The Home for the Literarily Bent
Sleaze
Whip Worship
Sep 9th
Whip Worship front cover
by Cliff Barrett, Ph.D.
Published in 1972 by Impact Library
The attention grabbing cover blurbs promises insight into a world of women who “live and love by whip and pain and twisted torture” and “…females who attain amazing summit fulfillment by painful agony aberrations.” Unfortunately, Whip Worship reads more like a series of random stories thrown together willy-nilly instead of a cohesive narrative of any form.
The first scene of the book is a rather standard case history of two teenage sisters. (Well, the tale they tell of turning tricks while hitchhiking isn’t exactly standard but the “case study” format of the concerned psychologist is.)
Next, we are then treated to a first person account of a group of soldiers enjoying the spoils of war. Even though the gangbang triple penetration described therein is arousing, the abrupt shift in writing styles is abrupt so much so that it proves distracting.
There’s little need to describe the rest of the scenes – they vacillate from tired third person narratives of sadistic prostitution rings to the confession of a depraved bisexual masochist – the sort of girl that fantasies are made of – to an upper class masochistic man who enjoys the charms of street urchins of both sexes. It’s the last vignette I mentioned that serves both as a crescendo of depravity and the books’ highlight. Despite the fact that it wasn’t at all arousing to me sexually, the vivid descriptions of enjoying cunnilingus with a VD sufferer and the glass table show made me feel a little morally superior. No matter how twisted or demented my fantasies might become, I can take solace in the fact that I haven’t sunk quite as low as Mr. Upper Crust.
In sum, this is a mess of a book. Readers who enjoy their smut straight, predictable, and internally consistent should stay away. However, sick fucks like me will find themselves happy.
The Submissive Female
Sep 1st
The Submissive Female front cover
by Anthony Parr, Ph. D.
Published in 1971 by The Dolphin Press
Reading this book left me with one unanswerable question: why are Danes so hairy? Don’t get me wrong, I like some hair down there. In fact, it creeps me out when there isn’t hair down there. The desire for hairlessness seems like the purview child molesters. Creepy.
I don’t know why, but I frankly never imagined the Danish as hirsute. Part of me is curious to search the internet for modern Danish porn to see if Danish women have discovered the necessity of pubic grooming. But the other part of me is scared nothing’s changed, so I’ll continue in blissful ignorance.
The hairy sex pictures were really the highlight of the Submissive Female. In this book, Parr sets out to trace the lowly social status of women throughout history. He begins with conjecturing about the status of females in pre-history assuming they were only valued for their ability to bring males pleasure. Subsequent chapters focus on the status of women in Greek and Roman societies, 17th century England, Russia, and France.
As he traces through these societies, Parr often focuses on women of high status and relates how they cruelly treat their slaves and servants. He credits this behavior to their identification with their own abusers, but shows no evidence to back up this claim.
There really isn’t much to recommend here. There are a few titillating passages which merit some interest. Unfortunately, I can’t help but think the original stories which Parr cites are vastly more entertaining and informative than his presentation of them.
A Switch Hitter Follows the Ads: A Sex Odyssey
Aug 22nd
A Switch Hitter Follows the Ads: A Sex Odyssey front cover
by Jill Baker Boyle
Published in 1969 by Ram Classics
This book is the “autobiographical” account of Jill’s travels across the U.S. as she meets men and women that she has met through adult personal ads.
As our tale begins, Jill is home in Los Angeles with her husband, Lance, and her lesbian lover, Elise, preparing to bid them adieu as she departs in her van for a year of carnal adventures. After a goodbye evening of “triple loving,” Jill discovers her lovers have a surprise for her going away present: a painter has added “Hi-Ways and Bi-Ways” to the back of her customized van.
Jill’s first stop on her adventure is a meeting with a shy young lesbian, Joan, who lives a mere ten miles away. Inside Hi-Ways and Bi-Ways, Jill introduces Joan to the joys of lesbianism while parked outside the Laundromat. Before Jill departs, she plays matchmaker for Joan and her landlord.
Pressing forward on her journey, Jill travels to San Francisco to meet Mark. After a few days of shared passion and a night of drunkenness, Jill and Mark make their way to meet with Mark’s old girlfriend, Cora. Mark and Cora’s earlier romance ended because Mark was a high class boy and Cora was a girl born on the wrong side of the tracks. I won’t spoil the action for you, but this tryst contains the book’s best line “Take off that cheap nightie, baby, and let me see those tits of yours.”
Jill’s heads to Denver to meet a young married couple, Kansas City to meet a frumpy librarian with an interest in dildos, on to Chicago to meet with a transvestite named Robert, and finally to Indiana to meet yet another shy young lesbian, Lois.
We learn that Lois lives on a farm with her brother, Tom, and his wife, Wilma. Tom turns out to be an abusive drunk and Wilma is the object of Lois’ desires. Eventually, all four of them have an encounter on the farm which culminates in the best visual scene in the book. I can only describe it thus: garden hose enema.
When Jill tires of fun and frolic at the farm, she and Lois head to New York, the last stop in Jill’s itinerary. Jill plans to attend a private sex party and the final scene really heats up. But I won’t spoil it for you, you’ll have to read A Switch Hitter Follows the Ads: A Sex Odyssey to see how it all ends.
Dirty Words and How to Use Them
Jul 17th
Dirty Words and How to Use Them front cover
By Alfred Ellison
Published in 1969 by Pendulum Books
This book has a slightly misleading title. When I began reading I hoped that this book would be either a dictionary or style guide for dirty talk and profanity.
While I think that I do fairly well left to my own devices, I would much enjoy a guidebook for dirty talk. Even William Shakespeare would quickly run out of imaginative ways to call his lover a nasty little slut whilst doing the deed, and I know that my dirty talk is far more repetitive than I would like to admit. Sex itself is largely repetitive, so that doesn’t seem like the end of the world. Still I would like to have new things to say when necessary.
Of course, just having new things to say isn’t enough. It’s just as important to have the right words for that special moment. Here too a guidebook would be useful. If Reader’s Digest® had an adult version of “It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power” I would be a regular subscriber. Alas, I am left to my own devices for such things.
Dirty Words and How to Use Them is another of the great faux sociological novels that were prevalent in the 1960s. This particular book examines various types of sexual fetishes driven by the written and spoken word.
Several things stand out about this book. For one thing, it introduces a number of clinical words for dirty things such as coprolalia (defined in the glossary as “sexual pleasure derived from sexual or scatological language.”), erotolalia (same as coprolalia but limited to spoken words), erotographomania (a condition where someone derives sexual pleasure from writings and drawings about sex), and others. Pull those out next time you play Scrabble® – just don’t expect them to be in The Official Scrabble Players® Dictionary.
That said, I would strongly advise against using them if you teasing your lover about you have in store for them later. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would be filled with an overwhelming passion after you told them about your plans to tie them up and engage in an intense round of erotolalia. Then again, perhaps there is such a person out there and I just don’t know them. If that’s you, do drop me a line.
Another thing that stands out about this book is that it is very well written. Even though most of the sex is rather tame compared to many of its contemporizes, the fluid style makes this a fun and easy read. Even though reading about someone who gets their sexual thrill from writing dirty words on the bathroom wall doesn’t sound that interesting, it is.
This is a good read and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
The Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society
Jul 13th
The Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society front cover
by Hugh Jones
Published in 1965 by Brandon House
This early representative of the pseudo-sociological exposé is a tough one to review for a couple of reasons. First, unlike many books of this genre that followed, this book does a fairly good job of selling the notion that it is reporting the unvarnished truth. Second, it somehow manages to straddle the imaginary exploitation line of simultaneously condemning and glamorizing the people it mentions.
The first clue that the “facts” we’re about to be introduced to may not be on the up and up, is that the foreword was penned by the imminent pseudo-psychiatrist Dr. Leathem. The appearance of a byline featuring the extraordinarily prolific Dr. Leathem is fair warning that you’re leaving the hallowed halls of the academia to peer through the glory hole in the men’s room stall.
Jones begins by explaining what a fetish is. Surprisingly, rather than suggest that having a fetish is in and of itself clear evidence that one is pathological, Jones takes the position (notably progressive for its time) that a having a fetish may or may not require psychiatric intervention.
Each chapter is devoted to a particular fetish and the book is devoted to the most common fetishes. Oddly, even though this book covers 15 or so fetish categories it is notably thin on lurid details, kinky or otherwise.
The standout chapter in this one is the one devoted to a tight jeans fetish. I’ve read about lots of fetishes (including some that make even me – and likely Jones too if he were familiar with them – cringe) and have never encountered a fetish for tight pants. Don’t get me wrong, there’s likely no bigger booster of hip huggers worn on the right hips than myself, I just never contemplated them as fetish wear per se.
That isn’t why I found this chapter so interesting though. Rather what made it fun to read was that rather than relay accounts from the perspective of a man that enjoyed tight pants, Jones wrote this chapter from the perspective of girls who enjoy the attention they get as a result of wearing them. As the story goes, a certain manufacturer sends out samples of the newest styles to select clubs of girls around the country. The girls then sit around and discuss the merits of the pants and report their thoughts back to the manufacturer. I suspect that the dynamic was supposed to mimic Beatles fan clubs and the like. It’s priceless at any rate.
At the end of the book, Jones includes a selected bibliography that lists most of the famous psychological books about fetishes. This was a nice touch that helps sell the notion that the book is reporting the facts. Unfortunately, I’m still not buying it.
Given the year when this book was published, it’s not too surprising that the book plays coy. Publishers had to be careful to keep their material above board lest they face jail time. Still, this book plays it too safe and fails to either educate or titillate.
If you want vivid, heart pounding erotica, this is not the book for you. But as an early time capsule of erotica disguised as educational material, The Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society is a winner.