Message-ID: <20620eli$9903170437@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Archived-At: <URL:http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year99/20620.txt> From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com Subject: The Annex Reviews, 3/16/99 Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Path: qz!not-for-mail Organization: The Committee To Thwart Spam Approved: <usenet-approval@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Moderator-Contact: Eli the Bearded <story-admin@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Story-Submission: <story-submit@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Original-Message-ID: <b52c40f7.36ef4b70@aol.com> X-Is-Review: yes I have been following the recent controversy on ASSD mentioning my name with great interest, until I realized that 99% of the posts didn't even mention me, whereupon I stopped; but what I understood of it was that an author took offense at a review of his or her teen story, which prompted a discussion of review standards, and some abuse from several posters who later claimed what they did was "performance art," which prompted yet more outrage. My attitude towards all this is similar to that of The Fast Show, who I read sporadically when I have the time: ASSD is a newsgroup devoted to the discussion of erotic stories, i.e. sexual fantasies, and as in all sexual fantasies, it's idiotic to assume anyone or anything is who and what they say they are, and therefore take offense or give offense because of it. It's like thinking spam marked HORNY YOUNG TEENS CUM FOR YOU actually contains pictures of teens, or horny teens, or cumming teens, or horny teens cumming especially for you, the viewer, special delivery through telepathic thoughtwave devices--rather than young-looking 20-year-olds making passionate faces and thinking about doing their laundry as they enact a cootie search. It's very easy to fool and be fooled in hyperspace. When all you have is words, a good writer becomes a good con artist, and they can be *anyone.* I am also struck, as I read certain other posts, at how writers defend their creations and their identity as writers of erotica; it's as if they believe they have a constitutional right to broadcast their identity as sexual beings, as if that's all they really are, and that these tender identities bruise very easily and are deserving of airbags. I find this very funny. I also find it occasionally touching. So, I guess what's come out of all this is that the ASS newsgroups amuse, and continue to amuse, and I don't take them seriously. The stories: The Last Resort, by Richard Rivers (M/F/F, cons) Perfect Fit, by JT (F/F, pickup) Thunder Struck, by Crimson Dragon (M/F rom) The Revenge of Edward Hopper, by Joanna De Brito (M/F, revenge) Welcome to Wonderland, by Anonymous (M/F, teen, slut, extra organs, lact, preg, etc.) Website Review: The Nifty Archives The Last Resort [A] Where posted: ASS, ASSM When posted: 3/9/99 Author: Richard Rivers Address: richard_rivers@hotmail.com A man in his forties books a hotel room in a seaside town, looking for a brief vacation. He's of the age where "he was becoming invisible to young, beautiful women....they never paid any attention to him. It wasn't that he was bad looking, he thought, just ineligible: too old." Leaning over his balcony, he loses his sunglasses when they fall into balcony below, which belongs to a room rented by two college-age young woman. They return the sunglasses to him in person, and sex ensues between the three. For a change, the women jointly fuck him instead of fucking each other for him (as is usual in these kind of stories.) This was a very interesting story. The author has taken an age- old porno cliche--that of the nothing-special older man who is inexplicably attractive to two gorgeous, sexually ravenous young females--and tried to infuse it with the feelings of real people. The emotions of the man were poignantly drawn as plays the part of the onlooker at the feast of love who wants desperately to participate one last time, and gets that chance; the women were drawn somewhat less fully. I wanted to know why they chose to do what they did. Most gorgeous young women would rather be romping with virile young men, if all they're after is sexual thrills; the behavior of the two speaks of wanting something more. Did they have a bet going, did he remind them of their dad, or were they just tired of young studs? This made the piece somewhat unsatisfying for me, but it was still a very good story-- stroke with a heart. Perfect Fit [A] Where posted: ASS, ASSM When posted: 3/9/99 Author: JT Address: trekkerjt@aol.com I haven't seen many lesbian pickup stories lately so reading this one was sort of refreshing--it was very femme. A gay female clerk in Victoria's Secret notices a good-looking older woman perusing the racks of lingerie and is instantly attracted to her. The older woman picks out a teddie and insists the clerk tries it on, citing that she's the same size as her (implied) female lover. Disappointed, the clerk complies; but becomes excited when the other woman "helps" with the fitting. As it turns out, the teddie was meant for the clerk all along. As porn, as stroke, as whatever, this story did the job--being entertaining and arousing without causing you to think too much or question the things that occurred in it. In fact, the only flaw I can think of is that a clerk in Victoria's Secret wouldn't be allowed to wear jeans. But that's an admittedly minor one. Thunder Struck [B+] Where posted: ASS, ASSM When posted: 3/9/99 Author: Crimson Dragon Address: dcrimson@yahoo.com A woman with a phobia about thunderstorms wakes up one night in the middle of one, while her husband sleeps on. She goes downstairs for some soothing milk but soon runs up in fright. Her husbands hears her come back and comforts her with some sex, and she's not frightened anymore. The sex in this story was more in the romance-novel mode than the porn or erotica mode, which is OK, but there was just a bit too much of that storm and not enough sex--or repartee with the husband, which in romance novels often substitutes for sex. I'd say it was about 85% storm to 15% husband, which gave it a gothic "It was a dark and stormy night" feel, not altogether the best way to start off a story these days. But this author writes well, and with more attention paid to plot and dialogue, he or she could probably come up with grade A work. The Revenge of Edward Hopper [A+] Where posted: ASS, ASSM When posted: 3/8/99 Author: Joanna De Brito Address: joanna_de_brito@hotmail.com As with last weeks' La Charmeuse stories, this story was inspired by a painting, or rather an artist, suggested by writer Mat Twassel. Edward Hopper, in case you don't know, was an American painter working mainly in the years 1920 - 1950s who was known for his light-filled, evocative depictions of city tenements and country landscapes people by lonely-looking souls; "Night Hawks" is perhaps the most reproduced of his works. In this story the author has chosen to write about Hopper the man rather than the things he's painted, and the results are a mixed bag, but delightful. Alfred Hitchcock would have loved it. The narrator of the story, a young female clerk at a printing firm, tries to enlists Hopper's help in getting back at fellow employee, another young woman, who caused her to get the sack (being fired, a Britishism as this author is from England.) Hopper agrees on the condition she'll pose for him. Her anger is so strong she agrees. He gives her a swimsuit to wear in the studio as he does his photoshoot, telling her he took compromising pictures of the other woman in the same way...but at the end, the results are not as the narrator expected. I am not an expert on Edward Hopper--all I can claim is one college paper--but I did note a number of anachronisms in the story. Ed died way before fax machines were invented; he went bald early, making the mentions of a ponytail suspect; and as far as I know he painted from life and did not photograph his subjects beforehand. On the other hand, the author has done a marvelous job in conjecturing Hopper's personality from the basis of his paintings, presenting him as an observant, taciturn, manipulative fellow with a prickly gallows sense of humor--a New England sense of humor. The story is tightly structured and keeps your attention from start to finish, and there's just the right amount of dialogue vs. description. One more word would've spoiled it. In sum, no hot n' heavy sex, but recommended. Welcome to Wonderland [C] Where posted: ASS, ASSM When posted: 3/9/99 Author: Anonymous Poster: Joker2912 Address: Joker2912@aol.com I am not sure if the poster of the story is its author or not, so I'm assuming he or she isn't, to save him or her embarrassment. This story was loopy in the manner of last years' "Serpentina"--a trip down magic mushroom lane where bizarre sexual transformations happen to the characters on the flimsiest of rationales. In this case, a group of teenage girls go through the mirror in Lewis Carrol's old house (real name: Charles Dodgeson, who had a "thing" for pre-teen girls, though the author doesn't seem to know that) and come out in a mirror universe superficially like the one they left behind, but one where they turn into whatever nasty name anyone calls them. So naturally they're called sluts, whores, pregnant bimbos, fat cows, etc. and the transformations began: 60-inch breasts, vaginas that reach to mid-belly, penises that turn up in place of nipples. This wasn't an arousing story; it was more of a cartoon, and written like a cartoon--an eleven-year-old's idea of a cartoon. In fact, it sounded more like some junior-high kid wrote it as a revenge on the girls in the story, who were may have been drawn, with an untutored hand, from Real Life. Whatever, man. Pass the psilocybin. Website Review: The Nifty Archives Address: http://www.nifty.org Owner: The Nifty Archivist Address: nifty@gaycafe.com The Nifty Archives began around early 1993 as an FTP site specializing in gay pictures and stories. This makes it ancient by Web standards, and a workhorse by Web standards; it has grown over the years since to encompass a five servers, broad- bandwidth access, and a library of over 9,700 stories. It's safe to say it's the largest and most-hit collection of gay and lesbian stories around. Not only that, it's completely non-commercial and there aren't any weird cookies to harass and keep track of you. The site is run on a strictly volunteer basis and donations are requested in a tasteful way to keep it up and active. Design-wise, the site is very professional. The loading is fast and it's easy to navigate, with no banners or advertising. The stories are sent in by readers and authors, with most of them first appearing on various gay-relating newsgroups. They are then split into Gay, Lesbian, Bestiality and Transgender sections, with each section divided again into 25 sub-categories such as adult friends, historical, masturbation, and interracial that give you an idea of what the subject matter is. Most stories seem to be one-shot deals by the author, but frequent contributors to the archive (those who can claim 3 or more stories to their credit) are featured in a section of their own. Among the heavy hitters represented are Anne Douglas, Candy Kane, Davis Trell, Marc Tremaine, Andrej Kominsky, Author22, and Michael Gouda, all of which I've reviewed positively in previous editions of the Annex, with many, many more frequent authors waiting to be discovered. Ultra-prolific writers Elf Sternberg and Ian Duncan are called out separately on the main page, as well as a collection of gay Native American fiction and the intriguingly titled "Chronicles of Kovzland," but unfortunately these links weren't working when I dropped in and produced no stories. As most stories come from newsgroups their quality varies. There's lots of good reading available, but I also noted dreck like "Stone of the Phalanx." How the latter slipped in is beyond me, as the only gay content I remember it having was various young females having mechanical lesbian sex under a 15-year-old's hypnotic suggestions (which doesn't jel with the NA's credo that it doesn't accept stories with "unwilling participants" or "coercion of minors".) Someone must have been asleep on the job. Get that turkey out of there, fast--it will give newcomers a very bad idea of Nifty's standards. Other subject matter the archive won't accept is rape of minors, abusive situations involving minors, graphic violence, and dangerous sexual acts. Some of the stories that failed the grade were "Chained and Raped Chicken," "Sphincter Boy," and "Ugly Fucker"; one of the reasons given was the author's guardians requested removal. (Huh) The archive's only shortcoming, as far as I can see, is a failure to provide synopses or author credit in the listings for the one-shot stories, which comprise the majority of the archive. The stories aren't even given their correct titles, just whatever their file name was, so the previously mentioned "Stone of the Phalanx" could turn up as "stone.txt," thereby inflicting incredible suffering on an unknowing reader. I'm being sarcastic here, but at least listing the correct titles would be nice. A search function is available for the site to alleviate problems like this, but it costs extra for the user ($4.95/yr, not a bad deal actually, if you're a frequent user of the site.) The site also includes many links to story sites, sexual information, and gay issues; a list of posting codes, a mission statement, and other information for readers and authors. It currently resides on five mirror servers: NE America, SE America, the Mid-Atlantic states, the Western US, and SW Europe including Portugal. Bookmark this site if you like fiction like this; it's essential. Interface: A+ Content: A+ Will I visit again: Probably. Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com Website---> http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh -- +----------------' Story submission `-+-' Moderator contact `--------------+ | <story-submit@qz.little-neck.ny.us> | <story-admin@qz.little-neck.ny.us> | | Archive site +----------------------+--------------------+ Newsgroup FAQ | <http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/>----<http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/faq.html>