Celestial Reviews 148 - January 11, 1997
Note: I want to remind you of my Third Annual Celestial Writing Contest.
The story can be of any length, but students (say, in an English class)
should reasonably be able (and eager) read it three times in one week.
The purpose of the story is to combine learning with pleasure - that is,
to teach vocabulary in the context of a creative sex story. The story
should use all of the words on the following list. Preferably, it should
use them in creative ways that enable learners to see their meaning in
context, and it should use the words more than once - in fact, as often
as possible without becoming silly. The story should not be obviously
didactic - that is, it should be a story about sex, not about learning
these words.
The deadline is January 15. I have already received one excellent entry
and have the promise of another from a very good writer. Please feel
free to take a shot at this. Here are the words (all taken from one of
those SAT study lists): acerbic, adept, ameliorate, apocryphal, assuage,
blithe, constrict, credulous, dilatory, egregious, fatuous, guile,
hedonism, impervious, incipient, irascible, lethargy, mundane, prolific,
redundant.
All 20 of these are words that intelligent people use when the context
calls for them (Quite possibly I may have used them here in Celestial
Reviews.), but most high school students have no idea what they mean.
They are useful words; and if you write a story with them, at the very
least YOU will probably learn some functional vocabulary words.
A few authors have commented that some of the words are difficult to work into
a sex story. My advice is to consider the possibility of ironic usage. For
example, my husband's irascible tongue has done some wonderful things to my
clitoris; and we have spent some lethargic mornings in the sack. If you really
cannot fit one or two words into the story, submit it anyway; a "10" story
with only 8 words will fare better in my judgment than an "8" story with all
10 words forced into it. A couple of authors have told me that "acerbic" is
not sexy. Don't tell that to the Ng sisters, whose banter in their stories is
often pleasantly acerbic but still very sexy.
Incidentally, I have not yet received an entry from Stephanie, who won the
last two contests. Nor have I received an entry from Delta, who seems to be
able to write a story very good within a couple of hours or so.
Second note: Uther Pendragon has been reposting his entire "Bob and Jeanette
Brennan" series. I advise you to find them and download them. I'll repost my
old reviews and post initial reviews of the few stories I have not already
reviewed in CR 149. Meanwhile, you may want to grab them off the postings.
Here's the complete list:
"Forever"
"Forest"
"Forecast"
"Forestalling"
"Foreplay"
"For Him"
"Forthright"
You can recognize these stories in the postings by the word "For..." at the
beginning of the title, or (less creatively) by the Author's name in the title
line. I have occasionally been guilty of posting an old address for this
author. His correct address is anon584c@nyx.cs.du.edu. Like most authors
whose stories you enjoy on this newsgroup, I'm sure he would like constructive
criticism from his readers.
Third Note: I have been having serious trouble with my Reviews Database. If
anyone out there knows how to recover a Microsoft Works (Macintosh) database
when the message "There is no translator available to translate this file"
appears, I would like to hear from you. (The file was written with Microsoft
Works, and so no "translation" should be necessary.) The file has simply been
corrupted. I keep a record of all my reviews in one of these files. When
someone reposts a story, I can easily find the review, and without the
database it's way too much trouble. If someone knows a way I can recover this
file, it will save me a huge amount of time - and leave me time to review more
stories.
Final Note: One of the stories involves voyeurism. Someone recently sent me
a good joke. I don't want to encroach upon the territory of Comedy Central,
but I thought the joke was pertinent. I thought I should tell it here rather
than risk disrupting the flow of the review.
One evening Snow White decided she was sleepy and announced to the seven
dwarfs that she was going to bed. After the usual lengthy round of "Good
Nights" she went upstairs. Immediately all seven dwarfs rushed outside and
began standing on each others shoulders beneath Snow White's bedroom window.
Tonight was Grumpy's turn to be on the top and as he was the only one who
could see in the window it was his duty to inform the other dwarfs what she
was doing.
After a minute or two he hollered down, "She's taking off her blouse!" and
this was echoed down the stack "taking off her blouse," "she's taking off her
blouse," "blouse is coming off," "taking off her blouse," etc.
Next Grumpy yelled, "She's taking off her skirt," which was followed by the
echoes "taking off her skirt," "she's taking off her skirt," "skirt's coming
off," "taking off her skirt," etc.
Of course the next line from Grumpy was, "She's taking off her bra!" and the
echo chorus went down the line. Then, "She's taking off her panties!" which
again cascaded down the dwarf tower.
Finally Grumpy looked around and from his vantage height saw someone coming
through the woods so he yelled, "Someone's coming!" and from the next dwarf to
the bottom dwarf was heard, "Me too." "Me too." "Me too." "Me too." "Me too."
"Me too."
- Celeste
"The Guarantee" by Frank McCoy (incest & teen sex) 10, 9, 9
"Deck" by Tom Bombadil (voyeurism & sex slavery) 10, 10, 9
"Chosen" by Tom Bombadil (ff passion & sex slavery) 10, 10, 10
"Educational Experience" by Unknown Author (medical sex)
9, 9, 9
"Georgia" by Green Onions (romantic scenario) 10, 9, 9
"Girls 1.0" by Wiley (rape) 9, 9, 9
"The Guarantee" by Frank McCoy (mccoyf@millcomm.com). This is a story about
an emotionally distraught 16-year-old boy who has never had a date. His sex-
goddess older sister arranges five dates for him. As the title suggests, she
"guarantees" that he will enjoy himself immensely on each date - otherwise she
will personally guarantee his happiness herself when he returns from an
unsatisfying date.
Several people have recently contributed to posting a list of "most popular
a.s.s. cliches." This story "authenticates" almost all of those popular
theories.
Mark's first date is with the twelve-year-old next door. This date verifies
the cliche that twelve-year-old virgins are generally emotionally mature,
eager recipients of the sexual attention of horny sixteen-year-olds, that they
spontaneously give good head and are multi-orgasmic with their tight little
cunnies, and that their mothers genuinely appreciate the older boy's kindness
in fucking the little darlings.
The second date is with a girl who is viewed by most of the other kids as a
slutty "dog." She turns out to be beautiful, unselfish, and wonderfully
generous (the reason she still has buck teeth is because she set aside her
dental needs and devoted the money to the upbringing of the baby she had
conceived with her father when she was about 10 years old); and she brings the
boy to even greater rapture than the little girl of the previous week. This
date corroborates the notion that little girls who begin having regular sex
with their fathers when they are six years old generally show no ill effects,
but rather continue to have spontaneous and joyful sexual relations with
numerous partners as they pass through adolescence. In general, when mothers
catch the old man fucking the little girl, they shout encouragement and offer
to join the fun. Many a time a good mother will have Daddy fuck each little
girl as a "birthday present" on her 10th birthday, so the child can feel what
it is like for a man to fuck her and cum inside her without protection, while
she can still enjoy it without having to worry about pregnancy. Of course,
this incestuous policy also keeps a girl from falling for the first guy who
gets into her panties. {I THINK I got that one right....} This date also
confirms the notion that sex is especially enjoyable when there's a deliberate
risk of pregnancy by a teenage girl and boy. The very thought of possible
pregnancy gave Mark an instantaneous hard-on after he had just fucked Betty
Lou a half dozen times. Finally, this date confirms the common assumption
that girls who become pregnant several times by their own father are likely to
become regular bookworms when they get to high school. {I'm personally a bit
suspicious about the authenticity of some of these cliches.}
And so it goes. There are three more dates and then the final climax. Some
of the premises are even more far-fetched than those I have already mentioned.
If you're looking for coffee-table material for your children to pick up in
the hope that they'll read it and acquire productive sexual values, this is
the wrong story. On the other hand, the story is well written - aside from
the <giggles> and stuff that I find a bit annoying. It really would be fun to
live in a world where people could act the way they do in this little corner
of fairy-tale Utopia; and if you're able to accept that premise, this really
is a sexy (though silly) story.
The overall moral of this story is that people really are swell when you fuck
them just right. Well, at least it's nice to think so.
Finally, I might add that although it is extremely unlikely that young
children and adolescents could engage in the activities depicted in this story
without significant psychological damage and emotional problems and although
many of the activities are just plain illegal, it is also true that this story
DOES accurately depict the way many young people (perhaps influenced by modern
media and even by stories like this) think their sexual lives will unfold:
fuck all you want and nobody will get hurt. I think the ground rules of this
newsgroup say we're allowed to accept that worldview, but it makes one wonder
whether the conservatives might have a point when they harp on things like
parental responsibility.
Ratings for "The Guarantee"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Deck" by Tom Bombadil (stbush@iglou.com). Each day the teenage maid next
door suns herself on the deck where she can be seen by her neighbor, who is
the female narrator of this story. Through a series of successive
approximations that would make B.F. Skinner proud, the teenager turns the
previously heterosexual housewife next door into a lesbian sex slave.
This author has been trying to write a story in Deirdre's style. This one
arrived accompanied by a note: "By Jove. I think I've got it." Indeed, he HAS
got it. Had this been posted under Deirdre's name, I would not have
questioned the authenticity of the authorship. This is a good story; it may
even be Tom Bombadil's best imitation of Deirdre, but it is far from his best
story. Imitating another author is a fine idea, but I think this author
writes better when he writes as himself. I ranked his "Elizabeth &
Anastasia," which doesn't even remotely resemble the style of this story, as
one of my top 10 stories of 1996. This one is still a very good story, but
I'm not certain of Tom's motivation in turning aside from an excellent style
to write this way. Maybe he's doing it because it's a challenge. Or maybe a
seductive Mistress has seized control of his mind and required him to do so.
{I wrote this review before I read the next story, which does a much better
job of BOTH imitating Deirdre and being a good story.}
Ratings for "Deck"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Chosen" by Tom Bombadil (stbush@iglou.com). The woman is a lawyer aspiring
to become a partner in an important law firm. She receives a letter telling
her that she has been "chosen." She thinks it's a joke and tosses it aside,
but then she discovers that several other people (including her boss) know
about her selection and consider it to be an important honor.
At this point I paused and noted to myself that this author is on a Deirdre
binge. If he's trying to imitate Deirdre, I told myself, then the least I can
do is imitate my reviews of Deirdre. That means I should try to predict the
ending. This shouldn't be hard. The woman will resist briefly but within a
day will accept the invitation and arrive at the designated place. She will
be met by a stern woman whom she will eventually learn to address as Mistress.
She will find herself naked in a room with lots of other naked women, and
within a couple of weeks she will learn to answer to the wishes of whoever
happens to be her Master or Mistress. This whole new lifestyle will make her
eminently but mysteriously happy.
Well, I was close. I won't bother you with the details of where I went
astray. The interesting thing is that even though I had a pretty good idea
where the story was probably going, the author held my attention all the way
up to the end of the story. The constant state of tension was really well
maintained. The author himself said he was disappointed with this as a
"Deirdre-esq." It's a bit long for the Deirdre genre, but I thought he did an
excellent job. In fact, I think he did a better job here than in "Deck,"
where he thought he had finally reached Deirdre euphoria. Like Deirdre's
stories, this one lets the narrator make seemingly logical choices that get
her into a really bizarre situation involving sexual taboos. Also like
Deirdre, the author maintains the tension of the story masterfully; and most
importantly, at the end all of the details make perfect sense. With many of
Deirdre's stories I have been left with the impression that "this is a silly
story but I can't explain why." That's the reaction I experienced at the end
of this story: it made no sense, but yet it made perfect sense.
Ratings for "Chosen"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Educational Experience" by Unknown Author. This story came to me as an
attached file by e-mail. The file was labeled "physlab.txt," but the title
line in the story said "Educational Experience." The story itself did not
include the author's name. That's a bad idea. Always put your name after the
title of the story; otherwise, the reader may separate the e-mail message from
the file and not know who wrote the story - which is what happened to me in
this case.
The story is about two female college students, studying to be physician's
assistants. They have reached the unit on rectal examinations, and they very
much enjoy exploring each other's bodies. I really doubt that most premed
students act this way during their studies. I would go so far as to say that
teachers would expect students to be able to conduct physical examinations
without inducing or enjoying orgasms; but what do I know? I was especially
skeptical of the part about Charles examining Nicole with a finger in each
opening, to feel the thickness of the membrane between her anus and her
vagina; but the author certainly made it sound both sexy and convincing.
The main improvement this story needs is a good proofreading, which could
tighten up the grammar and some minor lapses in the story line. In
addition, the author should have gone through the text one more time to
clean it up by putting spaces after commas, etc. Overall, however, it
was a very good story.
Ratings for "Educational Experience"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Georgia" by Green Onions (flagger@world.std.com). This author originally
posted this story with a special note to me, indicating that I should NOT
review it. He later changed his mind and sent me a personal note that it
would be OK to review it. His hesitance seemed to be based on the idea that
maybe I wouldn't like stories about "fat people," and he didn't want to burden
me with a story that was not up my line. Then he sent me another note that
said I should ignore his note that told me to ignore the note. Since I had
already read, enjoyed, and reviewed the story by that time, I said, "Screw
him!" (in the nicest sense) and decided to go ahead and post this review.
Actually, I liked the story very much. Although I myself have the nearly
perfect body of a sex goddess, of course, I share the author's belief that
such physical characteristics as waist size and weight have a near-zero
correlation with amorous abilities. As a sex goddess, I resent the popular
implication (typified by blonde jokes, which are perhaps true, since I am not
a blonde) that people with stereotypically "good" measurements are bimbos (I
need the well-built, former, blond vice-president to tell me whether there's
an e in the plural of "bimbo"). I see an immense value in doing many of the
things that are normally associated with maintaining a good physique - I
myself have kept in shape through athletic activities, and I think my sex life
and personality have benefited. However, research shows that weight has a
significant genetic component, and lots of people who are overweight have no
more slovenly lifestyles than those who "look perfect." On the other hand, I
also have a bit of hostility toward "fat fetishes." I think worshipping
apparent obesity is as bad as deifying its opposite.
When we talk in our stories about physical "perfections" and astonishingly
wonderful sexual reactions (routine multiple orgasms, superabundant female
ejaculations, buckets of cum, etc.), we run the risk of downgrading real-life
experiences. A couple of years ago two of our friends whom we assumed to be
virgins were going to get married, and my husband suggested sharing with them
a good porn flick that we had seen, "so that they would know how to do it." I
vetoed the idea, because I thought the film would set "standards" for them
that would be unattainable. They didn't need to be pros; they just needed to
relax and explore their sexuality together. The stories posted on this
newsgroup could have a similarly unfortunate impact. The fact is that real
life does not always work like movies or stories, and we should not feel that
we are "doing it wrong" if we don't accomplish the impressive achievements
that occur in some of these stories.
{Joke: An elderly man and an elderly woman had back-to-back appointments for
physical checkups. The man went first. He was in good health, but he
complained that he was having problems with his sex life. When the doctor
inquired further, he said that the problem was that he sweated whenever he did
it the second time. The doctor assured him that this was not a serious
problem, dismissed him, and examined the wife. She likewise was in good health
but also complained about her sex life. The doctor said, "Your husband
complained that he sweats when he does it the second time. Do you really do
it that often?" "Yes," she replied. "That's the problem. Once in January and
once in July.}
It may sound banal, but some of my best friends are fat people - and my very
best friend has a dick that doesn't measure up to the perfection of those
advertised in a.s.s. stories.
At any rate, this story presents a brief, romantic, sexy scenario in which a
man of unknown physical dimensions makes tender love to a woman whom some
would label obese. My "imperfect" rating for this story reflects the fact
that it is more of a snippet than a complete story. There's nothing wrong
with that; Dulcinea gets similar ratings all the time, and hers are among my
favorite stories on this newsgroup.
Ratings for "Georgia"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"Girls 1.0" by Wiley (wiley06@nym.alias.net). This is a story about a girl
who gets raped and enjoys the experience. Wiley says at the beginning, "It's
a fantasy, so get off that horse." OK, I've been asked to accept even wilder
fantasies than this one.
Although the story would benefit from a good proofreading, it's fairly well
written. {I don't know why the title is plural; I presume it was just an
uncorrected typographical error.} Although I personally did not come away
with a wet pussy or an urge to awaken my husband for some action, I would
describe the action as hot and realistic (granted that we accept the fantasy).
I'm a little sensitive about rape, because I have worked with young girls who
have been rape victims. In general, it is overwhelmingly NOT true that young
women are likely to enjoy or benefit from being humiliated and treated like a
peace of meat for the pleasure of uncouth guys who cannot obtain sex through
more civilized means. On the other hand, I'm told that this caveman thing is
a favorite fantasy of guys; and rape is a very popular theme among guys having
sex with prostitutes. In addition, there are indeed women who experience
pleasurable sensations like those of the girl in this story. Often they are
women with negative self-concepts who are hurt by the experience but just
aren't perceptive enough to realize it. In other cases, women experience
physiological reactions that they interpret as pleasurable; and this
"pleasure" afterwards often causes them anxiety and dysfunctional reactions,
such as extreme embarrassment and reluctance to report the incident to the
police.
Anyway, this isn't my favorite topic, and I wish I lived in a world where
people didn't treat other people this way; but this is still a pretty good
story.
Ratings for "Girls 1.0"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9