1. (Book) A collection of erotic short stories by lesbian (and transgendered) author, Pat Califia. Published, 1988 by Alyson Publications: Los Angeles. Dedicated to Dorothy Allison. To quote the introduction:
"Liberty is the right not to lie." — Albert Camus
"The things that seem beautiful, inspiring, and life-affirming to me seem ugly, hateful and ludicrous to most other people. This may be the most painful part of being a sadomasochist: this experience of radical difference, separation at the root of perception. Our culture insists on sexual uniformity and does not acknowledge any neutral differences — only crimes, sins, diseases, and mistakes. This smug erotic totalitarianism does hidden violence to dissidents and perverts. It distorts our self-images, ambitions and dreams. We think we are alone, or crazy, or ridiculous. Our desire learns to curb itself, and we come to depend on the strength of self-repression for our safety. We live in fear of being known, and such fear stifles the nascent erotic wish before the image of what is wished for can be fully formed. We know we are ugly before we have even seen ourselves, and the injustice of this, the falsehood, chokes me.
"What then, are my choices, as a writer and a sadomasochist? I could keep my sexuality private, write about other issues, other sorts of people, and tell myself that these are more important themes, more universal characters, more valid as literature. That involves telling a lie of omission — becoming invisible as a pervert, assuming an undeserved mantle of normalcy and legitimacy. Or I could become an apologist and seek to persuade the tyrannical majority that sadomasochism is not violent or self-destructive. But that would require telling many little, white lies — watering down the descriptions of frightening acts, softening the dialogue, emphasizing what S/M has in common with vanilla rather than where they part company, and appending endless, didactic justifications. This kind of fiction makes the non-S/M reader feel condescended to and lied to: it bores the well-disciplined reader and confirms a suspicion that our lives and visions are too trivial and base for explication."
(pp. 9-10, Macho Sluts)
The collection includes the following:
- Introduction
- summary pending. quote above.
- Jessie
- summary pending.
- The Finishing School
- summary pending.
- The Calyx of Isis
- summary pending.
- The Hustler
- summary pending.
- The Surprise Party
- summary pending.
- The Vampire
- summary pending.
- The Spoiler
- summary pending.
- A Dash of Vanilla
- summary pending.
- A Note on Lesbians, AIDS, and Safer Sex
- summary pending.