit his friend Tanya and finds her in post- coital wantoness with her good-naturedly dopey boyfriend Jake. The three have sex, the mens' limited to a hand job, with the emphasis, I think, on the turn-on of seeing/imagining a woman being fucked quite heartily by another guy. I haven't seen too many three-ways between two guys and a girl in the past few months, and this one was a nice addition to the genre.
Dueling Clits, Parts 1 -3b [A-]
When posted: 12/20/98
Where posted: ASGM
Author: Jackie
Poster Address: mailto:an338903@cris.com
From the title (which mimics a popular line of porno spam) I imagined this story must be a sort of Twilight-Zone sports fantasy about two women who use that particular portion of their anatomy to grapple each other in the manner of sumo wrestlers. But the story turned out to be a personal fantasy about steamy shower room voyeurism and nubile coeds: the narrator is attracted to a female member on her swim team, and after months of fantasizing finally befriends her love interest. She invites her to her room one night and the light-hearted "duel" ensures with the two dressed in opposing sets of undies: Frederick's of Hollywood red lace nothings on the narrator, and a schoolgirl cotton (printed with tiny red hearts) bra and panty set on her lover. Dyke love then gets the full treatment: nips and clits that plump when you cook'em, oozing gallons of creamy glistening girl-cum.
This is the second story by Jacki I've seen, and it's much better and more literate than the first ("Amusement Park Breast Growth" or something like that) and more interesting than the Candy Kane stories that are posted every once in a while. If this is your bag, then go to it. I know I was happy to see clits and clit measurements get the loving attention they deserve.
Sexual folktales about Disneyland: Yes, women really do bare
their breasts on Splash Mountain. If your splashdown picture is
ruined by someone's flopping mammaries, the attendants send
you to the head of the line to ride again without the photogenic
booby trap. Hmmm. All it takes is a date with a willing female, and
you could ride all day.
The Pirates of the Caribbean ride has also been the location for sexual hijinks, chiefly because it's so dark and secluded. Video cameras monitor the ride at all stages, and according to the story I heard, one woman decided to give her boyfriend some head in the boat one day when the ride wasn't crowded. The ride operators watched the whole thing, then watched again as the couple went back for another ride, and the woman was the recipient of the oral treat....
Bulls [A]
When posted: 1/11/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Lord Malinov
Address: malinov@mindless.com
Two young guys get together for a male bullshitting session in this story, which is of the "I'm a camera on the wall" style of storytelling where the author tells us everything exactly as it happens as if, well, they were a camera on the wall. For a sex story, it works very well, as the author's moral attitudes don't interfere. The two guys, who are reminiscent of the characters in the recent Las Vegas movie "Swingers," smoke cigars and talk about sexual encounters with the women each of them knows. (It's the in thing now for young men to smoke those stinky rolls of dry leaves, especially in public places. It goes along with lava lounge music.) Naturally, they make the women out to be total sluts who can't get enough sex. But are they telling the truth?
Like Jordan Shelbourne's "Tease" this story displays that particular male behavior for our amusement without asking us to draw conclusions. Though I'd avoid these two guys like the plague in real life, I couldn't help being amused and a little turned on by reading about them. The author seems to have tightened his prose compared to the last story of his that I read, and it's a notable improvement. I'm also glad because it's short. There aren't enough good short stories on ASS. Authors, take note.
A Treat for Marshall [A-/B+]
When posted: 1/11/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Proculus
Address: proculus@hotmail.com
An older man enjoys a sensual encounter with an innocently vixenish schoolgirl in a navy blue skirt and knee socks. (No spanking.) This was a hot, sweet story marred only by lack of attention to plot. The encounter felt disjointed because of it, as if a two-inch slice of canvas had been cut out of a painting by Titian and framed by itself. Who is Marshall, and how did he get together with this girl? I'd like to see more story, as this author writes well. Window dressing can be just as arousing as written sex.
The Celestial Refuse [A]
When posted: 1/5/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM, ASSD
Author: Mat Twassel
Address: Mmtwassel@aol.com
Mat Twassel, whose name sounds like a Teutonic description of a woman's unkempt genitals, offers to us this parody of a certain alt.sex.stories review, complete with Uranus, Moon, and Gumbo rating categories, and spoofs of certain writers. Funny but biting, without the shrillness that marks M1ke Hunt's parodies. As with the Ghost story I reviewed last week, you won't really get this unless you're familiar with ASS. But if you are, you will chuckle.
Sacrificial Lamb [B-]
When posted: 1/12/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Phil Phantom/Tiffany
Poster: Cuntmissy
Poster Address: slutmissy@hotmail.com
A mother and her 16-year-old daughter are left homeless when the family business goes kaput and Dad takes an overseas job. The pair have little recourse but to move in with Aunt Gloria and Uncle Hank, a pair of perverted rednecks in Arkansas. Mom knows full well they plan to repeatedly rape, humiliate, and impregnate her beautiful, virginal, cheerleader daughter Ginger, but hey, what's a mom to do, get a job and support herself? Especially as she's secretly turned on by the idea, having been brutally abused at her sister's hands as a girl: "The legacy of my experience growing up with Gloria was a rich harvest of sexual experiences that have fueled an even richer fantasy sex life." Talk about consensual and nonconsensual; this is psychotic.
However, like the author(s) say, it is a fantasy, boys and girls; though whether you can suspend disbelief enough to become aroused by it up to you, as it's the sort of story that doesn't have even the tiniest iota of relation to real life, real experiences, or real people; it's simply Phil Phantom or Tiffany pulling strings to get you horny. So, if you become aroused by moms and teenagers being abused by Texas Chainsaw Massacre families, complete with black brother-in-laws (with monster cocks) who say things like "How bout I jus wet the head in dis one and fuck dat one?" you'll like this. Otherwise you won't. I didn't.
The Aupair Guy [B+]
When posted: 1/6/98
Where posted: ASSG
Author: Trevor Moore
Address: tremo@iinet.com.au
Say the name "Swedish au pair" and chance are you will visualize one of the hottest sex fantasies around: a nubile young nymph with long blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and a peaches-and-cream Scandinavian complexion. In this story, the fantasy undergoes a gender swap. A couple living outside of London arrange for a foreign exchange student to spend the summer with them, a young Danish man named Sven. The husband soon discovers he's gay, finds out Sven is too, and when his wife is away from home (wives in gay sex stories actually live in hotels, because they're NEVER home) the two have sex.
This was a cute, bouncy story, not much of a plot besides the sex encounter and its lead-up, but pleasant nonetheless, and full of amusing Britishisms. It's always amusing when the writer reveals their fetishes, too--in this case, a penchant for nylon running shorts. In sum, a cheerful read, and not too demanding.
Random notes:
First, those authors who send me stories to review, please include the newsgroups they were posted to and the dates. This makes it more convenient for readers to find the story. Yes, I do get questions about this. As one of the purposes of these postings is to inform readers of the stories and/or authors they would be interested in, this only makes sense. The *main* purpose behind these postings is to amuse myself, but that's another story.
Re the recent thread on ASSD about sex stories reflecting reality, and the responsibility of the author to "be honest": Stories are fiction, and fiction is, by is nature, an entertaining lie. Just because these are stories about sex and often masquerade as memoirs or personal histories doesn't make them more "honest" than any other sort of fiction. Neither should authors feel they should write only about what they have done or what they planned to do. (If Shakespeare had followed this rule, there'd be no MacBeth.) Many writers use ASS to air their personal experiences; some write stories as a sort of therapy or forum for understanding their own sexuality; and some do it just for the sheer challenge or as a way to exercise their creative juices. All of these reasons are perfectly valid ones, and none less "honest" than the other.
At least on a Wednesday.
Karla in a Heap of Shit [A-/B+]
When posted: 1/16/98
Where posted: ASS
Author: Karen
Poster: Lunasea
Address: lunasea99@hotmail.com
Scat stories are one of the most extreme forms of sexual fantasies. Basically they involve torturing others with their own shit, including forcing them to eat it. (I've squicked you out now, haven't I?) It's fairly safe to say most people are repulsed by them, but scat has its fans. No less a luminary than Robert Mapplethorpe was a scat fanatic. I decided to review this story both to experience a different kind of sexuality and because Celeste wouldn't touch it unless she was wearing an airtight hazardous waste disposal suit. You'll also notice I gave it an A-/B+, a grade at the high end of average. The plot was this: Karla is a beautiful young lesbian attracted to both dominance and scat games. A former lover blackmails her into becoming the toy of a group of wealthy, perverted women who play them, and they shit all over her. In a later part, she ingests her own wastes through a tube. I wasn't turned on by this story; I was sort of shocked. Nevertheless, the acts were vividly described, along with the emotions of the woman forced to participate in them. If someone *was* interested in these acts, they would be very pleased by this story, because it fit the fantasy to a T. The writing was good, and the D/S elements were handled well. The plot wasn't one bit plausible, but then, it wasn't meant to be.
Buddy Long in "Makin' Some Friends" [A]
When posted: 1/16/98
Where posted: ASS
Author: Buck N.
Address: buckn@hotmail.com
In this story, the first of a new humor series about celebrity sex, middle-aged, beer-bellied male escort Buddy Long has sex with Jennifer Aniston. Like last summer's Austin Powers movie, the humor comes from a total nebbish being seen as sexually desirable, and it's a lot of fun. Women fall over themselves because of his 12-inch dick and skilled tongue, in spite of the fact he wears a short-sleeved, poly-cotton blend plaid shirt and a neon-purple glow-in-the-dark thong over his hairy beer belly...not only that, he's a bargain, because he charges only $50 a session.
This was a very fun story, written well, that doesn't take itself too seriously. I could take or leave the celebrities, as I wouldn't know who Jennifer Aniston was even if she lined the bottom of my cockatiel cage, but Buddy Long is definitely a swingin' guy.
Wife's Training [A+]
When posted: 1/16/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Tezzezar
Address: tezzezar@aol.com
This story was excellent combination of the wifeslut and BDSM genres, spiced with a little bit of John Norman's Gor (12/7/97 Reviews.) A guy has sent his wife through slave training and plans to enjoy a quiet evening at home watching a videotape made of her schooling. His wife goes into extreme sexual agitation at his plans; to settle her down, he permits her to suck his cock, and these real-life scenes alternate with the training scenes on the tape, a nice way of doubling the fantasy, presenting it in both past and present form. A very hot story.
Violet [C]
When posted: 1/16/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Thundershark
Address: thndrshark@aol.com
Compared to the one above, this story was pretty dumb. An 18- year-old bombshell inveigles herself into an innocent family by being adopted, then schemes to marry Dad and get his money. But first she has to get rid of his own teenage daughter. Instead of going for something easy like tripping her so falls down the stairs, she equips the basement of the house in the latest dungeon dressings and lures poor Jenny down there. Piercings, chainings, whippings, and fetishwear parades result.
Though the dungeon scenes were OK, the idiotic, unrealistic, poorly conceived plot dragged the grade down. I mean, if you're going to write BDSM and can't think up a decent storyline for it, what's wrong with just presenting the act and sparing the reader the so-called "plot?" Especially when it was poorly done as this was.
Mrs. Michaels [C+]
When posted: 1/12/98
Author: Grimace
Address: Grimace1@erols.com
A young man is forced to move back home and spies on his divorced neighbor. She was also the mother of his best friend in high school. He's long had a yen for her, and on the pretext of helping her out with some chores, they do it, with some slightly Oedipal complications. Things came to an abrupt ending when Mom drives off and her roomate comes home, with the guy spying on her through the window but doing little else. Did I miss something?
The idea of this wasn't bad--it worked for Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"--but the writing could have used work, especially the dialogue: "I think I might have some things that have been neglected since my husband left. Would you like a drink Dennis Come into the kitchen and we can talk about what I would like you to do for me." A more natural style would have helped. As it's the author first story, I'm not going to drub too badly as regards grammar and style, except to say that short paragraphs are better than long and when characters are speaking dialogue, each person gets their own paragraph.
Keep working at it, finesse will come.
Random notes:
Not much this week, except I put up a listing of story code explanations on my website (http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh) as a tool for both readers and writers so they know what they're dealing with. This list is based on the same FAQ which has been hanging for ages, but I've added more material pertaining to the odder story genres and elements. I am also still looking for author and archiver websites, so if you have any, send them in.
Double Blind [A]
When posted: 1/21/98
Where posted: ASSM
Author: The Sandman
Address: sandman@bitsmart.com
The Sandman is excellent new author of stories with a SF theme, more science fiction than porn, going by this example. Save for the sex, this story would have been perfectly at home in the pages of Analog magazine. Steve Whiley, PI, a near-future detective, helps a rich woman get the dirty on her husband so she can divorce him with a fatter settlement than she'd get with no- fault. It turns out hubby has a thing for *twin* hermaphrodites, described in a breathtaking scene of about 1400 words. If such creatures existed, and disguised themselves as Asian call girls, they'd look and behave just like this. There's more to the story, which eventually includes a clever murder mystery that should make any mystery or SF fan happy; but even if you don't like this type of fiction, read it for those hermaphrodites. You'll be glad you did.
Whisper Island, Part One [D]
When posted: 1/21/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Smoke Ring
Address: smokezone@juno.com
A young woman on vacation takes a walk on the shores of Whisper Island. Lo and behold, she espies a well-hung "herculian" pissing in a bush. What, on earth, is a herculian? If the author meant the man in question looked like Hercules, he would have a Herculean physique, or actually be called "Hercules" in a metaphorical reference to the Greek hero. Or, on a longshot, the author may have meant the man was a Herculoid, one of the beasties from the late 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name; but as the guy in question didn't fly, change his shape, or shoot laser beams from his eyes, I kinda doubt the latter.
This was not a good story, or a hot story, or an interesting story. We get lots of inept descriptions of scenery and atmospheric conditions; the author also has a fetish for telling us the exact heights of every geographical feature the heroine passes ("the waterfall came plumeting down looked about 175 ft." "surrounded by 120ft. tall pine trees" "She could see the bottom, only 15ft. away.") The sex was sketchy and underwhelming.
In short, if you want an island vacation, go to Club Med.
The Priest and the Hustler [A-/B+]
When posted: 1/19/98
Where posted: ASSGM
Author: Alexis Rogers
Address: arogers@calweb.com
Teachers of writing always insist it's better to start a tale in the middle of action. In this story, we find ourselves smack dab middle in an argument between three men, two of whom have been having an affair, and it's gradually revealed that one is a counselor, one a Catholic priest, and one the troubled young man the priest is having the affair with.
I liked the story and it had promise, but it was confusing to make sense of at first. Especially since the priest wasn't called "Father O'Malley" or a like title that lets us know he's a priest. Some of the dialogue sounded awkward too, like "But even with Charlie and Lloyd as role models, with a relationship of love of trust, I still lean towards the hustler mentality, with the payoff being the rush, the challenge, the thrill, and some times, the money." This is more of the way someone would write (as if in an autobiography) than speak. But the story was interesting, with lots of drama and angst, and ends on a kinky note of restraint with the priest and kid forbidden by the counselor to touch each other until they iron out their feelings...the lure of the illicit affair simultaneously receiving approval and denial at the same time.
The Red Room, Parts I, II, III, IV, V [A]
When posted: 1/19/98
Where posted: ASCEM (alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated)
Author: SFarn37600
Address: SFarn37600@aol.com
Mr. Spock goes to an intergalactic brothel! Once you're over the shock of it, he goes upstairs to "The Red Room" where a young prostitute named Tiberius awaits him, and as is typical for this type of fiction, they play D/S games of master and slave. Of course, I guessed who Tiberius was long before, and if you're familiar with Star Trek, you will too. Well done, and a nice addition to the slash genre.
Please Watch the Closing Doors [A]
When posted: 1/22/98
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Taria
Address: tariat@aol.com
In this story Taria-as-narrator takes a subway ride and is attracting to a good-looking young Asian man dressed Wu-Tang style. She commands him to get off the subway with her and they have sex, proving that women are just as likely to treat young boys as eye and finger candy as older men are with young girls. (I might question, though, that the heroine fantasizes about the kid running his hands over her body. I'd be more likely to fantasize my hands running over his.) This story didn't have the sly commentary or ultra-realism of "Walls Have Ears," which remains my seminal favorite; instead, it ventured more into the Joe Parsons territory of Boston Market porn (because it's filling, home-style, and basic.) I recommend it as a good candidate for the Asian Sex Stories Archive, as it was a well-done depiction of a pairing you don't see too much of.
School House Rock [D]
When posted: 1/24/98
Where posted:
Author: John Morvillo
Address: Cupids_arrow@webtv.net
I had high hopes, I mean *really* high hopes, that this story would turn out to be a spoof of those mid-70s educational jingles shown on Saturday morning TV between cartoons, the ones that taught Generation X their times tables or American history. (They're available on CD now, can you believe it?) But no luck. Instead it's teen angst time again: "Ever since the beggining of school I had admired Jessicas long legs and firm body. I saw her everyday and she never seemed to notice me. I would masturbate thinking of her." I can usually tell what grade a story is within the first few paragraphs, and in this case it's within the first three sentences. This author should go watch some of those Schoolhouse Rock snippets on English and grammar. If a teenager wrote this, I fear for the future of our country. If an adult wrote this, I'm moving someplace with a higher educational standard, like, say, Canada.