Fuck Journal

by Bob Flanagan

Genres: Erotica

94 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 1991

About the author

Bob Flanagan was a performance artist and writer. He was best known for his work on sadomasochism and living with cystic fibrosis.

Flanagan was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in childhood. He graduated from Costa Mesa High School, and studied literature at California State University Long Beach and the University of California, Irvine.

In the 1970s, Flanagan began reading his poems in public and was part of the poetry community at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center. His first book, "The Kid is the Man," was published in 1978.

In the 1980s, Flanagan became active in the BDSM community with his wife, and he was a founding member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Janus. In 1989 he and his wife collaborated on their first work of performance art with a piece called "Nailed."

Reviews

[Joey Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in literally twenty minutes (in a coffee shop with my hand covering the title, because I’m modest). I love Bob Flanagan— performance artist, poet, S&M freak, wife guy, Nine Inch Nails fan, someone who somehow turned a lifetime of chronic pain and terminal illness into warmth and humor and art. His wife/dominatrix(!) Sheree Rose loved his poetry and wanted to encourage him to write more often, so she challenged him to document every single time they had sex for a year. The book is matter-of-fact, and the intro’s comparing it to a laundry list is very apt, but somehow he finds ways to insert self-aware humor into a dry-by-design writing assignment. There’s a lot of very blunt descriptions of their extremely freaky sex life, but I also find it so romantic in its own way. There are lots of books, fiction and non, that describe phenomenal sex or horrible sex, but not a lot that put this much of a focus on normal sex, mundane sex, boring or going-through-the-motions sex. In the repetitiveness of it all so much love shines through— these are two people who were so meant for each other it’s scary, and there’s something beautiful in that even as you’re reading about, like, cockrings or being gagged with dirty socks.

My favorite entries: “THANKSGIVING DAY FUCK ON THE COUCH WITH MIGHTY JOE YOUNG ON THE TV AND THE TURKEY IN THE OVEN.” and “WOW! I’M HER SLAVE AGAIN!”

[Lars Meijer · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘AND WE FUCK - OH, BOY, DO WE FUCK!’

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The late and great (and much missed) artist and writer Bob Flanagan's great little book of 'fucks' is essential piece of work. It's moments like this that i wished he was still with us, and that the press Hanuman Books, was still around. Sigh.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Journal descriptions of mean and dirty fucks. Kind of like a shopping list. Exciting because it is so unexciting. Amazing design. Hanuman Books.

[T. J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a review but an FYI that the publisher Asterism Books has republished this book with two very good new introductions. You can order it from their site which is what I did. It's been out of print for a long time as evidenced by the spare reviews on here compared to what's on the page for his Pain Journal book.

[Martyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

wydana, jak piękny mały modlitewnik w różowej okładce, książka zbierająca zapiski z dziennika Boba Flanagana o seksie z jego partnerką Sheree Rose. Piękna, perwersyjna, poruszająca i wzruszająca. Zawsze gdy czytam o tej dwójce przypomina mi się esej Sheree "In sickness and so called health" i uważam, że znajomość go nadaje pięknej głębi tej książce.