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From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com
Subject: The Annex Reviews, 9/16/98
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Here's something different this week--a whole set of reviews
based on normal male/female heterosex. That's right, heterosex. I
didn't plan it that way, but there happened to be so many
excellent stories out, things just sorta fell into place. Because
these are heterosex stories my reviewing apparatus is tuned a bit
differently. I'm a bit more critical than usual.
The stories:
Korean Dry-Cleaning Lady, by Richard Rivers (M/F cons)
The Lens as Mirror, by Adhara Rawcalyn (M/F cons)
Unicorn Prayers, by Thomas M. Carvett (M/F, teen, fantasy)
Summer 1976, by Jim Keigel (M/F, hippie sex)
The Root of Evil, by Tooshoes (M/F, adult club dancing)
Korean Dry-Cleaning Lady [A+]
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
When posted: 9/11/98
Author: Richard Rivers
Address: r_rivers@cryogen.com
Not all consensual M/F stories are vanilla. Some are flavored with
kim chee.
The narrator of this story develops a crush on the Korean owner
of a dry cleaning store, passing by daily to note her activities and
moods. (He also drops off his dry cleaning.) His passion grows.
One day when he drops in as she is closing to have a personal
conversation with her. His dreams come true when they have a
tumble on a pile of dirty laundry.
This story was an excellent depiction of the ordinary sexual
encounter most people might have in daily life; though "small" it
held my attention, mainly through the author's heartfelt prose. I
felt I was peaking into someone's personal diary, and, oddly, I feel
privileged for it.
The Unicorn Prayers [A]
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
When posted: 8/29/98
Author: Thomas M. Carvett
Address: tcarvett@earthlink.net
Website: http://home.earthlink.net/~tcarvett
A young girl loses her mother and develops a vaguely incestuous
relationship with her father. He rejects her, knowing it isn't
right, so she turns to fantasies of unicorns to satisfy her budding
desires. She eventually discovers that, by putting out, she attracts
lots of boys, but the boys don't matter; only the fantasies do,
which she puts down on paper using her artistic talents. One day
she disappears after painting a unicorn mural on the wall of the
boys' lavatory (!!?)
I really liked this story; it was sweet and true to life and
psychologically insightful; the tone was assured and elegant,
kind of like a fable. I was all set to give it an A+ until the end,
which destroyed the whole thing for me. Why the hell does she
decorate a row of urinals? It's not exactly a sexy thing to do,
although the symbolism of the story says it should be. (Male
bathroom = male sex.) Teenage girls aren't, on the whole,
enthusiastic cockmistresses; they regard male equipment as little
more than leaky sewer pipes. If the girl wanted to give a last
"gift" so to speak, to her male conquests, it makes more sense for
her to paint the house of one of them, or the place where they
hang out, such as a school.
The Lens as Mirror [A-]
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
When posted: 9/11/98
Author: Adhara Rawcalyn
Address: eros_dreams@hotmail.com
A woman married to a photographer consents one day to pose for
him. He usually photographs younger models and both are
surprised at how sensual the pictures of her turn out to be. He
displays them in a gallery and the enthusiastic reception they get
inspires him to renew the passionate bond he once had with his
wife.
This was a nicely written, modest story but it really bothered me
on one point--that images are more important than people. The
husband never notices how appealing his wife is until he prints
her on emulsion, while the wife assumes her sex life is over
because she thinks "bony" 19-year-old models have more appeal
than a 43-year-old. I am so sick of this. Not everyone who has a
satisfying sex life looks like a Calvin Klein ad. I know
unattractive men married to beautiful women. I know Queen-
sized women going out with skinny little guys. I even know of
two cerebral palsy sufferers who got married even though they
couldn't take more than two steps in the same direction. So what
does that say about image and attraction?
Summer 1976 [B+]
Author: Jim Keigel
Address: jimkeigel@hotmail.com
The author prefaced this story with "If you don't like this one
then I give up." Come on. I'm not evil enough to wreck someone's
writing career, am I?
This story was part of the continuing chronicles of a guy named
LC--who may be a stand-in for the author--and purports to be
based on real life sexual activity. LC is a rock and roller and has a
second job as a sort of security guard at a remote power plant. One
morning on the job he encounters a naked chick, in the parlance
of the time, who is wandering around as if on a drug trip. Like
most naked chicks in such accounts, she's young, sexually
desirable, sexually skilled, and sexually available. If she wasn't,
she wouldn't be a naked chick. She'd be a fat cow or hard-ass
bitch or whatever. In the parlance of the time. Lots of sex follows
as the stoned naked chick displays her sensual prowess, causing
some humorous situations between LC and his boss. She
eventually flips out and tries to kill herself by sitting on top of an
electrical transformer after giving the hero a case of clap.
The story was funny in places and an evocative memoir of its
time--that period in the 70s when the sexual excesses of the
hippies had finally filtered into the mainstream--but was
hampered by the narrative voice. The author couldn't decide
whether to write the story in omniscient POV ("John did that") or
first ("I did that") and settled for a strange median ("Our man LC
decided to do that") which gave the strange effect he was talking
about himself in the third person.
On a personal level, the story did not appeal to me because it was
too much like the articles that used to appear in the old National
Lampoon and High Times magazines on which I cut my porn-
reading teeth as a young pre-pubescent in the 70s. Frankly, they
gave me the wrong idea as to what male-female sex was all about.
Being a stoned hippie chick sex machine in order to please men is
not a very appealing future for a tender 11-year-old. So, in order
to answer the author's question, No, I didn't like this story--it
carried some bad memories--but looking at it from an unbiased
viewpoint, it had its moments.
The Root of Evil [A+]
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
When posted: 7/31/98
Author: Tooshoes
Address: tooshoes@cris.com
Website: http://www.cris.com/~tooshoes
A lonely guy becomes infatuated with an exotic dancer in this
story, or rather an adult club dancer, as ballet and jitterbugging
could be considered very exotic to a native of Borneo or Tierre del
Fuego. Gradually he spends more and time at the club, tipping his
crush generously, and a friendship develops based on the
exchange of sensual energy for hard cold cash. He begins to fall
in love. The dancer likes him and cuts him a special deal, but
she's still a dancer who has to work for a living, and this is where
the story's conflicts come into a play. Eventually the narrator
gets more and more possessive and confesses his love, which
freaks her out (the #1 rule of adult club dancers being Don't Get
Involved) and leads her to oh-so-gently withdraw. The narrator
considers suicide, but has a startling change of heart.
The first nine-tenths of this story was an excellent depiction of
the feelings of an adult man caught up in the particular male
trap of exchanging cash for female attention, which has been
going on for as long as there's been prostitution in the world. It
deserves an A+ for the sensitivity involved. However, I was not so
crazy about the conclusion. I could see the narrator deciding that
his infatuation was ridiculous and resolving to live his life as
free and sensually as the dancer lives hers, but such a resolve
does not occur in one night, nor do the feelings of pain and
rejection go away easily. I expected him to give up clubbing for
good and instead find a real woman, but the last paragraph has
him returning to the club and starting out the relationship with
his dancer on a fresh foot. Wish fulfillment maybe, but not real
life. Still, the rest of the story was excellent, and that's why I gave
it the grade I did.
Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com
Website---> http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh
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