Lawrence Schimel (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} desayunoencama) wrote,@ 2007-11-16 13:11:00 |
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Review of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW GAY EROTICA
There's a new review of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW EROTICA by Ann Sommerville up at Uniquely Pleasurable that's very interesting (not just for the nice things she says about the book, in general) but for the differences she finds between the world of slash writing (original or fanfic) and how gay men write about sex and erotica, not just in describing the physical body (and the differences in body types that are found attractive, warts and all) but what we look for in a relationship, and the duration or other complexities in those relationships, etc.
It's a very positive review, overall, and it also "gets" what I was trying to do with the book, especially by restricting it only to gay male authors:
"I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this book. The very first story surprised me, and the stories kept on surprising me, moving me, making me think. I think to call this ‘erotica’ is unfortunate, since not every story even features sex in any detail at all, and I suspect some people might avoid the book, thinking it was just jerk-off material, when it’s so much more than that. It’s about something different - what turns gay men on, what they notice, what they think is important, what are the memorable features of the encounters they have with each other. It’s about gay men themselves, not just how they fuck and who. In the end, this is an anthology about the connections gay men make with each other, and how they see the sexual landscape. Even when the story doesn’t turn the reader on, it’s still a compelling view into a world most of us will never experience for ourselves."
There's a new review of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW EROTICA by Ann Sommerville up at Uniquely Pleasurable that's very interesting (not just for the nice things she says about the book, in general) but for the differences she finds between the world of slash writing (original or fanfic) and how gay men write about sex and erotica, not just in describing the physical body (and the differences in body types that are found attractive, warts and all) but what we look for in a relationship, and the duration or other complexities in those relationships, etc.
It's a very positive review, overall, and it also "gets" what I was trying to do with the book, especially by restricting it only to gay male authors:
"I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this book. The very first story surprised me, and the stories kept on surprising me, moving me, making me think. I think to call this ‘erotica’ is unfortunate, since not every story even features sex in any detail at all, and I suspect some people might avoid the book, thinking it was just jerk-off material, when it’s so much more than that. It’s about something different - what turns gay men on, what they notice, what they think is important, what are the memorable features of the encounters they have with each other. It’s about gay men themselves, not just how they fuck and who. In the end, this is an anthology about the connections gay men make with each other, and how they see the sexual landscape. Even when the story doesn’t turn the reader on, it’s still a compelling view into a world most of us will never experience for ourselves."
