Erotic Literature

[Bleak&Icy]

I recommend Helen and Desire by the Scottish author Alexander Trocchi (Rebel Inc. has published a nice paperback). His other existential novels, such as Young Adam, also include plenty of dirty bits.

My favourite erotic novel, however, is Virginie: Her Two Lives, by the late Amercian genius John Hawkes. It is a work of art of the highest magnitude.

You might also want to check out Jeremy Reed's Sadeian trilogy, The Pleasure Chateau, Sister Midnight, and The Purple Room. It was admired by J. G. Ballard.

[ToALonelyPeace]

I would recommend Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn. I haven't read these, though I have read his Sexus. I'm not sure about your standards, but I find his long-winded sentences beautiful. Even if they get tedious, confusing, and are often too optimistic-there is a force of passion, of a Lover drowning in love, irresistible to fanatics of chaotic prose.

[Justin Isis]

Quote Originally Posted by ToALonelyPeace

I would recommend Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn. I haven't read these, though I have read his Sexus. I'm not sure about your standards, but I find his long-winded sentences beautiful. Even if they get tedious, confusing, and are often too optimistic-there is a force of passion, of a Lover drowning in love, irresistible to fanatics of chaotic prose.

Having read both, I'd second the recommendation, with the caveat that these books are very obscure/unfashionable at the moment, and are full of what would (rightly, in most cases) now get tagged as misogyny, racism, homophobia, etc. But at the time they were considered completely uninhibited, avant-garde, etc - remember this was a period when "obscenity" could land you real jail time. I think their main virtue is their sense of humor.

Worth logging up Gore Vidal's review of Miller. An excerpt, where he compares him with H.P. Lovecraft:

Interlarded with sexual bouts and testimonials are a series of prose poems in which the author works the cosmos for all it’s worth. The style changes noticeably during these arias. Usually Miller’s writing is old-fashioned American demotic, rather like the prose of one of those magazines Theodore Dreiser used to edit. But when Miller climbs onto the old cracker barrel, he gets very fancy indeed. Sentences swell and billow, engulfing syntax. Arcane words are put to use, often accurately: ectoplasmic, mandibular, anthropophagous, terrene, volupt, occipital, fatidical. Not since H. P. Lovecraft has there been such a lover of language.

[Ibrahim]

Here i go recommending Barker's Imajica again.
& the Song of Solomon from the Bible, & in fact most poetry of mystical union( San Juan de la Cruz?). Or its contrary,viz. Baudelaire.
I'm currently reading (in translation) the letters of Abelard & Eloise, and the latter's profession of devotion to her younger, castrated lover is, by implication, and considering her position as abbess, quite astonishing.

[Vice]

I would recommend Fantazius Mallare by Ben Hecht with Wallace Smith's illustrations.

[qcrisp]

Quote Originally Posted by Ibrahim

Here i go recommending Barker's Imajica again. & the Song of Solomon from the Bible, & in fact most poetry of mystical union( San Juan de la Cruz?). Or its contrary,viz. Baudelaire. I'm currently reading (in translation) the letters of Abelard & Eloise, and the latter's profession of devotion to her younger, castrated lover is, by implication, and considering her position as abbess, quite astonishing.

Have also been reading those letters and agree that Eloise (Heloise?) says some surprising and passionate things in those letters, but isn't he older, not younger, than her?

[paeng]

Boccaccio's Decameron

[qcrisp]

Quote Originally Posted by Justin Isis

Quote Originally Posted by ToALonelyPeace I would recommend Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn. I haven't read these, though I have read his Sexus. I'm not sure about your standards, but I find his long-winded sentences beautiful. Even if they get tedious, confusing, and are often too optimistic-there is a force of passion, of a Lover drowning in love, irresistible to fanatics of chaotic prose. Having read both, I'd second the recommendation, with the caveat that these books are very obscure/unfashionable at the moment, and are full of what would (rightly, in most cases) now get tagged as misogyny, racism, homophobia, etc. But at the time they were considered completely uninhibited, avant-garde, etc - remember this was a period when "obscenity" could land you real jail time. I think their main virtue is their sense of humor. Worth logging up Gore Vidal's review of Miller. An excerpt, where he compares him with H.P. Lovecraft: Interlarded with sexual bouts and testimonials are a series of prose poems in which the author works the cosmos for all it’s worth. The style changes noticeably during these arias. Usually Miller’s writing is old-fashioned American demotic, rather like the prose of one of those magazines Theodore Dreiser used to edit. But when Miller climbs onto the old cracker barrel, he gets very fancy indeed. Sentences swell and billow, engulfing syntax. Arcane words are put to use, often accurately: ectoplasmic, mandibular, anthropophagous, terrene, volupt, occipital, fatidical. Not since H. P. Lovecraft has there been such a lover of language.

I believe Miller was something of a fan of Machen. I seem to remember a short film clip of him talking about Machen somewhere.

[Druidic]

I'm amazed no one has mentioned D. H.

[qcrisp]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

I'm amazed no one has mentioned D. H.

Momus mentions him, in this highly appropriate song, along with half of the other books mentioned on this thread:

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