Why I Review Sex Stories

September 13, 1998

I was first introduced to sex stories in the pages of Penthouse.  I 
must have been 12 or 13 when I first discovered that along with the 
pictures there was also the Forum and Xaviera Hollandera's column, 
Ask Madam.  Two or three years later I picked up and started reading 
Tarnsman of Gor, by John Norman.  The Gor series kept my interest for
the next five years.  I found it in the science-fiction section of 
the local chain bookstore.  I did not even have to worry about 
sneaking around with it or hiding it.  What could be better?

The twenty-five books in the Mr. Norman's series did fill my head 
with some rather ridiculous ideas about sexual equality, or lack 
there of, but a few years after I put them down I started to see the 
gaping holes in Mr Norman's theory on the proper places of men and 
women in society.  By the time I finished the Gor series I was old 
enough to buy pornographic literature.  I took advantage of that 
fact.  On a regular basis I would go to the local bookstore and buy 
Penthouse Letters and other similar magazines.  In the spring of 1995
 I discovered the internet.  A few weeks later I discovered the 
alt.sex.stories (ASS) newsgroup.  I have not bought a single 
pornographic magazine in the three and a half years since then.

At first I was satisfied with anything that involved sex and was not 
violent.  Back then ASS was filled with long arguments over racism 
and religion, among other things.  It took quite a bit of effort just
to find stories.  I went from AOL to an ISP and found it much easier 
to filter out the non story material.  Sometime in 1996, I discovered
alt.sex.stories.moderated (ASSM).  I was in heaven.

Over time my tastes have refined.  I find a large percentage of the 
stories on ASS and ASSM either boring or disgusting.  From time to 
time it would seem more trouble than it was worth and I would stop 
looking at ASS or ASSM for a few weeks or months.  I would live off 
of the good stories that I had found and printed a copy of.

When I first discovered Celestial reviews I was delighted.  I was 
also amazed at the amount of effort Celeste puts into writing her 
reviews.  At the same time I was disappointed when I discovered that 
despite the fact that she gives a large number of stories extremely 
high marks, they were not all to my liking.  Even once I threw out 
the stories that disgusted me I still found the scores she assigned 
to stories to be some what lacking.  I think this is because she 
writes her reviews primarily for the authors not other readers.

I played around with the idea of writing my own reviews, but did not 
find the motivation to do so until early May of this year.  My intent
in writing reviews is to help others find stories that maybe to their
liking.  In other words, I write these reviews for readers, 
primarily.  The sheer volume of stories in the ASSM archive can be 
somewhat intimidating.  I hope that my reviews will make it somewhat 
easier for others, than it has been for me.

I did not come up with the idea of writing reviews of sex stories, 
Celeste inspired me.  I did not consider that there might me room for
more than one publisher of reviews, Lady Cyrrh inspired me.  The 
reviews would not mean as much unless the stories were readily 
available somewhere, and they are thanks to Eli the Bearded 
(administrator of the ASSM Archive) and the folks at Deja News.

One of the things that I like so much about ASS and ASSM is the fact 
that it is not as sexist as "mainstream" pornography.  The problem 
with mainstream pornography is that it is all targeted at men.  The 
sex stories published on ASS and ASSM (call them what you like 
pornographic literature, erotic stories, or find another name for 
them) are written and enjoyed my both men and women.  Considering how
hard it is to find that outside of the confines of these newsgroups, 
I prefer to stick with ASS and ASSM rather than go back to 
"mainstream" pornography.

I have been writing reviews for a little over four months now.  I 
plan on writing them for some time to come, but I will make no 
promises.  The real world does tend to interfere, on occasion, with 
my online life.  One of these days I may be presented with a good 
enough reason to get up from this terminal and walk away, but for now
I look forward to screening more stories and expanding my archive of 
reviews I have written.

