Pearl Beds - My Commentary

Oh, OK, so I think I should explain this story a little more. If you haven't read the story yet, read it now. There are spoilers ahead.

First I'd like to thank Daphne Xu again for giving her permission to appear in the story, and also for proofing it.

Second, a little more history. When DG wrote the introductory story to the Spring Orgy, he, in passing, happened to pair me up with one Daphne Xu. The only thing I knew about Daphne was she was probably at M.I.T., and that she had re-posted a couple old classic sex story spoofs with mathematics and electrical engineering themes.

A small discussion flared up in ASSD about DG's story, and Poison Ivan (moi!) proceded to insult Ms. Xu with a careless attempt at humor. Daphne took it all in stride, thankfully, but I was left deeply embarrassed.

Since I wanted to write a romantic story anyway, it seemed like including Daphne was the right thing to do. On the other hand, I couldn't make it too romantic. We had to get off the island eventually, for Christ's sake!

I had recently read a story involving pearls in an erotic story collection, which is where the germ of the idea came from. Pearls also reminded me of John Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl", which gave me something else to build on. In fact, I really used Steinbeck's story as a guiding force for my story. To me, "The Pearl" contained a strong statement on the danger of people placing inappropriate symbolism on real, physical objects. In Steinbeck's case, the characters thought the giant pearl symbolized good luck (at first) and evil (later on). Symbolism was on my mind, thanks to a discussion I had had with another writer (hi Leanna!). And thus the story took off.

I was writing a romantic story, so it made sense for Ivan to think his pearls symbolized Love. He realizes he is in love when he first sees the giant pearl. And at the end, when he realizes he isn't really in love, he needs to dispose of the pearls. That was pretty much it.

Of course, throwing the pearls back into the ocean was stolen shamelessly from Steinbeck.

There was one part of the story that I just made a silly guess at. How on Earth would you get giant pearls out of a woman's vagina? In real life, it seems to me like you'd need to end up in the emergency room! Perhaps Ms. Xu has very talented Kegels?!