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Flesh and the Word: An Anthology of Gay Erotic Writing by John Preston
26 examples of gay erotic writing from the likes of Anne Rice, Edmund White, Alan Hollinghurst, Larry Townsend, Leigh Rutledge, Andrew Holleran, Aaron Travis, and Pat Califa
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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335 people want to read
About the author
John Preston
51 books76 followersJohn Preston wrote and edited gay erotica, fiction, and nonfiction.
He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, later living in a number of major American cities before settling in Portland, Maine in 1979. A writer of fiction and nonfiction, dealing mostly with issues in gay life, he was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement in Minneapolis. He helped found one of the earliest gay community centers in the United States, edited two newsletters devoted to sexual health, and served as editor of The Advocate in 1975.
He was the author or editor of nearly fifty books, including such erotic landmarks as Mr. Benson and I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love. Other works include Franny, the Queen of Provincetown (first a novel, then adapted for stage), The Big Gay Book: A Man's Survival Guide for the Nineties, Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS, and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong.
Preston's writing (which he described as pornography) was part of a movement in the 1970s and 1980s toward higher literary quality in gay erotic fiction. Preston was an outspoken advocate of the artistic and social worth of erotic writings, delivering a lecture at Harvard University entitled My Life as a Pornographer. The lecture was later published in an essay collection with the same name. The collection includes Preston's thoughts about the gay leather community, to which he belonged. His writings caused controversy when he was one of several gay and lesbian authors to have their books confiscated at the border by Canada Customs. Testimony regarding the literary merit of his novel I Once Had a Master helped a Vancouver LGBT bookstore, Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, to partially win a case against Canada Customs in the Canadian Supreme Court in 2000. Preston also brought gay erotic fiction to mainstream readers by editing the Flesh and the Word anthologies for a major press.
Preston served as a journalist and essayist throughout his life. He wrote news articles for Drummer and other gay magazines, produced a syndicated column on gay life in Maine, and penned a column for Lambda Book Report called "Preston on Publishing." His nonfiction anthologies, which collected essays by himself and others on everyday aspects of gay and lesbian life, won him the Lambda Literary Award and the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award. He was especially noted for his writings on New England.
Although primarily known as a gay fiction writer, Preston was also hired by a local newspaper, The Portland Chronicle, to write news articles and features about his adopted hometown of Portland. He wrote a long feature about the local monopoly newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, as well as many food articles movie reviews and other writing.
In addition, Preston wrote men's adventure novels under the pseudonyms of Mike McCray, Preston MacAdam, and Jack Hilt (pen names that he shared with other authors). Taking what he had learned from authoring those books, he wrote the "Alex Kane" adventure novels about gay characters. These books, which included "Sweet Dreams," "Golden Years," and "Deadly Lies," combined action-story plots with an exploration of issues such as the problems facing gay youth.
Preston was among the first writers to popularize the genre of safe sex stories, editing a safe sex anthology entitled Hot Living in 1985. He helped to found the AIDS Project of Southern Maine. In the late 1980s, he discovered that he himself was HIV positive.
Some of his last essays, found in his nonfiction anthologies and in his posthumous collection Winter's Light, describe his struggle to come emotionally to terms with a disease that had already killed many of his friends and fellow writers.
He died of AIDS complications on April 28, 1994, aged 48, at his home in Portland. His papers are held in the Preston Archive at Brown University.
Librarian Note: There is more th
He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, later living in a number of major American cities before settling in Portland, Maine in 1979. A writer of fiction and nonfiction, dealing mostly with issues in gay life, he was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement in Minneapolis. He helped found one of the earliest gay community centers in the United States, edited two newsletters devoted to sexual health, and served as editor of The Advocate in 1975.
He was the author or editor of nearly fifty books, including such erotic landmarks as Mr. Benson and I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love. Other works include Franny, the Queen of Provincetown (first a novel, then adapted for stage), The Big Gay Book: A Man's Survival Guide for the Nineties, Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS, and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong.
Preston's writing (which he described as pornography) was part of a movement in the 1970s and 1980s toward higher literary quality in gay erotic fiction. Preston was an outspoken advocate of the artistic and social worth of erotic writings, delivering a lecture at Harvard University entitled My Life as a Pornographer. The lecture was later published in an essay collection with the same name. The collection includes Preston's thoughts about the gay leather community, to which he belonged. His writings caused controversy when he was one of several gay and lesbian authors to have their books confiscated at the border by Canada Customs. Testimony regarding the literary merit of his novel I Once Had a Master helped a Vancouver LGBT bookstore, Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, to partially win a case against Canada Customs in the Canadian Supreme Court in 2000. Preston also brought gay erotic fiction to mainstream readers by editing the Flesh and the Word anthologies for a major press.
Preston served as a journalist and essayist throughout his life. He wrote news articles for Drummer and other gay magazines, produced a syndicated column on gay life in Maine, and penned a column for Lambda Book Report called "Preston on Publishing." His nonfiction anthologies, which collected essays by himself and others on everyday aspects of gay and lesbian life, won him the Lambda Literary Award and the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award. He was especially noted for his writings on New England.
Although primarily known as a gay fiction writer, Preston was also hired by a local newspaper, The Portland Chronicle, to write news articles and features about his adopted hometown of Portland. He wrote a long feature about the local monopoly newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, as well as many food articles movie reviews and other writing.
In addition, Preston wrote men's adventure novels under the pseudonyms of Mike McCray, Preston MacAdam, and Jack Hilt (pen names that he shared with other authors). Taking what he had learned from authoring those books, he wrote the "Alex Kane" adventure novels about gay characters. These books, which included "Sweet Dreams," "Golden Years," and "Deadly Lies," combined action-story plots with an exploration of issues such as the problems facing gay youth.
Preston was among the first writers to popularize the genre of safe sex stories, editing a safe sex anthology entitled Hot Living in 1985. He helped to found the AIDS Project of Southern Maine. In the late 1980s, he discovered that he himself was HIV positive.
Some of his last essays, found in his nonfiction anthologies and in his posthumous collection Winter's Light, describe his struggle to come emotionally to terms with a disease that had already killed many of his friends and fellow writers.
He died of AIDS complications on April 28, 1994, aged 48, at his home in Portland. His papers are held in the Preston Archive at Brown University.
Librarian Note: There is more th
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 25, 2023
Never thought a collection of “elevated” smut would open my eyes to so many important, urgent topics, while also… being smut. I think I’m going to follow this thread further. Sex is such an essential lens to uncover human history. Loved the academic and theoretical framings of each chapter. Onto the next collection…
November 24, 2013
This is an anthology of 27 essentially gay-male short erotic stories from the 1950's to 1992. They range from the non-physical Brian's Room to the haunting, boundary-pushing Blue Light.
Part 1: The forebears
Correspondence with George Platt Lynes, Samuel M. Steward;
There are two stories titled:
• In the Hayloft
It’s about Lou Cline, a big guy of Sam’s his high school that Sam f*cked on the beach and in Thompson’s barn. Not bad for a very short story (3 pages) just about sex.
• At the Embarcadero YMCA
Very short story (3 pages) of another guy (a black stranger) met by Sam in a shower that he began to f*ck there then in his room. Pretty much the same as the first story but in two different places.
Each story is accompanied by a letter addressed to Georges Platt Lynes by Samuel S. Steward. Georges P. Lynes was famous for his work in Vogue.
The Sergeant with the Rose Tattoo, Samuel M. Steward writing as Phil Andros;
It’s the story of an American sergeant on a leave in Paris who came to a tattoo shop to remove a stupid tattoo he did to himself on his finger. Because the sergeant live in what he called a “dump”, the tattooist invited him in his apart. The sergeant said that he isn’t gay but asked the MC to tattoo a rose on his shoulder, just like the one the MC has on his. Then he left. The sergeant came back a year later to ask for what he declined the first time (the f*cking).
The f*ck is not described. The rest of the story is a little dull.
From Cruising Horny Corners, Clay Caldwell writing as Lance Lester.
This is the story of Mike and Johnny wanted to go hitchhiking to California. Lance took them in his beautiful car and they went to his house in San Fernando Valley. They swam in the pool. Afterwards, Mike and Lance, who are gay, fucked in Lance's room. Johnny, who was young and very naive, heard wailing sounds and he thought that Lance was hurting his friend Mike. Johnny looked through the keyhole and saw things that aroused him.
Dull. The only funny part is Lance’s description of the way Colonel Harper L. Faries of the Army of the Righteous gave birth to the Valley.
Part 2: The sexual Grubb Street
Workout, Roy F. Wood;
Tony worked at Rick’s gym and one night when there was no client, a guy phoned and asked if the gym was opened. Tony said “yes, for the next two hours”. Then the guy came. He was big, muscled. And Tony found him very attractive. They began to train together, competing in force, but also helping each other to do better. Both of them wanted to see each other again, so they began to fuck together. The client then said that he was looking for a Mr. Olympia candidate.
Interesting story, particularly the part regarding their friendly rivalry made me hope to find a trainer like that.
Peekers, T.R. Witomski writing as Ray Waldheim;
The MC learned the pleasure of looking through peepholes in the washrooms, through window blinds and in the room of his roommate while guys masturbated. Then he decided to tell his roommate that he was very frustrated looking at him while he was pissing, showering, and so on and they f*cked (not described).
Since my name is not Peeping Tom, I was not very interested in these descriptions of masturbation.
They Call Me Horsemeat, D.V. Sadero writing as Rick Lane;
A young mechanic and biker meets Doc Zane, a rich nerd making chemical experiences in his undergrounds. One day, Zane ask the MC if he’d like to have a bigger cock and bigger balls too. Zane said “Yes, of course. Who wouldn’t?” Then Zane gave his medic to the MC and he got a bigger cock. But the chemicals are explosive and when the MC is somewhere else, Zane’s house exploded. So the MC went to Beverly Hills where big movie stars kept him at his beautiful house and paid for his living. Everybody who saw the MC naked called him Horsemeat.
More a story of a strange science experience than anything else. No real sex scene either. So so.
A Cowboy's Christmas, Lars Eighner;
It’s a story of a coming of age during Christmas leave.
Dull.
The Shirt, Robin Metcalfe;
A guy went regularly at an army’s surplus shop and bought a pant, next time a jacket with Steve embroidered on the shoulder, then sneakers with P.L. Gauthier written under the tongue, then... a shirt. Each time he bought something, he pictured the guy who wore it before him, imagining him rough and handsome. One day, he tried a shirt in the fitting room and looked at himself in the mirror, he saw the nice young man he was and as Narcissus he was seduced by his own image. He found a pornographic book of pictures of handsome gay men in the cabin and he masturbated himself there, looking at the stranger in the mirror.
Intellectually interesting, since the MC imagined each time the first owner of his clothes and at the end he saw himself as this stranger. But there is nothing to make you feel hot.
Negative Image, Michael Lassell writing as Michael Lewis;
When the MC saw his old friend Ray on a poster for a porno movie, he remembered the first time he sucked a cock (it was Ray’s). Then he went inside the theater to see that movie. In the middle of it a young guy went closer and closer to him, so the MC went to the toilet room, the youth followed and they fucked there.
Classic story of guys f*cking in a toilet stall. Dull.
Brian's Bedroom, Leigh Rutledge;
The theme of this story is mild voyeurism. A guy goes to see his friend Dave living with a handsome roommate named Brian. The MC takes advantage of Brian’s absence for snooping in his room and looks at the evidence of Brian’s existence there: soiled underwear left on the floor, bottle of cologne, photos of friends (all young men), etc.
“I pick them up [dirty underwear]. They’re incredibly soft, like the flesh of a boy’s ass. Strange to think of the erections that must have occurred in them. What was he thinking about the last time he had a hard-on in this exact pair of briefs?”
The story ends in the bathroom where Brian is taking a shower. But it happens there, the MC not wanting an excuse to continue its investigation.
Blue Light, Steven Saylor writing as Aaron Travis;
A guy living in New York decides to move to Houston. He finds a room in a house belonging to two hippies named Karen and Sharon who are Janis Joplin’s fans. Sharon shows the house to our MC. Another guy named Michael lives in the attic. Sharon says that Michael, who is tall, dark-haired and broad-shouldered, owns the place and is in pretty weird stuff. Michael has a regular visitor: a handsome blond guy named Carl. Then the MC hears above his head in Michael’s room sounds like the whoosh and snap of a belt or a whip. The MC begins to imagine he’s dominating Michael and to fantasize about it. But when he goes to Michael’s attic room to do what he imagined, he gets a big surprise.
The best story so far.
Getting Timchenko, Steven Saylor writing as Aaron Travis.
“Hey, tell you what. You pull one last trick on Timchenko with me tonight, and I let you give me a blow job.”
It’s a story about two friends bullying another guy and about one of them getting redemption.
Part 3: Women and gay men's erotica
Belonging, Pat Califa;
It’s a story about a stalker and a spoiled-looking, young man. Jerry, the young man, is kidnapped at knifepoint by the stalker, a big rough-looking guy. Then the boy understands that Caroline has let him believe that she was hot for him only to train him to be ready for what was coming (or I should say “Who” was coming). Then Caroline’s big brother begins the real training.
Very good story too. Even though I usually don’t like stories with dub-con and non-con, I loved this one because the snotty boy deserved a lesson.
Elliot - The Garden and the Bar, Anne Rice writing as Ann Rampling;
Excerpt from Exit to Eden.
Elliot has just arrived at the Pleasure Island to be a slave for two years. This story describes his first humiliations, failures, pains, and pleasures.
Anne Rice is real good at describing the feelings and emotions of a new slave in a new place full of masters and mistresses.
Elliot - Below Stairs, Anne Rice writing as Ann Rampling.
Excerpt from Exit to Eden.
Elliot is punished once again. He is forced to do menial and hard works in the kitchen and bathrooms for coarse servants who take pleasure in humiliating him and paddle his buttock and thighs, and to f*ck him.
Not a bad short story.
Part 4: The sexual underground
From “Run Little Leather Boy”, Larry Townsend;
Wayne, the MC, explain how he developed a taste for black leather and S&M and everything going with it.
In fact, he only explained how he got a taste for cock sucking. Dull.
Malory's Big Brother from the “Green Hotel Stories”, Gordon Hoban.
Malory is caught by his big brother while masturbating naked on the beach. Then his brother pisses on him and masturbates, then comes on him. Very dull.
Part 5: In the mainstream
From “A Boy's Own Story”, Edmund White;
This story describes the first f*ck between a fifteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old.
Realistic.
From The Beautiful Room is Empty, Edmund White;
This is about a student cruising in bars and having “quicks” in toilet rooms and back alleys.
Not too bad.
The Brutus Cinema from “The Swimming Pool-Library”, Alan Hollinghurst.
The Brutus Cinema shows porno movies. A young man goes there and he sits beside another. They jerk each other.
The author knows how to recreate the ambiance of such cinemas. Not a bad story.
Part 6: First person, nonfiction
Mmmmpfgh, Andrew Holleran;
This story is about gay men stalking the dunes and walking the paths for only one purpose: to eat meat (penis). It explains how they chose.
Thinking Off, Scott O'Hara writing as Spunk;
It’s about everything: jacking oneself off in the bathroom, sucking one’s own cock, being raped, erotic videos,...
Blah!
Safe Sex Without Condoms, John Wagenhauser.
This story explains how things worked at Jack-Off (J.O.) clubs. A large group of gay men going from one to the other and jacking off each other.
Part 7: Post-AIDS, postpolitical
Soggy Biscuit, Barry Lowe;
The guys in the soccer team at Steven’s school play soggy biscuit in the dressing shed after the matches. Just say that the arrow-root biscuits don’t get soggy because they are soaked in milk.
Funny story. I think every boy plays games to see other boys’ dick and prove his virility.
The Reality of a Dream, W. Delon Strode;
Awakening in the middle of an erotic dream, Xavier imagines how this dream could have finished.
So-so.
The Group, John Wagenhauser writing as Wolfgang;
A group of anarchists decides one day that the ultimate way of thumbing their noses to normal society is to do a gang bang, everybody f*cking everybody else, even though there are only straight guys and straight girls, and there is much more guys than girls. Having gay sex as the supreme proof or anarchy? Why not?
Interesting story.
Good With Words, Stephen Greco.
The MC dreams about the golden ages, when the Mineshaft was still open. He discusses about it with old friend Albert, who is good with words. They miss the “genius” of people who experienced firsthand the catalytic charm of old-fashioned sex clubs, when nothing was forbidden and everything was possible. Then the MC goes to a party where they play as if the Mineshaft was still open.
Interesting perspective on the difference between doing the real thing and speaking of the real thing during sex.
There is a few exceptionally good stories, a few dull ones, and the rest is average. One of the main interests of this anthology is that it goes back to the 50s and there is an interesting variety of styles and focus. So I give 4.5 stars to this anthology.
You could find other reviews here: http://heartsonfirereviews.com/?tag=D...
Part 1: The forebears
Correspondence with George Platt Lynes, Samuel M. Steward;
There are two stories titled:
• In the Hayloft
It’s about Lou Cline, a big guy of Sam’s his high school that Sam f*cked on the beach and in Thompson’s barn. Not bad for a very short story (3 pages) just about sex.
• At the Embarcadero YMCA
Very short story (3 pages) of another guy (a black stranger) met by Sam in a shower that he began to f*ck there then in his room. Pretty much the same as the first story but in two different places.
Each story is accompanied by a letter addressed to Georges Platt Lynes by Samuel S. Steward. Georges P. Lynes was famous for his work in Vogue.
The Sergeant with the Rose Tattoo, Samuel M. Steward writing as Phil Andros;
It’s the story of an American sergeant on a leave in Paris who came to a tattoo shop to remove a stupid tattoo he did to himself on his finger. Because the sergeant live in what he called a “dump”, the tattooist invited him in his apart. The sergeant said that he isn’t gay but asked the MC to tattoo a rose on his shoulder, just like the one the MC has on his. Then he left. The sergeant came back a year later to ask for what he declined the first time (the f*cking).
The f*ck is not described. The rest of the story is a little dull.
From Cruising Horny Corners, Clay Caldwell writing as Lance Lester.
This is the story of Mike and Johnny wanted to go hitchhiking to California. Lance took them in his beautiful car and they went to his house in San Fernando Valley. They swam in the pool. Afterwards, Mike and Lance, who are gay, fucked in Lance's room. Johnny, who was young and very naive, heard wailing sounds and he thought that Lance was hurting his friend Mike. Johnny looked through the keyhole and saw things that aroused him.
Dull. The only funny part is Lance’s description of the way Colonel Harper L. Faries of the Army of the Righteous gave birth to the Valley.
Part 2: The sexual Grubb Street
Workout, Roy F. Wood;
Tony worked at Rick’s gym and one night when there was no client, a guy phoned and asked if the gym was opened. Tony said “yes, for the next two hours”. Then the guy came. He was big, muscled. And Tony found him very attractive. They began to train together, competing in force, but also helping each other to do better. Both of them wanted to see each other again, so they began to fuck together. The client then said that he was looking for a Mr. Olympia candidate.
Interesting story, particularly the part regarding their friendly rivalry made me hope to find a trainer like that.
Peekers, T.R. Witomski writing as Ray Waldheim;
The MC learned the pleasure of looking through peepholes in the washrooms, through window blinds and in the room of his roommate while guys masturbated. Then he decided to tell his roommate that he was very frustrated looking at him while he was pissing, showering, and so on and they f*cked (not described).
Since my name is not Peeping Tom, I was not very interested in these descriptions of masturbation.
They Call Me Horsemeat, D.V. Sadero writing as Rick Lane;
A young mechanic and biker meets Doc Zane, a rich nerd making chemical experiences in his undergrounds. One day, Zane ask the MC if he’d like to have a bigger cock and bigger balls too. Zane said “Yes, of course. Who wouldn’t?” Then Zane gave his medic to the MC and he got a bigger cock. But the chemicals are explosive and when the MC is somewhere else, Zane’s house exploded. So the MC went to Beverly Hills where big movie stars kept him at his beautiful house and paid for his living. Everybody who saw the MC naked called him Horsemeat.
More a story of a strange science experience than anything else. No real sex scene either. So so.
A Cowboy's Christmas, Lars Eighner;
It’s a story of a coming of age during Christmas leave.
Dull.
The Shirt, Robin Metcalfe;
A guy went regularly at an army’s surplus shop and bought a pant, next time a jacket with Steve embroidered on the shoulder, then sneakers with P.L. Gauthier written under the tongue, then... a shirt. Each time he bought something, he pictured the guy who wore it before him, imagining him rough and handsome. One day, he tried a shirt in the fitting room and looked at himself in the mirror, he saw the nice young man he was and as Narcissus he was seduced by his own image. He found a pornographic book of pictures of handsome gay men in the cabin and he masturbated himself there, looking at the stranger in the mirror.
Intellectually interesting, since the MC imagined each time the first owner of his clothes and at the end he saw himself as this stranger. But there is nothing to make you feel hot.
Negative Image, Michael Lassell writing as Michael Lewis;
When the MC saw his old friend Ray on a poster for a porno movie, he remembered the first time he sucked a cock (it was Ray’s). Then he went inside the theater to see that movie. In the middle of it a young guy went closer and closer to him, so the MC went to the toilet room, the youth followed and they fucked there.
Classic story of guys f*cking in a toilet stall. Dull.
Brian's Bedroom, Leigh Rutledge;
The theme of this story is mild voyeurism. A guy goes to see his friend Dave living with a handsome roommate named Brian. The MC takes advantage of Brian’s absence for snooping in his room and looks at the evidence of Brian’s existence there: soiled underwear left on the floor, bottle of cologne, photos of friends (all young men), etc.
“I pick them up [dirty underwear]. They’re incredibly soft, like the flesh of a boy’s ass. Strange to think of the erections that must have occurred in them. What was he thinking about the last time he had a hard-on in this exact pair of briefs?”
The story ends in the bathroom where Brian is taking a shower. But it happens there, the MC not wanting an excuse to continue its investigation.
Blue Light, Steven Saylor writing as Aaron Travis;
A guy living in New York decides to move to Houston. He finds a room in a house belonging to two hippies named Karen and Sharon who are Janis Joplin’s fans. Sharon shows the house to our MC. Another guy named Michael lives in the attic. Sharon says that Michael, who is tall, dark-haired and broad-shouldered, owns the place and is in pretty weird stuff. Michael has a regular visitor: a handsome blond guy named Carl. Then the MC hears above his head in Michael’s room sounds like the whoosh and snap of a belt or a whip. The MC begins to imagine he’s dominating Michael and to fantasize about it. But when he goes to Michael’s attic room to do what he imagined, he gets a big surprise.
The best story so far.
Getting Timchenko, Steven Saylor writing as Aaron Travis.
“Hey, tell you what. You pull one last trick on Timchenko with me tonight, and I let you give me a blow job.”
It’s a story about two friends bullying another guy and about one of them getting redemption.
Part 3: Women and gay men's erotica
Belonging, Pat Califa;
It’s a story about a stalker and a spoiled-looking, young man. Jerry, the young man, is kidnapped at knifepoint by the stalker, a big rough-looking guy. Then the boy understands that Caroline has let him believe that she was hot for him only to train him to be ready for what was coming (or I should say “Who” was coming). Then Caroline’s big brother begins the real training.
Very good story too. Even though I usually don’t like stories with dub-con and non-con, I loved this one because the snotty boy deserved a lesson.
Elliot - The Garden and the Bar, Anne Rice writing as Ann Rampling;
Excerpt from Exit to Eden.
Elliot has just arrived at the Pleasure Island to be a slave for two years. This story describes his first humiliations, failures, pains, and pleasures.
Anne Rice is real good at describing the feelings and emotions of a new slave in a new place full of masters and mistresses.
Elliot - Below Stairs, Anne Rice writing as Ann Rampling.
Excerpt from Exit to Eden.
Elliot is punished once again. He is forced to do menial and hard works in the kitchen and bathrooms for coarse servants who take pleasure in humiliating him and paddle his buttock and thighs, and to f*ck him.
Not a bad short story.
Part 4: The sexual underground
From “Run Little Leather Boy”, Larry Townsend;
Wayne, the MC, explain how he developed a taste for black leather and S&M and everything going with it.
In fact, he only explained how he got a taste for cock sucking. Dull.
Malory's Big Brother from the “Green Hotel Stories”, Gordon Hoban.
Malory is caught by his big brother while masturbating naked on the beach. Then his brother pisses on him and masturbates, then comes on him. Very dull.
Part 5: In the mainstream
From “A Boy's Own Story”, Edmund White;
This story describes the first f*ck between a fifteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old.
Realistic.
From The Beautiful Room is Empty, Edmund White;
This is about a student cruising in bars and having “quicks” in toilet rooms and back alleys.
Not too bad.
The Brutus Cinema from “The Swimming Pool-Library”, Alan Hollinghurst.
The Brutus Cinema shows porno movies. A young man goes there and he sits beside another. They jerk each other.
The author knows how to recreate the ambiance of such cinemas. Not a bad story.
Part 6: First person, nonfiction
Mmmmpfgh, Andrew Holleran;
This story is about gay men stalking the dunes and walking the paths for only one purpose: to eat meat (penis). It explains how they chose.
Thinking Off, Scott O'Hara writing as Spunk;
It’s about everything: jacking oneself off in the bathroom, sucking one’s own cock, being raped, erotic videos,...
Blah!
Safe Sex Without Condoms, John Wagenhauser.
This story explains how things worked at Jack-Off (J.O.) clubs. A large group of gay men going from one to the other and jacking off each other.
Part 7: Post-AIDS, postpolitical
Soggy Biscuit, Barry Lowe;
The guys in the soccer team at Steven’s school play soggy biscuit in the dressing shed after the matches. Just say that the arrow-root biscuits don’t get soggy because they are soaked in milk.
Funny story. I think every boy plays games to see other boys’ dick and prove his virility.
The Reality of a Dream, W. Delon Strode;
Awakening in the middle of an erotic dream, Xavier imagines how this dream could have finished.
So-so.
The Group, John Wagenhauser writing as Wolfgang;
A group of anarchists decides one day that the ultimate way of thumbing their noses to normal society is to do a gang bang, everybody f*cking everybody else, even though there are only straight guys and straight girls, and there is much more guys than girls. Having gay sex as the supreme proof or anarchy? Why not?
Interesting story.
Good With Words, Stephen Greco.
The MC dreams about the golden ages, when the Mineshaft was still open. He discusses about it with old friend Albert, who is good with words. They miss the “genius” of people who experienced firsthand the catalytic charm of old-fashioned sex clubs, when nothing was forbidden and everything was possible. Then the MC goes to a party where they play as if the Mineshaft was still open.
Interesting perspective on the difference between doing the real thing and speaking of the real thing during sex.
There is a few exceptionally good stories, a few dull ones, and the rest is average. One of the main interests of this anthology is that it goes back to the 50s and there is an interesting variety of styles and focus. So I give 4.5 stars to this anthology.
You could find other reviews here: http://heartsonfirereviews.com/?tag=D...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2010
[These notes were made in 1993:]. You would not have believed the silly song-and-dance I went through with myself to get a copy of this anthology of sexually explicit short fiction about gay men. Determined not to cross the threshold of Glad Day myself (why? would I turn into a pumpkin?) I dropped mention of it into conversation with all my gay friends until eventually one took pity on me and gave it to me for Christmas. In the event, it proved only intermittently satisfying, and much of it was surprisingly familiar. The marquee name on the cover, and one of the only two women writers represented, is Anne Rice, finding a place to publish two chapters dropped from her novel Exit to Eden. These chapters are actually more in the vein of her Roquelaure stuff, in my opinion, than the rather dismaying tendency of the novel overall (towards the mainstream, towards "maturity", towards heterosexuality, away from S/M games, away from gay sex...) Anyway, the chapters were moderately exciting to discover. The Hollinghurst contribution was an excerpt from The Swimming Pool Library, which I read recently, tho' alas I didn't get around to reviewing it. Edmund White was also represented by a couple of excerpts (sex scenes, of course) from longer published works, where, despite the usual immediacy and unusualness of the sensual metaphors and similes, I felt the lack of context hurt the writing somewhat, and made it seem closer to the art-less run-of-the-mill paperback porn than it would have been had the characters already been alive from elsewhere in the story. The most striking, and certainly the most disturbing item in the collection was a short story by Steven Saylor ("Aaron Travis"), called "Blue Light." Explicit S/M, this is also fantasy fiction of the most visceral kind, for the masochist (who is also the narrator) is by some magical means decapitated and castrated, thus becoming entirely dependent on his captor quite literally for his reintegration. The psychological reverberations (even for a woman reader who cannot quite, I think, comprehend the full gut horror of the fear of castration) are immense and fascinating. Having read it through once for its uneasy but strong stimulation value, one then immediately wants to reread it to find out exactly what is going on, what it all means. The last story I'd like to single out is not so complex in terms of layers, but it appeals to me, inevitably, because of the gender-bender aspect. This is the only other story in the book by a woman, "Belonging", by Pat Califia [2010: Califia has since transitioned to male], and interestingly enough, along with Rice's contributions, it is the most straightforwardly and ferociously S/M story in the collection. An accident, a reflection of Preston's tastes, or a clue in that never-ending puzzle of what makes a certain and distinct segment of womankind so fascinated with male-male encounters? This one is about self-knowledge, and though 3rd person, is very much from the point of view of a casually contemptuous self-identified straight male, who is kidnapped and cowed by another man into realizing where he "belongs" (in both the sense of fitting in, and of being owned). The captor is also the brother of a woman who wants revenge, who has been at once dominatrix of and despised by the captured man, and much of the climactic (pun intended) action happens in her shadow, as it were, as the captor runs home movies of the woman and his prisoner. But just as the captive finally realizes on the most fundamental level that he wants a man, not a woman, so too the projector runs out, leaving the truth - the two men together - exposed in the bright white light. It's an interesting image, and the more so for having been written by a woman. I was not overly impressed by the quality of the writing in the collection generally, though the items I have mentioned were the exceptions; I was also fairly bored by the emphasis, which seems to be fairly common in the gay community, on teenage sexuality and early self-discovery.
October 22, 2025
Als Herausgeber von „The Advocate“ ist der 1994 an AIDS verstorbene John Preston nicht nur einer der frühen Helden der US-Schwulenbewegung gewesen, sondern auch so etwas wie SM-Papst. Mit „The Flesh and the Word“ legte er 1992 eine vorbildliche Sammlung schwuler erotischer Texte vor, von denen tatsächlich nicht alle pornografisch waren, manche aber schon. Die Reihe erlebte mehrere Fortsetzungen, nach Prestons Tod dann von anderen Herausgebern besorgt. Im ersten Band hatte man sich der Mitwirkung von ein paar „Klassikern“ der Schmuddelliteratur versichert, darunter der Tattooist Samuel Steward (1909-1993), ein Mann, der mal Kunst studiert, lange in Paris gelebt, auch als Escort bzw. Stricher gearbeitet hatte. Von ihm hatte es in den sechziger und siebziger Jahren gepfefferte Taschenbücher für den Hinterzimmer-Verkauf gegeben.
Ende der 1980-er gab es in Berlin drei ambitionierte schwule Kleinverlage, die jeweils, meist in Form nicht eben billiger, aber schön gemachter Klappbroschuren bislang von keinem deutschsprachigen Verlagshaus vermittelte schwule Autoren der britischen und amerikanischen Literatur nach Mitteleuropa zu bringen versuchten: rosa Winkel, Albino und Bruno Gmünder. Da die tatsächlich „schwules Zeug“ lesende homosexuelle Leserschaft aber eher klein war, die Medien sozusagen nie berichteten, war das ein Gang auf Messers Schneide. Zu beiden Seiten gähnten die Abgründe von Zahlungsunfähigkeit und Konkurs. Überhaupt nicht mehr präsent hat das schwule Gedächtnis Deutschlands, dass es im Jahr 1994 und bei rosa Winkel - immerhin - zu einer deutschen Ausgabe der nachmalig legendären ersten Folge von „Flesh & Word“ kam, sinnigerweise unter dem Titel „Das Fleisch und das Wort“. Was, - nicht allein, weil es eine biblische Anspielung ist -, kein angemessener Titel für ein „heißes Buch“ in Deutschland war.
Rosa Winkel war in den 1970-er Jahren aus Berlins erster Schwulengruppe hervorgegangen, wurde lange Zeit mehr oder weniger als Ein-Mann-Betrieb von dem aus Baden stammenden Egmont Fassbinder (1945-2023, keine Verwandtschaft mit dem Filmregisseur) geführt. Fassbinders wirtschaftliche Standbeine waren seine schwulen Rechts- und Medizin-Berater, Reiseführer, die ersten Comics von Ralf König, bevor dieser zu Männerschwarm, Carlsen und rororo abwanderte. Fassbinder hat immer wieder Hoffnungen in Titel gesetzt, die die Leute einfach nicht haben wollten (Yves Navarre: „Loukoum“), und er hat Bücher angekündigt, die dann nie kamen. Sowieso war dieser Verlag Mitte der 1990-er Jahre fast schon tot, wenn auch das letzte eigene Buch erst im Jahr 2001 erscheinen sollte. Aber schon in den späteren neunziger Jahren gingen Buchbestand und Autoren (Michael Sollorz, Ralf König) nach und nach zu Männerschwarm in Hamburg über.
(Parallel dazu schwang Bruno Gmünder sich zum Pulp-, Krimi-, Porno-Verlag schlechthin für Schwule auf, einige Jahre enorm erfolgreich; er schluckte unter anderem Albino, stellte es dann aber bald ein. Witzigerweise erscheint heute, soweit es als Nachfolge-Firma unter anderer Leitung noch da ist, das Gmünder-Erbe unter dem Namen Albino. Der Mann Gmünder ging in den 2010-er Jahren mehrfach Pleite, schied aus der nach ihm benannten Firma aus, kaufte sie zurück, schied erneut aus. Drei der vier „Bruno's“ Läden schlossen 2024. Nur die Hardcore-Romanreihe lässt man noch unter dem Etikett „Bruno Books“ laufen. Aber auch Männerschwarm, wo bis heute die für ihre interessanten historischen Ausgrabungen berühmte Serie „Bibliothek rosa Winkel“ weitergeführt wurde (wie lange noch, ist fraglich, da der langjährige Herausgeber nicht mehr lebt), ist faktisch so gut wie eingestellt, bzw. in den jetzigen Berliner „Albino Verlag in der Salzgeber Medien GmbH“ eingegliedert worden.)
1994 hat Egmont Fassbinder die Herausgabe von vier Bänden „Das Fleisch und das Wort“ angekündigt. Es blieb dann aber bei dem einen und einzigen, den ich hier bespreche. Die hier auf der Seite, oben bei dem Wort „Contents“ (wenn man unter dem Buchtitel auf „show more“ klickt) gelisteten Texte sind in dieser Ausgabe vollständig abgedruckt bis zu dem zweiten Titel von Aaron Travis, also nichts mehr ab Pat Califa. Mir persönlich war auch ein gewisser Eindruck von der fehlenden Hälfte möglich, denn ich kenne die Romane von Edmund White und Alan Hollinghurst und habe „Good with Words“ von Stephen Greco in einer anderen Anthologie gelesen. (Ich vermute, wenn rosa Winkel vier Bücher bringen wollte, sollten es die F&W-Bände 1 und 2 werden.)
Von den Titeln, die Kollege Averin als besonders gelungene nennt, konnte ich den kleinen Briefwechsel zwischen Samuel M. Steward und dem New Yorker Fotografen George Platt Lynes aus den frühen fünfziger Jahren lesen. Die beiden schicken sich kurze Porno-Episoden zu. Dann die Muckibuden-Mär über einen lammfrommen Muskelgiganten, der nach einem erfahreneren Master sucht: „Workout“ von Roy F. Wood. (Die deutschen Übersetzer wechseln von Text zu Text; dieser hier fand den Titel „Muskel-Training“ angemessen.) Von dem in den Neunzigern zwar auch schon Vierziger, aber noch gerne auf jung und sehr versaut tuenden Lars Eighner gibt's mit „Cowboy-Weihnachten“ eine nur anfangs weihnachtliche, dann derbe Fickgeschichte. Robin Metcalfe unternimmt den literarischen Versuch, einem nach verschiedenen Vorbesitzern riechenden gelb-roten Hemd magische Kräfte auf den Kunden eines Secondhandladen zuzuschreiben. Er muss das unbedingt mal tragen, zieht im Hinterzimmer sonst aber alles aus, um vor einem Spiegel, hinter dem - mehr oder weniger mit seiner Einwilligung - der Ladenbesitzer mit laufender Kamera lauert, Selbstbefriedigungstechniken nachzuspielen, die er in dem „zufällig“ herumliegenden Album mit Fotos früherer Hemdträger bestaunen konnte. (Das magische Hemd ist nicht verkäuflich, wird sich herausstellen.)
Die beiden Geschichten von Pat Califa und John Wagenhauser haben mich, wie gesagt, nicht erreicht.
Und dann gibt es den mit über 40 Seiten bei Weitem längsten und unvergesslichsten Text dieser Sammlung: Aaron Travis' „Blaues Licht“. Da steckt wirklich einiges drin, was man in schwulen Sexgeschichten so nie gelesen hat, auch in den anderen Geschichten dieses Bandes nicht. Travis versucht sich an einer Art Voodoo-Zauber-Horror. Der von sich als SM-Top völlig überzeugte Erzähler gerät in einer Dachwohnung in Houston an einen (möglicherweise satanistischen) Sexmagier, der mit der Energie von blauem Licht arbeitet und in kürzester Zeit die Rollen vertauscht. Der Dom wird fixiert, vergewaltigt, ausgepeitscht, kastriert, geköpft, schaut seinem eigenen Gemächt zu, wie es in ihn eindringt. Die ewigen schwulen Fetische des harten Männersexes werden extrem übersteigert, sodass man nicht mehr weiß, findet der Autor die Schwarze Messe mit Kastration, Kotfütterung, Effeminisierung etc. tatsächlich geil oder hat er sich einen Witz erlaubt wegen den von seiner Kundschaft an ihn herangetragenen Wünschen nach finalen Kicks.
Meiner Meinung nach etwas zu freundlich hat Freund Liam Ostermann mit seinen fünf Sternen gewertet. Das, so schreib er auch, ist der historisch herausragenden Rolle Prestons für den offenen Umgang mit schwulen „Perversionen“, heute eher „Kink“ oder „Fetish“ genannt, geschuldet und dass es zu Beginn der 1990-er was wert war, eine Brücke zwischen den frühen Pornografen mit ihren Motorradrockern und Matrosen aus der „Phyisque Pictorial“-Schule eines Bob Mizer, Autoren, die teils in den 1930-er schon geschrieben hatten, und den etwas selbstzufriedenen Arschlochleckereien eines Eighner, aus einer Welt, in die AIDS offenbar nicht eingebrochen ist, gebaut zu haben.
Es gibt auch so etwas wie den „zarten Porno der Einbildungskraft“ und Leigh Rutledges „Brians Zimmer“, in dem der Erzähler den besagten jungen Sportler Brian nie von Angesicht zu Angesicht sieht, es dabei belassen wird, dass der Sex auf Grundlage von Brians Einrichtung und ein paar Fotos imaginiert wird. Letztendlich landen aber schon alle Geschichten bei den ewigen Stereotypen: höchst übertrieben dargestellte Anhängsel, die enorm kurz hintereinander unzählige Male Pfützen süßen Schleims verschleudern. Kerle mit kleinen, runden „Hinterbacken“, darüber drei Mal so breite Schultern und Unterarme, die in keinen Hemdsärmel mehr passen. Nur --- , ach denken Sie selbst darüber nach!
Ende der 1980-er gab es in Berlin drei ambitionierte schwule Kleinverlage, die jeweils, meist in Form nicht eben billiger, aber schön gemachter Klappbroschuren bislang von keinem deutschsprachigen Verlagshaus vermittelte schwule Autoren der britischen und amerikanischen Literatur nach Mitteleuropa zu bringen versuchten: rosa Winkel, Albino und Bruno Gmünder. Da die tatsächlich „schwules Zeug“ lesende homosexuelle Leserschaft aber eher klein war, die Medien sozusagen nie berichteten, war das ein Gang auf Messers Schneide. Zu beiden Seiten gähnten die Abgründe von Zahlungsunfähigkeit und Konkurs. Überhaupt nicht mehr präsent hat das schwule Gedächtnis Deutschlands, dass es im Jahr 1994 und bei rosa Winkel - immerhin - zu einer deutschen Ausgabe der nachmalig legendären ersten Folge von „Flesh & Word“ kam, sinnigerweise unter dem Titel „Das Fleisch und das Wort“. Was, - nicht allein, weil es eine biblische Anspielung ist -, kein angemessener Titel für ein „heißes Buch“ in Deutschland war.
Rosa Winkel war in den 1970-er Jahren aus Berlins erster Schwulengruppe hervorgegangen, wurde lange Zeit mehr oder weniger als Ein-Mann-Betrieb von dem aus Baden stammenden Egmont Fassbinder (1945-2023, keine Verwandtschaft mit dem Filmregisseur) geführt. Fassbinders wirtschaftliche Standbeine waren seine schwulen Rechts- und Medizin-Berater, Reiseführer, die ersten Comics von Ralf König, bevor dieser zu Männerschwarm, Carlsen und rororo abwanderte. Fassbinder hat immer wieder Hoffnungen in Titel gesetzt, die die Leute einfach nicht haben wollten (Yves Navarre: „Loukoum“), und er hat Bücher angekündigt, die dann nie kamen. Sowieso war dieser Verlag Mitte der 1990-er Jahre fast schon tot, wenn auch das letzte eigene Buch erst im Jahr 2001 erscheinen sollte. Aber schon in den späteren neunziger Jahren gingen Buchbestand und Autoren (Michael Sollorz, Ralf König) nach und nach zu Männerschwarm in Hamburg über.
(Parallel dazu schwang Bruno Gmünder sich zum Pulp-, Krimi-, Porno-Verlag schlechthin für Schwule auf, einige Jahre enorm erfolgreich; er schluckte unter anderem Albino, stellte es dann aber bald ein. Witzigerweise erscheint heute, soweit es als Nachfolge-Firma unter anderer Leitung noch da ist, das Gmünder-Erbe unter dem Namen Albino. Der Mann Gmünder ging in den 2010-er Jahren mehrfach Pleite, schied aus der nach ihm benannten Firma aus, kaufte sie zurück, schied erneut aus. Drei der vier „Bruno's“ Läden schlossen 2024. Nur die Hardcore-Romanreihe lässt man noch unter dem Etikett „Bruno Books“ laufen. Aber auch Männerschwarm, wo bis heute die für ihre interessanten historischen Ausgrabungen berühmte Serie „Bibliothek rosa Winkel“ weitergeführt wurde (wie lange noch, ist fraglich, da der langjährige Herausgeber nicht mehr lebt), ist faktisch so gut wie eingestellt, bzw. in den jetzigen Berliner „Albino Verlag in der Salzgeber Medien GmbH“ eingegliedert worden.)
1994 hat Egmont Fassbinder die Herausgabe von vier Bänden „Das Fleisch und das Wort“ angekündigt. Es blieb dann aber bei dem einen und einzigen, den ich hier bespreche. Die hier auf der Seite, oben bei dem Wort „Contents“ (wenn man unter dem Buchtitel auf „show more“ klickt) gelisteten Texte sind in dieser Ausgabe vollständig abgedruckt bis zu dem zweiten Titel von Aaron Travis, also nichts mehr ab Pat Califa. Mir persönlich war auch ein gewisser Eindruck von der fehlenden Hälfte möglich, denn ich kenne die Romane von Edmund White und Alan Hollinghurst und habe „Good with Words“ von Stephen Greco in einer anderen Anthologie gelesen. (Ich vermute, wenn rosa Winkel vier Bücher bringen wollte, sollten es die F&W-Bände 1 und 2 werden.)
Von den Titeln, die Kollege Averin als besonders gelungene nennt, konnte ich den kleinen Briefwechsel zwischen Samuel M. Steward und dem New Yorker Fotografen George Platt Lynes aus den frühen fünfziger Jahren lesen. Die beiden schicken sich kurze Porno-Episoden zu. Dann die Muckibuden-Mär über einen lammfrommen Muskelgiganten, der nach einem erfahreneren Master sucht: „Workout“ von Roy F. Wood. (Die deutschen Übersetzer wechseln von Text zu Text; dieser hier fand den Titel „Muskel-Training“ angemessen.) Von dem in den Neunzigern zwar auch schon Vierziger, aber noch gerne auf jung und sehr versaut tuenden Lars Eighner gibt's mit „Cowboy-Weihnachten“ eine nur anfangs weihnachtliche, dann derbe Fickgeschichte. Robin Metcalfe unternimmt den literarischen Versuch, einem nach verschiedenen Vorbesitzern riechenden gelb-roten Hemd magische Kräfte auf den Kunden eines Secondhandladen zuzuschreiben. Er muss das unbedingt mal tragen, zieht im Hinterzimmer sonst aber alles aus, um vor einem Spiegel, hinter dem - mehr oder weniger mit seiner Einwilligung - der Ladenbesitzer mit laufender Kamera lauert, Selbstbefriedigungstechniken nachzuspielen, die er in dem „zufällig“ herumliegenden Album mit Fotos früherer Hemdträger bestaunen konnte. (Das magische Hemd ist nicht verkäuflich, wird sich herausstellen.)
Die beiden Geschichten von Pat Califa und John Wagenhauser haben mich, wie gesagt, nicht erreicht.
Und dann gibt es den mit über 40 Seiten bei Weitem längsten und unvergesslichsten Text dieser Sammlung: Aaron Travis' „Blaues Licht“. Da steckt wirklich einiges drin, was man in schwulen Sexgeschichten so nie gelesen hat, auch in den anderen Geschichten dieses Bandes nicht. Travis versucht sich an einer Art Voodoo-Zauber-Horror. Der von sich als SM-Top völlig überzeugte Erzähler gerät in einer Dachwohnung in Houston an einen (möglicherweise satanistischen) Sexmagier, der mit der Energie von blauem Licht arbeitet und in kürzester Zeit die Rollen vertauscht. Der Dom wird fixiert, vergewaltigt, ausgepeitscht, kastriert, geköpft, schaut seinem eigenen Gemächt zu, wie es in ihn eindringt. Die ewigen schwulen Fetische des harten Männersexes werden extrem übersteigert, sodass man nicht mehr weiß, findet der Autor die Schwarze Messe mit Kastration, Kotfütterung, Effeminisierung etc. tatsächlich geil oder hat er sich einen Witz erlaubt wegen den von seiner Kundschaft an ihn herangetragenen Wünschen nach finalen Kicks.
Meiner Meinung nach etwas zu freundlich hat Freund Liam Ostermann mit seinen fünf Sternen gewertet. Das, so schreib er auch, ist der historisch herausragenden Rolle Prestons für den offenen Umgang mit schwulen „Perversionen“, heute eher „Kink“ oder „Fetish“ genannt, geschuldet und dass es zu Beginn der 1990-er was wert war, eine Brücke zwischen den frühen Pornografen mit ihren Motorradrockern und Matrosen aus der „Phyisque Pictorial“-Schule eines Bob Mizer, Autoren, die teils in den 1930-er schon geschrieben hatten, und den etwas selbstzufriedenen Arschlochleckereien eines Eighner, aus einer Welt, in die AIDS offenbar nicht eingebrochen ist, gebaut zu haben.
Es gibt auch so etwas wie den „zarten Porno der Einbildungskraft“ und Leigh Rutledges „Brians Zimmer“, in dem der Erzähler den besagten jungen Sportler Brian nie von Angesicht zu Angesicht sieht, es dabei belassen wird, dass der Sex auf Grundlage von Brians Einrichtung und ein paar Fotos imaginiert wird. Letztendlich landen aber schon alle Geschichten bei den ewigen Stereotypen: höchst übertrieben dargestellte Anhängsel, die enorm kurz hintereinander unzählige Male Pfützen süßen Schleims verschleudern. Kerle mit kleinen, runden „Hinterbacken“, darüber drei Mal so breite Schultern und Unterarme, die in keinen Hemdsärmel mehr passen. Nur --- , ach denken Sie selbst darüber nach!
May 16, 2018
Some of it is sexy, some of it is amusing, some of it is odd, some of it is well written, some of it is is not.
November 17, 2023
I've given this five stars because of the quality of many, though not all - of course, of the stories as stories first and stories about sex second. This anthology, and the others in this series, came out of a particular time when it not only writing about gay sex, but gay sex itself, was under attack - so what has changed? at least not in the USA (I write that as someone who does not live in the USA so my remarks on perhaps erroneous - I do so wish that is the case - media coverage of widespread attacks on gay freedoms under a variety of culture wars/protecting family/young people). So I can't help but give it a big thumbs up and hope that it - or books like it fall into the hands of as many young people, and older people, as possible.
Reading about sex can be boring or hilarious, depending on the quality of the prose, a great deal depends on context. This anthology includes a lot of good writing - it is not a stroke book, or at least not only. If anyone thinks that you shouldn't write about sex because it is bad/wrong/ dirty/ obscene then books like this are necessary. It also happens to contain some very fine writing from some interesting authors.
I have shelved this as 'literature USA' because, although two of the contributors are definitely not from the USA the rest are (admittedly there are a few others which do not definitely state a place of birth but other evidence suggest the USA). Also the profile of the contributors is as narrow as most early 'gay' anthologies though, it probably reflected the profile of the authors being published in this field at that time but did not reflect either the overall 'gay' community nor the readers of erotic stories.
Reading about sex can be boring or hilarious, depending on the quality of the prose, a great deal depends on context. This anthology includes a lot of good writing - it is not a stroke book, or at least not only. If anyone thinks that you shouldn't write about sex because it is bad/wrong/ dirty/ obscene then books like this are necessary. It also happens to contain some very fine writing from some interesting authors.
I have shelved this as 'literature USA' because, although two of the contributors are definitely not from the USA the rest are (admittedly there are a few others which do not definitely state a place of birth but other evidence suggest the USA). Also the profile of the contributors is as narrow as most early 'gay' anthologies though, it probably reflected the profile of the authors being published in this field at that time but did not reflect either the overall 'gay' community nor the readers of erotic stories.
September 1, 2013
To begin, I must let you know I have a bias towards anthologies, collections, and series of things. Besides, ya know, gay sex. Evidently I enjoyed most of the stories, and the straightforwardness of good ol porn while not always going straight for the head. My favorites were the oft-cited Blue Light by Steven Saylor's nick. The mix of intense power exchange, and the closest story i've seen that took on some supernatural theme had me completely hooked. Still, how far they went was kind of, like, wowzers. Anne Rice's piece was great, mainly because I liked how Elliot was chasing after a woman but enjoyed men as well.
That aside, I read an awful lot of romanticized gay fiction geared towards females... So it was nice, one, to get plenty of manly views (quote, unquote), and, two, to see that they are not utter nonpoetic, filthy-awful-prose trash you see so often on the internet. I have the other three and an working through the second. Guess which story has already imprinted itself on my mind?
That aside, I read an awful lot of romanticized gay fiction geared towards females... So it was nice, one, to get plenty of manly views (quote, unquote), and, two, to see that they are not utter nonpoetic, filthy-awful-prose trash you see so often on the internet. I have the other three and an working through the second. Guess which story has already imprinted itself on my mind?
February 14, 2014
Some of the best parts are Preston's introductions to the sections. My favorites: Samuel M. Steward's "Correspondence with George Platt Lynes" fascinating, "Workout" by Roy F. Wood, "A Cowboy Christmas" by Lars Eighner, "The Shirt" by Robin Metcalfe, "Blue Light" from Steven Saylor as Aaron Travis [probably the scariest erotica ever written], "Belonging" by Pat Califa, "Safe Sex Without Condoms" by John Wagenhauser.
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