Pure
Fiel a Verdad
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2001
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Somewhere, Under the Rainbow :
A Review of See Dick Deconstruct
- by Ian Philips
http://www.cleansheets.com
[a fine erotica site, in case you don't know of it]
$14.95
ISBN 0929435699
available through Amazon
Reviewed by William Dean
(06/26/02)
Prize-winning first books are often difficult to review. See Dick Deconstruct won in the Best Erotica category at this year's Lambda Literary Awards whose previous winners and participants make up a who's who of LGBT writing, including Dorothy Allison, Ann Bannon, Patrick Califia-Rice, Katherine V. Forrest, Nancy Garden, Krandall Kraus, Jay Quinn, Simon Sheppard, and Mark Thompson, to name just a few. The tendency for reviewers is simply to pay the usual compliments and say, yes, you really ought to have this book on your shelf.
I could say that, even with some sincerity, but, no. I say this book doesn't belong on your shelf. That's a much too staid and dusty place to keep a book like See Dick Deconstruct. You ought to have this book on the kitchen table, the coffee table, even on a perilous edge somewhere so that, brushing against it, on your flight to the club or Starbuck's, it will fall and you'll be prompted again and again to pick it up and read something like:
"So, later, we're snugglin' in bed, talkin' about my idea to make a deal with the Devil but keep my soul by bettin' him I could give him the best blow job he's ever had. Lilith's holdin' me from behind in her big arms, just listenin' t'me go on about what I'm gonna do when I win. Then, she kisses my neck an' I forget what I'm sayin'.
'Bubeleh, she says, 'the devil's dick is cold. Icy cold.'"
[...] it's not meant to be read once gently and shelved forevermore as one might with books in the "literary classics" genre. This is a book that practically shouts out to have rounded corners, faded covers, dog-eared pages, and, yes, even artful stains. A book whose very appearance should say "Oh, god, have I've been used!" And enjoyed. Passed around like a horny tart on a swingers' holiday.
"I dragged the tip of my tongue across his clit. I lifted my head and said, 'Fuck.'
'Fuck,' Walt groaned.
'I wanna fuck you.' I dragged my tongue back over the clit. It was getting so hard I was afraid it might pop.
'Fuck.'
'I wanna fuck you.' I wriggled my tongue against the head.
'Fuck,' he grunted. I kept on flicking my tongue. 'Fuck me.' Man, I've seen guys with sensitive dickheads, but...if Walt had had balls, they'da been blue by now.
I pulled up leaving his cute, little dick pointing into the cold, cold air. Then I really startled him.
'I said I wanna fuck you.'"
There are fifteen odd tales in Ian Philips' book, plus a well-deserved laudatory foreword by Patrick Califa-Rice. Some feature raunchy demons and uptight Establishment types; others, earthy folk engaged in the endless trek from meet-and-greet to grope-and-fuck. For older readers, there's often the prickly sensation that, at any moment, Rod Serling will suddenly lick your earlobe, cup your genitals, and whisper "Welcome to the Twilight Zone," while the more up-to-date kind may find themselves giggling as if Clive Barker and nameless succubae/incubae were fondling that largest of their sexual organs: the brain.
So, you see my difficulty in reviewing this book. Its classic stature demands a valued spot in your library, yet it deserves to be shared and re-re-re-read and, if not abused, certainly used. Perhaps the answer is to buy two copies. One to pedestal on the bedside table and the other, like some wandering Odysseus, to be "out there" having adventures among your literate friends too cheap to buy their own copies.
©2002 by William Dean
Reader Comments
William Dean is a longtime media professional and producer. He writes erotica under the pen name Count of Shadows, and has published extensively online. His work is included in two erotica anthologies, Tears on Black Roses and Desires. He also writes the monthly column Into the Erotik for the Erotica Readers Association.
A Review of See Dick Deconstruct
- by Ian Philips
http://www.cleansheets.com
[a fine erotica site, in case you don't know of it]
$14.95
ISBN 0929435699
available through Amazon
Reviewed by William Dean
(06/26/02)
Prize-winning first books are often difficult to review. See Dick Deconstruct won in the Best Erotica category at this year's Lambda Literary Awards whose previous winners and participants make up a who's who of LGBT writing, including Dorothy Allison, Ann Bannon, Patrick Califia-Rice, Katherine V. Forrest, Nancy Garden, Krandall Kraus, Jay Quinn, Simon Sheppard, and Mark Thompson, to name just a few. The tendency for reviewers is simply to pay the usual compliments and say, yes, you really ought to have this book on your shelf.
I could say that, even with some sincerity, but, no. I say this book doesn't belong on your shelf. That's a much too staid and dusty place to keep a book like See Dick Deconstruct. You ought to have this book on the kitchen table, the coffee table, even on a perilous edge somewhere so that, brushing against it, on your flight to the club or Starbuck's, it will fall and you'll be prompted again and again to pick it up and read something like:
"So, later, we're snugglin' in bed, talkin' about my idea to make a deal with the Devil but keep my soul by bettin' him I could give him the best blow job he's ever had. Lilith's holdin' me from behind in her big arms, just listenin' t'me go on about what I'm gonna do when I win. Then, she kisses my neck an' I forget what I'm sayin'.
'Bubeleh, she says, 'the devil's dick is cold. Icy cold.'"
[...] it's not meant to be read once gently and shelved forevermore as one might with books in the "literary classics" genre. This is a book that practically shouts out to have rounded corners, faded covers, dog-eared pages, and, yes, even artful stains. A book whose very appearance should say "Oh, god, have I've been used!" And enjoyed. Passed around like a horny tart on a swingers' holiday.
"I dragged the tip of my tongue across his clit. I lifted my head and said, 'Fuck.'
'Fuck,' Walt groaned.
'I wanna fuck you.' I dragged my tongue back over the clit. It was getting so hard I was afraid it might pop.
'Fuck.'
'I wanna fuck you.' I wriggled my tongue against the head.
'Fuck,' he grunted. I kept on flicking my tongue. 'Fuck me.' Man, I've seen guys with sensitive dickheads, but...if Walt had had balls, they'da been blue by now.
I pulled up leaving his cute, little dick pointing into the cold, cold air. Then I really startled him.
'I said I wanna fuck you.'"
There are fifteen odd tales in Ian Philips' book, plus a well-deserved laudatory foreword by Patrick Califa-Rice. Some feature raunchy demons and uptight Establishment types; others, earthy folk engaged in the endless trek from meet-and-greet to grope-and-fuck. For older readers, there's often the prickly sensation that, at any moment, Rod Serling will suddenly lick your earlobe, cup your genitals, and whisper "Welcome to the Twilight Zone," while the more up-to-date kind may find themselves giggling as if Clive Barker and nameless succubae/incubae were fondling that largest of their sexual organs: the brain.
So, you see my difficulty in reviewing this book. Its classic stature demands a valued spot in your library, yet it deserves to be shared and re-re-re-read and, if not abused, certainly used. Perhaps the answer is to buy two copies. One to pedestal on the bedside table and the other, like some wandering Odysseus, to be "out there" having adventures among your literate friends too cheap to buy their own copies.
©2002 by William Dean
Reader Comments
William Dean is a longtime media professional and producer. He writes erotica under the pen name Count of Shadows, and has published extensively online. His work is included in two erotica anthologies, Tears on Black Roses and Desires. He also writes the monthly column Into the Erotik for the Erotica Readers Association.
