From: celeste801@aol.com (Celeste801)
Subject: Celestial Reviews 12 - August 16
Date: 16 Aug 1995 09:22:27 -0400

Celestial Reviews 12 - August 16, 1995 - by Celeste

Note:  This set of reviews includes some complex stories - or at least
complex reviews.  If you don't want to think too hard, just read "The Case
of the Tingling Clitoris," "Hold at Minot," or "Prom Date" and skip my
reviews.  No hard feelings.  (Heh-Heh.)  On the other hand, I'd be happy
to hear your thoughts about any of the issues I raise in these reviews.

Also, my thanks to several people who sent (or offered to send) copies of
Katie & Lyn 2.  Stop!  Go out and masturbate or something.  I don't need
any more copies!  I didn't realize how many people read these Reviews!
I'll review Katie & Lyn next time; but I can already tell you I recommend
that set of stories.

      "Consequences of Peeping" by Rolf (voyeurism & femdom)
            7.5
      "Aegean Interludes" by Deidre Ng (exotic romance) 9
      "Droit du Signeur" by Lysander (medieval romance) 7
      "Short 1.0" by Wiley03 (violent rape) 7
      "eXstacy" by Wiley03. (violent rape) 1
      "Hold at Minot" by Erostos (gay aviator sex) 10
      "Best Friends" by Erik Campos (teen nerd sex) 5
      "The Case of the Tingling Clitoris" by Dr. Watson (sex
          and the master detective) 10
      "Susan Hampton" by Unknown Author (seduced by the devil)
           5
      "Lessons in Lust" by Kid Dynamite (non-brutal D&s) 10

"Consequences of Peeping" by Rolf.  Little Timmy decides to spy on his
older cousin while she takes her bath.  She catches him and punishes him
by making him her sexual slave for the rest of the afternoon.  I normally
turn off to stories about adults having sex with little kids; but this one
was OK - I guess because the kid was asking for it.  The "punishment" was
basically the fulfillment of his early adolescent fantasies.  The author
does a good job of making the story sound like something that really
happened.  (Rating: 7.5)

"Aegean Interludes" by Deidre Ng.  This story consists of two parts, each
written from a different perspective.  One sets a mood for romantic sex on
a remote beach and the other in a hotel room.  The sex is quietly
passionate and romantic.  I liked the story, but the changes in mood and
verb tense bothered me.  I'm used to perfection from this writer!
(Rating: 9)

"Droit du Signeur" by Lysander.  Nice story!  That was my reaction after I
read the first chapter and plunged ahead into the second.  This tale takes
place in Germany during feudal times.  In those days the lord of the serfs
had the right to have sexual relations with a new bride on her wedding
night.  The hero and heroine in this story initially resist this as a
barbaric custom; but eventually they comply.

This story borders on greatness.  At the end of the third chapter, I was
truly impressed.  But then the author gets sidetracked on tales about
warfare and torture. These chapters are not bad; in fact they're good -
but perhaps a little too detailed.  The problem is that the author never
gets back to a full treatment of the sex and romance.  All of a sudden the
story just ends, and we are informed that Heinrich married Esmeralda (who
is barren) after miraculously rescuing her from Assan and that Kirsten
will have Heinrich's baby.  There's a lot more room for development and
resolution here.  For example, how will Tomas (Kirsten's husband) react to
this state of affairs, and how does Kirsten feel about her husband?

When sex occurs, it is really hot.  In addition, the plot allows room for
real sexual tension and creative character development.  Assume that there
really is a rule that the lord gets the bride on the wedding night and
that the bride can help her husband (who has attacked the lord) only by
making the lord as happy as possible.  She expects the lord to be an
asshole; but instead he turns out to be a responsible ruler and kind
lover, whose happiness apparently arises from making her happy.  How
should she react?  There's an important moral and emotional angle here,
which is worth developing: should she let herself go and enjoy the
pleasures she has been offered, or should she hold back her true affection
for her husband?  If she does react favorably to the lord and if she does
conceive a child, how will this affect her love for her husband?  And then
there's Esmeralda.... These and many other dilemmas could make this into a
story that is not only titillating, but also just plain good literature.

The author starts with a great plot for the first few chapters - a plot
that involves real personalities - and then settles for a war story,
purely hormonal sex, and an ending that leaves us hanging.  At the
beginning, this story reminded me a lot of the movie "Indecent Proposal,"
in which Demi Moore's husband was offered a million dollars if he would
let her sleep with a rich guy who looked a lot like Robert Redford.  But
"Indecent Proposal" maintained the moral and potential ambivalence all the
way to the end of the story.  In addition, Demi Moore's sexual activity
was not purely hormonal.  I hope the author of this story realizes what he
has here and goes back and turns it into the work of art it could become.
(Rating: 7)

"Short 1.0" by Wiley03.  This story is one of a series with similar names
that all depict violent rape.  The rape scenes all seem to be realistic;
they correspond with descriptions I have heard from more scientific and
personal sources.  If you're looking for a horror story, this one may be a
good one.  However, the author seems to have a notion that the victim of
rape typically attains some sort of "agonizing pleasure."  I've mentioned
this topic in several of my reviews, and let me summarize what some of my
readers have told me.  It is important to understand that almost all women
who experience a violent rape come away with negative feelings about
sexual activity (which would otherwise evoke positive feelings).  Almost
no women learn to love sexual activity as a result of being raped.
Whereas healthy or mature sexual activity leads a feeling of pleasure that
is both physical and psychological, the "agonizing pleasure" the woman may
feel at a time like this is usually a purely physiological reaction.  Many
women who are raped feel guilty, because they incorrectly feel that this
physiological reaction implies consent or acquiescence; and some rapists
feel exonerated, because the victim "enjoys it anyway."

The notion that the woman feels this "agonizing pleasure" may give readers
a feeling that the rapist is doing her a favor.  Actually, (although we
have few details about him) the rapist in this story fits the profile of a
selfish asshole who can't get his way with a woman through civilized
channels.

Having said this, I must add that Wiley03 seems to have a good ability to
describe the horror and pain inflicted by selfish assholes on innocent
victims. I personally don't like certain types of unrealistic horror
movies - where the only purpose is to terrify the viewer; but the movie
makers seem to find a good audience for them.  What bothers me is that
people find it pleasant to fantasize about this kind of degrading sexual
activity.  In addition, the present story has problems with grammatical
structures that may make it difficult to understand.  (Rating: 7)

"eXstacy" by Wiley03.  This story (like the previous) is a repost.  This
one demonstrates the lack of power that I have as a reviewer.  You'd think
that an author might at least have the dignity to remove some of the more
egregious errors from a story before reposting it.  I mean, isn't the
author at all concerned that some of this crap makes no sense whatsoever?
I guess maybe I should be relieved; it's not likely that many bright young
men and women are going to be seduced into depraved activity by a story
this badly written.  (The rest of this review {which is well written} is
exactly the same as it was in Celestial Reviews 2.)

This is the kind of story Beevis and Butthead used to enjoy before they
learned to pick their noses and masturbate.  What we have here is a
quasi-literate description of a guy and his faithful sidekick who kidnap a
girl and juice her up with electrical current before they rape her.  Then
they relax for a while by hanging her from a hook from the ceiling of the
warehouse, while they beat her with a whip and a cane before they rape her
again.  The sex is oral, anal, and vaginal; and, like most women, she
realizes that she likes it and yearns for more.

I guess this is the sort of crap Senator Exon is upset about.  It makes me
feel kinda foolish about advocating free speech.  Here's one of the
greatest quotes, lifted directly with my cut-and-paste tool, so that I
could avoid the risk of altering even a single sibilant syllable:  "Her
eyes slits, her mouth pouting and mewling, she slinked her way across the
floor until she was between his legs, her prick jutting obscenely before
her."  It really said that.  Earlier in the story, the hero (or villain -
I'm kinda confused here)  "...arranged himself in a beanbag while he
slowly approached her."  People that can do that are dangerous.

On a more serious note, the heroine/victim/love-object was expecting to
get paid with a "twenty day supply of X" but she was hoping for more like
"a years (sic) supply of X."  Maybe I'm out of touch, but am I supposed to
know what X is?  I don't know if the author was using X as a place holder
and forgot to change it to cocaine or chocolate candy or something,
whether there really is a commodity called X that she hoped to acquire as
compensation for her services, or whether the author just has an extreme
respect for copyright laws and doesn't want to mention the trade name of
the beverage the players would consume to slake their thirst after the
festivities.

In spite of these brilliancies, there were some minor flaws in the story.
As our damsel put it so eloquently, while her lithe body jerked
uncontrollably on the hook: "Aaahhgg, no, arrgh, please, uh uh stop
please." (Rating: 1)

"Hold at Minot" by Erostos.  Because of my own sexual preferences, I don't
actively seek out gay stories.  But this author was kind enough to send me
a set of six stories, most of which seem to deal with gay sex among
aviators.  They're delightful.  The main thing they have going for them is
that they put the sexual activity into a context that makes good sense.
This author either *is* a pilot or he watches The Learning Channel real
carefully.  I particularly enjoyed the pickup lines of the gay pilot, who
was basically trying to find out if the other pilot was likewise gay and
interested in a liaison: "I could use an approaching warm front just about
now." Or how about this reply: "...there's considerable moisture in these
two converging fronts that we're gonna have to deal with over the next
twenty-four hours." Or this one: "Moisture in fronts like these can build
up only so far before having to release explosively."  You get the
picture.  To a certain degree, this story breaks through the barriere
(How's that for a Freudian misspelling!) between gays and heterosexuals.
I mean,  I would rather hear pickup lines like these than have a guy look
me in the eye and say, "What's a nice girl like you doing in an airport
like this? " or even whisper in my ear, "Laugh if you want me to fuck your
brains out."  An extremely clever and intelligent story!  (Rating: 10)

"Best Friends" by Erik Campos.  This is probably a much better story than
my rating indicates.  However, the grammar is so confusing that I can't
figure out exactly what it's about.  The story uses technical and
scientific terminology to give a light-hearted presentation of playful sex
between a boy and girl computer nerd - I think.  (Rating: 5)

"The Case of the Tingling Clitoris" by Dr. Watson.  A client's innocence
can be established only by demonstrating her sexual prowess.  How will
Sherlock Holmes accomplish this?  And did you know that the master
detective once authored a small monograph on the recognition and cleaning
of hundreds of fabrics from the stains left by sexual activities, whether
autoerotic or communal?  This latter information was quite valuable to Dr.
Watson, who engaged in certain manual activities while observing the
proceedings from a secluded spot nearby.  Superb story!  (Rating: 10)

"Susan Hampton" by Unknown Author.  I received this story by e-mail with a
note that said the author respected my opinion and that her Master had
told her to send it to me.  I assume it will be posted shortly.  The story
is about a woman who comes into a shop to look for a job and is seduced by
the shop owner to be his sexual partner for all eternity.  I assume the
shop owner is a demon or the devil.  The seducer exercises mind control
over the woman, who buys into his seduction and is rewarded with near
ecstasy for eternity.  Of course *near* ecstasy ranks right up there with
the problems faced by Tantalus and Sysyphus and all the giants of
literature (and Buffalo football fans) who have suffered great torment
because a goal was just barely beyond their reach.

Let's assume that the seducer in this story is the devil.  Even if one
doesn't hold a specific theological dogma about the devil, there is a
mythology about the devil that permeates our culture.  Or actually several
mythologies.  For the past several months, the popular American daytime
drama "Days of Our Lives" has had a leading character who was possessed by
the devil.  According to my friend who is a Catholic priest, this was
"pure bullshit theology" and not even Mother Angelica believes that
possessions and exorcisms take place the way they did in that show; but
the story was extraordinarily creative.  I didn't believe any of that
nonsense could actually happen, but I watched everyday.  The problem is
that eventually the writers had to make up a mythology that was so
esoteric and complex that it became just plain silly.  As near as I can
figure, the writers eventually just gave up and declared Marlana to be
cured - or dispossessed or whatever you call it.

The point is, even if we don't take a theological position, a reader
expects devils to follow some ground rules.  I think both "Days" and the
present story have problems with their ground rules.  This story departs
from reality as I know it.  (Neither I nor the author would really prefer
to sell our soul to the devil as an alternative to a life with a
responsive partner who would love and cherish us.  But it may be fun to
look at live through an alternate reality.)  Both the person writing this
story and her Master probably understand a set of ground rules that enable
them to enjoy this story.  Unfortunately, many of those ground rules are
implicit; and I cannot enjoy the story fully, because I don't know what
these ground rules are.  It is distinctly possible that I am the aberrant
minority - that most other readers will understand these ground rules and
enjoy the story.  (It's also possible, of course, that people who do
understand the ground rules will find this to be a terrible story.  But I
doubt it.)  I think that the really good stories cover both possibilities:
people who don't know the ground rules can pick up enough from the story
to enjoy it, and people who do know the ground rules will enjoy it even
more.  For example, the Sherlock Holmes story reviewed earlier is probably
enjoyable to all readers but even more enjoyable to prurient Baker Street
Irregulars.  Likewise, the "Tie Fighter" story that I reviewed so
favorably was good because it could be understood by both Star Wars
enthusiasts and ordinary perverts wanting to read about a guy having sex
with a female who had a special muscle in her cunt.... Sorry, that's the
wrong review.

American society uses lots of images of the devil.  "The devil made me do
it!"  "She was an angel in the morning, but a devil in my arms at night."
We even name our football and basketball teams after devils and demons.
The only demonic story I ever really enjoyed (aside from the immortal
country western song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia") was "The Devil and
Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet.  In that story a man sells his
soul to the devil and then wishes he hadn't done so; and Daniel Webster
argues the man's case and wins.  I would love to see somebody take up the
challenge of writing a sexual version of that one.  Whatever happened to
happy endings?I think this is probably a good story for people interested
in such myths.  (Rating: 5)

"Lessons in Lust" by Kid Dynamite.  In the past, when I have reviewed D&s
stories, I have been unable to understand the point of the stories.  Why
would anyone want to undergo degradation and humiliation in order to
achieve a sexually submissive status?  An analogy that I have used is
this: if it's a bad idea for slave owners to beat people in order to make
them pick cotton more efficiently, why is it a good idea to torture women
(or men) in order to make them better sexual playthings?

This story gave me a different insight into D&s.  It's about a college-age
girl who is staying with her wealthy aunt and cousin and is being trained
by them in the arts of lust.  The "punishments" in this story consist not
of whippings and electrical shocks (as in some other stories of this
genre), but rather sexual "punishments," such as being brought to an
orgasm under embarrassing circumstances or being required to reveal
shameful thoughts to the mistress.  In a certain sense these events are
not really "punishments" - they feel bad only because they are associated
with a sense of shame, and (according to the philosophy upon which the
story is based) this sense of shame is false and should be abolished.

This is the first D&s story that has ever explained to me the meaning of
the word "slut."  Here is that the mistress in this story says about the
slut:  "The slut is a perfect creature.  She is strong, free,
self-possessed, and satisfied.  The struggle inside you is the struggle
between 'bad' and 'hot', is it not?  These things all seem so 'bad'.
You've probably said to yourself 'I'm a bad girl,' or 'I can't believe how
bad I am.'  Well, it's true.  You are a bad girl, Lisa. These things are
all 'bad'.  So why do you do them?  Because they're 'hot.' Bad equals hot,
for you, doesn't it?  You secretly long to be oh, so bad, because you feel
it hit you right here.... "The slut is the woman who knows it's bad, but
wants it anyway.  Needs it.  Longs for it.  The heat inside her drives her
beyond 'bad girl' and 'good girl', to simply 'slut'.  The slut is the
woman who listens to her instinct.  Who ignores the pathetic notion of
'morality'. There is no 'morality', no 'right' or 'wrong'.  No 'good' or
'bad'. Only one thing - pleasure.  Only pleasure can free you from the
hopelessly contradictory, confusing, impossible constraints that hold us
back."

>From the perspective expressed in the preceding paragraph, the girl
receiving the "training in lust" is not a complete fool who wants to be
degraded, but rather a person who is undergoing training that will make
her superior to others.  I personally don't buy this extreme hedonistic
philosophy, but at least I can understand it.  What I can especially
understand is how sane people who lead wholesome lives could derive
enjoyment from reading and thinking about such experiences.

Having said all these nice things (at least I meant them to be nice), I
also have to add that parts of the story still seemed silly to me.  At one
point, for example, we have Lisa wandering about naked with a banana
shoved up her cunt and a carrot up her ass, with just the carrot greens
sticking out.  Overall, however, it was a good story.  One of the marks of
a good author is that he/she can present a story in such a way as to make
people who differ from those in the story suspend reality and temporarily
see life from the perspective of the characters in the story.  This author
(whose very name destroys the serious mood of my review) successfully
brought me to the point where I could say, "If I were Lisa, I think I
would feel just the way she feels."  (Rating: 10)

"Prom Date" by Ann Douglas.  A young girl is offended when it becomes
obvious to her that her prom date wants to share her sexually with one of
his friends after the prom.  After she gets upset and walks home, she gets
a ride from an older woman with whom she has a warm and intimate sexual
relationship.  This story had an unusually large number of typographical
and grammatical errors that detracted from the author's otherwise creative
work.  (Rating: 9)

"Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence  The following is a review of
"Lady Chatterley's Lover," allegedly printed in "Field and Stream,"
November, 1959.  I found this in rec.humor.  I didn't write any of it
(except the rating); but I wish I did.

Although written many years ago, "Lady Chatterley's Lover" has just been
reissued by Grove Press, and this fictional account of the day-by-day life
of an English gamekeeper is still of considerable interest to
outdoor-minded readers, as it contains many passages on pheasant raising,
the apprehending of poachers, ways to control vermin, and other chores and
duties of the professional gamekeeper. Unfortunately one is obliged to
wade through many pages of extraneous materials in order to discover and
savor these sidelights on the management of a Midlands shooting estate,
and in this reviewer's opinion this book cannot take the place of J. R.
Miller's "Practical Gamekeeping."  (Rating: 10)