tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post112743017686091233..comments2024-03-14T00:16:32.077-07:00Comments on 50 Books: BOOKS: Sometimes It's Hard to Be a Woman... Who Likes PornTammyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16613804843380827691noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127739116586034292005-09-26T05:51:00.000-07:002005-09-26T05:51:00.000-07:00Since the Sleeping Beauty series is almost all "di...Since the Sleeping Beauty series is almost all "dirty bits" and Anne Rice seems to do those pretty well, you might want to pick them up. I enjoyed them.<BR/><BR/>(And yes, your post made sense and thanks for the warning about Justine.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127626916879638812005-09-24T22:41:00.000-07:002005-09-24T22:41:00.000-07:00If you liked The Fermata, you should read Vox, als...If you liked The Fermata, you should read Vox, also by Nicholson Baker. The premise is simple - just 150 pages of two smart, creative and horny strangers having phone sex. It has the bonus of being both very hot and well-written. <BR/><BR/>For added titillation, read it in a crowded coffee shop. It adds a certain something to the experience...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127497045722040172005-09-23T10:37:00.000-07:002005-09-23T10:37:00.000-07:00Well, Dave, there's where you and I will have to a...Well, Dave, there's where you and I will have to agree to disagree. Heh.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Hmm... Jenn, I haven't read the Sleeping Beauty series, but I have read <I>Exit to Eden</I> and thought it was surprisingly good. Well, the dirty bits were. The storyline bogged down, but the first half of the book was solid. Prior to reading it, I thought that S&M sounded rather tedious, at least as practised by all the people who write articles or make documentaries about it. Yaaaawn. But Rice actually breathed life into it, both by making the S&M scenes truly original and by explaining some of the reasons why people practise S&M in a way I could finally understand.<BR/><BR/>I remember about ten years ago wanting to understand S&M more, because while I'm not into it at all myself, I am interested in the idea of sexual subcultures. So I got a copy of the Marquis de Sade's <I>Justine</I>. I say "got a copy" because I could only read about a quarter of it before I had to put it down. I don't know if any of you have read it, but it starts off fairly mild and gets increasingly more hardcore -- eventually getting into some stomach-churning torture and necrophilia -- to the point that I had to turf my copy because it looked evil to me after that. I was kind of upset that I'd even tacitly supported it by paying for it.<BR/><BR/>So anyway, THAT was my early conception of S&M, so then learning about how S&M is mostly practised (at least in the sources that are out there in the mainstream public) was more than a little anticlimactic. It just seems so vanilla. I'm not saying S&M-ers should be more like de Sade's characters -- good god, no -- but it just seems like they've traded one kind of formulaic sex for another. What I liked about <I>Exit to Eden</I> was that it showed something between de Sade's world and the vanilla S&M world: a place where adults could engage in some pretty freaky, imaginative stuff while still being totally consensual.<BR/><BR/>Did any of that make sense?<BR/><BR/>Er, anyway. Thanks for the props, Anonymous. I have to admit though, that I went into <I>The Fermata</I> with not an entirely open mind. I was inclined to write Baker off as a bit of a ponce -- all style, no substance -- but as I made my way through the book, I realized that he's actually quite funny, and his clever wordplay isn't a cover-up for having no ideas. I don't think I was as impressed with <I>Vox</I>, but I read it so long ago, I can't really remember.Tammyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16613804843380827691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127490319320090482005-09-23T08:45:00.000-07:002005-09-23T08:45:00.000-07:00"Call me a freak, but almost nothing turns me off ..."Call me a freak, but almost nothing turns me off faster than spelling mistakes."<BR/><BR/>Hmm. I'm just gonna go ahead and rank 'fecal matter in the teeth' a step higher than 'typos'.Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06856187137331544258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127481661399970112005-09-23T06:21:00.000-07:002005-09-23T06:21:00.000-07:00I finished The Fermata, about a month ago. And, I ...I finished <I>The Fermata,</I> about a month ago. And, I felt like you did. It was my second Baker book; my first was his <I>Vox</I>. I know <I>Vox</I> has gotten a strange reputation after becoming known primarily as a gift exchanged during the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, but it's really a better book than that. I'm so happy to see someone else talking about how sexy his writing can be.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127480921267538932005-09-23T06:08:00.000-07:002005-09-23T06:08:00.000-07:00Could you give me your opinion of the Anne Rice Sl...Could you give me your opinion of the Anne Rice Sleeping Beauty series? I loved it but I didn't know how it ranked it your world of arty porn...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com