"The inner circle" by T. C. Boyle was a very interesting read.
I have also heard good comments about "Teleny" by Oscar Wilde although i haven't read it.
"The inner circle" by T. C. Boyle was a very interesting read.
I have also heard good comments about "Teleny" by Oscar Wilde although i haven't read it.
Last edited by manolia; 03-31-2009 at 02:13 PM.
Through the darkness of future past
the magician longs to see
one chance out between two worlds
'Fire walk with me.'
Twin Peaks
The Story of O by Pauline Réage. I haven't read this.
Anything by de Sade, in particular Philosophy in the Bedroom.
The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille. Short, poetic and sort of disturbing. I've read it; it's great, but might be a little much for some readers. Keep out of reach of children.
A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe, though not primarily concerned with sex, does have an explicit scene that's key to the narrative.
Is that a difficult read?Originally Posted by wat??
Petrol! by Pasolini (not sure if it's been translated to English but it's great). You should also check out his films as a lot of them centre around the topic of sex. Theorem, The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, Arabian Nights, Porcile, Salo ; 120 Days of Sodom, Oedipus Rex.
"And the worms, they will climb
The rugged ladder of your spine"
Sexus by Henry Miller
Yeah, I thought that was interesting, too. I imagine people might have a wide range of reactions to it.
Here's my choice(s), two by one of my favorite authors. He's written some crap, but he was on a flawless roll from 1988 to 1994.
Nicholson Baker's The Fermata and Vox
Vox is much tamer than The Fermata. In fact, The Fermata is so out there I worry it might sway some more conservative readers from his incredible (but not especially sexy) debut The Mezzanine.
That being said The Fermata is amazingly "sexy," but [...SPOILER--MINOR SPOILER, MAYBE THIS SPOILER IS ON THE BACK OF THE PAPERBACK ACTUALLY, SO SPOILER-LITE, OK? SPOILER...]the narrator almost rivals that of Lolita--it's a guy who learns how to stop time, and does what you might imagine a nerdy young man might do. [END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER]
The bulk of the book has little to do with relationships (or even, some might argue, actual sex), and a lot of women would probably not be at all interested in this book, please be careful.
Vox is probably a better book for thinking about sex and relationships, if I remember correctly. A short book, describing a conversation with a 1-900 phone sex woman. Not all about sex, but it's good, and somewhat about sex, if I remember right.
Last edited by billl; 07-04-2009 at 12:39 AM.
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. A decidedly off-putting scene...
As already mentioned, anything by Anais Nin. I would mention 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' by Milan Kundera too.
"Fear of Flying"- Erica Jong
Wow... I can't believe you guys missed 'Fanny Hill'. Its hotter than the letters section of an adult magazine. And, if you can find it, the original version of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', this was the book that got Lawrence charged with publishing pornography. The copy I have is called: 'John Thomas and Lady Jane' and was printed in Italy because no English publisher would touch it.
Yeah, you really wanna check out anything by de Sade. His opus magnum is 120 days of Sodom, but I believe there's much more merit to Philosophy in the Bedroom. His books are almost a case study of sexual psychopathology. You'll also gain a bit of knowledge on philosophy and psychology if you read between the lines well enough! Definitely check out de Sade.
If you're not against graphic novels (which I really hope you're not, or you're totally missing out) then you've got to check out Lost Girls. He makes some pretty good points about pornography and sex in general.
Also, its not easy to make me blush, but I couldn't read American Psycho on the bus.
I liked that one. The Flea was a pretty good sex poem too, and there's a lot in Rimbaud (I REALLY recommend Rimbaud).To His Coy Mistress (poem)
*edit: "I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay was a good poem too, and a good female take on sexuality which is kind of missing from sex literature. Another female perspective can be found in Sappho.
Last edited by JuniperWoolf; 07-18-2009 at 09:18 PM.
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
Did anyone mention crash or turkish fruit. haha, yeah
There is no darkness, there is no light, there is only Lasagne!
Yeah, you really wanna check out anything by de Sade. His opus magnum is 120 days of Sodom, but I believe there's much more merit to Philosophy in the Bedroom. His books are almost a case study of sexual psychopathology. You'll also gain a bit of knowledge on philosophy and psychology if you read between the lines well enough! Definitely check out de Sade.
I'm sorry but there is about as much of literary merit in De Sade as there is in Mein Kampf... and perhaps a greater degree of the pathological.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
That's just rubbish what you just said, Mein Kampf doesn't feature much sex at all.I'm sorry but there is about as much of literary merit in De Sade as there is in Mein Kampf... and perhaps a greater degree of the pathological.
There is no darkness, there is no light, there is only Lasagne!
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