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Alex's Reviews > Delta of Venus
Delta of Venus
by
by
A broke Anais Nin wrote porn at a dollar a page for an unknown collector who kept telling her to write less literary crap, more of the in and out. Which infuriated her, because she thought he was destroying everything interesting about sex. And that's just the same debate people are having today about internet porn.
And she keeps punishing him - us - for it. In one story a woman has an erotic opium experience, and it's pretty hot I guess, and then suddenly it's like (view spoiler) Which is basically just Nin (An-eye-EESS NEEN) saying "Ha ha, I killed your boner."
In the first story, a dashing guy who's basically The Most Interesting Man in the World from the Dos Equis commercials is bored by normal sex and starts seeking out increasingly perverse experiences. So the first bit, where there's this hot singer lady who goes around to the private booths after her act and blows guys, is - again - pretty hot; but by the end of the story, (view spoiler) Killed your boner!
His escalation is another debate that continues today: some anti-porn folks say that the ubiquity of porn encourages people to search out ever-more-extreme forms just to find something new. For what it's worth, anecdotally, this has not been my experience.
These nasty little twists from Nin, people don't talk about them much. We all want Nin to be the audacious, brilliant, empowered writer of smut. And she is that, but be aware that she is not always on the exact same side as your boner, lady- or otherwise. This book is like the porno version of a kitty who rolls on her back for you and you reach out to rub her stomach and she shreds your hand with no warning. Which, the thing with that is, you never do learn.
ps this review has 69 likes DON'T RUIN IT
And she keeps punishing him - us - for it. In one story a woman has an erotic opium experience, and it's pretty hot I guess, and then suddenly it's like (view spoiler) Which is basically just Nin (An-eye-EESS NEEN) saying "Ha ha, I killed your boner."
In the first story, a dashing guy who's basically The Most Interesting Man in the World from the Dos Equis commercials is bored by normal sex and starts seeking out increasingly perverse experiences. So the first bit, where there's this hot singer lady who goes around to the private booths after her act and blows guys, is - again - pretty hot; but by the end of the story, (view spoiler) Killed your boner!
His escalation is another debate that continues today: some anti-porn folks say that the ubiquity of porn encourages people to search out ever-more-extreme forms just to find something new. For what it's worth, anecdotally, this has not been my experience.
These nasty little twists from Nin, people don't talk about them much. We all want Nin to be the audacious, brilliant, empowered writer of smut. And she is that, but be aware that she is not always on the exact same side as your boner, lady- or otherwise. This book is like the porno version of a kitty who rolls on her back for you and you reach out to rub her stomach and she shreds your hand with no warning. Which, the thing with that is, you never do learn.
ps this review has 69 likes DON'T RUIN IT
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Delta of Venus.
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Reading Progress
May 18, 2012
–
Started Reading
May 23, 2012
– Shelved
June 3, 2012
– Shelved as:
2012
June 3, 2012
– Shelved as:
reading-through-history
June 3, 2012
– Shelved as:
smut
June 3, 2012
–
Finished Reading
May 20, 2013
– Shelved as:
hot-sex
January 2, 2015
– Shelved as:
rth-lifetime
Comments Showing 1-10 of 10 (10 new)
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Holy shit, DFW wrote an essay on the AVN awards? That sounds like a thing I should read.
It's in Consider the Lobster. There is an audio version where he reads it himself (with a funny voice for the footnotes) that I have been told is amazing.
The essay is called Big Red Son and is available as a PDF online in a few different places. The original title of the piece was FX Porn or something and was published under the name "William deGroot".Here's the AVN's response.
. .
Thanks Rand! Interesting. I'll finish reading it whenever I get around to actually reading the DFW essay, which I'm kinda surprised I haven't already.
was going to give this review a like…but it has 69 and i’m still 12 years old.
perfect review of this book
Not clicking Like to respect the 69 likes, but posting so that the spirit of the Like is felt
Long past 69 likes. What's the next target?
According to DFW's essay on the Adult Video News awards, the porn industry more-or-less agrees with the above statement -- something along the lines of as regular, straight, ordinary porn loses it's taboo-titillation factor, the industry shifts further and further towards the extremes.