Wifetheif
Experienced
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2012
- Posts
- 750
I read almost no contemporary literature. Aside from "Danse Macabre" I've never read a Stephan King book. I love pulp literature to the exclusion of just about else. The high point of many of these books and stories is what I call "Ancient turn-ons" There is nothing like the introduction of Dejah Thoris in Edgar Rice Burrough's "A Princess of Mars" She's nude aside from a bit of gold ornamentation and her angelic face, black hair, and red skin are wonderfully described. Naturally, the recent "John Carter" movie had Dejah, beautiful as she was, barely red and clothed quite concealingly. The 1912 novel is more explicit than the Twenty-first-century movie!
What I like about pulp literature is how a scene being "off the page" is far sexier than anything that was ever going to make it in print back in the days when everyone was prudes (at least publically). I love the freedom to write honestly and openly about human sexuality and I have no wish to turn the clock back, but I think a lot can be learned from the old folks. We all know that the hottest erogenous zone is the human imagination. I was reminded of that in a recent comic book I read. Dinah Lance, the beautiful crime fighter known as Black Canary crossed paths with a Central American thug who ran a kidnapping scheme that targeted members of the one percent. The Black Canary is knocked out and the main bad guy says, "Take her valuables." Cut to Dinah waking up on a cot in the criminal kingpin's prison farm clad in just a pair of really tiny shorts and a crop top that is barely adequate to the job required. Naturally, both get quite alluringly and provocatively reduced to tatters when she makes her inevitable escape attempt. Since the target audience of the comics is chiefly teenagers, there is no actual nudity, but any kid reading it would have his mind filled with all kinds of scenarios to get the Black Canary from point A to point B. Probably, all those imagined scenarios are WAY to dirty for any comic book company to publish! It's the ultimate "fan service" and it is all off-the-page!
Which brings me to Abraham Merrit's "The Metal Monster" published in 1920 it takes place in an undiscovered valley near the Himilayas where a beautiful woman rules a giant machine intelligence that can swarm like insects and configure themselves into any form. Opposing her are a thriving tribe of Persian warriors. Our narrator teams up with a brother and sister team of researchers. At one point, Ruth, the very pretty brown-haired sister is abducted by the Persians. before she was kidnapped, she was dressed in men's style clothes as would be practical for a woman exploring in mountainous regions. When we meet her again, she's wearing a very short skirt and a close-fitting top that keeps her shoulder's bared. What happened to her? Most but not all of it occurs off-the-page. Here is Ruth's account of what happened to her and her brother.
“Martin,” I cried. “That ring? What did they do to you?”
“They waked me with that,” he answered quietly. “I suppose I ought to be grateful—although their intentions were not exactly—therapeutic—”
“They tortured him,” Ruth's voice was tense, bitter; she spoke in Persian—for Norhala's benefit I thought then, not guessing a deeper reason. “They tortured him. They gave him agony until he—returned. And they promised him other agonies that would make him pray long for death.
“And me—me”—she raised little clenched hands—“me they stripped like a slave. They led me through the city and the people mocked me. They took me before that swine Norhala has punished—and stripped me before him—like a slave. Before my eyes they tortured my brother. Norhala—they were evil, all evil! Norhala—you did well to slay them!
NOW isn't your mind full of all sorts of INTERESTING images when you consider the plight of Ruth? Wouldn't an actual blow-by-blow account of her travails be LESS effective? Damn straight it would be! My point in this long post is two-fold. One to remind my fellow authors that sometimes less IS more and two to ask you all what is your favorite bit of off-the-page sexual mischief that you have encountered and inspired you in your own fiction?
I predict some very interesting responses that should inspire a host of stories!
What I like about pulp literature is how a scene being "off the page" is far sexier than anything that was ever going to make it in print back in the days when everyone was prudes (at least publically). I love the freedom to write honestly and openly about human sexuality and I have no wish to turn the clock back, but I think a lot can be learned from the old folks. We all know that the hottest erogenous zone is the human imagination. I was reminded of that in a recent comic book I read. Dinah Lance, the beautiful crime fighter known as Black Canary crossed paths with a Central American thug who ran a kidnapping scheme that targeted members of the one percent. The Black Canary is knocked out and the main bad guy says, "Take her valuables." Cut to Dinah waking up on a cot in the criminal kingpin's prison farm clad in just a pair of really tiny shorts and a crop top that is barely adequate to the job required. Naturally, both get quite alluringly and provocatively reduced to tatters when she makes her inevitable escape attempt. Since the target audience of the comics is chiefly teenagers, there is no actual nudity, but any kid reading it would have his mind filled with all kinds of scenarios to get the Black Canary from point A to point B. Probably, all those imagined scenarios are WAY to dirty for any comic book company to publish! It's the ultimate "fan service" and it is all off-the-page!
Which brings me to Abraham Merrit's "The Metal Monster" published in 1920 it takes place in an undiscovered valley near the Himilayas where a beautiful woman rules a giant machine intelligence that can swarm like insects and configure themselves into any form. Opposing her are a thriving tribe of Persian warriors. Our narrator teams up with a brother and sister team of researchers. At one point, Ruth, the very pretty brown-haired sister is abducted by the Persians. before she was kidnapped, she was dressed in men's style clothes as would be practical for a woman exploring in mountainous regions. When we meet her again, she's wearing a very short skirt and a close-fitting top that keeps her shoulder's bared. What happened to her? Most but not all of it occurs off-the-page. Here is Ruth's account of what happened to her and her brother.
“Martin,” I cried. “That ring? What did they do to you?”
“They waked me with that,” he answered quietly. “I suppose I ought to be grateful—although their intentions were not exactly—therapeutic—”
“They tortured him,” Ruth's voice was tense, bitter; she spoke in Persian—for Norhala's benefit I thought then, not guessing a deeper reason. “They tortured him. They gave him agony until he—returned. And they promised him other agonies that would make him pray long for death.
“And me—me”—she raised little clenched hands—“me they stripped like a slave. They led me through the city and the people mocked me. They took me before that swine Norhala has punished—and stripped me before him—like a slave. Before my eyes they tortured my brother. Norhala—they were evil, all evil! Norhala—you did well to slay them!
NOW isn't your mind full of all sorts of INTERESTING images when you consider the plight of Ruth? Wouldn't an actual blow-by-blow account of her travails be LESS effective? Damn straight it would be! My point in this long post is two-fold. One to remind my fellow authors that sometimes less IS more and two to ask you all what is your favorite bit of off-the-page sexual mischief that you have encountered and inspired you in your own fiction?
I predict some very interesting responses that should inspire a host of stories!
