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From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com
Subject: The Annex Reviews, 11/27/97
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I've heard of a shocking new development concerning archival of
web material. The program is called Alexa and, like Deja News, it
allows access to material that no longer exists on ISP servers. In this
case, however, the material in question is websites. The people
behind the development of this program intend it to systematically
archive *every website currently in existence* to provide a virtual
museum of "our electronic heritage" for future historians.
Now, whether this is bad or good depends on your point of view. If
you're a historian or have a dumb little homepage somewhere
devoted to your unicorn poems and needlepoint, fine. If you run an
*adult* website, the implications are enormous, because anyone,
future spouses, employers, children, may access long after the site is
taken down. Or what of vengeful ex-spouses or lovers? Or vengeful
writers, who don't like how their stories have become your money-
making machine? Or lawyers?
More information about this development can be accessed at The
Mining Company (http://personalweb.miningco.com/index.htm)
under Personal web pages.
Remember, if you ever miss a review of *mine,* you can always
access it at http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh.
The Stories (A reader suggested I list them first, and I thought why
not. If I was a writer, I'd want to go straight to the review of my own
story without reading all the other crap first):
Cabin Fever, JM McMurray (M/F romance)
I am M1ke's Dick, M1ke Hunt (Satire of PBS sex documentary)
Website Review: Maryanne Mohanraj
Curiosity, David Trell (M/M in antique shop)
Raven's Journey (M/F Dungeons&Dragons sex)
Cabin Fever [B+]
When posted: 11/18/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: LM 1
Posted by: J M MCMURRAY
Poster Address: RNRH85C@prodigy.com
The cabin of the title refers to a cabin cruiser, not a log cabin.
A young man and his fiancee argue, and he leaves the apartment to
go cool down on his parents' boat, which is moored at a nearby
marina. After he takes a nap, his girlfriend comes around to make
up, and they have hot sex in the boat's tiny cabin.
This seems to be one of those BBS stories that have been bopping
around for ages, but it was pretty good, giving equal time to the love
and respect the young couple have for each other along with the
porn. The author has also managed to catch some of the innocence of
young love too, as the narrator considers sex on a moored boat the
kinkiest thing he's ever done...whereas readers ASS know better!
I am M1ke's Dick [A+]
When posted: 11/16/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: M1ke Hunt
Address: mrm1ke@aol.com
Website: http://members.aol.com/mrm1ke
I got very excited when I saw the title of this story because I thought
it was going to be a spoof of that old Reader's Digest human anatomy
science series which included "I am Joe's Eyes" (also the title of a
10,000 Maniacs song) and "I am Jane's Ovary" which, I'm not kidding
here, was the first adult magazine article I ever read as a child. That
the story wasn't shows my age perhaps, and M1ke's, but it was
something just as good: a send up of the television industry,
federally-funded PBS in particular.
The story is told through a series of memos, transcripts, emails, and
phone conversations, all in present tense. Some producers at PBS are
producing a documentary about human sexuality, and they enlist
M1ke's help. Office politicking being what it is, he's given a
ridiculously small salary and sent off to spin his wheels, but he gets a
chance to shine when one of the male porn stars becomes sick and
it's his dick that takes a turn before the camera instead. Tongue-in-
cheek hilarity ensues.
The story was funny not only for its skewering of the industry, but
also for the interoffice fighting among the true dickheads who
actually produce documentaries like this. The story was also
interesting for how the author has woven his online persona into
the narrative, complete with mentions of his website address and
mailing list. It's every bit as effective a tool (no pun intended) as
Maryanne Mohanraj's website, which I review below.
Website Review
Maryanne Mohanraj: Soft-focus Shrine to Sexuality
If Elf Sternberg sets the website standard for male erotica authors, in
many ways Maryanne Mohanraj sets the standard for female ones.
She already has a degree of celebrityhood because of her recently
published book "Torn Shapes of Desire" and also because of the
hundred-plus stories she's written. She is also very comfortable
about channeling a large part of her life to online surfers.
Like Elf's, Maryanne's page is well organized and easy to navigate.
The layout of the material is pleasing and there are many links
relating to erotica and writing in general, as well as an ongoing on-
line diary, poetry, and a welcome listing of alternate sexualities in
science fiction and fantasy works. There aren't as many stories as
there used to be when I first perused the site last April, but then, she
is a published author who is protecting her interests. I was sorry to
note the disappearance of the Gor-esque slave n' loincloth BDSM
novel, though Maryanne has told me it's currently undergoing a
revision to a more mainstream fantasy work. I would liked to have
seen more graphics, too, but not everyone's a site designer.
What this page communicates is different than Elf's. Elf is the keeper
of some hard-to-find entertainment resources--the erotic hard SF
story--and is attempting to share these resources with as many
people as possible. Maryanne, meanwhile, is from a different
generation, or perhaps a different social strata. She gives us an
online diary to read and her personal thoughts on a variety of
subjects...the conceit being that who she *is* is as entertaining as
her creative output, and to an extent the site also functions as a
public relations tool. It's an interesting contrast. I can't help feeling,
though, especially in the wake of Princess Diana's death at the hands
of the paparazzi, this attitude is a little dangerous. It's easy to stalk
someone through the net, especially when they tell us personal
information about themselves. This, in combination with the Alexa
software I mentioned above, means who you and what you do will be
revealed to a lot more people than you'd originally planned on...and
some of them may be dangerous. So authors should take care.
But, on to the material here.
I found the links very useful, especially the science fiction and
fantasy alternate sexualities list. The Clarion West diary was also fun,
offering a glimpse into the cooperative nature of workshop writing.
(Clarion West is a workshop held every summer in Seattle for SF and
fantasy writers, with many distinguished graduates.) Like myself,
the author clearly recognizes the strong links between erotica, porn,
and literature of the fantastic. Among the other material, the website
lessons give helpful advice to net neophytes, and Maryanne's own
thoughts in "My Strange Schizophrenia" and "Why I write Porn"
give some insight into her creative life.
I'm pretty useless critting poetry beyond "I liked it" or "It was
strange" so I picked out four stories to read, and Maryanne sent me
two others which are among her most popular. "The Shiver of Your
Mouth" is prose-poem, a lover's paean to waking up with one's love.
"Goddess Blessing" concerns Mina, a middle-aged widow in Sri Lanka,
and the woman she once loved...and the intervention of the Indian
goddess of fortune, Lakshmi. It makes good use of the sounds and
textures of Maryanne's homeland. On the other hand "Mistress Molly"
was very Diedre-like (with a touch of mind control) as a young
woman falls under the influence of another woman who dominates
and controls her completely, written in the you'll-never-believe-this
style of sleazy supermarket confessional mags. "American Airlines
Cockpit," the writer's first story, concerns two young women who
amuse themselves (and take a bit of revenge on the male sex) by
performing a striptease for the pilot and copilot of their DC-10, and
"Jinsong" tells a story of attraction and rejection through
alternating email postings. "Chantel" is about a rape, but with a twist
you'll never be able to guess.
These stories were not porn. By porn I mean descriptions of specific
organs and where they go, accompanied by sights, sounds and odors,
often wildly exaggerated. I'd classify them more as literary erotica,
and further stamp them as populist literary erotica. All were cogent,
lucid, well-written pieces which show the four+ years of creative
writing classes and lots of sweat and toil on Maryanne's part; all were
as richly polished as the emeralds of her homeland. From what I read
Maryanne prefers first person voice, but that voice is broadcast in
different ways...from confession to email to poetry. Taken as a whole,
they seem to say sensuality and eroticism can be found in the heart
of everyday life; it leads us to richness and pleasure rather than
shame, guilt, or pain. The craftmanship of the stories further
removes them porn, as they also worked well as pieces of writing
even if you took out the sex. The classic O. Henry ending to "Chantal"
certainly bears me out there, and "Goddess Blessing" reads almost like
a translated work by a fine Indian writer.
Though I enjoyed these stories a lot and rate them A+ for the writing,
I missed the full-throttle intensity of porn. (Any one of these would
be interesting comparison with "Video Knights in Katmandu" which
I reviewed earlier this month, though Maryanne's work has more
literary merit.) Porn is the loud-mouthed guest at party who dances
on the table and does a striptease; erotica is the sophisticate who
stands on the sideline and drinks martinis. Both have possibilities,
but of different sorts. Another thing I noticed was that though erotic
attraction and love are portrayed as being necessary ingredients to a
happy relationship, they aren't really delved into. The flat givens
about love relationships gave some of the stories--"Jinsong" in
particular--a 20something Hollywood feel, like one of those romantic
comedies where we're supposed to believe a beautiful woman like
Julia Roberts would kill herself on her 28th birthday because she
isn't married and popping out the rugrats. But it's a small complaint,
really, and probably one more indicative of the author's age, as she is
a 20something herself.
Altogether, the stories are interesting, the links are fun, and it's a
large site, so there's plenty of territory to explore. I will definitely be
going back to Maryanne-land.
Interface: A
Content: A+
Will I visit again: Yes.
Curiosity, Parts 1, 2 3 [A]
When posted: 11/16/97
Where posted: ASSG
Author: Davis Trell
Address: DavisTrell@aol.com
The author says of this: "Its plotless and been hanging round too
long, so its not great, but I like bits of it. Story sort of peters out. I
could have 'forced' a stronger ending, but I let to like the stories
dictate their own rhythms. Nifty Archivist, found it 'obtuse'. Maybe
he's being constructive, as the stories do get a little florid." Well,
okay; but it was also a very arch, in-crowd paeen to homosexual
attraction.
A man goes into a California antique store to look at the porcelain
figurines, Greek urns, and French provincial divans, and is attracted
to the young man who is the store's clerk. As in his other stories, the
writer's chaotic yet masterful command of description made things
very interesting, particularly in how he relates the chatchkes to his
potential lover:
>>I held it in my hand, this proud fine-veined flute-columned
candelabrum, ornamented below with two gilded orbs, crowned with
a gentle brunelleschi-type dome that sparkled as it shone. <<
They do have hot sex amidst all the art metaphors, or perhaps in spite
in spite of them, and the story ends as the clerk departs to score a sale
from a new customer, leaving the narrator stuck in a sort of
existential anomie. Well, the ending could have been better, perhaps
with the clerk then trying to sell the narrator a piece of bric-a-brac
he really isn't interested in (the sex being what he usually does to
clinch a sale) but all in all this was an enjoyable read that other
writers should read, too, to see what can be done with the English
language.
Raven's Journey, Parts 1, 2, 3 [B]
When posted: 11/26/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: SupMario
Address: demon@ih2000
Raven, a female assassin in a Dungeons&Dragons-inspired fantasy
world, takes on jobs, botches them, falls in love, and gets turned into a
were-tiger. This is a continuing series.
This story didn't work for me either as a fantasy adventure or as
porn; though the words came fast and furious, the descriptions and
situations were cliched and perfunctory...like a fan's first-person
gaming adventures with sex tacked on. Though there were no
glaring technical errors in the writing, it just wasn't very
interesting or involving. I never felt Raven was actually in danger
or falling in love, and her ideal form of sex is to immediately impale
herself on a man's cock. To be fair, she was a spirited female anti-
hero in a genre that has traditionally confined women to roles as
booty or loyal fuckmates, but on the other hand, reversing
stereotypes carries no interest at all unless you do it well.
Other writers such as Tom Bombadil ("Camara, Lady of the Sword"),
Caintigern O'Nial ("Knight Errant"), Elf Sternberg ("Aimee") and
Cobalt Jade ("The Black Pearl") have handled the mixture of sex and
fantasy a lot better. I suggest this writer read some of their work.
Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com
Website: http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh
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