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From: Gray <gray@privacy.net>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.d
Subject: Re: {ASSD} Farewell
Organization: www.sea_slugs_are_tasty_with_dip.org
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In article <futu0501mnf@news2.newsguy.com>,
Antheros <antheros_REMOVE@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been away for the last months for many reasons. One of
> them, however, overwhelms the others; I'm drawing no pleasure from
> being Antheros anymore.
>
> This post is a farewell.
>
> I could have just disappeared, but there aren't many chances
> to say good bye in life, are there? Most things are unexpected, which
> is good and bad. It's also interesting, as a writer, to write something
> unexpected: killing the nom de plume is a certain form of suicide, as
> soft as stopping to play the piano or football on Sundays.
>
> I think I've always been an outcast in this group, not by others
> but by myself, for the simple reason that more often than not I ignored
> the "sex" in "alt.sex.stories", leaving it between lines or just casting
> a faint and distance shadow (very much like vermouth in a Churchill
> martini); yet, I've always been surprised by the fact that there is no
> plain alt.stories hierarchy. The few writing groups outside a.s.s.* are
> uninteresting and rarely have stories nowadays.
>
> ASSM (and its sister assd) have, however, always been 'infected'
> by the occasional story/discussion in which sex was part of it, not the
> main theme in a null plot. Those stories drew me here, those stories
> made me post mine own here. I find it sad that they come only rarely
> now, and only by authors who have been here for a long time. The stories
> posted recently are almost all raw or extreme, and I find them
> uninteresting even for the most lonely purposes.
>
> It's not only the kinkiness. No, I can't understand how one can
> be turned on by violence, to pick just one theme among many that I
> abhor. Even then, it's necessary to separate quality and personal taste,
> here and anywhere else. If I may, let me single out an author of this
> group, who, I believe, won't mind it too much, since we have touched
> this subject before. Stasya's themes are not to my liking at all; but
> one should be allowed to write freely, I think, and to each his own,
> and I recognize that he writes well, despite my dislike for the theme
> of his stories. I wish he wrote more essays (or stories more to my
> liking), and he's often trying to make something interesting here in
> ASSD. It's possible to separate an author's style and talent to the
> particular stories written.
>
> Before some of you transform this post into a flame war, read
> a little more, please (although I wonder if a few flame wars wouldn't
> help assd to catch some breath again). I'm not writing this post to
> blame anybody or to be a SOB critic; neither am I being a moralist,
> for stroke stories should exist too. I don't think censorship of any
> kind is a solution to any problem, although tirants of all epochs
> disagree.
>
> I'm writing it to let people know I'm gone, which some authors
> don't do and leave readers looking for them, wondered if stories will
> be finished and new ones written. And I'm writing to leave a last thing
> behind me, in the faint hope that it may be a seed. For a long time I've
> been meaning to write a long critique of online writing, but I thought
> I wasn't up to the task; who am I to be such a judge?
>
> Yet a writer is always egocentric (I was going to say that
> writers are the most egocentric people, but politicians and showbiz
> people beat us). A writer ought to be egocentric! Otherwise he
> wouldn't write a 500-page long novel and publish it. He must think
> he's a good storyteller, that he's original or involving. I know there
> are many here afflicted by doubts, who take a long time revising and
> pondering before releasing their stories, but, to be frank, I now
> believe this is part this egocentrism. It's our desire to be good--
> or more, the best--, to entice the reader for hours and to achieve that
> perfectness we seek, a story carefully written so that each and every
> phrase pleases us and when added to each other convey the precise
> feelings we strove to put down into words.
>
> Not having this egocentrism is a problem. I know people who
> would be terrific writers, but they don't believe that. They can't
> bring themselves to such a position, to believe that they have
> interesting things to do and to write. I didn't write that long
> critique I mentioned above for this reason--and because it's a lot of
> work, perhaps more than I could've tackled. But having too much of it
> makes a writer cocky and dull, for he'll think anything he writes
> is good, and who the hell is this moron criticizing him?
>
> The period during which I wrote reviews taught me very much.
> Writing a good review is much harder than writing a story. It takes
> much thought and consideration. It's easy to say that a story is bad,
> but to pinpoint exactly what makes it bad is not; even harder is the
> story that almost makes it. What is missing? I suggest this as an
> exercise to anybody who writes, sit down and write a review. Write
> something that you would like to read if you were being reviewed, not
> because it says nice things, but because it has substance, suggestions,
> notes. Try to find what makes a story good. It makes you pay attention
> to the prose, to the choice of words, to nuances that would otherwise
> be missed.
>
> Take the average story here and compare with the average
> published story. There's such a difference! Most stories here are
> so focused that they don't have a bigger picture. They're sequences
> of events, not narratives. I see some of you raising hands.
>
> "They are just stroke stories," someone says. Yes, but what
> do you want in a good stroke story? A detailed description of who
> licks what and how? That's tiresome, and that's not reading, that's
> laziness, an excuse not to create your own fantasy. A porn movie in
> text.
>
> "They're supposed to be simple, easy to read," someone else
> argues. Yes, they can be so. It's not often we're in the mood for a
> classic book which demands attention. We want quick stories, best
> seller books which are pleasing and interesting, not deep. But these
> are engaging, well written. Or do we? Have you noticed how grades
> are higher for long stories, even mammoth ones like Scipio's? People
> don't like to get acquainted to new situations all the time, new
> characters. They like to see what happens to them, how they evolve.
> Simple and easy to read doesn't mean dumb.
>
> What has always amazed me the most in online stories,
> particularly here, is how little we use of the freedom we have. Here's
> a world in which "printing" is free, there's no page limit, you don't
> need to convince a publisher to risk lawsuits and to publish your
> risque novel, or that your risque novel should be printed because
> it's revolutionary. There's anonymity (almost). Endless paper.
> Everybody in the world who speaks your language can read your story
> for free. It's Utopia!
>
> It's Utopia. Wasted, degenerated utopia. Men seek freedom,
> and when they finally get it, they don't know what to do with it.
> We have all this at our disposal, and we write bad stroke stories.
> How did we take advantage of what is available? No, there aren't
> new nonlinear stories taking advantage of the web, new movements
> redefining literature, or who knows what else could be done--and
> just having links in the text is rubbish, not novelty.
>
> Why are most stories straightforward, dumb, mindless sexual
> fantasies? Pure stroke stories, linear from beginning to end,
> picturing situations that are unlikely or impossible, many seeming
> to have come straight out from the mind of a 15 year old boy.
>
> Where are the interesting stories? The ones which have real
> characters, dilemmas, situations likely to occur and which we often
> wonder about in real life? The mistress and why she accepts her
> role, the cheater and why he does it (one of the few subjects which
> were reasonably exploited here), the inexplicable passions, the couples
> in trouble, aren't they interesting to anybody? There are hundreds
> of themes which could be tackled here in ASSM & co., yet they are
> forgotten or forsaken. Writers choose the banality of describing
> tongue movements instead of choosing to linger in the minds of the
> characters.
>
> Many people often complain that usenet is dying. I've been
> reading this phrase for so many years that I prefer not to count
> them, and my interest has spanned many groups over time. My current
> opinion has changed lately; it's not dying, it's finally reaching
> equilibrium, at last finding itself at the same level of mediocrity
> that prevails in any other medium. Have you ever read a blog? I've
> yet to find one that is so captivating as to keep me a regular
> reader, waiting for the next article.
>
> The blessed time we had in the 90's net was a fluke. It just
> happened that the users were naturally selected by the medium:
> people who had access to computers and internet back then, and
> who would find their way into a usenet group were remarkably alike,
> and marveled at the idea of internet, this wonderful new medium. You
> could find people like yourself living thousands of miles away,
> interested in the same things you were, and more, your writing could
> reach all of them and whoever is interested, for free. There's
> freedom to talk about whatever you want. Welcome.
>
> That time will never come back. I don't think we alive
> today will ever see anything like that--and, though all predictions
> are dumb, I think we may only see something like it again when
> people find a way to hook brains together directly. It all happened
> because the internet was built in a way that allowed this initial
> critical mass to form--unlike Second Life or your favorite social
> network site, which grows so fast and with so many different people
> that it never shapes itself into something well defined.
>
> On the other hand, most of the users back then are still
> around (if not here, somewhere else), and many more alike joined
> later. Where are them? I think they are lurking, perhaps filling
> Wikipedia or something like that, but most likely just tired. The
> Utopia is not new anymore, and it's very polluted. We browse because
> it's a given--it's a necessity--in this world of today. We have
> "evolved" to shorter messages; as much as I love short and flash
> stories (probably because there's no way to stall in them), it's
> impossible to create something meaningful in Twitter.
>
> I'm the first to say that I'm not helping by leaving. It's
> this very attitude which has brought this group down, with the
> leaving of many interesting people, for one reason or another. But I
> think one has to be reasonable and realize when one is at the wrong
> place. Neither do I think I'm too good to be here, I just think I'm
> pursuing things that are out of fashion in this group (and other
> places). Besides, I get no kick of writing in the style of Antheros
> anymore.
>
> I often wondered why authors here would retire. I think I
> finally found the reason why many of them did.
>
> Every time something ends, besides feeling sad, we should
> look at why it ended and what it meant. I had a lot of fun, great
> friends and a few stories I'm really proud of. If it's ending,
> it's because I changed and the group changed, as it's natural.
>
> Among the many unfinished stories I have, there were three
> that I wanted to finish before retiring. During these last few
> months I changed my mind, and decided to finish and post only of
> them, one which belongs to this group. It has been inspired by it,
> and hopefully it will be interesting to some of you. I'm posting it
> to ASSD together with this post and to my website. I wish it were
> better--there's much I wish I would have written into it that I
> didn't. But it's time to let it go. It's called "Beneath the
> masks of ourselves," and I hope the writers of this group will find
> it somewhat interesting. I posted it to my website (see my
> signature), ASSM and SOL.
>
> One never knows; it wasn't only one or two writers here who
> retired and came back. There *are* times to say never, but this
> isn't likely to be one of them. I'll check if this post becomes
> a thread and keep my email for now. Knowing myself, I'll still read
> this group, very occasionally. Yet, if I had to bet, it'd be that
> Antheros is dead for good.
>
> Before I leave, I want to thank you all. Thanks for the
> stories, for the posts, for the emails. Even more, to those of
> you with whom I had direct contact, thank you; I won't name you
> here, for you all know who you are and why you mattered to me.
>
> It was a good ride, because I wish it lasted longer.
>
> Farewell.
Well, fer crissakes! I don't want to throw around the "elitist" word,
cuz the self-pumped-up pundits in what passes for media in this country
have been beating a formerly poor, now "uppity" black man half to death
with it lately, but ...
I guess the usenet has sorta proved what happens to a hugely luxurious
toilet facility with plush towels and a liveried attendant, when you
throw open the doors and the unwashed public rushes in. You get the
graffiti and stench and vandalism of the rest-area toilets along
America's freeway system.
But, fer crissakes already ... what are you gonna do, fella ... go hide
behind the bushes to take yer dump? Or are you gonna suck it up (that's
a metaphor, not a suggestion) and hang tough, or what?
I hate the stroke stories. I dispise the violent rape excrescence that
pose as stories. I loathe the lazy little pricks who think it's not
ignorant to call their girlfriend a "sweatheart," who get indignant when
called down on it. And I dislike lazy assholes like myself who sit
around feeling both sorry and guilty for not having much to say and
writing even less about it.
Except once in a while. You want a serious, non-sexy effort? Look at my
piece, "Tacoma" on SOL, or do a search on ASSM for "Birdie." We all
surprise ourselves, sometimes, and it's great to have usenet and ASSM
and SOL and other vents to vent our occasional spleen. I'd miss it.
You'll miss it.
So lick yer wounds and salve yer ego and apologize to yer muse, and
stick around. There might be a break in the clouds and a little
something besides disappointing shit could come down.
Gray