Forte Da
The erotic worlds we build are a curious interweaving of language and images. Most of us have done a shit-ton of borrowing. From the first time our mothers speak to us, and from the moment we manage to get our unwieldy, infantile tongues to cooperate just enough to spit out that first word, we are enveloped in an alien language, not of our making. And while the pains and tickles and chills and comforts may be truly ours, we are all bound to use that foreign tongue to express what we feel and what we want.
Where Does Transgression Belong?
I recently came across a zoom discussion that has lit something of a fire under my ass about writing. If you are interested in the nuts and bolts of erotic writing, of transgression in fiction, and the mechanisms of eliciting jouissance in the reader, I highly recommend you take a look at this. It’s produced […]
Fiction, lies and the Jouissance of Delusion
I have been unproductive as a fiction writer for quite a few years now. It began in the wake of finishing my PhD and, for a while, I attributed the writer’s block to intellectual exhaustion. Then I wondered if, perhaps, the practice of thinking critically about the process and mechanisms of fiction writing had somehow […]
Gambas al Pil Pil
Preamble This dish is also known as Gambas al Ajo in some parts of Spain. The quantities are going to depend on a couple of things: how many you are serving, how big your shrimp are, and the size of your frying pan, because you want the shrimp to nestle quite close but not on […]
Free Remittance Girl e-books
In a small effort to give something back to the world in this time of crisis and fear, I thought I’d post my books online, for free, as an escape from the constant worries that we are all facing. These are offered in PDF format. I will try, when I get some time, to also […]
Beautiful Losers
Sadly, the publishing company, Constable & Robinson, who published Beautiful Losers was purchased by Little, Brown. As far as I know, the only available version of the novel is in e-book form here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Losers-Modern-Erotic-Classics-ebook/dp/B0119PD31C/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=80401820233969&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvqmt=p&keywords=remittance+girl&qid=1569755832&sr=8-2 I note that it is not available in any other market other than the UK. Honestly, I’m fed up with publishing. […]
Prodigal
It’s always breathtaking. The plunge into the underwater world of humid Phnom Penh. Even within the ramshackle sterility of the airport, the air feels dense and full of fertile smells: durian, urine, algae, damp concrete. Then out past the surly immigration officers and bored, flabby customs officials and into the afternoon swelter of humanity. People […]
Slides and Worksheets from my #Eroticon Talks
I presented two sessions at #eroticon2018, the first was a more abstract, theoretical look unpacking of the concepts of taboo and transgression, and how these are formed as an inversion of contemporary social values. Sadly, the slides for this were meant as prompts for me, rather than an information-rich text presentation. I will, in the […]
State of Fear
I very rarely post political stuff on this site, but I’m breaking my rule. We are being steadily acclimatised to live in a state of constant fear. We are being trained to it by the media who profits from it, from the political elites who use it to manipulate us, by a financial system that […]
The Unsightly Eroticism of Trauma: A Review of Constraint
It would be so much easier for the cause of social justice if our erotic fantasies would fall in line with progressive, feminist doctrine; the uncomfortable truth is that they often don’t. There are plenty of women and men who live with the uncomfortable inner turmoil of acknowledging that, while passionate and active supporters of […]