Just Finished Reading: The Veiled Woman by Anais Nin [56pp]
Erotica, modern classic or not, isn’t really my ‘thing’ but I had promised myself that I would read everything – in order – (including POETRY!) from both of my recent Penguin Classics boxsets regardless. Afterall, I did buy them specifically to expand my reading horizons!
So, this booklet contained four short stories extracted from the authors collections Delta of Venus (1977) and Little Birds (1979). Although I remember them being quite controversial at the time I suspect that they’d seem quite tame these days. In my general reading I tend to skim-read any sex scenes as I regard them as, largely, pointless and often lazy. Likewise, if I’m watching a movie at home, I’ll FW through any sex scene which rarely progresses the story and is, all too often, the product of lazy writing and (to be honest) a BAD film.
Anyway – to the reading itself! The first story, the titled ‘Veiled Woman’ revolved around a husband essentially ‘pimping’ for his supposedly ‘frigid’ wife whilst also charging for other men to watch the result through a false mirror. Then we had ‘Linda’ a tale of a free spirit who discovered the price of that freedom. Then ‘Mandra’ a tale of a woman looking for love in New York. Finally, we had ‘Marianne’ about a female artists relationship with her male model.
Overall, the stories were certainly readable if not exactly works of art. They were definitely erotic at times and are not recommended for those of more sensitive tastes. Needless to say, that I have no intention of reading this author further. I have FAR too much else to read that’s (no doubt) a lot more fun!
2 comments:
I fast forward past sex scenes too, in books and film. You must be my tribe! 🥰 I do that so consistently that I seldom notice myself doing it until someone says something. Like when everyone was agog over Jamie from the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series. They were going on and on about how they loved the books and couldn’t wait to see the tv version. When I went to join in the conversation, someone remarked how they didn’t think I was into bodice rippers. I was confused. Outlander is about a time traveler who is into botany and medicine. There’s also a lot of history in it. I honestly was so stunned at people’s discussions of all the sex scenes that I went back and looked at my copy of the book because I didn’t think there was much sex in it at all. I apparent would skip all the pages with the sex scenes. 🤣
I think part of why I do it is growing up in a quite prudish household (my Mum especially). The rest of it is that sex scenes are, I think, pointless and redundant. Why have them at all? You can still show a level of intimacy between characters without getting them naked. I released a while back that a BAD movie has a sex scene about 45 minutes in - to keep the audience 'interested'. AKA the director or story isn't doing its job.
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