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Subject: {ASS} Celestial Reviews 241 - Dec 10
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Celestial Reviews 241 - December 10, 1997
Note: There has been a bit of a discussion on a.s.s.d. that has touched upon
my reviewing process. I am not going to try to summarize it here, but I'd
like to make just a few comments:
(1) I expect my guest reviewers to feel free to give their own opinions, and
these opinions can certainly cover issues as well as the style of the story.
If I reviewed Poe's "Telltale Heart," I think it would be appropriate for me
to say, "This was an excellent story, but only a demented maniac would act
this way." Likewise, it is possible to say, "This was an excellent story, but
I really don't believe that sex between a father and an 11-year-old daughter
can ever be consensual in real life." I am NOT suggesting that reviewers
always give moral commentary - only that it's OK to venture opinions. Of
course, it makes sense to give reasons to back up convictions.
(3) I think it is possible to be somewhat objective in how a person expresses
her dislike for a story, and not all reviewers have mastered this art. For
example, I myself may give low ratings to a rape story in which the woman
enjoys the activity, and I would indicate that the enjoyment was
counterintuitive and the author did not build a case for it. {I might give
straight 10s to another story that simply built a better case.} One of my
reviewers might instead give it a 1 and rant about how she loathed it. I
think my review would be more likely to help both readers and authors, but the
other review is at least honest and useful. Many readers of Celestial Reviews
have commented that they often like the stories I rate 10-10-5 better than
those I rate 10-10-10. I think that's partly because they understand where
I'm coming from.
(4) The number of 10s has indeed gone up in the past two years. I attribute
this to an actual increase in the quality of stories during this time - or at
least the stories that come to my attention are much better now. To validate
this, I might note that last week I reviewed three of SueNH's stories that I
had not reviewed. Although all three received 10s for grammar and style, none
received a 10 in my other two categories. I suspect that this is because I am
unconsciously comparing them to CURRENT stories, and I suspect some of Sue's
earlier stories that received straight 10s might not have done so against more
recent competition. {In saying this, I want to stress that I think SueNH is
still one of the best writers on this newsgroup. She herself has improved:
her more recent stories are certainly much better than her earlier work. I
wish she would post some new stories.}
(5) Straight 10s should not be taken as an indication that a story is
"perfect." I recently rated a story 10-10-10, and the author honestly
admitted to me that it was imperfect. I don't care. I need to maintain some
level of continuity with the past. I have tried to make my standards more
rigid, but I simply cannot do it. Here's a simple example of why I have
trouble. Assume that Mike Hunt's next story is as good as "June's First,"
which was one of the first stories I read by that author. Back then straight
10s were relatively rare (say, 5% of the stories). Now straight 10s are much
more common (sometimes maybe even 20% of the stories in a particular issue -
but that's because they're actually as good as "June's First.). If I toughen
up on Mike right now and give his new story ratings of 8-8-8, that would give
the impression that this story was worse than "June's First." I suppose the
impression would go away after a few weeks, but I'm just uncomfortable doing
that. When I publish annual and cumulative lists, I see value in making the
scores as comparable as possible across the years; and this wouldn't happen if
I changed the system any further.
As it is, you can be assured that a rating of 10-10-10 generally means that I
think the story is about as good as a typical story that I might enjoy in
Redbook or Penthouse. A rating of 10-10-5 would mean that the story is about
as good as a typical story that I might dislike in a magazine I won't mention
here, because I don't need the grief I'd get from that magazine's fans. Many
people find this information to be useful.
(6) Guest reviewers are always free to decline to review a particular story.
However, in all honesty I would appreciate it if they would go ahead and
review the story and simply be clear about their personal conflicts. Most
reviewers do this. For example, they might say, "I personally see nothing
sexy about the coercive sex in this story. A person with different views
about rape or incest might give this story a higher rating a higher rating for
reader appeal."
(7) In my own reviews I try to have fun with my audience. My reviews are
often essays rather than reviews pure and simple. It's the sort of thing I
do, and most of my readers wouldn't have it any other way. I personally have
the advantage of building up a relationship over several years with my readers
(although not everyone has been in on this from the beginning), and this makes
it easier for me to have fun with my audience. Guest reviewers do not always
have a comparable advantage. However, to the extent that it is possible to do
so, I think readers can benefit by understanding who the person is whose
review they are reading.
(8) I see nothing wrong with guest reviewers who use a different name than
that under which they post their own stories. One of my best reviewers
prefers this level of anonymity. If that bothers you, just don't read that
person's reviews. A better course of action is to keep this factor in mind as
one piece of information when reading a review. An important advantage of
using a "real" name is that the reviewer is more easily able to build up a
relationship with his/her audience. For example, if you read a review by Mike
Hunt or Kim, you can associate that review with the reviewer's own stories -
you think you know the person better. On the other hand, if you read a review
by Piper or Fiddler, you may even have trouble associating one of their
reviews with another.
(9) I CANNOT screen the reviews very carefully before I send them to guest
reviewers. First, this would defeat the purpose of having guest reviewers - I
simply don't have time to read all the stories myself. Second, this would
amount to "dumping" on some of the reviewers. For example, if I tended to
send all mind-control incest stories to a certain reviewer because he showed a
tolerance for those stories, that would not be fair to that reviewer,
especially if those stories tended to be weak or if he really would prefer
different stories. I DO sometimes screen the stories to a certain degree -
for example, I might send a story to a particular reviewer because she is
interested in Star Trek stories. But that really can't happen all that often.
(10) I hope these comments help make these reviews more interesting and
useful. Please note that I CANNOT read all the discussions conducted in
a.s.s.d. Heck, I'm on AOL, and I can't even FIND them half the time! If you
want me to be sure to hear something you have to say, send it to me by email.
However, please also be aware that I cannot respond individually to every
email message I get. If I did that, I would have much less time to read and
review stories. Instead, I'll often reply to several emails at once, as I
think I am doing right now.
Final note: Remember: even though someone else may be posting my reviews for
me, my e-mail address is still Celeste801@aol.com.
- Celeste
"Fantastic Spring" by Unknown Author (adolescent orgy fantasy)
9.5, 9, 9
"The Rules of the Road" by The Lecherous Professor (essay
on sex) 10, 10, 10
"Anathema" by Kathy B. (ironic gay liaison) 10, 10, 10
"Forlorn" by Uther Pendragon (family romance) 10, 10, 10
"Reflection" by Mark Aster (simple mf hedonism) 10, 9, 9
"Rehearsal" by Jasmine (rape) 10, 8, 8
"The Party" by Rich Adams (voyeurism & masturbation) 8, 9, 9
Guest Reviews:
"The Color of Her Hair" by Steve (sexual reminiscence) 9.5, 9, 6
"Cousins" by Day Dreamer (adolescent romance) 10, 10, 10
"Stuffing the Old Gobbler" by MrSpraycan (raunchy ff sex)
10, 10, 10
"Model Sex Slave" by Reavan (bdsm) 7, 8, 9
"Fair Warning" by Carol Parsons (amusement park sex) 9, 9, 9
"Raunchy Rosie" by Jack Aubrey (sex on a boat) 10, 5, 9
Reposted Reviews:
* "The Adventures of Me and Martha Jane" by Santo J.
Romeo (emerging adolescence and romance)
10, 10, 10
* "Behind the Bar" by Unknown Author (hedonistic orgies)
9.5, 10, 10
* "Memories of Underdevelopment" by Estragon (emerging
sexuality) 10, 10, 10
* = Repost of previous review (because the story has recently been
reposted)
"Fantastic Spring" by Unknown Author (Reposted by who@why.not). The grammar
and style of this story look worse than they really are. The author
deliberately writes badly to give the impression that he is an adolescent boy,
and he brings this off rather effectively.
After we hear about the narrator's mutual jerk-off experience with his friend
Jake, we plunge into the heart of the action: his adolescent affair with
Cindy, whose father is a church deacon and member of the National Rifle
Association, who also has a gym in his house. Fortunately, the ole man is
also a pedophile; and so is the narrator's mother. And so the two kids and
the two parents have a jolly time playing Tiny Dancer and Strip Monopoly at
the old man's cabin in the woods.
This may sound silly - and in real life this sort of thing would be truly
stupid; but the story comes off as an interesting adolescent sex fantasy.
Ratings for "Fantastic Spring"
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"The Rules of the Road" by The Lecherous Professor (reposted from Kristen's
Collection). This is not really a story, but rather an essay that
incorporates several sexually explicit anecdote. The author claims to be a
male English professor at a Midwestern university; and in this essay he is
setting forth his advice to his colleagues for picking up coeds.
His rules are worth repeating:
1 - Don't mess with Bambi.
2 - If you're not absolutely certain, back off.
3 - Stay away from women in academic difficulty.
4 - All women talk.
5 - Give "mom" a second glance.
Actually, I suspect there's more than this to the sex life of faculty members
at accredited institutions: I think this author just ran out of sexy
anecdotes. The essay reads like the sort of thing you find in the Penthouse
Forum - but that's not necessarily bad. I enjoyed this dissertation very
much.
Ratings for "The Rules of the Road"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Anathema" by Kathy B. (kathybxx@aol.com). The narrator is a male English
teacher who gives a low grade to a high school student for writing a
composition that contained the unsubstantiated claim that a homosexual
experience is a natural, normal experience, even for heterosexuals. The
teacher then goes to a teacher conference, where he has a very pleasant
experience with a male history teacher. He notes the irony.
This is a fictionalized version of one of my main theses: I suspect that
almost all adult human beings COULD enjoy both heterosexual and homosexual
experiences. I am not saying that we all SHOULD go both ways, merely that the
physical experience (and the fantasy) has the potential to be pleasant either
way.
Stories on this newsgroup seem to accept this thesis for women. We get the
impression from many stories that almost any woman could be stimulated to
orgasm by another woman - as long as the other woman does it right. What most
people balk at is the notion that most guys could enjoy doing it with another
guy. The example I have often used is that of a blindfolded guy getting a
blowjob that he thought was being administered by a sexy woman. Would the
blowjob become less enjoyable while it was occurring because the blindfold
would later be removed?
An important distinction is that men have been conditioned in our society to
reject homosexual behavior - much as Pavlov's dogs were conditioned to
salivate when they heard a bell. This conditioning cannot easily be ignored
(and some would argue that it SHOULD not be ignored): culture is an important
part of our sexual personalities. However, I believe that almost men COULD
learn to drop their inhibitions and ENJOY a sexual encounter with almost
anybody that did it well.
As I have said many times, I myself am a monogamous heterosexual female. I
have no intention of ever making love to another female, but that fantasy can
be as arousing to me as fantasizing sex about a sexy man. I think many people
could benefit from loosening up and admitting the same sort of attraction.
This specific story is a good one. One minor problem that I have with it is
that the author seems to ignore the conditioning that I spoke about in the
previous paragraph. I am not certain that the protagonist would have entered
into the man/man liaison as rapidly and easily as he did in this story. The
other man is anathema, and we usually don't get over anathemas quite so
quickly.
Check it out. The sex isn't exceptionally hot, but the story does a good job
of presenting an interesting situation.
Ratings for "Anathema"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Forlorn" by Uther Pendragon (anon584c@nyx.net). The Brennans are back,
speaking terms of endearment in French and quoting history to one another.
This time Bob and Jeanette even do a hand-off of The Kitten at class, while
the students oooo and ahhhh.
As I have said many times before, the Brennan saga is one of my favorites.
This story is another excellent blend of family life and hot sex. Don't let
the brevity of this review fool you: this is another good one.
Ratings for "Forlorn"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Reflection" by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com). Since Pat and Julie are making
love to each other while the twins sleep, they send Our Hero to a friends
house for some good recreational sex. He does indeed enjoy himself and
returns a happier man.
The title has a double meaning, but you probably knew that.
The main flaw that I saw in this story was the abrupt transition from Our
Hero's viewpoint to that of the woman to whom he was making love. All of a
sudden I found somebody waking up - and I had not even known Our Hero had
fallen asleep.
But overall this is another sexy story in the saga of the Allen Sisters.
Ratings for "Reflection"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Rehearsal" by Jasmine (jasmine01@usa.net). This is a first story by a mew
author. The narrator is a woman whose boyfriend is an actor who must practice
an important rape scene. He wants to do it under realistic circumstances; so
she agrees to dress up fit to fuck and to meet him late at night in a dark
part of the park, where he will accost her and rape her. All goes pretty much
as planned, except - guess what? I think you can probably guess the ending.
I know I did; but it was still fun getting there.
Ratings for "Rehearsal"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
"The Party" by Rich Adams (flash2@home.com). The man and his wife go to a
pre-Christmas party given by the company she works for. A guy at the party
gets the hots for the wife. When our protagonists stay over for the night in
the guest room, the other guy (who also stays) sneaks in for a peak and jerks
off while looking at the wife. It doesn't sound all that hot the way I have
described it; but the author makes a better case. I found this to be an
enjoyable story.
Ratings for "The Party"
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"The Color of Her Hair" by Steve (steve1044@aol.com). Guest Review by Morgan
Preece.
I saw recently that Kim has guest reviewed thirty stories. I think this is my
fourth or fifth for Celeste, and I'm doing some for Brother Cadfael. They are
a lot of work. Besides looking for a job, doing housework, and trying to
write, I haven't had a lot of free time.
Well, a nice little diversion like "The Color of Her Hair" is a pleasant
break; and if I weren't in front of the 'puter I'd probably be vacuuming or
something useful. <g>
This is a nice little, lightweight-seeming, slice-of-life story about a young
man's encounter with a red-haired woman during college. The story is told as a
sort of reminiscence complete with a little confusion here and there about
time, place and person. I really felt like I was listening to the sort of late
night rambling people really do when talking with friends about old times and
lessons-of-life-leaned.
The sex is hot enough and competently described. The characters ring true even
to having mysteriously unexplained motives just like people in real life. If
some of the incidents seem to have been told somewhere before, well, they're
competently retold here and the flavor of a friend's retelling of a favorite
yarn is maintained.
The voice of the first-person here is very well handled.
Athena (technical quality): 9.5 ( A few unimportant typos and a minor
formatting problem. Scene setting and use of language are very competent. The
one fault is that I'm not sure if the story is about one redhead or two
different ones and I can't subtract a whole point for that since it actually
adds to the feeling of reminiscence.)
Venus (plot & character): 9 (Plot. Uh, well the story isn't about plot. The
main characters are about as real as college students ever get. The minor
characters are from central casting.)
Morgan (appeal to reviewer): 6 (I hate giving low marks here but in all
honesty, I just don't get that hot reading other people's writing. Now if I'd
written this, just as it is, I'd have to give it an 8. <grin> Maybe you would,
too.)
Grade for a hypothetical class in writing for ASS would be an "B+" and
"Somebody will like this better than I did" scribbled in the margin.
"Cousins" by Day Dreamer (reposted by Cmdr Jameson). Guest review by The Bear.
This is a long story (over 120K) about a tender romance between a very shy boy
and a very shy girl who happen to be best friends. The plot is simple and
fairly predictable after you get past the first five or six paragraphs, but
the characters are well-realized, the narrative well-written, and the sex
(when it comes <g>) hot and erotic.
Two factors may cause squickage for some folks, so I'd better mention them.
First, these two young lovers are only fifteen years old. Second, besides
being best friends they are also first cousins (hence the title). The story
doesn't dwell on either fact, however; so if you prefer to imagine the lovers
as non-related friends of age seventeen or eighteen, there is not much in the
story that will jump up and remind you of their actual age and the incestuous
relationship.
It is a good story and I recommend it highly.
Ratings for "Cousins"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot and character): 10
Bear (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Stuffing the Old Gobbler" by MrSpraycan. Guest review by DG.
Polly comes from a dysfunctional, poor, redneck family, the kind that isn't
particularly supportive of lesbians. Understandably, she doesn't make it back
to the old Kentucky homestead too often. But this year she decides to go back
for Thanksgiving, to see if anything has changed. Like Pa's underwear, for
instance. At first it seems like a mistake: she takes some heat for her all-
black clothes and her vegetarianism, not to mention her pussy eatin', as dear
old Ma calls it. But after dinner, while stretching her legs on a walk, she
meets up with Cousin Jane, a shapely blonde. Turns out Jane is recently
divorced, down on men, and is looking to try out one of those 'alternative
lifestyles' everyone is talking about. Let the games begin.
I won't beat around the bush here: I think Mr Spraycan is one of the best
erotic writers I've read. Maybe the best, period - depends on my mood. If
I'm feeling a little antisocial and rebellious, maybe had a few drinks, this
guy is number one. You won't find any lovey-dovey romance in a Spraycan
story, or much foreplay, either. This guy writes for men. What you will find
is laugh-out-loud funny observations, great characters and dialogue, and lots
of raunchy, explicit sex. All delivered in a breezy, efficient writing style
that keeps the eyes moving down the screen.
The only complaint I have about Mr Spraycan is that his stories are hard to
find. He has this strange, subversive notion that he should be paid for his
work, rather than giving it away for free, and what he does post often goes
straight to soc.spanking or someplace like that. According to the header for
this story, he's going to be making a lot more of his stories available for
free on his web page in the near future. That's good news in my book.
Ratings for "Stuffing the Old Gobbler"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
DG (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Model Sex Slave" by Reavan (posted by erostory@anon.nymserver.com) Guest
review by Piper.
There's a lot to be said for a D/s relationship where the only real punishment
seems to be a playful spanking, and the slave likes getting spanked. Mind
you, the sub is one of a very rare breed. She is a total and complete
submissive who didn't realize it until she met the right mistress. She has
just turned 18, is still in high school, is somewhat afraid of boys, has the
body of a slut, and is a virgin. She also doesn't need to be whipped,
electrocuted, cropped, clamped, held in painful bondage for hours on end,
tortured, or serviced by various and sundry barnyard animals to be happy.
Simple sex with anyone and everyone her mistress decrees is just fine. If it
sounds like Debby (of _Debby Does Dallas_ fame) visiting _Mr. Roger's
Neighborhood_, that's about what it is, with lots of naked people, lots of
light spanking, lots of showers, and orgasmic fluids gushing by the quart.
The main characters are Diana, Marg, Lee, and Dan. Diana is the new slave,
who signs on as a hopeful new model with Marg's modeling agency (it takes
about fifteen minutes to go from filling in the application to having her
first orgasm at the hands of her new mistress). Dan is Marg's husband. Lee
is the other live-in sex slave. Later, they recruit another new slave, Daisy
(sometimes called Diasy). Various other masters get involved, as well as
other slaves. There are road trips for fashion shows, sleepovers, weekenders,
and lots, and lots, and lots of fun, innocent, sex. Oh yeah, Diana happens to
be black, and Lee is Oriental.
This is a light-hearted sex romp as seen through a pair of rose-tinted
glasses, with some pretty good, moderately inventive sex scenes. Mind you,
the prose is sometimes rather overbearing, especially when it comes to the
master/slave relationship. For example, the evening of the day Marj and Diana
first meet, shortly after Diana has moved in with her, Marg says:
"You must accept that your future is in my hands I control your life
completely. From day to day, even hour by hour, you won't know what you will
be ordered to do next. Just remember, that your submission must be absolute.
You will submit you body for sexual intercourse to me, or if I decide to
someone else, without hesitation, the instant I give the order, any time of
day or night. Remember that it doesn't matter who that person is, what they
look like, what race or what age. When I assign you to someone else, that
person will own you and has the right to use you for his or her sexual
enjoyment, until you are returned to me. You will satisfy the sexual desires
of that person, performing any sexual act ordered. You will be totally at his
or her mercy. You must submit yourself totally in every sex act, no matter who
you are assigned to. You are now in sexual bondage and submitting your body to
other peoples lust is your only purpose in life"
And Diana replies:
"Oh yes, I understand mistress, I will. I'm so happy."
Watch out for missing, extra, and misplaced quote marks and commas, as well as
many misused possessives and plurals (Daisies is *not* the same as Daisy's).
Despite the overwriting and rampant bad English, this is a pretty entertaining
read. (320k long, 60,000 words)
Ratings for "Model Sex Slave"
Technical merit 7
Plot and character 8
Appeal to reviewer 9
"Fair Warning" by Carol Parsons (myescape@voyager.net). Guest review by Sven
the Elder.
The writer allows herself a little indulgence at the start to advertise her
site and phonesex service. Hmm... Ok, there are others who do that, but they
do it at the end and put a warning of the fact at the top. I don't care for
either, but that's a personal thing, though I know it bugs others as well.
It's stretching the use of the ng and I hope it's not going to become a common
thing. It's one thing to say that I have my other stories archived at this
url, but.........
That's got that off my chest. Now I have a bigger problem to deal with. The
story itself. How can I put this - I've seen this one before, or something
very, very like it. I remember a similar story line almost three years ago. I
have been back through my archives and I can't turn it up - I really must get
down to indexing things! Perhaps someone else will turn up the detail, for the
review I will assume that it's a different story, but plagiarism I detest.
Good Lord above - that's two things off my chest in two paragraphs, If I'm not
careful I'll have to go and lie down in a dark room for a moment or two!
<grin>
I liked the story - a young woman, who helps run a leisure park, is walking
through it after hours and gets accosted by a friend. They then have it away
on one of the rides. There is more to it than that and the story is well
written to boot. I have a little difficulty with one aspect - it is my
experience that these rides, even, or more especially, when run slowly make
the devil of a noise. In real life something like this would be liable to
bring the police department, the fire department and probably, if near the
coast, the coastguard as well. Quiet they are not; with that minor flaw the
story works well.
Ratings for "Fair Warning"
Technical quality: 9 - Nothing discernible to spoil the reading
pleasure
Plot & character: 9 - A little stilted, with worrying aspects over
the noise levels
Sven (appeal to reviewer): 9 - Enjoyable, but not steaming! <grin>
"Raunchy Rosie" by Jack Aubrey (spad@goodnet.com). Guest review by David
Rills.
Rosie doesn't appear to be especially raunchy, although she clearly likes to
fuck. The narrator has just bought a boat and invites Rosie to join him for a
weekend sail. That's pretty much the plot. After beer and sandwiches, the
couple meet below for a good screw.
While there isn't much of a plot, the author has done a good job of
describing the sex scenes. The couple start out below, each disrobing the
other, have a sensual love scene, and then go for a swim and a quick game of
"grab ass". They return to the boat deck and Rosie sexually finishes off our
hero.
Along with the well described sex scenes, the author throws in enough wit and
witticism to keep the reader entertained. The story starts off uneventfully
but as one continues to read along through the piece, one comes to enjoy the
story. While not a classic, it's a good story well worth the reader's time.
Ratings for "Raunchy Rosie"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 5
David (appeal to reviewer): 9
* "The Adventures of Me and Martha Jane" by Santo J. Romeo
(73233.1411@compuserve.com). I first reviewed this story in CR 18, which was
posted on September 9, 1995. At that time I gave it a 5. It was a good
story, I said; but I was genuinely pissed off because it just ended in the
middle of nowhere. I further refused to read any more parts of the story
until the author would assure me that he was finished. I was tired of this
neverending story crap.
Well, the author has finished the story, and it has been worth the wait. I
saw a message on a.s.s. that compared the author to Harold Robbins. That
evaluation is not far from the mark.
The narrator is presumably a man in his fifties, retelling a story of his
youth. At the beginning of the story, the 6-year-old Steven (Speedy) harbored
a wonderful, non-sexual admiration for Martha Jane, who was nine years older;
and she showed a reciprocal respect for him. The two lived next door to each
other in a federal housing project around 1950 and shared a common front
porch. The focus of the story is the maturation and fulfillment of their
relationship.
Although the early lines of this story hint of sexual activity, the first
several paragraphs are devoted to demonstrating that the protagonist of the
story was a precocious child - not a sexually precocious child, but a run-of-
the-mill precocious child. This full-life focus continues throughout the
story, and it emphasizes that the hero and Martha Jane should be regarded as
whole persons, not as simple sex objects. The development of non-sexual
aspects helps set this story in a truly rich and interesting psychological and
emotional environment. The story is one of the longest coherent stories I
have seen on this newsgroup, but it is also one of the best.
Certainly there is moral ambiguity in the story. For example, near the
beginning the mother tells the young Steven that pregnant women get that way
by eating too many popsicles and that babies come from storks. Shortly
thereafter, Martha Jane corrects this stupid explanation by playing with his
penis to give him a hard-on, while giving him an accurate biological account
of the facts of life. If I had a son, I wouldn't try either of these
approaches to sex education. It's interesting that normal society rejects
Martha Jane's approach - to the extent that Redbook and the Sunday supplements
would never even consider publishing an account like this without labeling
Martha Jane a pervert; but sitcoms routinely laugh about the mother's
explanation.
I'm running the risk of preaching to the choir here: most readers of this
review are likely to be predisposed to want to like a story like this. On the
other hand, large numbers of equally civilized readers outside a.s.s. would
react to this story as an example of perversion. Most of us will counter by
describing these people as sexually repressed puritans. And so forth. I
think we should be willing to simply admit but tolerate the moral ambiguity of
the story. It's fiction and it's interesting. There's nothing perverse in
setting aside our moral scruples and enjoying a good story. Millions of
American high schoolers are required every year to read Edgar Alan Poe's tale
about a pervert who tears the heart out of an old man and buries it under the
floorboards in his house. We practically require these students to set aside
moral scruples and to enjoy the beauty of this atrocity. I'm not recommending
that we make "Martha Jane" part of the sophomore curriculum; I simply think
adult readers can set aside moral reactions long enough to enjoy this story
without taking a position that it would be "better" if all children grew up
this way.
When I myself was a young baby-sitter, I did not give head to any of the
children I cared for; and I would hope that my own daughters likewise refrain
from that practice. The psychologists and counselors who suggested to the
narrator later in his life that this activity was abnormal are quite likely
right (although, again, these sages would simply laugh about the goofy
explanations of sexuality given by the mother and other adults.). It would be
much better for little boys to receive accurate answers from their own parents
and for young baby-sitters to have internalized a code of ethical conduct that
enables them to understand their own and their clients' emerging sexuality and
to rule out genital contact without resorting to primitive mythologies. But
that still doesn't make this a bad story. One of my own favorite novels is
Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." I would never raise my own children
the way those children grew up in that story, but it's still a good novel (and
an excellent movie).
Again, I'm probably preaching to the choir. But someone is surely going to
label this story "pedophilia." There are legitimate gripes against many
pedophile stories; they essentially recommend the adoption of lifestyles that
would be destructive to children. What we need to do is acknowledge that some
stories that describe genital activities with children have the potential to
be destructive - especially those that are simply unrealistic or that promote
the exploitation of children. On the other hand, other stories that describe
genital activity with or among children are either harmless or actually have
the potential to lead to moral or emotional growth among readers. To take a
sexually-related analogy, there are numerous examples of books and movies
about adults having affairs. Some of these are badly written or stupidly
conceived and seem to have as their only goal to degrade the value of marriage
and other permanent relationships. On the other hand, many of these books and
movies are well conceived and have the overall effect of enabling us to
understand human emotions - and, indeed, marriage and other permanent
relationships - more perfectly.
Although the most important aspect of this story is the sexual relationship
between the narrator and Martha Jane, it's not really a sex story. Rather,
it's a story about the emotional development of two young people. Less than a
third of the lines in the story are even remotely devoted to their sex lives.
The non-sex scenes are extremely realistic and vivid, giving us information
needed to understand the background and personalities of the two main
characters.
If a reader wants a source of information about how much fun it would be to
have sex with a precocious little kid, this would be a good story for that
purpose - although all the details about the child's emotions would probably
be viewed as distracting. However, I really don't think this was the author's
purpose. On the other hand, if a person (like myself) is reading this story
to obtain sensitive insights into the personalities of two young people as
they mature sexually and emotionally, this is a good source for serious
reading.
Ratings for "Martha Jane"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
* "Behind the Bar" by Unknown Author. This is another one of the rather
lengthy postings by TheEditor. As I'll discuss below, this person apparently
has scanned into a computer a number of full-length books and has posted these
on this newsgroup. This story focuses on a common a.s.s. theme: if a husband
and wife are having a little trouble in their relationship, one of them should
run around on the other, and this will cause them to become closer in their
matrimonial bliss. In this case, Brandy has become insatiably hungry for sex
because her husband has been out of town for a few days while he is studying
for the bar. {Actually, he's learning how to RUN a bar; but I thought it
would be clever to make it sound like he was studying law.} After Dave the
Bartender fucks Brandy, he suggests a way that they can expand the bar's
clientele while simultaneously allaying Brandy's horniness. This strategy is
immensely successful, and when the harried husband returns home unexpectedly
and finds Brandy in flagrante delicto, he smiles happily and eagerly offers to
supply a similar service to gladden the hearts of the female customers.
As I reread the preceding description, the story sounds a bit far-fetched. I
mean, Dave and Brandy come across as counselors or social service agents who
selflessly solve the problems of their sexually dysfunctional or otherwise
needy customers. In real life it would be at least slightly unlikely that
Brandy's activity would solidify her relationship with her husband, that Dave
would suggest his plan to Brandy when he could instead get a lot of really
good sex himself, or that the patrons of the bar would simply cheer for the
lucky winners when Dave obviously cheated in his distribution of Brandy's
favors. However, this really is a good fantasy, and the sexual action is
really hot.
Ratings for "Behind the Bar"
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
* "Memories of Underdevelopment" by Estragon (an573847@anon.penet.fi). Erica
and Leila are two fifteen year old girls who are beginning to discover their
own sexuality. Little by little, they start with what they know about boys
just from instinct, and then imagine things together, out loud, that they
would only have let themselves imagine in private before; and then they try
some of those things out for real, on real males; and then they build on what
they have learned.
One day Erica says, "It's strange. Girls let all kinds of guys they're going
to break up with in a week touch them and learn all about them, and their best
friend who they'll love forever has no idea what their nipples or slot look
like...." And so they head for Leila's house, get naked, and explore each
other's bodies. Sounds normal to me. Like many of Estragon's stories, this
one starts with perfectly normal, sensible activities and emotions like these
and builds to the point where readers will suddenly realize that they are
accepting as normal activities that they would previously have viewed as
bizarre.
In other words, Estragon has fiendishly combined the Socratic dialogue with
the short story and feminist ideology.
Careful research shows that males outnumber females on this newsgroup. I
can't explain this, although I'm sure Erica and Leila could demonstrate that
it is this way because women want it this way. My point is that large numbers
of male readers will read this story and wonder whether young girls really do
lie around playing with each other's bodies, giving pleasure to each other and
devising plans for subjugating males to be pussy whipped. {The story gives a
delightful discussion of this term.} On the surface, most men probably reject
the idea as foolish; they know their girlfriends and lovers, and these people
are nice to their male friends. But isn't it possible that that's just part
of the facade? Maybe the girlfriends and lovers are smart enough to not let
the dumb males know that they are being pussy whipped. Maybe there really is
this huge conspiracy going on, but maybe we women are just smart enough to
keep our slaves happy by letting them foolishly believe that they are the
masters. Makes sense to me.
I truly love Estragon's writings, and I don't want to betray the Sisterhood;
but I'm going to tell you a secret. When I was an adolescent girl, I did NOT
sit around with a girlfriend and devise ways to subjugate males. I never once
stuck a boy in the balls with the backside of a spoon, nor did I pee on a male
of the species who was begging me to do so. However, as I grew older, in
dorms and locker rooms we girls did metaphorically do these things. Although
I don't know anyone who actually did cut off a boy's or man's testicles, I do
know lots of girls who took delight in emasculating their boyfriends in more
socially acceptable ways; and I myself often enjoyed giving one of these
assholes a metaphorical kick in the balls.
What I am saying is that I doubt that many young girls literally do the things
that Erica and Leila do; but a very large number of mature women (myself
included) read this story and say, "That's not an entirely bad idea!"
In short, this story is sort of a thinking person's "Thelma and Louise."
Most of my correspondents think that Estragon is a man. I have no direct
knowledge to the contrary, but I suspect that she is a woman. If Estragon is
a man, he's a genius to have insights like this into the female psyche; and as
Estragon herself would point out, men just aren't all that smart. Ergo,
Estragon must be a woman - and a damned good writer besides. On the other
hand, Aristophanes was a man, and he wrote Lysistrata.
Don't be scared off by my references to Socratic dialogues, to feminine
psyches, and all that technical jargon. And don't you guys be afraid that
you'll become emasculated by reading this story. And who cares if this IS
reality? If Estragon is right, you guys too dumb to realize it anyway. Just
read this story and enjoy it! If you do so and then ask real politely, maybe
a nice lady will let you get naked for her.
Ratings for "Memories of Underdevelopment"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
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