I think we should be actively putting erotic literature in school libraries.”īooks Q&A: Garth Greenwell on writing sex in his novel ‘What Belongs to You’ and the queer literary tradition The FBI says there are around half a million online predators searching for kids every day, but we hand our kids phones while censoring their libraries. Most kids have seen pornography by 10 or 11. With young people, more sex happens on phones than with another person. Kids are having less sex because they are afraid to touch each other without consent. “At the moment there is very little, if any, gray area in regard to sex. “Anything that makes people rethink their preconceptions is powerful,” she said. Parker found meaning in the book’s sex-positive message. I suspect she was amused by my discomfort.” “She said she wanted me to try something new. “My wife made me do it,” confessed Urrea. Why, I wondered, did they sign on to an erotica project that cloaks their credits? Several of them mentioned the fun factor, and the challenges: writing short fiction instead of novels, writing alongside stellar peers, writing about sex. Surely these successful writers field all sorts of intriguing and lucrative offers. “Nothing wrong with being a salesperson, but that’s something to think about after creating something, not during or before.” “When you worry about diminishing or enhancing your ‘brand,’ - sorry, that word makes me throw up in my mouth - you stop being an artist and become a salesperson,” Parker said. Parker, the actor, had strong words for writers who consider their reputations when deciding what to write (although her contribution to “Anonymous Sex” dwells inside the cone of silence). World & Nation A ‘war on books’? Conservatives push for audits of school librariesĬonservative parents in Texas and around the country rally to expunge certain titles from school libraries for reasons of race and sex. It made me pay particularly close attention to aesthetic decisions and tendencies by which I might be easily recognized.” And though I expect my story to be linked to me eventually, I saw the preservation of my anonymity as both a mandate and a craft challenge.
There’s something delightful about being invited to guess who is behind each mask. “The book is a kind of literary masquerade ball. “I would have happily contributed to this anthology under my own name, but I did find the prospect of anonymity thrilling,” she said. Téa Obreht, the Serbian American novelist who won the prestigious Orange Prize in 2011 for “ The Tiger’s Wife,” also sees the undercover approach as a good thing, but for different reasons. I know people will try to guess, but I’m not telling.” The anonymity is part of the titillation for the reader, I hope. Although my novel has been banned by school libraries and school districts, so it seems some people maybe think I’m already writing in this genre. Heidi Durrow, an acclaimed novelist, found that “the anonymity was a plus. Others might see the anonymity rule as promulgating the very sexual shaming it purports to remedy, a fig leaf shielding writers’ reputations from the consequences, real or imagined, of publishing their sexual imaginings under their own names.Īre we really there? In 2022? Novelists concerned that their careers will be sullied by publishing their own made-up smut? If so, why would the editors solicit writers who require anonymity when there are so many wonderful authors happy to own their sexual stories - including, as we shall see, some contributors to this book?
Some readers - especially the few who have read the authors’ other work closely enough to recognize their voices - will experience this challenge as a two-fer: a parlor game within a sizzling assemblage of top-notch literary fiction. That’s the anonymous part: A list of author names is provided but unattributed, and the reader is invited to guess which author wrote which piece. “Anonymous Sex” offers an unbeatable match of writer and subject. Clamps, slaps, rolled-up magazines and nimble fingers fill these pages, which engage the upper as well as the lower chakras with stories about long-distance seduction, best-friend seduction, seduction in a Brooklyn Book Festival bathroom, seduction while skinny dipping and cyber-seduction in the year 2098, all wrapped in polished prose.
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