Incorporating Writing Issue Vol 2

incorporating writing
Issue 5 Vol 2 SEX SELLS
Rosie Lugosi
Vampire Queen of Manchester on sex and poetry
Lisha Aquino Rooney
The Night After A series of images exclusively for Perfect Eye
Rosie Lugosi - Mitzi Szereto - Lads Mags
Incorporating Writing
(ISSN 1743-0380)
Contents
Editorial Sex Is Everywhere... Interviews Sex Sells...
Page
Editorial Team
Managing Editor Andrew Oldham Deputy Editor/Interviews G.P. Kennedy Deputy Editor/Articles Fiona Ferguson Reviews Editor Janet Aspey Sales & Marketing Manager Graeme Hind Columnists Dan McTiernan & Christine Brandel Contributors Caroline Drennan, Mary Mazilli, Clare Reddaway, Helen Shay, Tom Spurling, Jennifer Thompson and Rebecca Wombwell. Cover Art Lisha Aquino Rooney Design Marsh Contact Details http://www.incorporatingwriting.co.uk incorporatingmag@yahoo.co.uk
You Cant Win. Andrew Oldham talks about sex in the media.
Rosie Lugosi but what makes her creator, Rosie Garland tick?
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The Erotic Label
Jennifer Thompson talks with Mitzi Szereto.
Articles The Res-erection of the Lads Mag

Tom Spurling is frank about sex in mags.
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Sex Sells - or Does It?
Claire Boot tackles the original subtle sex writer, Jane Austen.
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Columns When Book Clubs Go Bad Sex Grabs Our Attention Artwork Perfect Eye
Dan McTiernan takes a look at why being naked should never be part of a book club.
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Christine Brandel looks at the fact that selling sexuality is nothing new.
Cover artist, Lisha Aquino Rooney, returns with a series of images depicting The Night After.
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Reviews
Incorporating Writing is an imprint of The Incwriters Society (UK). The magazine is managed by an editorial team independent of The Societys Constitution. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or part without permission of the publishers. We cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, reproduction of articles, photographs or content. Incorporating Writing has endeavoured to ensure that all information inside the magazine is correct, however prices and details are subject to change. Individual contributors indemnify Incorporating Writing, The Incwriters Society (UK) against copyright claims, monetary claims, tax payments / NI contributions, or any other claims. This magazine is produced in the UK. The Incwriters Society (UK) 2005
Janet Aspey introduces sex into the next round of erotic criticism.
Letters and Feedback News and Opportunities Competition
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3 Once there was the bimbo, now there is the himbo and years from now they will have populated the planet with good looking chavs
Sex is Everywhere You Cant Win

Editorial by Andrew Oldham
You switch on the television, sex, you open the pages of a newspaper, sex, you tune into the Archers, sex. It seems that Benny Hill became so ingrained in our minds in the 1980s that his ghost has risen from the grave and he is being chased through every medium accompanied by a bevvy of scantily clad women. And now men are getting in on the act. Once there was the bimbo, now there is the himbo and years from now they will have populated the planet with good looking chavs. I know that last one is hard to imagine but trust me, they have devolved to a point where they can only go up or else dig holes in the ground and changed their names to Morlock. Which makes the rest of us the Eloi. For those of you unaware of H.G. Wells classic, The Time Machine, the Eloi where the good looking ones who fed from the Earth. They where apathetic, watched others drown as they
sat on the perfect bums on a perfect riverbank and ate fruit. God, that sounds awfully familiar, does it remind anyone of celebrity culture? Where vacuous talentless Z list stars, whose only claim to fame is being racist or so talentless that theyve come out the otherside in a post ironic thingy that they dont understand but aint their Mum a bitch? And look at the new boobs they gave her. Ten grand they cost, so they cant be a racist, can they? I pray for one of the new hybrid cars to run them over. At least it will cut down on polution. It angers me that they spill their pointless philosophy (which they could write on the side of a match) to every tabloid that can hold a crayon. Im digressing, in fact its not a good idea to think of celebrity culture. Really, when did putting people in a house for several weeks, with little food,
little chance to wash their clothes become sexy? It wasnt when you flat shared. We should just take ALL Big Brother contestants (theyre not stars) and just shit them into space. Brian and the twins could boldly go and piss off. Poor Davina, her soul has been sucked dry by endless line of mincemeat and suckers. And thats what sex is really about. At its essence, sex in the media is making a fool our of you. It preys on your base instincts, from every ad to every soap come on, Hollyoaks, you didnt think it was written? Its just a group of images for frustrated teens - turn the sound off and youll see its just top shelf fodder not very well disguised. But why shouldnt we revel in sex? Lets face it, its programmed into our DNA. I tell you all those stars who have been caught over the years, all those wives and husbands, and partners couldnt help it. Its bad enough that its our primal drive but when they start putting it on the back of buses and on mobile phones and in music videos, who stands a chance? In this issue, we have the great Rosie Lugosi, Mitzi Szereto, Tom Spurling does not hold back on lads mags, Dan McTiernan discovers that even book clubs are a hot bed of perversion and Christine Brandel looks at Jordan and shakes her head. And why did we do an issue devoted to sex because lets face it, it does sell and you just cant help yourself - for shame. Andrew Oldham is the Managing Editor/Columns for Incorporating Writing. He is an award winning writer and academic.
Competition Giveaway
Incorporating Writing is giving away five copies of The Sea CD featuring Ian Parks (pictured), Pat Borthwick and Milner Place (http://www.incwriters.co.uk). Recorded before a live audience at Bradford Literature Festival in 2006 with a foreword by Bloodaxe Poet, Esther Morgan. To enter, contact Incorporating Writing by email with the logline SEA GIVEAWAY by the 1st June 2008. All entries must include contact address, email and telephone number. Entries will be drawn on the 2nd June 2008 and the winners will be announced in the July 2008 issue of the magazine: Issue 5 Vol 3 PULP incorporatingmag@yahoo.co.uk
SUCCESS WINNERS: Peter Kappelhoff (Berlin)
Winning Letter
Incwriters Award 2008 Dear Incorporating Writing, The winner was a magazine called Banipal, which publishes mainly Arab literature in translation and probably deserved it more than us. Id recommend a subscription. A good deal of the night was taken up by a State of the Market style debate, featuring a panel of poets and editors. Im sceptical about the value of such discussions as a rule, and this one was frankly a waste of time - particularly as it was only opened to the floor five minutes before the end, meaning that most of the debate consisted of worthies talking amongst themselves. Although there were intelligent contributions from the Brand team, this was essentially an exercise in navel gazing/ A theme that emerged from this discussion was that it was not enough to get published in a poetry magazine (for some reason prose fiction was barely mentioned) you had to be published in a good poetry magazine. The panel were very dismissive of new and online ventures, which most of them considered to be a hindrance to a poets career. I asked whether there is a uniformity of opinion among mainstream publishers as to what constitutes a good poetry magazine. I doubt, to be honest, that metropolitan publishers are aware of the market to the extent that they will place one journal over another. For example, Adelle Stripes Straight from the Fridge is exactly the sort of thing these provincial publishers dismiss - online, dark, rough and ready. But its
Letters and Feedback

an excellent read, and a breeding ground for new talent - one SFTF writer has gone on to secure a two-book deal. It also struck me as weird that most of the discussion seemed geared to advising poets on how to be picked up by a corporate publisher, when a) the small press world spends so much energy in promoting itself as a better medium than corporate publishing and b) surely the point of writing is the joy and pleasure to be had in writing, with publication as a lucky bonus. I mean, if the independent print journal is a great industry in itself, why advise people to treat it as a stepping stone? With all respect to the panellists, most of them did seem like old-school small press people who had been on the scene for decades and were under the impression that the world owes them a living. There was no real awareness of whats happening in the contemporary new fiction and poetry world astonishing, considering the nature of the award we were all gathered for. In short, this debate generated no real insights and the time could have been better spent drinking the free wine and chatting amongst ourselves. Far more impressive was Andrew Oldhams State of the Industry speech, in which he made a vital point: Incwriters acknowledges the hard work and long hours that many editorial teams put into their magazines only to be met by poets who do not read poetry, writers who do not read prose. To the editors who face this ignorance everyday we want to say that we understand and for those poets and writers who feel that they shouldnt ever read, we say one thing, grow up and support the very
industry you want to support you. It is not good enough that a magazine is vibrant or of interest if it is not supported by the very people who want to appear on its pages. Exactly - so go subscribe. He also said this: There is one thing we should all strive for as publishers, editors, writers, poets and readers, excellence or should I say outstanding vision? We should all seek out that publication that with each turn of the page allows the hair on the back of our necks to stand up. Magazines that capture beauty of language, greatness of design and gives readers ideas beyond the final page. Every publication in the final twenty did this. They showed that UK Literature continues to grow and that the high street sellers who have neglected them for so long are losing out. That the likes of Waterstones, should rush forward to create window displays full of Interzone, Banipal and Penniless Press and that everyone in this room today should subscribe to at least one of the magazines in the final twenty. The winners acceptance speech is also worth reading. This award to Banipal celebrates Arab literature in English translation, and also, I think, the power of literary translation. Literary translators allow different cultures to know each other and see into the each others souls; and in that sense I do believe they are the interpreters of human values and the true peacemakers. A special thanks to Incwriters for giving literary translators such a plug with this award. So, congratulations to Banipal, and thanks to the Incwriters team for arranging the whole thing.
Thanks also to my Succour colleagues, and most of all our readers and contributors, for helping us sneak onto the podium. We really couldnt have done it without you. Yours Max Dubar, Succour Incwriters response from Andrew Oldham: I am always happy to see someone NOT sit on the fence and take your criticism on board. After all it would be a dreary world if we all agreed. So I am happy that in some ways we both come from the same views. I am a great supporter and lover of web ventures. I am glad you liked my speech and have even reprinted part of it and also I am happy that you acknowledge that Banipal deserved the award. I hope you understand that Incwriters has to tread a middle path, to try and please both the old and the new. I think with the likes of Succour and Brand, and ventures being born out of the old London Magazine (thanks to Sarah-Mae Tucson) that times will change. If slowly. Literature is a slow game and writers, poets must have patience and drive. Incwriters always take into account what our members ask for, hence the line up on the night. I am passionate about Literature and supporting all forms of Literature and welcome a discussion on this in our forums at: www.incwriters.co.uk Have something to tell us at Incorporating Writing? Do you want to tell readers about what has annoyed you or please you in the world of Literature and Arts? Then drop us a brief letter at incorporatingmag@yahoo.co.uk by the 1st June 2008 and the best letter receives a prize.
When Book incorporating writing Clubs Go Bad

Column by Dan McTiernan
Now these are bright people. Witty, well-read, interesting, yet all of them were grinning like village idiots. I looked around and imagined them naked
Id like to flatter myself that at least one or two of you may have read a previous piece what I wrote bemoaning the ascendance of Gok Wans star. I thought Id got the lanky fashionistas insipid enthusiasm for undressing unsexy people on Channel 4 out of my system, but little did I realise that, far from being able to dine out on my pseudo-literary dismissal of him, all my sarcastic cows would come home to roost. Its because of the book club I attend once a month at our local liberal club in the sleepy Northern village in which I live. Picture the scene: Yellowed woodchip walls; that special cocktail aroma of Lambert and Butler and B & H clinging to them still, some 10 months after the ban; fluorescent strip lighting better suited to a coroners examination room than a pub; a three-hundred-and-fifty
inch TV blaring out Alan Titchmarsh repeats; the reassuring clack of white ball on red as the other aged patrons swear at each other over a game of snooker; The perfect rendezvous for a night of literary rigour. Ive been attending for the last 8 months or so and to be honest its my night out, as depressing as that may sound to the childless and under thirty. I decided I needed to meet more people and hazarded a wild guess that those attending a reading group might be capable of stringing an interesting sentence together on subjects other than football, the smoking ban, child abduction and arcane flavours of crisp. I was a little shy on my first visit, only having received that months book three days before the meeting, and only having made it to page 94. I neednt have worried however as the only other person I knew already from the group
hadnt even opened his copy and seemed thoroughly proud of the fact. The other thing I noticed pretty quickly was the rapidity with which rounds were being bought and consumed. Of course, not wanting to stand out in any way, I joined in wholeheartedly.
literary debate. All was well in Book Club World, that is, until Gok Wan reared his menacing pin head I think I must have arrived late one meeting. There were about eight other members chatting enthusiastically around a table-full of half empty glasses. I ordered a round and sat down minding my own business, tuning in slowly to the conversation. - Well definitely get on. They only ever usually have all women groups. Theyll love a mixed bag. - Do you reckon you get to keep the clothes? - Imagine when were standing in front of all those people at the Trafford Centre! A bevy of laughter ensued. What on earth were they on about? I motored through my first pint to try to better understand. - I reckon Titch, out of all of us, is just about the only one that actually does Look Good Naked! General hilarity as Titch an excompetitive trampolinist grabbed his very insignificant pot belly and gave it a wobble. My head swam. Dodgy pint? Noxious fumes from the already opened Pork Croissant packet on the table? Surely Id misheard. I couldnt bring myself to ask. I didnt have to. Another late-comer arrived and one of the already assembled group turned to her and said: - Are you in or not? Weve entered the book club to appear on How To Look Good Naked! Now these are bright people. Witty, well-read, interesting, yet all of them were grinning like village idiots. I looked around and imagined them naked. To a man and woman they were right. Titch was the only one that would look half decent naked. Jesus Christ!
Usually - poor books, briefly discussed over copious pints

Quite quickly I found myself slagging off the mediocre first 94 pages Id read. Luckily I seemed to be in the majority of opinion (Id love to tell you the title or the author of the book but I cant for the life of me remember Mr something, Mr Phillips maybe). The group were very amusing, a mixture of university staff, graphic designers, health professionals, film makers. Just the type of people Id imagined and I went home that night having laughed a lot and talked about the book a little, but deciding I would definitely go back. And so it went over the next few months. Usually - poor books, briefly discussed over copious pints along with a tide of other topics of conversation including, but by no means limited to, football, the smoking ban, child abduction and arcane flavours of crisp. On the crisp front, our liberal club is the only place on planet Earth to sell the Pork Croissant. It has another official name but the book club - and now the landlord - all lovingly refer to these exotic delights by their nom de plume. Imagine a pork-scratching extruded using technology from the plastics industry to resemble a cross between a Quaver and a greasy bordello pillow. This, my friends, is the Pork Croissant. And by god do they taste good over a
I racked my brains for any sign of this in their previous character, any clue that things might go so horribly wrong. And suddenly it began to make sense. I thought back through past book discussions, through character analysis and dnouement and pacing and noticed a commonality to it all. Whether it be the book about lesbianism set partly in Greece or the crass innuendo if Mr whatever he was called in the book I only managed 94 pages of, the subject time and time again came back to pretty much one topic; Sex. The arch example of which being the reading of On Chesil Beach, universally panned by the group on many levels but most notably for its terrible sex scenes. They read it before my time but still to this day the description of a cracked glaze of post coital fluid gets brought up regularly as a hilarious exemplar of poor porn. Apparently one of the characters wipes himself on a pillow after some action, to which one of the women in the group dryly commented: - A pillow for fucks sake. Whats wrong with the humble sock? As much as I love them all, I wont be getting my kit off with them any time soon. Although, if they get on telly I will of course break my vow never to watch Gok again, as you have to admit it, whether you want to or not: Sex sells.
Reviews
Sex sellsvery well indeed. A quick scan of the bookshelves in any of the big named bookstores can tell us that. They are there, the bestselling bonkbusters, in all their glossy, suggestive glory, piled high on the table that assaults your eyes as you walk through the door So may I bid you welcome to our own little table at the front of the shop. Our team of reviewers have returned to tantalise you with just a few of the publishing worlds sexiest offerings. And there isnt a Jilly Cooper or a Mills & Boon pulsating romance in sight! Taking the lead is Rebecca Wombwells beguiling feature review Ian McEwans Booker nominated and sultry novella, On Chesil Beach. Mary Mazilli explores the still largely undiscovered eastern delights of Eileen Changs collection of short stories Lust, Caution, recently scandalising audiences the world over in Ang Lees latest film of the same name. Offering a more sinister reflection on sexual love and obsession is Patricia Dunckers captivating debut novel Hallucinating Foucalt, where the relationship between reader and writer takes many unexpected and disturbing turns. Clare Reddaway looks at the funnier side of sex with Tom Perrottas latest offering, The Abstinence Teacher and Caroline Drennan casts her eyes over Marilyn Frenchs classic feminist novel, The Womens Room. Sit back and allow your eyes to leisurely peruse. Most importantly, enjoy.
Writer, magazine editor, film maker and film lecturer, Dan McTiernan schizophrenically wanders through his well travelled working life safe in the knowledge that underneath the media faade, hes really an eco-builder and smallholder.
Janet Aspey is a recent MA Creative Writing graduate with a drama background. She is particularly interested in feminist history and literature, and is currently working on her second novel.
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Featured Review On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan Vintage Books, 2008 6.99 ISBN 978-0-099-51279-0 166pp
Edward whilst a nightmarish scenario for his new bride. The couple are deeply in love, yet the expectations of their first sexual encounter show the intricate interplay between sex and love, and the implications for the couple. As their relationship (and the readers understanding of the pair) delves beyond their newly-wed ideal we discover their characters afresh and further understand the facades in action. What isnt said is far more important here than what is. These pretences and conformities, whilst most often of the little white lie variety, open up a gulf between the characters and become a separate entity in their relationship. McEwan unfolds each protagonist delicately, encouraging revisits to On Chesil Beach to unveil further motivations and meanings. Flitting between crisp reporting and woozy nostalgia, McEwan creates empathy for both protagonists in his enticing use of tone and pace. The sense of tension is ruthless, ebbing in and out to its crescendo. The structure and pace of On Chesil Beach is fluid and musical, its echo found in Florence, an aspiring musician. As she becomes more self-assured, the pace quickens and even in her eventual absence she dominates the tone. Edward, in contrast, is an historian, thinking factually, and this is clear through his responsive,
An intricately crafted tale of tension and morality; Ian McEwans new work On Chesil Beach is a beautiful and eloquent achievement. This is a book to devour, re-read and ponder - densely packed with insight and accessible reflections on relationships and intimacy. The novella follows the relationship between Edward and Florence. We first encounter the couple on their wedding night the pivotal point of their relationship. The tension in this scene is born of the early 1960s, of each individual finding their place in both this changing society and their relationship. In their honeymoon suite, Edward and Florence negotiate consummating their marriage a long awaited moment for
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analytical narrative. The (almost fated) deep attraction between Edward and Florence is explored through his studies. The recurring activities and consequences of humanity and the inevitability of change are both universally and personally understood, rights of passage are socially and historically enforced. As Florence reflects, stood on the shore, the wedding night is a minor theme in a larger pattern, both for the characters and as a critique of human relationships in general. Perhaps stereotypical to gender, these aspects of each protagonist complement each other and succinctly develop each character. On Chesil Beach may not be so successful were it more lengthy. It is McEwans commanding insight and the resulting intensity which give the novella its power.
individuality, Edwards mother thwarts explanation and preconceptions; dominating the narrative through her absence, just like Florence by the end of the novel. The pretences, secrets and lies are symbolised within this character, an exaggeration, or even a matured glimpse of Florence - despite the clear and nagging contrast between the two families. This is a fresh and almost comical Freudian reference; that men look for their mother when picking a wife. Edwards mother is a surprising addition by McEwan, she is a crisp and distinct breeze in an otherwise very stereotyped, intertwined and almost fragile narrative. At worst, sex is used by authors as a gimmicky sales pitch. On Chesil Beach, however, uses it as realistically as possible it is crude, loving, vital and minor in turns. Both in symbolic and representative ways, McEwan has achieved a narrative built around (but not exclusive to) sex: as an indicator of real humanity.
At worst, sex is used by authors as a gimmicky sales pitch

Twin standards plague this relationship. Florence has been brought up straddling tradition and revolution (i.e. her fathers driving lessons encouraging her independence) yet she is trapped by her refined loneliness. The English stiff upper lip and the expectations and implications of marriage cage the couple; Florence craves the freedom to explore their own interpretation of marriage. Both characters are deeply lonely, but they are lonely together. Unable to talk about her emotions even with Edward, her most intimate confidante, Florences character explores the contrasts between sex, love and intimacy both as a reflection on past values and a critique of modern morality. As a reflection of Florences blossoming
Rebecca Wombell is a country girl at heart, from the wilds of Lincolnshire. She devours writing with adecadently poeticstyle and dreams of a llama sanctuary and studio on the coast.
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Lust, Caution: And Other Stories Eileen Chang / Edited and Afterword by Julia Lovell Penguin Classics, 6 Dec 2007 7.99 ISBN-10: 0141034386 ISBN-13: 978/-0141034386 176pp
Japanese attack on the city in 1941 forced her to return to an occupied Shanghai. And it was in Shanghai that she reached an early fame in her twenties with two volumes of short stories and essays; Romances, 1944, and Written on Water, 1945. However, what attracted readers in her writing is also what made her unpopular among the literary circles of the time. In a period of political turmoil and change, with the Japanese assault of Hong Kong and the occupation of north and east China, most writers had taken a leftward political stance. Chang, instead, pursued what the editor of this collection and translator of the main short-story, Julia Lovell, defines as a subtler aesthetics of the common places. In her view, Chang is one of the few writers from Mainland China of that period to favour the portrayal of individuals complex psychology to the advocacy of a particular political ideology. Unfortunately, it was this artistic and ethical choice that during the political rise of Mao forced her to emigrate to the States, where she died in 1995. Although most of her stories, like the ones in this collection, are set in the
It is not surprising that after Ang Lees prize-winning movie Lust, Caution there is a renewed publishing interest in Eileen Chang (or Zhang Ailin) with two collections of her short stories published last year by Penguin Classics - Love in a Fallen City: And Other Stories and Lust, Caution. I first encountered Eileen Chang whilst studying Chinese Modern literature and was fascinated by her intimate depiction of the human condition. I am, therefore, delighted to see her writing revived. For those who do not know her, Eileen Chang (1920-1995) is one of the most prominent Chinese women writers from the 1930-40s. Her father, deeply traditional in his ways, was an opium addict, while her mother, partly educated in England, had cosmopolitan tastes. Chang studied literature at the University of Hong Kong, but the
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Shanghai of the Japanese occupation, a Western audience can relate to the modernistic, psychological vulnerabilities of her characters, their estrangement from a society in between feudal traditions and foreign influences. And at the same time, it is her allegorical depiction of a torn Chinese community and her style, reminiscent of Chinese classics, that entices the reader. It is exactly this dualism between old and new, between East and West, between rationality and emotions that epitomises her writing and we find it in Lust, Caution, a collection of five short stories written once she had already left China in the late 50s and first published in 1979. Lust, Caution, the first story of the collection that inspired Ang Lees picture, is fast-paced, mesmerisingly filled with characters, is at times hard to follow and touches upon the politics of the time. This pseudo-spy thriller set in the Shanghai of the 1940s presents Wong Jiazhi, a student spy, who tries to seduce and to help kill Mr Yi, a powerful figure of the occupying government. Like the title itself suggests, this story embodies Changs dualism: Jiazhi is at odds, divided between patriotism and love/lust for Mr Yi - politics vs. humanism. Without giving out the twist of the end, I will just say that Chang makes her point about politics and individuals in a pessimistic almost mocking tone. This confirms her loathing for a type of politics that hardly benefits the community but only the egotistic individual. Other motifs in this story, also in the following four, are male narcissism and chauvinism, melancholic nostalgia and womens sad acceptance of a forced inferiority. The other four short stories included in the collection are equally enticing and
benefit from a clearer narrative. In the waiting room is an intimate and gentle depiction of womens discontent and longing in a Shanghai community; Great Felicity talks about the false appearances of a Shanghai, newly genteel family, the Lous, their sons modern wedding and Yuqi, their new daughter-in-laws disillusions; Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiaos unhappy autumn is a domestic, common-place story of an acquiescent amah, Ah Xiao, and her English employer, Mr Garter, an unrepentant womaniser, and of a strangely hot autumn; Traces of Love is the only story ending with a positive note about love and its contradictions. I cannot but recommend this collection of short stories, which also profit from highly skilled translations by prominent Chinese literature experts. I am hopeful that this time Chang will attract a wider public audience and not only an East Asian one.
Mary Mazzilli is a poet, playwright, academic essayist and a PhD student in Chinese literature at SOASLondon. Previously she has worked as Literature assessor for the Art Council (2003-2006). She has recently founded Stagevibes Productions dedicated to international and experimental; she is currently working on her third Play, The Wrong Sleep.
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Hallucinating Foucault Patricia Duncker Bloomsbury, 2006 7.99 ISBN 978-0-7475-8515-2 181pp
young graduate at Cambridge researching the works of French writer, Paul Michel, for his doctorate. His emotionally aloof and sexually expressive girlfriend, only ever referred to as the Germanist, encourages him to rescue his literary hero from the mental institution in France where he has been incarcerated for a number of years. At first he is appalled at the suggestion, believing that his role is simply to study the books as separate entities from the author, not the author himself. She tells him that you can never separate the two and thereby opens one of Dunckers most intriguing themes of the novel, the relationship between the writer and the reader. If you love someone, you know where they are, what has happened to them. And you put yourself at risk to save them if you can. Slowly enticed by her argument and the poeticism of becoming a hero for his own, the narrator leaves for France on a quest to liberate Michel and find out the truth behind the words he loves so much. What follows has all the qualities of a dark thriller, a film noir exuding Hollywood glamour, as the narrator becomes obsessed with his romantic perception of Michel. Dunckers writing is sparse and powerful throughout, even takes on a mythical quality when the narrator finally meets
Sometimes I lose my grasp on what happened in the summer of 1993. I have only these evil, recurring dreams. Reissued by Bloomsbury, Patricia Dunckers debut novel is a masterful and seductive exploration of the relationship between writer and reader, and the power of fiction. From its dark and intriguing opening, where the narrator describes his sinister and vaguely paedophilic dream of a man and a boy upon a beach in the blistering heat of summer, Duncker hooks the readers imagination and dangles it throughout the narrative until her haunting and clever ending punches and disorientates one completely. The unnamed narrator of the novel is a
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Michel. The descriptions of the asylum, its clinical sterility polluted by the feral acts of madness of the inhabitants, are brutally uncomfortable to read. The reader is like the narrator, a visitor to the underworld, to the labyrinth of madness that the sought, Michel, inhabits. But her greatest skill throughout these passages is in the characterisation of Michel himself. He is an intriguing and attractive creation. One is always aware of the simmering violence of his madness behind his soft and seductive words, and one is as drawn to him as the narrator is. He was the end of my quest, my goal, my grail. He had himself become the book. Now I was asking the book to yield up its secrets. As Michel and the narrator steadily become friends, Duncker explores the very nature of writing, the symbiotic relationship that exists between the writer and their reader. You ask me what I fear mostIt is the loss of my reader, the man for whom I write. As Michel steadily seduces the narrator into his world, the thematic character of the writer takes on a more sinister role. Just as the writer has the power to take over the imagination of his reader and affect it, so does Michel influence the imagination of the narrator until he is willing to give up everything for him, until his love is so complete that they become physical lovers. The real and the imagined becomes blurred, reality has changed. My memory is a ghost town, still filled with heat and colour, dominated by the voice of Paul Michel. Hallucinating Foucault is a powerful, thought provoking and, at times, disturbing read. Under Dunckers skilful hands the narrative never falls prey to simply becoming a novel that explores
philosopher Foucalts theological beliefs. They are there, the themes of madness, loneliness, mortality, sanity and sexuality, but they are written in such a vibrant way that one soaks them in quite unconsciously; only discovering the force of their impact once the book is finished. We all have our favourite authors, all can remember reading a sentence or a word that fired us up and made us desperate to read on, overtook our imaginations, made us seek out more of their work. This novel appeals to that sense in us, plays upon our own need to make sense of the world we live in through a constructed version of reality. There is a part of the narrator in all of us. That is why this is such a haunting and powerful read.
Janet Aspey is a recent MA Creative Writing graduate with a drama background. She is particularly interested in feminist history and literature, and is currently working on her second novel.
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Interview by Alexander Laurence
The Abstinence Teacher Tom Perrotta Fourth Estate, 2008 12.99 ISBN 978-0-00-726100-0 358 pp
attempt to placate the church, the school decides to change the curriculum. Instead of safe sex Ruth is ordered to teach abstinence. She faces a dilemma stick to her principles and lose her job, or kowtow to the prevailing orthodoxy which is why she is so angry when she attends her daughters soccer match and inspiring new coach Tim leads the victorious team in prayer.
When I was asked to do a review for the Sex Sells issue I licked my metaphorical lips at last I could read some of the modern porn my feminist soul wont let me buy. Serves me right: I got abstinence. Once Id realised the bodices would remain tightly laced in this book, I settled down to what was an interesting and thought-provoking read. Ruth Ramsey is a sex education teacher in a prosperous suburb in north-eastern America. She is 41, a divorced mother of two teenage girls and a typical post1960s sexually-liberated feminist. She lives in near-total obscurity, until one day she has the audacity to suggest to her teenage pupils that some people enjoy oral sex. One of her listeners is a member of the local Tabernacle Church, and soon the Oral Sex Lady becomes an object of public vilification. In an
Perotta also demonstrates the attraction of Christianity to teenagers. Unable to rebel against their parents by having sex, they bewilder them by refraining from doing so
The Abstinence Teacher is about the power and influence of evangelical Christianity, and it is chilling. Perotta has the sense to create an appealing character, Tim, as his central religious figure. Tim is an ardent member of the church but has a chequered past. An exmusician, ex-alcoholic and cokehead, he confesses that he put most of his mortgage up his nose. It is only when he reaches rock bottom that he finds sanctuary in the comfort of Gods love. However, as the book progresses, Tim begins to question the certainties of his faith. Perrotta has shied away from a
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main character who is a Christian born and bred, but with Tim he does convincingly convey the allure of the evangelical church. Perotta also demonstrates the attraction of Christianity to teenagers. Unable to rebel against their parents by having sex, they bewilder them by refraining from doing so. The description of Ruths horror when her girls dress up as though for a school dance to go to church is both amusing and painfully real. Prepared to have open discussions about pregnancy and contraception, Ruth finds herself struck dumb in the face of God its classic teenage rebellion turned on its head. Tim is equally horrified when his daughter names Donald Trump as The Man I Most Admire. As well as offering a timely comment on contemporary America, this is a very funny book. One character comments that oral sex is like French kissing a toilet seat (surely suitably off-putting), and the re-education of recalcitrant sexed teachers made me laugh out loud. Perotta manages to avoid the easy clichs of Born Again Christianity - his description of the Faith Keepers Conference is something to treasure. Above all, Perotta describes the nuances of modern relationships with assurance, style and wit. When I started this novel, I thought it was written with an eye firmly fixed on Hollywood. It has well-rounded believable characters, a strong storyline, topical dilemmas and a love story perfect. By the end, I wasnt so sure. Is the nation that made the Passion of Christ a blockbuster really likely to allow The Abstinence Teacher to become a hit? I wonder.
As well as offering a timely comment on contemporary America, this is a very funny book
Clare Reddaway writes scripts for theatre and radio, and stories for children. Her latest play BAD MOTHERS is touring East Anglia later this year. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.
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The Womens Room Marilyn French Virago Modern Classics Anniversary Edition 2007 9.99 ISBN 978-1-86049-282-2 526 pp
Afterward to the Virago 30th anniversary edition of the novel, Susan Faludi links its initial impact with that of Uncle Toms Cabin, producing anger and change. Opening the novel for the first time today, it is hard to imagine just how formative it would have been for me.
They said this book would change lives - and it certainly changed mine. Jenni Murray What an earthquake this book was. Linda Grant I slept through an earthquake once, in Greece. The next morning the camp site was a wreck. Totally unshaken, I opened bewildered eyes. The Womens Room by Marilyn French was first published in 1977, selling 20 million copies, causing an immediate shock, and somehow, I missed that too. Looking back, I cannot see how. I was still at school but full of ideals and stirred by the provocative. I read avidly; no books were banned at home but I knew nothing of this one. In the
The Womens Room is flawed in that it is too long, its style often convoluted, dialogue too polemical, its structure old fashioned
The first chapter is arresting. The heroine perched on a toilet seat, reads a symposium of revolutionary graffiti and considers a crude sketch entitled Cunt is beautiful. Thirty eight year old Miras response to the drawing is a fine character note and underlines some of the contradictions of the 1960s sexual revolution: She presumed, at least, that it was a drawing of female genitalia, although it looked remarkably like a wide-petaled flower. She wasnt sure because she had never seen her own In the next few chapters, however, the flashback depicting the shit and string
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beans and bad sex in suburban domestic life in 1940s and 50s America can seem a clich; the bleak world we have encountered in ironic television advertising, or occasionally, more seriously, as in the central section of Stephen Daldrys film The Hours . Modern readers may feel frustrated, wondering why they put up with it, these women not so very different from ourselves, educated and intelligent. We can be confidently disturbed by the sixteenth century The Taming of the Shrew. And I began The Womens Room, still horrified and tearful from Khaled Hosseinis A Thousand Splendid Suns and its shocking exploration of womens lives in near contemporary Afghanistan. It is easier to sympathise when period or context is so foreign to our own; but that is our problem, not an essential flaw of this book. The Womens Room is flawed in that it is too long, its style often convoluted, dialogue too polemical, its structure old fashioned. Nevertheless, it should be read to the finish, past Miras discovery of feminism at Harvard, her first experience of satisfying sex, the disturbing aftermath of rape and its unjust dismissal in court, the cold blooded murder of women protesting for justice about rape and vivid Bens abandonment of Mira because she does not want to have another child. Women should read the book and so should men. It deals with gender inequalities that many of us do not now recognise in our western daily lives. Yet, there are echoes that are still familiar, of a tone, a response, a casual statement or omission that to should challenge more Its hard we often. As seventy seven year old French think beyond our concluded in an Independent Interview in 2007, I have great doubts about own lifetime Utopias, but I just keep on thinking because were to live than the there is a better way way selfish so we live now.
Women should read the book and so should men. It deals with gender inequalities that many of us do not now recognise in our western daily lives
Caroline Drennan is a writer and a teacher. Runner up in the Orange Short Story competition in 2005, she has recently gained an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East portraitsiberuttrek Anglia
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Sex Sells...Rosie Lugosi

Interview by Helen Shay
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Both Rosie Lugosis poetry and performance has (literally)lashings of sexuality, but without any hint of gratuity. That she has sold and been so successful is down to talent and sheer professionalism. What you see is what you get, but in true vampiric style, you may not always see it coming at you. Billed as Manchesters Vampire Queen. Rosie Lugosi has gained accolades from no less than Carol Ann Duffy and Apples and Snakes. Her performance credits include Cheltenham Festival of Literature, Bristols Big Mouth and Manchester Poetry Festival. Her mix of energised cabaret and engaging poetry have put her at the fore of the performance scene. I asked her creator, the writer Rosie Garland (who has performed as Rosie Lugosi for several years) about her work and the use of sexuality. Why did you choose a vampire character andwhy do you think she appeals so much/sells? Im Rosie Garland. Im a writer and performer, and produce literary fiction and poetry under my own name. I am also the creator of Rosie Lugosi. Rosie Lugosi is the radical lesbian feminist, monstrous-feminine dominatrix, bitch goddess, top femme, vampire queen. Ive been tantalising audiences nationally and internationally with her unique blend of poetic perversion, sharpedged humour and sexual satire for eight years now, and have won a clutch of awards, including the Erotic Oscar, the Diva Award and most recently the Dada Award for Performance Art. My stage character of Rosie Lugosi embodies the defiant and transgressive power of unconventional female sexuality the predatory vampiric villainess who never gets staked. Six foot tall in six-inch stilettos, clad in pvc catsuit and corset, towering wig, fangs and hoisted cleavage, I transform accepted notions of what constitutes queer performance.
Rosie Lugosi is a drag act. Im a female drag queen - a woman who dresses up as an extreme example of what a woman is supposed to look like. Rosie Lugosi transgresses age boundaries (for instance, how women are supposed to dress at a particular age) and challenges the tensions that women feel about how real women are represented in society/ media. In particular, Rosie Lugosi links the horror of vampires with the horror of older sexually active women. Female performers, poets and comics struggle with making their bodies sexual, in case it distracts (it will). I make my body part of the act. It is an extreme body, and simultaneously personifies and encapsulates the ambivalence still felt about sexually assertive and confident women.
Rosie Lugosi is the radical lesbian feminist, monstrous-feminine dominatrix, bitch goddess, top femme, vampire queen
Why do you think vampires are so sexy, andis vampirism as an analogy for sex the main source of their fascination? Vampires are unconventionally erotic. They dont fit. Neither did, or do I. As an isolated queer teenager without adequate words to describe myself it seemed radical to propose a form of sexual expression not focused entirely on male genitalia (it still does). The vampire is the quintessential outsider. Outside society; challenging and outraging, yet fascinating it. This abjectness, this lack of respect of rules and borders (disturbing identity and social order) has traditionally been viewed negatively. Female vampires in particular have been viewed as an
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expression of womens position as outsiders, womens social & cultural alienation. This misses an important point: that the female vampire can be seen as an outsider through choice: she has not been thrown out of society, she defies it. Shes a woman in rebellion against the family & expectations of sexual passivity, not merely thrown out. This is at the heart of my act. Have you read Coleridges unfinished poem Christobel? Do you agree that this is about a lesbian vampire? Did it ever inspire you? As said, vampires (lesbian or otherwise) suggested an alternative to the stultifying range of options on offer to me as a teenager in rural England. Which were to get married and have babies, and by no means in that order. How important is the sexual content of your poetry and performance? Howconscious are you of this as you develop your work? Rosie Lugosi is a conscious creation she put her cleavage there herself. I am not pandering to the far more acceptable desire for women as adult children a la Marilyn Monroe. Whatever Monroe may have been like off camera, on film she was presented as a female totally unaware of, and out of control of her sexual being. Her dress flew up: she fought and failed to restrain it. She walked down a station platform oblivious to the male gaze appropriating her jello on springs. The other acceptables women are offered are about invisibility. Sensible shoes, beige clothes, eyes down, humble. We are told this will make us safe. Anyone who has lived with domestic violence will tell you that no clothing or behaviour can make you safe. So why bother? If neither clothing not behaviour can make us safe, why waste creative energy trying? Rosie Lugosi is my response to that question.
Would you agree that you seem often to useit as a means of challenge? (Im thinking of such as your parody of the I Survive 70s womans anthem.) Rosie Lugosi also transgresses and challenges perceptions of how lesbians perform and present lesbianism to straight and queer communities. Lesbians are not supposed to be glamorous burlesque beauties. There is still a tension, a hangover from 80s feminism, that flamboyance is politically suspect. That dressing up is letting the side down. But dressing up subverts; plays with notions of what we can be and what we are told we cant be. Clothing is an instrument of power, and I am appropriating it. Colonising it. I link it to the Suffragettes who fought for the right to look and dress as they saw fit, some wearing red lipstick as an act of defiance. Im with Rosa Luxembourg: If I cant dance, its not my revolution. However, Im not coming out with a trite and simplistic its liberating to dress like Rosie Lugosi. For example, I wear no makeup when Im off stage, or when I am doing readings as Rosie Garland. The choice of no makeup is just as challenging of how women should perform themselves as the makeup I wear as Rosie Lugosi. How does the sexual content in your work help you convey your world view/ attitude to life? (I realise we much not confuse Rosie Garland creator with Rosie Lugosi the created character, but she must derive from aspects of you, imaginary, allegoricallyor otherwise.) Rosie Lugosi is a Frankenstein creation and she contains aspects of the creators self. You are very proudly lesbian in your performance too. Im proud to call myself queer. I could choose to sublimate my sexuality on stage, but I choose not to. At a time when sexual and social freedoms are
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being challenged by religious and political fundamentalisms, it is an increasingly revolutionary act to stand up and be queer. Sometimes it can feel very lonely. It is still difficult to be queer and stand up and be counted. Ive had jobs where coming out was not an option, and thats not gone away. A recent statement I heard was the battles have all been won. It was made by a gay man: a white, able-bodied, upper middle- class gay man working in the arts in London. I wondered how many battles he had ever had to fight. Queers still get kicked to death on Clapham Common, still face the death sentence in their country of origin. Do you think its easier and more captivating to celebrate being lesbian or gay in poetry, than just common heterosexual?(Im thinking also of successful performance poets like James Nash, Char March, Chloe Poems.) Do you feel part of a poetry tradition linking back to Sappho? Poetry is captivating if it is written well, and read well. There are fantastic heterosexual poets who perform their work magically well (for example the marvellous John Siddique and Cynthia Hamilton). I have read truly captivating poetry celebrating tea-making. I am extremely wary of separating LGBT poets from others, common or not. Finally, do you think that sex really does sell, or is it what it is intertwined with that really sells e.g. poetry, an image, a dream? Is sex a savvy add-on to sell something else, or is it more integral? Rosie Lugosi deals with sexual politics. She is a Body Politic, and the politics are situated in her body. However, once the word politics gets associated with the word sex, theres a tendency for people to fall asleep. Not surprisingly, considering some of the more unhelpful aspects of 80s feminism, with
statements like all men are rapists. I am proud to call myself a feminist, despite it being a dirty word, and am determined to reclaim it, and refute the slander that feminists have no sense of humour. Sadly, there is some snobbery on the established poetry scene that performing to the public is as dignified as being a performing seal. I dont agree. Performing is the ability to engage with an audience, and thats about respecting the people who have shelled out to come and see me perform. I want them to be interested. You can be the greatest poet that ever lived, but if no-one can stay awake long enough to listen to your poem, who cares? Rosie is a writer of poetry, short stories, novels, novellas, cabaret songs and articles. Works include: Creatures of the Night (purpleprosepress); Coming out at Night (purpleprosepress); Hell and Eden (Dagger Press); and Garland (Bad Press). Forthcoming performances include 09.04.2008 Ballista Magazine Launch, Manchester 7pm. Website: www.rosielugosi.com www.myspace.com/rosielugosi
Helen Shay writes in various forms and performs poetry, with drama staged at the Fringe/small theatres. She recently completed a fantasy novel for a creative writing MA, gaining a distinction.
incorporating be the You can writing
greatest poet that ever lived, but if no-one can stay awake long enough to listen to your poem, who cares?
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incorporating writing The Res-erection
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of the Lads Mag

Article by Tom Spurling
I recently, reluctantly, attended my own bucks1 party, flat off the pages of the man mag manifesto, my farewell to multiple vaginas. In the hotel lobby my friend argued with the minder about the standard of the girls. This was not what Id ordered, he said, scowling like a man who knew his strippers. Minutes later I had a lollipop stick in my mouth while a 35-year-old Phillipino woman called Candy rode the flavoured end like a unicorn on a merrygo-round. With one eye open I watched my professional friends watching on. A doctor, a tennis coach, an antiques dealer, a federal government press secretary, a guy who works for Hewlett Packard, a school teacher, an architect, a farmertheyd all paid their seventy bucks and werent going anywhere fast. Their sidelong faces glanced squarely at
my predicament, but theyd seen it all before. They adjusted their mainstream brand polo shirts, sipped imported beers and checked their scent in the mirror. They (nee we) were half-wealthy, halfsingle, half-educated men, who never did things in halves. We used sport as a fallback topic of conversation. We broke up with good women (or they broke up with us) because we just werent sure. We travelled a lot, often in groups, and often at short notice. All employers, all relationships have had to fall in line with our vacuous wills. We were the lad mag generation, where X meets Y and has a crack. We are all lads with lives now, but forty hours into a bucks night bender wed reverted to the beast that reared itself on pushing the boundaries of grossness. For one streetlight moment, we were the guys who got the girls with the mad
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cans because we had the cheeks with the cleanest pores. We were the guys we used to read about. I grew up on teen girl magazines. My older sister had the shiniest library in the suburbs - free hazelnut scrub samples and slick-backed sealed sections with 101 ways to finger yourself. Every month I was kept abreast of inverted nipples by the kindly Dolly Doctor. I learned that its possible to come on a spa jet, or sleep with your second cousin. I learned that bad skin is not my problem, and pregnancy a hiccup on the road to happiness. I learned that its not okay to be not okay, and I was not unaffected by this. I remember waking up hours before school to apply revolutionary anti-acne techniques with my sisters secret lotions. On one especially sad sunrise I squeezed my cheeks raw, dousing them in lemon juice, hairspray, and dirt from Mums rose garden. It was self-harm and heal again in ten easy steps. Luckily, perhaps, the horoscope gave me hope. Then my sister got older, and so did her editors. Cosmopolitan was the magazine for the post-pubescent trendsetter and the well-heeled slapper in heels. These were women you could one day see yourself talking to, or all day talking about. These were women in the making. I had my share of angst in those silhouetted teenage years, but as the captain of the footy team I had some balls to fall back on. I was also a music junkie, caught between the Black Flag anger of my punk older brother and the saccharine swagger of Video Hits. I wore every hat in the rack, fumbled my way through the different bits and felt what feelings feel like. Then after high school I moved to
England, desperate for adventure, for something other than myself. It was 1996the height of Britpopand the country was in love with its own image. New Labour had swept to power to an Oasis and Blur soundtrack. I grew my long sideburns ready. Euro 96 gave cunts an excuse to be cunts. My own confidence soared to record levels.
The disarming chameleon lad has rediscovered that God knows hes the bollocks, and he wants you to read all about it
English tabloid culture was a revelation, the things people allegedly didnt say, and life was one big dirty secret. I was working in an Oxford preparatory school when I first read Loaded. I remember feeling glorious and hornyalmost chosen as the glossy sheen wore on while taking a man-sized after grog bog. In the world outside my window, girlsnext-door were getting on the telly and Chris Evans was a most unlikely hero. I took my travel advice from FHM and Ralph, and went away on lad weekends. Fifteen years later, and lad mags high on the rise, my friends and I reminisce about ladditude. We tip our hats at those who still bloke it up, but our love of lust has faded into satire. Emotional graduates from the tribe, we now see our heroes as people just like us. But the cocksure, live-for-laughter lad is fighting back, and we love it. The whiny GQ anti-geeze whos stolen his girl and ripped up his trousers can go drown in a bucket of irony. The disarming chameleon lad has rediscovered that God knows hes the bollocks, and he wants you to read all about it.
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Meet 3 typical lad mag readers: * Jim, 30, was in a stable relationship with an attractive and intelligent girl. He worked in event management for a sports media company and owned an apartment in the city. Stability was looming til he announced one evening (to his male friends) that he was soon to be single. He wasnt exactly sure why. Now he regularly trawls nightclubs in search of something like peace of mind. Hes a lad mag victim who is starting to recede. * Bill is a lad mag success story. At 25, a budding chiropractor with a curtailed adventurous streak, he was under pressure to marry his high school sweetheart, a doctor working interstate. A vocal fan of lad magazines, he failed one too many times to pop the question and left his girlfriend for a younger, blonder chiropractor. They moved to Buenos Aires to day-trade and dance flamenco, and have returned home to marry in June. He is now officially happy. * Jeff, 30, upholds the aspirations of lad mag culture. Hes attractive in a messy kind of way, dresses sharp, shaves twice a week, is violently single, and currently works as a surf instructor at a luxury resort in the Maldives. No waves in six months has left Jack three stone heavier as he plies the hotel bar in this strict Muslim atoll. He occasionally sails to Male to meet Russian prostitutes, or flies to Sri Lanka to try shag backpackers. The rest of the time he schemes (crucial for any lad-magger). Latest schemes include diamond smuggling in Kashmir, Aston Martin road-testing in California and sex tours in Brazil. A potential lad mag writer, he would rather be written about.
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Hes attractive in a messy kind of way, dresses sharp, shaves twice a week, is violently single
Buck = Australian term for Stag
Thomas Spurling is a freelance writer from Melbourne, Australia. He is the co-editor of View From Station Peak: Writings on Geelong (November 2007) the first in a series of regional anthologies of Australian writing. His writing appears regularly in Pine Magazine ( www.pinemagazine.com) and in Lonely Planet. He is currently working on a book about Tantra...
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The Night After Lisha Aquino Rooney
incorporating Eye: Perfect writing
Lisha Aquino Rooney
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Lisha Aquino Rooney
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Lisha Aquino Rooney is an American artist living in London. She received her MA Fine Art degree from Central Saint Martins in 2006, was twice bestowed the Photo of the Week award by The Saatchi Gallery and received an honourable mention for the 2007 Berenice Abbot Prize for an Emerging Photographer. lisha_rooney@yahoo.com
The Erotica Label
Interview by Jennifer Thompson
I hardly think anyones that bothered by the consumption of pornography these days
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On a clandestine shelf behind a counter in the bookstore where I work, is a single shelf entitled Erotica. The said shelf is left to the attention of no one in particular, and seems a kind of asylum to a number of titles, each leaning forth as though trying to overhear the contraband murmurings of the tomes next door. The shelf is rarely questioned and is browsed even fewer times than that, yet with all its subversion and illicitness, sex continues to sell. So why is it that the label erotica immediately conjures up suggestion of trashy jackets and banal content, whilst other titles abundant with explicit sexual themes are shelved amongst the fiction and labelled literature. This is a question at the forefront of my mind whilst approaching erotica writer Mitzi Szereto. Having written several novels under the pseudonym MS Valentine, as well as compiling a number of anthologies, perhaps the most notorious being Erotic Fairy Tales, Mitzi also holds writing workshops exploring the genre. I wonder what enticed her to begin writing within the erotica bracket, and if this is a medium she finds both more expressive and lucrative than writing regular fiction. It happened entirely by accident. I never set out to work in this area and had, in fact, been trying to get a novel publishedThen a chance meeting with an aspiring writer of erotica worked to plant some kind of seed in my subconscious writing brain. It was probably because this persons work was so dire that it caused a rather unusual form of inspiration. I should add that once I began seeing what was actually being published in the erotica category, my opinion of dire was reinforced. I thought there needed to be something with a bit more class and style being
stocked on the bookshelves, and you know what they say if you want something done right, do it yourself. And in terms of erotica being more profitable? Not at all. Just the opposite in fact, and this is due mostly to the erotica labelThe label scares people off, which is why you cant find many erotica titles in bookshops. Perhaps if the product were packaged differently, you would be able to find it on bookshelves as easily as you would the latest Delia cookery book. Even with sex having moved more into the mainstream over the past years, the label erotica does seem to give the reputation of a certain lowbrow tenacity. As a writer and editor, I would prefer if the label erotic fiction would be dispensed with entirely, as it can lead people into thinking that what I do is something disposable and of little literary value. Sadly, because so much of what is classified as erotic fiction IS of little literary value, it tends to paint everyone with the same brush. So what is it that distinguishes an erotic novel from a mainstream piece of fiction that contains continuous sexual themes? Why do we find writers such as Nabokov and Gaitskill, even writers as aggressively sexual as Bataille and de Sade in amongst the regular fiction run, whilst the rest of the genre is segregated? I have no idea. I think its ridiculous and unfair, but this is in the control of the publishers and what label they want to stick on a bookIve read Gaitskill and Nabokov and, for that matter, Philip Roth, and their work is more explicit than much of what Ive written. I think labelling work as erotica puts it into a ghetto, and that shortchanges the author and it shortchanges the reader. Erotica will always appeal because of its
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subversiveness, its tendency to deal in the illicit. And despite its notoriety, will perhaps continue to sell as a genre more socially accepted than pornography. I hardly think anyones that bothered by the consumption of pornography these days, if thats what they wish to consume. You can view it on your computer theres no need to even pop into a shop to get it anymore. I think perhaps people enjoy erotica because its more cerebral and emotional, and thereby appeals to the brain and heart, as well as the genitals. Porn isnt concerned with brains or hearts. In fact, it seems to destroy ones ability to think or feel, leaving you numb after its consumption. In the past, the genre has been perhaps been concerned more with male association, however now we see it on mainstream television, in the lyrics of popular songs. Because of this cross over, it has become a genre that appeals to a much wider audience. I ask Mitzi if she writes with an audience in mind, and whether, as a woman writer she has attracted any negative opinion from feminist thinkers. I dont write with a specific audience in mind and never have; I just write. I know my readership is all across the board women, men, straight, gay/ lesbian/biIm just happy people are interested in what Ive written and they get something from it. She talks of the misassumption of erotica as revolving around the subservience of women to men. A lot of it is about empowermentInterestingly, Ive just finished editing The New Lace Book of Womens Sexual Fantasies, and I had to be very careful not to weigh too heavily in any particular direction for the sole reason I didnt wish to misrepresent womenAlthough Im all for freedom of
speech, I also consider myself to be socially responsible. In terms of her own work, it seems Mitzi is moving further from her old MS Valentine novels and is putting all her efforts into being writer/editor for the anthologies. Her new collection, Getting Even: Revenge Stories is out now, published by Serpents Tail. Ive really gotten stuck into the short story as a literary formI really like coming up with unique concepts and bringing everything togetherSeeing that anthology out there and knowing youve created something completely unlike what anyone else has done is a very gratifying thing.
Jennifer Thompson has recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Born in the North, she is currently living in London and pursuing a career in literature.
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Sex Grabs Our Attention

Column by Christine Brandel
Sex sells products and sex can sell ideas
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I used to teach a course called Literature and Sexuality, which was very popular with the undergraduates at my relatively sheltered American midwestern university. Initially popular, that is. They often seemed quite disappointed when they realised that wed be reading Tolstoy, Flaubert and Baudelaire. They seemed to be expecting how-to guides and Penthouse Forum letters (God only knows what they were thinking the writing assignments would be). The theme of the course was literature which had been censored for sexual content, looking at the context of the culture and time in which they were written. So while many of the works we read had been banned for what their culture decided was offensive sexually, what we determined was that often what was really offensive were the underlying ideas, like Tolstoys beliefs on religion or Lawrences suggestions about the supposed naturalness of class division. In affect the sex was the grab, readers rushedlike Hancock begging the librarian for Lolita in The Missing Pageto the thrill of reading something elicit, without being aware they were actually being sold ideas, which were new and, to the current culture, offensive. (I do often wish we had seen what ol Tony and Sid would have made of Humberts confession. I imagine it might have produced some interesting conversations down at Railway Cuttings.) So its nothing new that the sensationalism of public sex grabs our attention. Advertisers know it; philosophers know it. But the stakes have changed, partly because of the change in the media. Under the guise of freedom of information, we see, hear and read about private sexual details in every aspect of our popular cultureon television, in tabloids, in political debates, in magazines for teens. To be
truly scandalous, we must go even farther. Sex sells products and sex can sell ideas. If we look at our culture today, what do we use sex to sell? Without wanting to sound overly prudish, quite frankly what I think we are using sex to sell is ourselves. I dont necessarily mean that were selling our souls, though part of me does feel that; what I mean is literally people have become products and are in the business of selling that product. Maybe ultimately this is because of our celebrity-obsessed culture. Notoriety means you have been noticed, you mean something and currently the most popular way of doing this is by selling your own sexuality. Everyone denounces the women who sleep with footballers and sell their stories but at the same time we all pay to read about them. We make them celebrities, scanning their articles for the helpfully capitalised words like threesome and spanking and forgive them just a little as they express sympathies for the WAGs whose lives have been affected. Recently, Britney Spears was accused of having teased the paparazzi into believing she was pregnant through apparently set up photo ops, while at the same time accusing us all of wanting a piece of her. (Britney, just a piece, love, not the whole pie!) Jodie Marsh also works this angle and therefore was comfortable selling her body, her sex life, her hand in marriage and her pride for her television show. In the end she just laughed off criticism, knowing that she had made her pile. But perhaps the greatest example of using sex to sell ourselves as products is in the life of dear Katie Price. When I first arrived in England in 2002, she was Jordan, a national embarrassment,
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portrayed essentially as a drunken pair of enormous breasts. Jordan was created by Katie; she was a product to sell to lads mags and tabloids, and sell she did. Of course it was actually Katies body and Katies sex life that were being sold, but the marketing of it as Brand Jordan made it more comfortable (for us? for her?) to buy.
A womans private sexuality being used in the public domain for profit is certainly nothing new. What makes it unique today is the fact that this isnt a strategy of agents or advertisers who have decided to pimp out a client
However a few years later, she unveiled her new product, Katie Price, her real self. This product was a real person. So is Jordan gone? No, Katie promises Jordan still exists. So when were buying that lingerie, were buying Jordan. When we buy our daughters the new Perfect Ponies book, were buying Katie Price. Theyre tied together for they are of course one person. Ponies to the Rescue wouldnt even exist without the Dane Bowers sex tape, the taking of Gareth Gates virginity. Katie Price has managed to successfully sell herself to a huge variety of buyers and has become a millionaire talk show host/singer/ designer/novelist/Mother of the Year by doing it. A womans private sexuality being used in the public domain for profit is certainly nothing new. What makes it unique today is the fact that this isnt a
strategy of agents or advertisers who have decided to pimp out a client or commanded a writer to spice things up a bit. It appears to be a proactive choice by individuals to put themselves on the shelves and reap the financial profits, no matter the personal (or dare I say moral) costs. It works because making money from intimate sexual behaviour is no longer shameful. In fact its something to admire: last year research found that Katie Price was an inspiring business role model and this year Cosmopolitan gave her the Ultimate Woman of the Year Be the Best You Can Be prize. I suppose it is admirable to have built the empire she has. But I cant help but wonder where were headed. With so little of our lives classified as private, what part of ourselves do we still own?
online.
Christine Brandel is a British American now, really, so please dont make fun of her accent. She teaches in an inner city secondary school and wastes her time by playing Mah Jongg
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The Melted Rubber Humans are looking for mp3 files of spoken word/ poetry readings (either live or studio) to be incorporated in a series of albums of ambient/ experimental music. They are looking for poetry which deals with the following topics: 1. God/ the Goddess/ spirituality; 2. sex/ gender/ sexuality; 3. power/ politics/ corruption; 4. love/ want/ need; 5. fear/ despair/ greed. They are looking for poetry with a rich, interesting and/or experimental approach to the use of language and especially those read with voices that reflect the feeling of the poem. The plan is to select lines or verses from poems and to blend them into a soundcollage; a musical equivalent to the art of the Dadaists. The finished albums will be posted at http://www.virb.com/ melted_rubber_humans and will, like their previous three albums, be available for free download. Poems can either be submitted by email or snail mail. Email submissions are limited to one mp3 file with a 2Mb maximum file size and should be sent to shooglemail@googlemail.com with FAO: Captain Melted in the subject line. There are no file size limitations for snail mail submissions. These should be sent on CD to Dee Sunshine, 35 Falkland Street (0/1), Glasgow, G12 9QZ, United Kingdom. There is no deadline as this will be an ongoing project. Further information about The Melted Rubber Humans can be found at www.myspace.com/captainmelted http://www.thefix-online.com is a website for critical coverage of short fiction across the full spectrum of magazines, webzines, anthologies, and single-author collections.
Industry News and Opportunities

TTA Press publisher Andy Cox wants The Fix to grow into the hub for aficionados and practitioners of short fiction to visit for news and commentary relevant to that community. Managing Editor Eugie Foster, is helming The Fix after her stint as managing editor of Tangent Online. She plans to spotlight short fiction in all its myriad mediums: print, online, audio, and film. In addition to its core content of short fiction reviews, The Fix will publish feature articles, exclusive interviews, and regular columns on writing, speculative poetry, audiobooks, podcasts, and short film. Succour 8: Call for Submissions We are now accepting submissions for Succour 8. The title/theme of the issue will be Icons. You can respond to this suggestion in any way you desire. We suggest a word limit of 3,500 for fiction, or a line limit of 250 for poetry. The deadline for submissions is 20 August 2008; the issue will be out on 1 November 2008. Manchester-based writers can submit to me at max.dunbar@gmail.com or to the general address at submissions@succour.org. www.succour.org SHANGWE CREATIVE WRITING COURSES - NICOLE MOORE For info call: 07846 542321 1. INTRODUCTION TO POETRY
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(Thursdays 7-9pm) 3 April to 8 May (5 sessions includes entrance to Shangwe Poetry Night) at the Poetry Society Studio, Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX Tel: 020 7420 9880 www.poetrysociety.org.uk Interested in developing your talent by focusing, sharpening and clarifying your writing skills? Working at your own pace, you will learn the essentials every poet needs to know, i.e. understand structure, rhythm, rhyme and more. You will understand the difference between writing for publication and performance. Written exercises and assignments will be set to enable you to develop and practice your craft. FEE: 85.00, which must be paid in advance and be received no later than Friday 28 March 2008. Please see attached publicity for more info on the course and how to book. 2. LIFE WRITING INTO MEMOIRS, ESSAYS & FICTION (Saturdays 2-4pm) 5 April to 10 May (6 sessions) at The Hackney Museum, Hackney Technology & Learning Centre 1 Reading Lane, Hackney, London E8 1GQ Tel: 020 8356 3500 www.hackney.gov.uk/hackneymuseum Learn how to keep a Creative Journal so as to capture life stories to use as research later. Discover how to transform your life writing into memoirs, essays or fiction. Written exercises and assignments will be set to enable you to develop and practice your craft. FEE: 120.00, which must be paid in
advance and be received no later than Monday 31 March 2008. Please see attached publicity for more info on the course and how to book. Tutor: Nicole Moore is a freelance writer and published poet. She is the founder of Shangwe www.shangwe.com and the co-founder of Words of Colour Productions www.wordsofcolour.com Nicole has edited, produced and independently published Brown Eyes (2005) and Sexual Attraction Revealed (2007) both autobiographical collections of essays and poems. INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS FELLOWSHIPS http:// www.internationalfellowships.org.uk/ About the programme Across the arts there are few opportunities for professional artists to undertake international research free from the immediate demands of presentation or publication. Although geo-political forces are strong, presenting challenges for a programme such as this, the primary aim is to offer selected artists dedicated periods of professional research and experimentation within different cultural and geographical contexts. Key Facts Over 220 artists have received ACE International fellowships In over 30 countries around the world With 80 different host institutes 28% of fellows are from Black minority and ethnic backgrounds Partnership funding levers in 40% of the total fellowship budget Fellowships range from 8 weeks to 1 year, with an average period of
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3 months Artists selection The programme is not open application. Artists are selected through a peer nomination process organised by a designated co-ordinator for each Fellowship. The Fellowship Coordinators are art-form specialists working for the Arts Council, other agencies or individual experts. Artists are nominated against key criteria including: the artistic excellence of the applicants work; the benefit to the applicant at this time in his/her career; the applicants anticipated use of the knowledge and experience gained upon return to England and their adaptability and potential to manage the challenges of extended artistic research away from their normal lives. A short-list is then sent to the host organisation which makes the final decision. What is the core purpose of an Arts Council Fellowship? Selected artists are offered fellowships primarily for practice-based research, experimentation and the development of new work in relation to the artistic ethos of international hosts and the cultural contexts of the countries in which they are based. The programme aims to: Push the boundaries of what artists can experience both geographically and artistically Encourage and facilitate international exchange between the arts community in England and overseas Build artists professional careers through experimentation and collaboration alongside other
international artists and within diverse cultures Establish new international artistic and funding partnerships, maximising resources and growth in the arts Put artists creative process and learning at the centre of the programme Continue to develop new relationships with worldwide arts centres exemplary in their field Feature / Case study: Malika Booker @ India International Centre, Delhi, India 2006 http:// www.internationalfellowships.org.uk/ feature.php?feature_id=7 Malika Booker is a writer and performer, well known on the UK circuit - through her work with performance poetry specialists Apples & Snakes and others - and now, increasingly, for her work overseas, too. Malika first established her reputation through her intimate performances, monologues and poetry, which beautifully capture the contradictions and passions of modern living and transform personal insight into universal appreciation. Latterly, she has turned her attention to fiction, and we were particularly delighted to be able to offer her, as part of our International Fellowships programme, a threemonth residency at the India International Centre (IIC) in New Delhi to work on her debut novel. The ambition to write a novel was a major step forward for a writer, whose previous work had appeared in magazines and anthologies, including Bittersweet:Contemporary Black Womens Poetry (The Womens
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Press, 1998); Wasafiri (2001); and IC3:The Penguin Anthology of New Black Writing (Penguin, 2000). A partnership between the Arts Council and the IIC, the residency was greatly enhanced by the tireless enthusiasm and commitment of the centre director, Dr. H. K. Kaul. We are also enormously indebted to colleagues at the British Council in Delhi, for their great generosity and support.
dpi). Deadline for submission is 30th April 2008. We regret that at present we are unable to pay authors for their work, however, each successful contributor will receive a complimentary copy of the magazine. Our website is currently under construction but if you have any query or would like to submit work e-mail us at: info@20x20magazine.com
Call for writers and artists - 20x20 20x20 Magazine is a project by Giovanna magazine is a square platform for Patern and Francesca Ricci writings, visuals and cross-bred projects. Rather than on a theme, each WIGLEAF issue will be assembled around metahttp://wigleaf.com/ Steinbecks Travelogue of War words to be interpreted, researched, We feature stories under 1000 Claire Boot Article by words. illustrated according to a loose, wide Try us at Photographs by Andrew Oldham wigleaf.fiction@gmail.com. and multi-angled perspective. The intent is to create homogeneity of spirit within Send up to five stories in a single Word each issue, without the restrictions of a file. Use your last name in theme as such. the subject line, like this: sub, Lastname. 20x20 Magazine includes three sections: Words in the shape of fiction, essays, All rights revert to author. poetry Visions drawings, photography and Simultaneous subs are fine, as long as... visual projects You know all this, right? . The Blender where words and visions cross path The first issue is scheduled to be launched in summer 2008 and submissions are now open. Submissions guidelines Issue 1: The magazine will be approximately 80100 pages, b&w. As the title of our publication states, the format is 20x20 cm. The meta-words for Issue one are: Gone Beyond Writers are invited to submit pieces up to 1,500 words. Artists are encouraged to submit works keeping the format of the page in mind. Please send high-resolution images (300
All news for this section is compiled by Incwriters. Send your info to: info@incwriters.co.uk Further news can be found in their forum at: www.incwriters.co.uk
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Sex Sells or Does It?

Article by Claire Boot
A man and a woman meet at a party. She thinks hes stuck up; he cant stand her mother. They keep bumping into each other. She brings him down a peg or two; he bales her out of an awkward family situation. And so they get married despite rarely holding hands, let alone spending the night together. Sounds like a dull read, eh? That, in summary, is what happens in one of the nations favourite novels. In a BBC poll in 2003, Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice was sandwiched between JRR Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings and Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials the only non-fantasy novel to feature in the top five. Tolkien might have owed his winning position to a certain film trilogy released
between 2001 and 2003; four years later, Elizabeth and Darcy beat Frodo and Gollum into second place in a list of the one hundred books that, as far as the Guardian newspaper is concerned, you cant live without. According to Wikipedia, Austen has sold 28 million copies of Pride and Prejudice since 1813. In addition, of her six completed novels, Persuasion and Emma also made it into the BBCs Top 50 all without a single bedroom scene between them to boost ratings. What accounts for Austens enduring popularity? She was born in 1775, just as the American colonies were getting their revolution started, and died in 1817, two years after Napoleons defeat at Waterloo. Despite the decisive impact of
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these events on global history, wars and revolutions barely intrude upon the world of her novels. In public assembly rooms and private parlours, on sunny picnics and bracing seaside walks, Austen charts the romantic hopes and disappointments of genteel young ladies. A lingering look over the pianoforte, or gentlemanly assistance regarding a twisted ankle, is about as racy as it gets. Heaving bosoms and clinging wet shirts belong to the domain of Andrew Davies screen adaptations and not to Austens prose.
year, but with no brothers to provide a home the sisters faced a bleak future if she didnt. Persuasion would be a very short novel if Lady Russell had failed in earlier convincing Anne Elliot not to marry Captain Wentworth, but her reasons reveal the unavoidable practical considerations of marriage: Anne Elliot, with all her claims of birth, beauty, and mind, to throw herself away at nineteen; involve herself at nineteen in an engagement with a young man, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining affluence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connexions to secure even his farther rise in that profession; would be, indeed, a throwing away, which she grieved to think of! (Ch.4) The opposite case is made in Emma, when Mr Knightley reprimands the eponymous heroine for encouraging Harriet Smith to reject Robert Martins proposal: Let her marry Robert Martin, and she is safe, respectable, and happy for ever; but if you encourage her to expect to marry greatly, and teach her to be satisfied with nothing less than a man of consequence and large fortune, she may be a parlour-boarder at Mrs. Goddards all the rest of her life or, at least, (for Harriet Smith is a girl who will marry somebody or other) till she grow desperate, and is glad
In fact, Austens very inexplicitness could be the secret to her success

But Austens themes, characters and plots are far from being sexless. Affection and desire, jealousy and betrayal run through the novels, bubbling beneath the surface of polite and restrained social interactions. Austen is not explicit about sex, but it is firmly embedded in the subject that dominates all her novels marriage. For women in Regency England, the marital stakes were critically high. Marriage was crucial to long-term security and stability in an age when educational and career options for women were severely limited. Austen herself experienced firsthand the dependency of an unmarried woman. Supported by her father until his death, Austen along with her mother and sister then relied on the provision of her brothers. Mrs Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice, can be ridiculed for her fanatic attempts to marry off her daughters to gentlemen in possession of five thousand pounds a
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to catch at the old writing masters son. (Ch.8) Either way, marriage is centrally important in Austens world and forms the underlying framework for each of her novels. Marriage doesnt carry the same weight today, in terms of gaining financial security, but the reading public is no less obsessed with relationships. A cursory glance through Heat et al or a flick through the latest chick lit offering reveals an abiding interest in who wants or is with or has dumped who. Without a modern frankness about sex, Jane Austen continues to strike a chord with her timeless studies of men and women, families and friendships, intrigue and commitment.
lost if, for the sake of using sex to sell, the plot is reduced to oh, they already did. When it comes to the novels of Jane Austen, subtlety sells.
Affection and desire, jealousy and betrayal run through the novels, bubbling beneath the surface of polite and restrained social interactions
In fact, Austens very inexplicitness could be the secret to her success. The subtlety with which she navigates the interpersonal dramas of her characters ultimately makes for a more satisfying read. Subtle means finely woven, and theres no disputing Austens craft in embroidering her novels with rich yet understated detail that rewards the patient attention of the reader. The will they, wont they? that plays so beautifully throughout her work the delicate tension of thoughts and feelings developing and adjusting is entirely
Claire Boot writes prose, poetry and plays, recently while commuting and during her lunch hour. She also enjoys speed-reading her favourite childhood books, while ignoring the strange looks from other commuters.

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Issue 5 Vol 2 SEX SELLS

Vampire Queen of Manchester on sex and poetry

Lisha Aquino Rooney

The Night After A series of images exclusively for Perfect Eye

Rosie Lugosi - Mitzi Szereto - Lads Mags

The Erotic Label

Jennifer Thompson talks with Mitzi Szereto.

Articles The Res-erection of the Lads Mag

Sex Sells - or Does It?

Letters and Feedback News and Opportunities Competition

Sex is Everywhere You Cant Win

Letters and Feedback

When Book incorporating writing Clubs Go Bad

Usually - poor books, briefly discussed over copious pints

At worst, sex is used by authors as a gimmicky sales pitch

Interview by Alexander Laurence

Sex Sells...Rosie Lugosi

incorporating be the You can writing

incorporating writing The Res-erection

of the Lads Mag

Buck = Australian term for Stag

The Night After Lisha Aquino Rooney

incorporating Eye: Perfect writing

Lisha Aquino Rooney

Lisha Aquino Rooney

The Erotica Label

Interview by Jennifer Thompson

Sex Grabs Our Attention

Sex sells products and sex can sell ideas

Industry News and Opportunities

Sex Sells or Does It?

In fact, Austens very inexplicitness could be the secret to her success

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