Less of Her by I. Verse

[Lester Curtis]

Seamless, complex and touching, with a surprise at the end.

I think I've read better stuff, but I can't remember what it was. Reminds me a lot of Bradbury.

I could easily imagine this one making the Year's Best list. Read it.

[Robert_Moriyama]

In your stories, the guys all have at least two tentacles...right?

There were no guys in the story, I think that's what Michelle was complaining about.

Naw -- she doesn't like the "adult" stuff here in our fine Family Publication or anywhere else. (I'm assuming that she is not reading the "Fifty Shades of Grey" books under the covers with a flashlight as we speak.)

RM

[Lester Curtis]

bottomdweller wrote:

I don't read that stuff - I've lived it (A Fisherman's Guide to Bottomdwellers)

. . . and I take it that that document was authored by your three ex-husbands . . .

[Lester Curtis]

I didn't think the girls acted like men, either. And, the lesbian aspect of the story didn't bother me nearly as much as the sale of body parts. Even that didn't give me a shock as much as a deep sense of sadness, that someone would do that to themselves. It's like self-mutilation, and I can't imagine she was doing it because she couldn't find another way to make an income. Maybe even worse than self-mutilation; a complete apathy or indifference toward her own body and her sense of self.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Men writing stories about lesbians is as absurd to me as white men singing in blackface - keyword Al Jolsen singing Mammy. I would not write an article or story using a gay man as the main character because I haven't lived my life as a gay man. I would not write a story with the main character being unemployed black men in a downtown setting - as I have never lived life as an unemployed black man - and anything I write would be a caricature at best.
The lesbian liason adds nothing to the story and distracts from the plot. This woman on woman sex is the WORSE KIND of female objectification imaginable.
Really, the author even said he made a bet of sorts with a friend to see if he could write a believable story about lesbians - and I called him on it, so what?
The main characters are stick figures because the author has no real insight into the lesbian experience - because not only is he not a lesbian, he's not even a woman.
Here's a brand new, fresh idea people: WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW!!! I guess I'm the first person in the history of literature to come up with this revolutionary approach.

Hmm... I'm pretty sure you've written some stories with male protagonists...

[Lester Curtis]

BD, if we only wrote what we know, we wouldn't BE on this forum!

Besides, measured by your own standards, if you don't know anything about lesbian relationships, then you're not qualified to critique the authenticity of the one in this story.

That's a false standard, I believe. We are all human here (avatars notwithstanding), and we all understand certain basic things about human behavior and emotion. One could write a passage describing someone's feelings of attraction to someone else without specifying who that someone else was -- and the description might ring true regardless of who or what the object of their affection was. The reader could say to himself, "Wow, I've felt that exact same thing . . . " and could then be shocked to find that the emotion was directed at, say, a garden slug. Or a garden tractor, or a particular tree. Or another person of the same gender. Love knows no bounds. I recently wrote a flash here about a man loving a crow. Were you convinced, or not?

[Lester Curtis]

Also, some insight to the male fascination with Lesbianism can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKGK2fplV_w

Steve is trying to justify the merits of the film 'Lesbian Spank Inferno' to his girlfriend. This is from the British comedy 'Coupling', which has been helpfully subtitled for you 'merkins out there.

Hilarious -- thanks!

[Robert_Moriyama]

Lester Curtis said:

...bullcrap, bullcrap, bullcrap...I like to read stories with hot lesbian sex...more bullcrap.

I call myself "asexual" but say I lived "Fifty Shades", so you can assume I don't like reading about sex because I didn't like the real thing. Also, my own experiences make me qualified to judge all other women's experiences and feelings, so there. Neener, neener, neener, I'm the queen and you're a peasant, also you smell quite unpleasant...

Hey, if you can call something a quote that only indicates that you "hear" other people the way Ginger the dog "hears" her master in the old Gary Larson cartoon ("Blah blah blah Ginger blah blah blah...), then so can I. (My fake quote, on the other hand, is at least partly based on thing you have said.) You don't like reading sex scenes, heterosexual ("soft porn") or otherwise. We get it. I may have to put a "may offend bottomdweller" warning on stories if this is how you will react every time.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Er... I don't remember any sex scenes, I think?

2 kisses, a reference to nudity and a tentacle, but no actual sex scenes.

Did you guys read the same story I wrote?

bottomdweller has a vivid imagination... She extrapolated sex scenes and then deemed them objectionable -- because they were unrealistic. (If Ryan doesn't work out as Romney's running mate, this may qualify her as a candidate!)

[Lester Curtis]

And every speculative fiction writer who has ever written 1) about space travel 2) from the point of view of an alien 3) a vampire story 4) a tale about a sentient sword 5) time travel 6) zombies 7) ghosts. Indeed, the whole point of speculative fiction is speculating what things would be like if they were very, very different.

When you think about it a little, "speculative fiction" need not be limited to SF, fantasy, and horror . . . do you suppose that Agatha Christy murdered someone (or had ANY involvement in a murder) for each of those books she wrote? Did Zane Gray spend thousands of miles on horseback, slinging lead? Might as well include historical novels, too, since much of the dialog is made up, if not a lot of the action.

If nobody ever wrote anything but what they knew, most public libraries would be about the size of my kitchen.

[Lester Curtis]

If nobody ever wrote anything but what they knew, most public libraries would be about the size of my kitchen.

In a nutshell, we re really don't know anything at all?

Rude.

No. Maybe exaggerating a bit, but take out all the fiction, and how much is left? Oh -- and take out all but a handful of the movies, while you're at it.

[Lester Curtis]

Oh, and are we getting close to the record number of posts about a story?

If it weren't for topic drift, it wouldn't even be close . . .

[Lester Curtis]

In every story I write, I know the characters

Me, too. Except I "know" them the only way any of us "knows" anything---through my own perspective. My characters are actually parts of me, much the same way that characters in dreams are actually part of the dreamer. I choose to set that Part of me in an exotic location or time or situation in order to better understand the Part by seeing how it responds to changed circumstances. One of the important changed circumstances is a gender change. Male authors strive to understand their female characters and females work hard on their male characters, as a way to move beyond societal norms of what constitutes self.

Nicely stated!

[Robert_Moriyama]

Awww, thanks. But it still makes me a little sad that my notes produce that kind of response. : (

You're a super intelligent guy! When writing non fiction, write how you think. I don't think Einstein worried nights about public perception (or he would have chosen a hair stylist).

But then who would Don King (Google him, ya lousy kids) have used as a role model?