Celestial Reviews 139 - Nov 30, 1996
Note: This is absolutely silly! I have been complaining that I have too many
good stories to read this month. My Monthly Top 15 already has 22 stories on
it. I have delayed several stories until the December 4 issue, so that I
won’t have to bump any more good stories. So then the first three stories I
read for this issue are all perfect 10’s. What’s a girl to do? You’d think I
could at least trust Boswell. I mean the guy is literate and all that, but
there’s no way that a silly slutty wife gangbang is going to make my list of
monthly bests. But this story isn’t a gangbang at all; it’s an intelligent
story interspersed with poetic lines from Bruce Springsteen. I think I’ll
read “Lez Slut Bride and the Maid of Honor” - or maybe one of those penis
enlargement “stories” or one of those clever essays on “Why America is Best,
Worst, or Really Sucks.” The way things have been going, even an “Incredible
2-Girl Nonstop Fuck-a-thon” will be an excellent story.
Of course, I’m being facetious. I really DO find it frustrating to have
to cull a list of 25 or so excellent stories down to a “Top 15.” But
it’s really a very nice form of frustration. It certainly beats having
to get a list of 15 when there are only 10 really good stories to pick
from.
Second Note: There has been some discussion in this newsgroup under the
heading “Modifying Others’ Work.” Here’s my two cents worth:
Realistically, it is very hard for authors to stop someone from stealing
or modifying their work. That doesn’t make it right; it’s just reality.
On the other hand, authors do have a legal right to their own work - even
if they do not specifically state or register a copyright claim. This
right is theoretically enforceable (through the Berne Convention)
throughout the entire civilized world. The main reasons why this right
is sometimes not enforced are (1) it’s difficult to do so (perhaps
because the thief cannot be found, and (2) it’s not worth the trouble
(perhaps because no one is making a profit anyway).
The problem is analogous to what might happen if I left my purse
unguarded in a public place and someone stole my money. Someone could
argue that I should have known better than to leave the purse there if I
cared about my money (just as authors should perhaps know better than to
post on a.s.s. if they want to keep their stories), but common sense says
that the thief would obviously be the guilty party. The thief would
probably get away with it because (1) it would be difficult to catch him
in a large crowd and (2) it would not be worth the trouble to recover the
small amount of money that is typically in my purse.
Also note that posting a story on this newsgroup is not the same thing as
“putting it in the public domain.” Public domain is a legal term with a
specific meaning. It refers to information that is specifically free
from copyright restrictions. As the little announcement says each week,
the “descriptions and accounts” of Monday Night Football are not in the
public domain, even though they come across the air waves or cable wires.
As someone has pointed out, it is NOT illegal to download and modify a
story for your own use. What IS illegal is to thereafter post the story
(or a direct adaptation of it) as your own without the permission of the
original author.
My own opinion is that “ethical” and “legal” are almost identical in
copying or changing another author’s work. Antaeus Feldspar has argued
that if someone writes a story, say, to express pride in his or her
sexual preference, and you alter that story to change that sexual
preference, you are robbing the author of the rewards of his or her hard
work. If the author were writing for publication, you'd be robbing the
author of money. Why would you think it any the less robbery because the
rewards you're taking away are non-monetary? That’s a very good point.
Authors who write to earn a living would seek different jobs if they
could not protect their livelihood. Similarly, writers who post with
this newsgroup for other reasons are likely to give up if they are denied
their legitimate rewards.
I have no doubt that some (perhaps many) authors are flattered when
someone changes their stories and posts the modified stories. You can
find out if this is so by asking them. But to assume that all authors
are “flattered” when someone steals their stories is silly. Feldspar
says that’s like saying I should feel flattered if someone gropes me in
the subway. There is some sense in which I might actually be flattered
to be considered worth groping, but rage (and legal recourse, if possible
- or seeking a different mode of transportation) would be a perfectly
legitimate and understandable reaction.
Sometimes it becomes slightly more complex to decide what is copying
another’s work and what is not. For example, in this issue of CR I
review “Teachers’ Pets.” The author takes someone else’s story,
acknowledges that fact, and then inserts his comments in parentheses
throughout the story - thereby giving the story an entirely different,
satirical impact. I think this author is acting ethically, and I think
his approach would be legal if challenged in court. That’s because he
made clear what was his and what was not; his satire was legitimate, and
the only way he could communicate it was by reposting the story in the
same medium (alt.sex.stories) in which he found it. TEX did something
similar with “Raped Teen Burglar,” and I have defended him several times
in Celestial Reviews. An example of an INappropriate alteration was the
“girl version” of Rondu’s “Double Trouble.” In that case somebody simply
went through the original story and simply made the little boys into
little girls.
I don’t see many examples of good stories being changed on this
newsgroup, and I certainly don’t consider it to be my job to enforce the
copyright law on alt.sex.stories. “Double Trouble” is the only example
that has come to my attention. As I have said, I don’t think it is
likely that legal sanctions will be invoked against violators; but I
think we should use our own force of moral persuasion to try to prevent
the theft of stories. For my own part, I will decline to review any
story that I know is an improper alteration of another author’s story;
and if I make a mistake, I would appreciate it if you would call this to
my attention.
- Celeste
“A Love Deeply Missed” by James Boswell (emerging
adolescence & sexual obsession) 10, 10, 10
“Pickles” by Dulcinea (sexy eating) 10, 10, 10
“Post-Coital” by Mark Aster (sex & childbirth) 10, 10, 10
“Teacher’s Pets” by SarcasmX (satire) 10, 9, 9
“Doppelganger” by Unknown Author (TV parody)
10, 10, 10
* "Tryout" by Deirdre (bdsm) 10, 9, 9
* "Tutor" by Deirdre (sexual training) 10, 9, 9
* "Twin" by Deirdre (identity problems) 10, 10, 10
* "Upstairs" by Deirdre (spanking) 10, 9, 9
* "Visit" by Deirdre (oral sex & sex slavery) 10, 9, 9
* "Wait" by Deirdre (fantasy) 10, 8, 7
* "Waitress" by Deirdre (spanking) 10, 10, 10
* "Walk" by Deirdre (outdoor sex & voyeurism) 10, 9, 8
* "Wife" by Deirdre (spouse watching) 10, 8, 7
* "Work" by Deirdre (birthday surprise) 10, 8, 7
* Repost of a previous review (because the story has recently
been reposted).
“A Love Deeply Missed” by James Boswell. Since about the age of 10, the
college-age boy narrating this story had been in love with Stacy, the
beautiful woman who cut his hair. His father and he had grown close
after his mother died; but to his dismay his father started dating Stacy
shortly after he himself went off to college. When Dad married Stacy, he
couldn’t stand it. He began to hate his father; and a conservative
statement would be that he began to obsess over Stacy. First he went
through her drawers to examine all her clothes; then in order to make
himself feel closer to Stacy, he began to jerk off into anything that
would go onto her skin - face cream, skin lotion, suntan oil, etc. Sound
weird? Actually, it sounded fairly normal the way the author introduced
the activities.
I was frankly surprised by this story. I’m used to Boswell’s slutty wife
stories, and this is not like that at all. The sexual activity is largely
suggestive, but very hot. It’s an interesting situation: boy falls in
love with girl who becomes his step-mother. What would YOU do? I think
the author handles it realistically, but you’ll have to read the story to
see what happens. To top it off, the author beautifully “illustrates”
the story with lyrics from Bruce Springsteen.
Ratings for “A Love Deeply Missed”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
“Pickles” by Dulcinea (Dulcinea97@aol.com). It’s very difficult to
accomplish what Dulcinea does in this story. We all know that bananas,
carrots, and cucumbers have phallic significance; but Dulcinea manages to
convey the excitement of turning a lover on _over the telephone_ by
eating a pickle. I got wet just reading the story, and I was just
munching on a chocolate chip cookie. How could that be?
Ratings for “Pickles”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
“Post-Coital” by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com). I remember being a
little shy when I asked my doctor the Big Question when I was pregnant
with my first daughter: “How close to birth can my husband and I have
sexual intercourse.” Her answer: “As close as you want, as long as he’s
not in my way when I deliver the baby.” I also had the theory that it
was good for the baby to know that Daddy loved Mommy. I’m not sure our
children ever actually recognized Daddy in utero, but they certainly must
have known that SOMEBODY loved Mommy!
In this episode, Our Hero is making love to both Pat and Julie; and when
he withdraws from gravida Pat, more than his cum follows his cock. No -
not the baby! Pat’s water has broken, and the blessed event is underway.
The story ends with cameo appearances to visit the newborn twins by
numerous sexual playmates of the parents - Aunt Kate (who’s having a good
time with Pat and Julie’s father in the guest room), Jake, Tanya, Midori,
Alani, Sondra the cop, Daphne via telegram from France, and several
others - see how many of the episodes you can recall in which these
people appeared.
Ratings for “Post-Coital”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
“Teacher’s Pets” by SarcasmX (wgungfu@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu). This is the
sort of thing I have been tempted to do with an occasional story; but I
have been too polite. The person to whom I’ll refer as the Commentator
has taken an insipid adolescent fantasy and has inserted comments in
parentheses to spice it up. The basic plot is the traditional story
about the 33-year-old, horny, divorced teacher with a 38D breast size
letting some guys from the football team work out in her basement gym and
then taking them upstairs for a shower and post-game analysis. The
Commentator’s satire in parentheses is a lot harder to explain; so you
should read it yourself. It was a lot of fun!
Ratings for “Teacher’s Pets”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
“Doppelganger” by Unknown Author. A doppelganger is a sort of a ghost
that duplicates an existing person. For example, if there really were
such a thing as a doppelganger, I could probably watch X-Files and still
have time to read these stories and write these reviews. I would
accomplish that by having my doppelganger watch the television, while I
worked on the Internet. Of course, if I had a doppelganger, I’d be a
damned fool to waste it on X-Files. Indeed, if I had a doppelganger, I
guess I could - in a limited sense, of course - literally follow the
advice of a very angry student and “go fuck myself!” I suppose not
everyone can have a doppelganger. If doppelgangers were ubiquitous, the
O.J. Simpson case would be even more confusing than it already is.
Imagine that!
Since I don’t have a doppelganger (nor am I a doppelganger myself), I am
unfamiliar with the TV show called “The X-Files.” Based on what I have
learned from the story, I would surmise that Scully and Mulder are FBI
agents on that show. Scully is a very attractive doctor or medical
technician of some kind, and Mulder is a very serious man who possesses a
certain charm and some kind of paranormal powers. They apparently have a
very straight, almost stoic relationship. I say this because the satire
in this story seems to be directed toward the idea that it would be
unusual for Scully to passionately jump Mulder’s body. The key element
of the story is that while they are attending a boring seminar at a
university in Cathedral Hill, North Carolina, without the agent’s
knowledge Mulder’s doppelganger makes passionate love to Scully two
nights in a row, and then Scully is perplexed over the fact that her
partner has no recollection of their mutual affection on the mornings
after. As the story evolves, we learn a few additional interesting facts
about doppelgangers. This was a very good, well-written story.
A very good English teacher once told me that if I used a word correctly
ten times it would be mine for life. I have now fulfilled that
requirement, and so a doppelganger is now mine for life. I’ll let you
know if my sex life improves.
Ratings for “Doppelganger”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
* "Tryout" by Deirdre. The woman knows her husband is interested in
bdsm, but she herself does not want to participate in such practices.
She decides that it would be OK with her if he did it with another
woman, but she doesn't want him to go out trolling on her own; so she
decides to select one for him. She finds a good candidate, gives her a
brief tryout, and finds her to be acceptable. When she mentions this
to another friend at lunch, that friend says that SHE would like to be
her husband's partner! The plot thickens; it seems that the friend
already has some sort of relationship with the other candidate. You'll
have to read the story to see what happens.
Ratings for “Tryout”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
* “Tutor" by Deirdre. Jim is not living up to the narrator's
expectations as a lover, and Charlene offers to go to bed with him to
teach him to be a good lover. That may sound like a harmless idea.
However, the moral of the story is that things can "get complicated
when we get past 18...." This story validates my personal belief that
surrogates may not always be a good idea. On the other hand, by the
end of the story the narrator was having more orgasms than she had ever
had before.
Ratings for “Tutor”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
* “Twin" by Deirdre. Many moons ago, I stated in this column that
Deirdre deliberately writes with several different styles. I made that
observation because the style of the narrator in the story I was
reviewing was not one of my favorites. In her disclaimer to the
present story Deirdre herself says: "It's possible that you have
noticed that for some of my main character/narrators, the elevator
doesn't quite reach the top floor. (If you are just now learning
English, then there's an idiom you can study) The problem is that I
prefer to write stories with the main character narrating, but I also
like to keep secrets from the main character. Thus if I let the reader
in on a secret, then the main character isn't thinking things through
very well. If I'm lucky, they just seem distracted. Otherwise . . ."
Deirdre put it better than I did (elevators usually are better
metaphors than moons), but for once I was more succinct. This subtle
aspect of Deirdre's style (adapting the language and logic to that of
the narrator) is one of the strengths of her writing.
On to the present story: "Twin." One night, the narrator's usually
passive girlfriend starts fucking his brains out in an unusually
aggressive, passionate manner. This is fine with him; but midway
through the second performance, he hears a noise in the house. He goes
looking for a prowler, but he finds a naked woman bound and gagged in
another room. His girlfriend hastily explains that this is her twin
sister, who has come to town and would do anything to keep her (the
girlfriend) from being happy. "Best to leave her gagged and teach her
a lesson by fucking her in the ass," says she.
Now, go ahead and guess the rest of the plot. Under these
circumstances, were I the boyfriend and granted that we have twins
here, I would at least entertain the possibility that it is the
girlfriend who is bound and gagged on the floor and the evil twin
sister who has been fucking my brains out. Instead the guy says to
himself, "Gee, my girlfriend sure is talking different!" and proceeds
to sodomize the damsel in bondage.
Well, I've given away the secret to the story; but that's because my
elevator goes higher than this guy's has gone in many moons. But you
would have figured out the secret yourself anyway, and there's still
another half of the story to go. Here's another secret: according to
her disclaimer Deirdre _expected_ you to figure this out; and for the
rest of the story you get to participate in a sort of dramatic irony by
knowing something the boyfriend doesn't know - or do you? It gets
pretty interesting trying to figure out whose bones the guy is jumping,
whom he's marrying, and who it is that has him tied spread-eagle on the
bed.
Ratings for “Twin”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
* “Upstairs" by Deirdre. An adolescent boy is caught by his sister
going through her diary. Since their mother had expressly forbidden
this, the boy is scared and agrees to let the sister punish him
herself, if only she won't tell Mom. The sister enjoys this and
expands the enterprise, so that she is able to spank him long after he
has paid for the initial offense. She simply gives him a nod, and a
few minutes later he's upstairs in the bedroom, naked buttocks exposed,
waiting for his punishment. And now, years later, he's visiting his
parents with his wife, and he sees his sister give him that nod....
Ratings for “Upstairs”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
* “Visit" by Deirdre. What should a middle-aged, married woman do if
the beautiful daughter of her best friend suddenly shows up at the
door, mentions that her college roommate is a lesbian, pushes her
against the wall, kneels, and licks her cunt in such a way as to give
her the orgasm of her life? And what should she do if this happened
several times in the next few days? The correct answer is this: check
to see if she's recruiting sex slaves for her roommate before you
decide to continue the relationship. As Mark Twain said, "There's no
such thing as a free orgasm."
Ratings for “Visit”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
* “Wait" by Deirdre. "*You* go upstairs and get undressed; *I'll* get
rid of them... lie on the bed on top of the covers, on your stomach and
wait." What's a girl to do? Why's he taking so long? Why on the
stomach? I thought this one ended too abruptly. Just like this
review.
Ratings for "Wait"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7
* “Waitress" by Deirdre. What is there about this story that makes me
like it even more than most of Deirdre's other stories? Connie and
Rachel have ordered their meal from a cute little waitress, and Rachel
says to Connie, "What do you think of her?" and then "Would you like to
spank her?" I think the beauty of this story lies in its economy of
words; in a very short story Deirdre makes an extremely unusual outcome
seem so perfectly natural.
Ratings for “Waitress”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
* “Walk" by Deirdre . "It's so dark and lonely out here at 3:00 a.m.
that I could dance naked in the street and no one would notice!"
That's not the sort of thing a woman says out loud in a Deirdre story -
at least not unless she expects some consequences.
Ratings for “Walk”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
* “Wife" by Deirdre. A coworker's wife invites the narrator out to
lunch and mentions that she'd like to watch her husband make it with
another woman and that the narrator would do just nicely. The woman is
taken by surprise, but she gives the proposal some thought and before
long agrees. Then she promises to do exactly what the wife tells her to
do. Why do people in Deirdre's stories say yes to such all-encompassing
conditions? Well, anyway, everything works out all right in the end;
but I didn't quite see the logic of this story.
Ratings for “Wife”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7
* “Work" by Deirdre. The woman has told her husband that for his
birthday she would do anything he wanted for 24 hours. She describes in
detail to her coworker what she has done for him so far. Why is she
revealing all this to her colleague? It turns out that his orders that
morning were to go get a woman and bring her back to him.
Ratings for “Work”
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7