Okay, those of you who've been here for a while know that GOTC exists to speak the unspeakable thoughts and generally air unpopular views. In that sense, I feel privileged in that I feel compelled to introduce a new columnist by warning you about the content of his column. That tells me that we're finally pushing our own limits, which is what we're really all about around here.
If you've been on the net long at all, you probably know how easy it is to find visual porn. Any sort of sex you can imagine is documented with loads of photos if you know where to look - or even if you can find a nearby search engine. Granted, some of the really strange stuff is rare, but it's still out there if you look. If your tastes are more inclined to the verbal than the visual, though, you'll find that you have a harder time finding written erotica...and if you dare to insist on competent writing, you've got slim pickings indeed. Yes, there are some quality sites of that sort out there, but they're few and far between. To be honest, you're better off picking up the latest issue of Forum or any of its numerous siblings at your local bookstore.
For a while now, I've had a vague desire to change that in some small way. About a year ago, I spoke with one columnist about writing such a "literate porn" column, but nothing ever came of it. I shrugged and figured the opportunity would present itself when the time was right. I mean, eloquence and a healthy sex drive aren't mutually exclusive - no matter how much the available netporn might convince you otherwise. Heck, if you're reading this, you probably know that from firsthand experience; at least, I like to think we attract a fairly erudite (yet rebellious) audience....
Then, just recently, S.B. contacted me with much the same idea. He said he was looking for a place to publish a few stories, but that their nature would probably offend a lot of people. That got my attention, all right, and I asked him for some more information. S.B. responded with "Monday Morning" - and when I got to the end, I shot off some email to let him know he was in.
I won't say this was exactly what I was looking for - to be honest, I had something much tamer in mind when I originally conceived the idea of GOTC-published porn. However, I can't stand by and let S.B. go unpublished while I have a forum at hand. Actually, I feel a bit like a publisher confronted with the opportunity to print the works of de Sade; S.B.'s writing has exactly the literate quality I was after while topping that with various degrees of eroticism and revulsion - which is just to say that it takes you on a visceral roller-coaster of a ride. To me, it feels a bit like watching Larry Flynt channel Rod Serling and the Marquis de Sade while a wide-eyed, shuddering secretary takes dictation.
Now for the warning part. As the title implies, this column concerns sexual extremes. Most people will find at least some of the content disturbing or even revolting in some way; as for myself, I know I'll never look at grape jelly in quite the same way again. This is not a column for the sexually timid. If you think this may not be for you, stay away! On the other hand, if you read Mike's "Spacebrain" column straight through without flinching, be my guest.
There is one other matter to address: legalities. Some of the content will, without a doubt, violate "community standards" somewhere in America. (Some of it may even violate them everywhere.) I rest my defense on three principles: the First Amendment ("no law" leaves no room for obscenity statutes), the fact that you had to actively seek this content out, and the assurance that S.B. has given me that all of his tales are works of fiction, which are at most loosely based on some of the things he's seen and done. (In other words, ladies, please don't write to me asking if your husband is S.B. just because an article looks familiar. I ain't sayin' either way - and for that matter, who says S.B. is even male? Yes, the persona is male - but that doesn't mean the real person is. In fact, S.B. has hinted that he may have a couple of "his women" write some guest spots for variety.) Also, to be perfectly blunt, I've picked up similarly "obscene" works in respectable bookstores in my hometown. Some were even mass-marketed as cheap horror novels. Perhaps they skirt around a couple of issues that S.B. deals with head-on, but that's their decision. My view is that if we can go to any video store in the land and pick up a Friday the 13th movie in which a teenage couple gets brutally slain while having sex, or to a megachain bookstore where any number of True Crime books depict demented serial killers in gratuitously lurid detail, S.B. doesn't look quite so sick by comparison.
I don't know how far S.B. is going to go in the weeks and months ahead, but I do know that as long as he keeps sending columns, I'll keep publishing them. If they intrigue you, please read 'em and pass the word to your friends of similar tastes. If they offend you, well, you have been duly warned. On with the show.
| - Rev. Robert L. Hood Publisher and editor |