My Favorite Wicked Story from Best American Erotica

Every year I publish Best American Erotica, I always pick one story that I especially like to read aloud at book events. Usually, the first time I read it, it’s in bed with my lover, because I get so inspired I have to try it out on him.

My favorite “read-aloud” story in this year’s BAE 2005 is "Surviving Darwin” by Alicia Gifford.

Why do I like this story so much?

For one, it’s told from the point of view of a very wicked female character, a rather unusual naughty nurse. As a recovering Catholic, I can’t resist voicing her amoral thoughts.  It’s a noir story, with no golden heroes to applaud, and a lot of suspense... it’s a kinky crime story, actually.  The explicit sex passages are brief, but in her case, understatment packs a whallop.

I asked Alicia if I could offer you a reprint of the story here on my blog, and she kindly agreed. Other authors in BAE 2005 include Mary Gaitskill ("The Ugly Cock Dance") and Nelson George "(It’s Never Too Late in New York") as well as Steve Almond remembering the best Ecstacy party ever.

It’s never too late, whereever you are, to check out a copy!  If you read Alicia's story, or any of the others, I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Comments

[Ocean's Edge]

I really enjoyed BAE 2005, "The Ugly Cock Dance" was wonderful, - I got it for my boyfriend who introduced me to you and "In Bed With Susie Bright". It was a wonderful Valentine's present - unfortunately he only got it yesterday (ground shipping to Australia really can take more than 2 months!!). We're really looking forward to enjoying it together when he visits this summer. After all who said reading bedtime stories aloud was only for children?

[Anti-Em]

I found that particular story (as read on your show) unsettling. It was one of the few erotic stories that I can't imagine ever wanting to experience again (The Choir Boy(?) by Patrick Califia and Matt Rice, and something about a prom by Mark Pritchard) although I enjoy, or at least feel improved by, almost all of the erotica I read and hear.

I hope you understand that I'm sharing my opinion because you asked and I think you wouldn't want the few of us who don't agree with your taste this time to hold back. I am, and have been for many years, a fan of yours. Clits up!

[Susie]

Mary Gaitskill has told me that she has been amazed at the response to her Ugly Cock Dance story; she had no idea she'd be hitting such a nerve. It's basically a day in the life of this middle aged couple who used to be hot tamales but have found themselves getting frumpy and libido-impaired in their "dotage." Mary has this way of talking about menopause that makes you chortle. Of course, the plot is that one day they have an inspiration that takes them by surprise...

Gaitskill's writing is always remarkable, but it's interesting to me that i am seeing a TON of erotica coming over my transom from writers who want to talk about being old and the sexual point of view at 50, 60, 70, 80, even the deathbed. Some of it is funny, some tragic, ironic, romantic, everything you can think of.

It's really a new topic. This generation of new "old people" came of age during a sexual revolution they'll be damned if they're going to shut up about it now.

Because BAE is a "variety pack" I only picked a couple of my favorite "oldies" for the book next year, but I wish someone was doing a whole volume of "grandma and grandpa erotica" because I have dozens of worthy contenders!

[Susie]

Anti-Em,

Of course I don't mind that you say the "Darwin" story troubled you; i'm glad you brought it up. I read this story to one bookshop in San Francisco, and the audience was split on this very issue. They all agreed it was a memorable story, yes. But about half the people were frightened by the protagonist, the nurse/grifter with the monkey on her back. I mean, this is the sort of person you hope you never run into, you hope you won't be the sap like the guy who plays her lover/victim. And as we begin to understand teh kind of sex that really does get her off, it's even more anxiety-provoking.

The other half of the room that ate it up like chocolate, like "Noir" stories, they like characters who behave badly, and a S/M component is not going to drive them away, au contraire. In my case, I also have a huge sense of comedy about how people do the most insane things to have decent sex.

It's the exact opposite to Mary's Ugly COck Dance story, where we have these very sweet, unthreatening people who find a tender and surprising lust for eachother, out of their own spontanaeity and good intentions. What's funny is that Gaitskill usually writes the kind of stories Alicia does, where there is just no relief or good girl to be found!

[susan d]

I love Surviving Darwin. I've read some of her other stories as well, and Alicia Gifford is awesomely talented at bringing to life truly edgy characters.

[Keith M Ellis]

I like (not love) "Surviving Darwin" as a story. As erotica? Well, morally repugnant people don't turn me on. Quite the opposite. If I mentally stretch, I can kinda sorta see how a truly bad person might be attractive in the sexual sense (or not personally attractive, but attractive as an element in sexual fantasy), but I can't help but believe that reflects a poisoned attitude toward sexuality, a cultural context where guilt, shame, and transgression form the core of sexuality. I recognize that that is the culture I live in, but it's not the culture I want to live in. But I suppose that I should seriously consider the implications of the assertion that sex and sexuality is truly value neutral (which I contend that it is), in which case it's as valid for ugliness to turn us on as it is beauty. Whatever my thoughts on this are, I'm pretty sure I don't want to fuck mean people. Or be fucked by them.

[Gavagirl]

I love the Darwin story, though I don't find it particularly erotic. After I read it, I started thinking about characters like Colonel Kurtz, or the Judge in _Blood Meridian_, even though this is such a small story compared to those. Similar themes, similar motivations.

[WillowGirl]

I didn't like the Darwin story at all...don't like any stories where children are hurt emotionally. I agree with the person who said it was unsettling. That said, I do usually enjoy your books, and look forward to reading other stories in this one.

[Susie]

Just to make clear, in case someone is reading this and hasn't read the story... the child in the story who is suffering is upset because his father impulsively divorced his beloved mother to run off with this grifter/narrator, .. I won't say more to spoil it, but I just want to make it clear it isn't because the child is sexually abused.

Also, the spectre of the kid's innocence and hurt is indeed the most agonizing part of the stroy, and is what makes the "bad girl" finally do "the first decent thing I've ever done in my life" as she says. Like a a lot of stories, the kid is the character that sparks the redemption.

I'll have to ask one of the authors of a more comic, no-stress story to see if I can put a sample of theirs up on the blog!

I really appreciate all your comments though. I have one really tough story that' going to be in the next BAE, by Lynn Freed, that I know will have people climbing the walls. But it's just so well done, and it doesn't cheat with its sexual tension or emotional/social devastation.

Interestingly, as a literary trend, erotica, and contemporary lit in general, is VERY DARK right now. It'sjust not a yippie-skippie period.

[Martha Garvey]

I really dug "Surviving Darwin." I liked it for a lot of reasons, most of all that it is both bleak and (slightly) redemptive. A very compelling voice.

Thanks for the writing weather report, Susie. I've been writing pretty dark myself these days; must be in the air.

[Jolie]

Hello Susie,

BAE 2005 arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Read "Slippy for President" today while on the exercise bike at my health club.

I suppose the author assumed I would get hot reading about three blonds. I'm a black female. The "blond thing" doesn't always do it for me.

But looking forward to reading the rest of the stories.

I'm in three anthologies so far. Yours is the ultimate - so maybe some day!

Jolie

[Susie]

Hi Jolie, "No assumptions allowed," that's my motto. What does blow up your skirt? You've probably seen from further reading of BAE that it's pretty unpredictable.

I've never written about it explicitly, but many BAE authors do not wear their race or background on the sleeve of their story. Or sometimes they deliberately switch POV's or mess with the notion of what is "color blindness."

Some stories, like Nelson George's "It's Never Too Late in New York," are covering a certain scene, in his case the Black superstar athlete/hiphop vibe phenomenon. In Bernice McFadden's "Sit," you have the culture clash of an American Black woman traveling to Jamaica. In Alicia's story that I published above, you don't have any idea what "race" the characters might be, although Alicia herself is African-American, and her heroine could be, or not. Lots of readers assume the characters are "white" unless the story goes out of its way to show otherwise.

On a practical note, I finally got all the replies finished to authors who submitted material to me for BAE next year. I picked 23 stories out of about 2000+ submitted. Whew! I sent the most respectful rejection letter I can write to the ones I didn't pick, since I know all too well that you never know when, as an editor, you're rejecting the next Tennessee Williams. I read many wonderful writers that I couldn't publish this time for one reason or another.

In case you are someone who is waiting for a reply from me and hasn't received one, let me put out the word: You may be one of the hundred people who didn't put your email address on the cover letter. I cannot reply to you without an email address, there sadly isn't the time to do it, or the budget to pay someone else to do it.

[Jolie]

Hey Susie,

My skirt usually blows up when I read an F/F story!

I don't wear my race on the sleeve of my stories either, because even though I'm black, the characters in my stories aren't always black.

Bernice McFadden is one of my favorites, and I was excited to see that she has a story in your anthology. I can't wait to read her "Sit." Her "One-Night Stand" in the anthology Black Silk is excellent.

I haven't submitted to BAE yet, but the day will come when I do! Thanks for the information.

Jolie