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Flashpoint: Gay Male Sexual Writing
A collection of the most compelling, provocative testaments to gay eros. Longtime cultural critic Michael Bronski (Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility) presents over twenty of the genre's best writers, exploring areas such as Enlightenment, Violence, True Life Adventures and more. Includes work by Christopher Bram, Samuel R. Delany, Aaron Travis and many others.
- GenresLGBT
430 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 1996
33 people want to read
About the author
Michael Bronski
40 books80 followersMichael Bronski has written extensively on LGBT issues for four decades. He has published widely in the LGBT and mainstream press and his work appears in numerous anthologies. He is a Senior Lecturer in Women’s and Gender Studies and Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2024
(I have revised this 2023 review to remove errors of grammar and spelling and improve clarity and readability but altered no opinions or judgements - March 2024).
This is very much an anthology of its time. Published in 1996 it was a response/reaction to the AIDs epidemic and the changes it brought to the way gay men thought and behaved sexually. It looks at the way things used to be (but understand that this is a broad generalisation which, like all generalisations, contains plenty that contradicts it). Most importantly the writings it contains and the way they are presented has a didactic purpose which, while interesting in the way it attempts to present writings about aspects of gay sexual life from 'Fantasy' and 'True Life Adventure' to 'Obsession and Devotion' and 'Violence' amongst others. I do not know how representative the authors and excerpts are but they appear to be.
The problem for me is that the anthology is not simply a collection of writing which has sexual content in it, it is to be blunt writing to masturbate to; but thirty years after its publication (I am writing in 2023) it is frankly charming and quaint that not so long ago, in those pre-internet days, you would acquire and read printed matter as a way of sexual release. It is as dated as most of the cruising and pick-up methods and situations described. Does anyone in the USA, UK or most of Europe go cruising anymore? Hasn't grinder made instant what took hours if not whole evenings of dedication and often disappointment?
This doesn't mean that sex, sexual activity or details have no place even less do I think that stories like these should not be written but writing for inspiring sexual arousal is no longer relevant or needed. It's centrality in queer life is gone. It has a charm, an old fashioned value, something you might look at but unless there is something more a piece of writing that gives it an interest beyond the sexual it is has no purpose.
Great writing or story telling which has erotic elements is great, a few of the pieces in this anthology
- in particular 'Freon' by Tom Cole* and 'The Song of the Reeds' by Brian Scott Hoadley are exceptional examples though there are also fine stories from Will Leber, Christopher Bram, Philip Gambone and H. L. Wylie and though it doesn't really fit in with these other stories I can't resist praising the deliriously over the top erotic campiness of 'The King and His Virgin Boy' by Randy Boyd - but most just become boring very quickly, even Samuel Delaney.
Unlike other 'erotic' anthologies I have read this is not one I can recommend unless the reservations aired are seen as positives rather than negatives. I do not condemn but I do not praise. It is what it is and if you want that then it is probably worth five stars. But I give it three for good intentions and because it really doesn't pretend to be anything but what it is.
I am giving it three stars because there are good things in the anthology but many of the contributions would attract only one star from me.
*One of the most frustrating things about reading anthologies is that I always find a writer who I really admire but then can find no further writing by or information about them. There are many reasons for this aside from the obvious one that they have published nothing else. Tom Cole the author of 'Freon' is one of those writers and if anybody knows anything at all about him I would be delighted to be updated. Thank you.
This is very much an anthology of its time. Published in 1996 it was a response/reaction to the AIDs epidemic and the changes it brought to the way gay men thought and behaved sexually. It looks at the way things used to be (but understand that this is a broad generalisation which, like all generalisations, contains plenty that contradicts it). Most importantly the writings it contains and the way they are presented has a didactic purpose which, while interesting in the way it attempts to present writings about aspects of gay sexual life from 'Fantasy' and 'True Life Adventure' to 'Obsession and Devotion' and 'Violence' amongst others. I do not know how representative the authors and excerpts are but they appear to be.
The problem for me is that the anthology is not simply a collection of writing which has sexual content in it, it is to be blunt writing to masturbate to; but thirty years after its publication (I am writing in 2023) it is frankly charming and quaint that not so long ago, in those pre-internet days, you would acquire and read printed matter as a way of sexual release. It is as dated as most of the cruising and pick-up methods and situations described. Does anyone in the USA, UK or most of Europe go cruising anymore? Hasn't grinder made instant what took hours if not whole evenings of dedication and often disappointment?
This doesn't mean that sex, sexual activity or details have no place even less do I think that stories like these should not be written but writing for inspiring sexual arousal is no longer relevant or needed. It's centrality in queer life is gone. It has a charm, an old fashioned value, something you might look at but unless there is something more a piece of writing that gives it an interest beyond the sexual it is has no purpose.
Great writing or story telling which has erotic elements is great, a few of the pieces in this anthology
- in particular 'Freon' by Tom Cole* and 'The Song of the Reeds' by Brian Scott Hoadley are exceptional examples though there are also fine stories from Will Leber, Christopher Bram, Philip Gambone and H. L. Wylie and though it doesn't really fit in with these other stories I can't resist praising the deliriously over the top erotic campiness of 'The King and His Virgin Boy' by Randy Boyd - but most just become boring very quickly, even Samuel Delaney.
Unlike other 'erotic' anthologies I have read this is not one I can recommend unless the reservations aired are seen as positives rather than negatives. I do not condemn but I do not praise. It is what it is and if you want that then it is probably worth five stars. But I give it three for good intentions and because it really doesn't pretend to be anything but what it is.
I am giving it three stars because there are good things in the anthology but many of the contributions would attract only one star from me.
*One of the most frustrating things about reading anthologies is that I always find a writer who I really admire but then can find no further writing by or information about them. There are many reasons for this aside from the obvious one that they have published nothing else. Tom Cole the author of 'Freon' is one of those writers and if anybody knows anything at all about him I would be delighted to be updated. Thank you.
January 9, 2024
Could take or leave this collection: I would have liked better quality control across the selections, or at least more compelling commentary to accompany a less-than-stellar inclusion. The more surrealist and absurdist selections (Tame Animal, What’s in an Inch, Freon) were my personal standouts.
October 14, 2012
This was great cerebral matter.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews