Celestial Reviews 125 - October 12, 1996

Note:  A correspondent has mentioned to me that he has a very large 
number of stories (“about a gig”) archived, which he would like to 
share with someone who would be willing to repost the good ones.  If 
anyone wants to take him up on this offer, let me know, and I’ll put 
you in contact with him.

Second Note:  I often receive very long messages that say something 
like, “You wrote:” and then enclose a copy of a whole issue of CR or of 
one of my Monthly Lists.  I assume people do this because they’re 
either careless or not very bright.  Am I missing something?  Am I 
supposed to respond, perhaps by saying, “Yes I did”?  If I do make that 
response, should I enclose a copy of that person’s “You wrote” along 
with my whole article again?

- Celeste

      “Until Next Year" by Michael K. Smith (romance)
            10, 8, 6
      “Trinity Trilogy Novel 14/14” by Tom Trinity 
            (orgies and relationships) 10, 10, 10
      “Darcy and Elizabeth” by Mark Aster (romance)
            10, 10, 10
      “Shannon” by Dirty Dawg (romance) 10, 10, 10
      “My Cock-Crazy Wife” by J. Boswell (wife watching)
            9.5, 8, 7
      “Hylas and the Water Nymphs” by Ancon (orgies & 
            decadence) 8, 7, 7
      “Watch the Watch” by RC (hypnosis) 10, 9, 9
    * “Debby’s Dark Lust” by Vic S. (race fetish & fantasy)
             10, 10, 10

* Repost of a previous review (because the story has recently 
   been reposted in a corrected version).

“Until Next Year” by Michael K. Smith (mksmith@metronet.com).  The 
scenario described in this story takes place in front of a crowd of 
largely confused people; they don’t quite know what happened.  I feel 
like a member of that crowd.  A man (presumably the author himself) is 
part of a group saying good-bye to a woman after some unspecified kind 
of annual gathering in Baltimore.  She is only 34 years old, but has 
suffered a stoke, from which she has made a surprising recovery.  She 
surprises the narrator by giving him an unusually passionate good-bye 
kiss.  That’s about it; the rest is left to the imagination.

If you’re unfamiliar with this author but looking for a hot sex story, 
you’ll want to skip this one.  If you know the rest of this author’s 
work, you may want to read this to see what else you can learn about 
him.

Ratings for “Until Next Year”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6

“Trinity Trilogy Novel 14/14” by Tom Trinity (stbush@iglou.com).  As we 
near the end of the Trinity Trilogy Odyssey, I am willing to accept the 
editor’s assertion that it is true that a group of three woman and one 
man could share each other’s affections with one another and with 
outsiders and joyfully fuck their mutual brains out without any 
difficulties arising from possessiveness or jealousy.  I am also 
willing to accept the notion that the daughter of this unorthodox but 
happy relationship would be sound asleep or fortuitously absent often 
enough for these good times to take place without causing unseemly 
scandal to her.  Where I encountered problems was with the following 
conversation between Tom and Jennifer:

"Daddy, may I ask you something?"

"Of course, Sugar."

"Is there REALLY a Santa Claus?"

I glanced over at her and smiled.  I recalled some of the elaborate ploys we
had used in the past.  Among the four of us, we had generally reinforced
Jennifer's belief in Santa.

"Sugar, of course Santa's real."

"But the kids at school..."

"Never mind the kids at school.  You've read the stories, what do you think?"

She frowned in thought, then her eyes sparkled.  "I think that it's magic.
If you believe in magic, it works.  If you don't, it doesn't work."

"I think you've got it exactly right, Sugar.  If you believe in Santa, he's
real.  Those kids who don't believe -- their parents have to buy all their
Christmas gifts."

"Does Santa buy Christmas gifts?"

"Sometimes.  If the elves can't make them.  There are copyright problems,
sometimes."

She laughed.  She turned the volume back up on the tape player, and sang
along with Karen Carpenter.

"Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near..."

* * *

I know what you’re thinking - What kind of parent would let his child 
listen to Karen Carpenter in 1994?  But that’s not my problem.  Unless 
I have miscounted, Jennifer is 13 years old - and she still believes in 
Santa Claus?  I don’t think even the direct and legitimate offspring of 
Mr. and Mrs. Claus themselves believe in Santa at that age!  Since this 
is a sex story, not a Christmas story, I’ll let it slide.  But that bit 
of unreality just before the First Orgy in Pittsburgh certainly 
disrupted my ambiance.

Speaking of Pittsburgh - if you ever get to that city, go up the 
incline across from the stadium at the confluence of the Three Rivers.  
There are some great restaurants up there; and if you look around you 
might find a nice hotel with a balcony on which my husband and I 
discovered that Pittsburgh’s reputation as an over-industrialized, 
unromantic place is just plain inaccurate.

This first half of this final segment is heavy on sentiment - Christmas 
with the Trilogy and things like that.  For one interesting Christmas 
present Tom receives issues of Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler with the 
girls dubbed in as centerfolds.  I have a truth-is-better-than-fiction 
story related to that present.  A few weeks ago our volleyball team 
gathered at a pizza place after our game.  One of the other ladies 
somehow managed to get the conversation around to Bruce Willis, and I 
commented that he “wasn’t my type of guy.”  She quickly reached into 
her purse, pulled out a color photograph, flung it on the table in 
front of us, and snarled, “Then how do you explain this?”  There I was, 
stark naked, doing the wild thing with Bruce Willis!  I assure you that 
Bruce and I have never met.  My friend is a computer graphics genius.  
She had simply obtained a picture of me, a picture of Willis from 
People or some such magazine, and a picture of a couple making the sign 
of the eight-legged aardvark from a porn magazine.  Then she scanned 
all three, combined them, and touched them up.  After seeing that 
picture, I no longer understand how photographs can be accepted as 
evidence in courts of law!  I was lucky.  I had been scheduled to have 
Dennis Rodman for my partner, but his body art was “too much trouble” 
to work with.  One of my teammates was “photographed” doing it with 
Jenny McCarthy.

The final half of this segment goes into interesting but largely non-
sexy details that attempt to bring closure to the story.  However, the 
story doesn’t really end.  I get the impression that there may be more 
yet to come.

A summative comment on the entire series seems to be in order.  The 
outstanding characteristic of this series is that the stories are 
optimistic about life and about sexual activities.  The people in this 
series have fun, and nobody gets hurt by their sexual adventures.  The 
author and editor are a bit preoccupied with asserting that these 
stories are authentic - that these events really happened to real 
people.  I really don’t care.  The stories come across to me as 
optimistically realistic, and I like that.

I have a value system that tells me I should lead my life a little 
differently than these people do.  I get the feeling that these people 
would tell me that’s fine with them: they would go to sci-fi 
conventions and fuck their brains out, and I could sit at my computer 
and read about their escapades and review their stories and we could 
all be friends.  It was a pleasure to read and review this high-quality 
series of stories.

Ratings for “Trinity Trilogy Novel 14/14”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

“Darcy and Elizabeth” by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com).  I take my Jane 
Austen seriously.  I refuse to assign any Jane Austen works to my 
students.  They may report on her work for extra credit or as an 
optional assignment; but I don’t want to force her on them.  I’m afraid 
that in their adolescent immaturity they’ll hate the stories because 
nothing explodes in them or because some of the words are unfamiliar; 
and I want them to remain open to the pleasure of reading her work when 
they are old enough to relax and enjoy it.

And so, I told myself, Mark Aster had better be careful how he treats 
Darcy and Elizabeth in this apocryphal Chapter 60 (Volume III, Chapter 
XVIII), continued.  This chapter can more interestingly replace the 
chapter of the same number which is so amiably summarized in Cliff’s 
Notes.

The story commences shortly after the nuptials. "Mr. Darcy," Elizabeth 
says, and then laughs at herself, "I find, sir, that I do not know how 
to address you, in our new state of existence.  Shall I call you 
Fitzwilliam?"  Her husband is so pleased by the sound of his name in 
her mouth that he owns that she can call him by it twelve hours in the 
day if she wishes.”  And so it goes, as the erstwhile proud and 
prejudiced prepare for the deflowering and the concomitant festivities. 
The thought of Fitzwilliam’s forthcoming friendly ferocity flows 
through the fervid bride in a warm wave of feeling, as she becomes 
especially sensible of those places that his hands have touched but a 
minute before. "I see that it is my task here to tease and cajole that 
ferocity, until it quite overwhelms your propriety, and emerges into 
the light, that we may both appreciate it."

What can I say? Convention, sense, and sensibility all have their place 
- but in a different novel, where they may contribute to the placidity 
and good grace of human relation; but there are times when even the 
genteel share sausage and eggs between the legs with a fervor that 
borders on rapture. To find out what wanton events of amorous 
playfulness transpire amidst the ensuing rain of muslin and calico, 
you’ll have to read the story thyself.

Ratings for “Darcy and Elizabeth”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

“Shannon” by Dirty Dawg (drambo@primenet.com).  I had not read a Dirty 
Dawg story for a long time, and I had never read this one; but as I 
started into this story, it sure sounded familiar.  Greg and Shannon 
become best friends in college; he loves her from afar; they both go on 
with their lives; then comes a crisis and they find one another and 
live happily ever after.  It’s not really hot sex. In fact there’s not 
much explicit sex at all in this story; but I really enjoyed it.

Ratings for “Shannon”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

“My Cock-Crazy Wife” by J. Boswell.  The man and his wife pay a 
surprise visit to her sister whom they haven’t seen in five years, and 
they find her being humped by a guy with one of those monster cocks in 
her backyard.  Later that evening the wife has passionate sex with the 
stud; and she eats it up, so to speak.  Well, the wife and the stud 
fuck like rabbits for the whole week while the husband and sister go 
about their business routines.  When they go back home, the man 
realizes that he can never satisfy his wife again; and so she places an 
ad in the free paper; and now a continuous train of studs arrive at her 
door with offers to service her.  I think this is supposed to be a 
happy ending.  It’s not exactly the same theme as a typical Dirty Dawg 
story, is it?

Ratings for “My Cock-Crazy Wife”
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

“Hylas and the Water Nymphs” by (Ancon@gnn.com). Hanging in the Manchester 
City Gallery is a painting by John William Waterhouse, 1896.  There’s an 
interesting story behind that painting; and this is it.  The story is a 
thoroughly confusing but interesting mishmash of sexual relationships among 
decadent people - kind of like an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel or a Virginia Wolf 
play.  Everybody gets drunk and fucks everybody else in the hot tub, in the 
swimming pool, and everywhere else.  You may not see the connection between 
this and John William Waterhouse; but then maybe you should travel to 
Manchester and take a look at Hylas and the Water Nymphs hanging on the wall 
in the City Gallery.

Ratings for “Hylas and the Water Nymphs”
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 7
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

“Watch the Watch” by RC (74734.271@CompuServe).  One would think there 
are only a limited number of ways in which hypnosis can be combined 
with sexual activity in a short story.   After that limit, the stories 
would get boring.  This author has tried several approaches and 
continues to find new twists by varying the context, the gender of the 
partners, the degree to which participation is voluntary, and several 
other factors.  In this story the woman knows her boyfriend is 
hypnotizing her with an old railroad watch, and she even suggests that 
he make her cum while she’s in a trance.  it sounds simple, but you 
need to read the story to get the details.

Ratings for “Watch the Watch”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

* “Debby’s Dark Lust” by Vic S.  Debby started married life as a demure 
little lady, and Todd has done his best to bring her along to where she 
enjoys things that she previously would not have liked at all.  Todd 
has often disclosed his own fantasies to his wife, but suddenly Debby 
has expanded on his fantasies by saying she’d like to make it with the 
new caretaker of the nearby lighthouse.  The caretaker is a black man, 
and Debby and Todd have surmised that therefore he is well hung.  It 
turns out that for over 15 years Debby has had a fetish for having sex 
with a black man, and this fetish is perfectly compatible with Todd’s 
own desire to see his wife get screwed by a man with a large cock.  
Therefore, they start making plans to turn fantasy into reality; and 
while doing so, their own lovemaking becomes more intense and better 
than it has ever been before.

The sex scene with the caretaker is highly erotic, as are several of 
the fantasies and husband-wife scenes.  The author does an excellent 
job of moving back and forth between the viewpoints of the husband and 
wife, describing the thoughts of each from the limited perspective of 
what each knows about what the other is thinking and feeling.  
Actually, ALL the sex is pretty hot; so read the story and check it out 
for yourselves.

In a way this story is typical propaganda for the swinging lifestyle; I 
doubt that many swingers are as ecstatically happy as these people are.  
On the other hand, I doubt that as many people in ordinary marriages 
are as ecstatically happy as they hope to be.  But fantasies can be 
ideal; and this one is certainly a hot story.

As I’ve mentioned before, my sister is married to a black man.  He 
would dislike this story, but that’s because he thinks pornography is 
the bane of society. He’s actually a fine guy; he just has a religious 
insight that sex is a personal thing that is not supposed to titillate 
strangers and lead children down the path to hell.  I happen to know 
that his fully engorged cock is about the same size as my husband’s and 
all the other husbands’ of the girls on our volleyball team - but he 
doesn’t know I know that, and so I can’t discuss this story with him.  
Likewise, although my sister herself knows I am a pervert with a dirty 
mind, she doesn’t know about alt.sex.stories; and so I can’t discuss 
this story with her either.

My impression is that stories that suggest that black men have “monster 
cocks” with which they are eager to “service” white women are often 
offensive to most black people and that they probably help perpetuate a 
stereotype that leads to divisiveness in our society.  I have discussed 
the matter with the author of this story, and he insists that he and 
his friends have a “race fetish” and that he means no disrespect 
towards blacks.  In fact, he treats black studs with great respect, and 
they certainly seem to like the activity they share with him and his 
wife.  I myself will probably never seek a black stud, but that’s 
largely because I have this thing called a wonderful relationship with 
my husband.  I DO fantasize about black men (as well as white men); but 
I honestly think I’m dealing with their whole personalities.  {Not to 
digress - but I used to have a fantasy that involved O. J. Simpson; but 
I got over it recently.  Interesting “personality” there!}

My own evaluation is that this story does NOT promote improper 
stereotypes.  It’s just a story about oversexed people who engage in 
impressive sexual activities.  Sure the black guy has his brain in his 
cock; but so do the other characters - that’s a compliment on this 
newsgroup. I’d like to hear what anyone else has to say.

Ratings for “Debby’s Dark Lust”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

