Saturday, January 01, 2005

classic erotica/southern gothic

Was amazed to discover in our library full of very dated books, EIGHT MORTAL LADIES POSSESSED by Tennessee Williams. Fabulous short stories, and I'm not usually fond of short stories but was enthralled with the ladies of the William's South, even finding myself compelled to self-orgasmic-stimulation by one. The stories: "Happy August the Tenth"; "Inventory of Fontana Bella"; "Miss Coynte of Greene"; "Sabbatha and Solitude"; "Oriflamme"--are a wealth of imagery and sensual reading. Few passages are explicit sexually, but the language itself is erotic suggesting Southern heat, sweat, and the undercurrent of denial so much a part of a women's life in the South. Read it again and again.