| Best Sex Writing 2008 (Cleis Press) |
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| Reviews - Books | |
| Written by Marcelle Manhattan | |
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I read Best Sex Writing 2008 on the New York Subway; which is actually a saying a lot. First: that it’s absorbing, like the books you pack to the beach. Second: that it’s fun, despite often serious subject matter. And third, that it reeks with the hot-dog-flavored mystique of America’s largest city: New York, New York. All of the series’ previous editions have been edited in San Francisco, home of publisher Cleis Press. But this year, Brooklyn-based editor Rachel Kramer Bussel has recruited the best scribes of the Big Apple, including Village Voice columnists Michael Musto and Tristan Taormino; former New York Magazine food critic and novelist Gael Greene; and Time Out New York editor Ashlea Halpern. The result is a delightful dose of bluntness, vulnerability, and unbridled sexual expression. But not to worry; this isn’t just Sex and the City. San Francisco giants like Violet Blue and Melissa Gira make their appearance here — as do writers from Sure, I got a few weird glances from my fellow subway passengers. (Though not many; mostly I was upstaged by the busking Mariachi band.) The cover is a bit confusing, although I’m sure it was calculated to sell. With a bare-assed woman’s stiletto tugging at her own thong, one expects an erotica collection, not unlike Bussel’s many other works. However, don’t be fooled by the raised eyebrows of your fellow riders of public transport. This is one-hundred percent nonfiction, and nonfiction at its best — which is to say, it is often still erotic, even while delving into facts with the precision of a crack journalist or the analysis of a brilliant academician. This, without question, is Best Sex Writing 2008’s greatest strength: it educates as it titillates, for a truly mind-blowing experience. As with any anthology, some essays are better than others; but Bussel’s choice of order keeps the pages turning faster than an express train at rush hour. We open (forgive the pun) with playwright Rachel Shukert’s “Big Mouth Strikes Again: An Oral Report,” a deliciously written tribute to Jewish girls and cocksucking. The closing essay, Greta Christina’s “Buying Obedience: My Visit to a Pro Submissive,” offers a groundbreaking look at sex work from the “other” side of the kink-for-coins transaction. And somewhere in the dreamy middle, Gael Greene’s “The Prince of Porn and the Junk Food Queen” leaves one pining for the movie version of her memoir—easily an Oscar favorite. But by far and away, the highlight of this collection is Jen Cross’s “Surface Tensions,” which transcends mere journalism and attains theoretical brilliance. Cross, who could hold her own at an academic conference on Queer Theory and feminism, plays with binaries of male/female; butch/femme; invisibility/readability; and victimization/survival, with the supple ease of a rhetorical handball wizard. My only complaint about Best Sex Writing 2008 is that there aren’t more essays like this. But then, this is nothing new; I’d like to see better scholarship in sex writing overall, without ceding its identity to the monolith of academia. Having said that, sex should be about having fun. And if done well, it should teach us something about human intimacy. For me, reading this book accomplished both—and unless you count the day I was groped by a random stranger, that’s the best experience I’ve had on the Subway in a very long time. *** © 2008 Marcelle Manhattan Best Sex Writing 2008 Event: Reading and signing to take place at The Center for Sex Culture on 27 March 2008, 7pm Marcelle Manhattan is a former literary scholar who dropped out of her PhD program to begin a writing career in September. Despite juggling a double identity and a job on Madison Avenue. Her fiction will appear in Susie Bright’s X: An Erotic Treasury, and her comic readings are a hit on YouTube. Marcelle writes at sexegesis.blogspot.com. Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York-based writer, editor, blogger, and reading series host. She's edited numerous anthologies, including Best Sex Writing 2008, Hide and Seek, Caught Looking, She's on Top, He's on Top, Crossdressing, and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2, and her own fiction has been published in over 100 collections, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006. She hosts the monthly In The Flesh Reading Series and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for the Village Voice. She's written for AVN, Bust, Cosmo UK, Gothamist, Mediabistro, Metro, Newsday, New York Post, Penthouse, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York, Zink and other publications. She's currently completing her first novel, to be published by Bantam in 2008. Add your comment |
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around the world. In fact, if there’s one thing we can say about Best Sex Writing 2008, it’s that it’s not restricted to anyone’s particular prurient purview. In fact, its studied commitment to diversity in sexuality studies makes one wonder if this shouldn’t have been the paperback entitled, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask).” Even if you were afraid to ask, Bussel’s authors are going to tell you anyway: about webcam porn sites dedicated to menstruation fetishes; about the effects of a sex-tape scandal in fundamentalist Iran; or about the rising numbers of HIV infection among seniors over 60. From the disabled to the multi-ethnic, this is perhaps a transparent attempt at sexual identity politics — but it works. Like a series of nights with a seasoned lover, each chapter brings something provocative, new, and even startling. I thought I knew a lot about sex. After reading this book, I know even more.
