At home in the palatial estate of my parents in northeast PA. Totally bloated on last night's turkey and fixins'.

In the new apartment, I've gone without TV and internet for almost two weeks now. Yes, even the internet. When I'm not pressed for time, I tend to browse porn sites like bangbus.com that have free one-minute trailers you can download. When I should be searching for neat-o SF concepts, I'm digressing into totally useless territory.

Without the distractions, I've been reading much more. I've gotten halfway through Chip Delany's "Shorter Views." This is a great, easy to read book of literary criticism - especially as it deals with science ficton and desire. Most eloquent was his chapter on "Street Talk/Straight Talk" which critiqued the way that the AIDS message has been disseminated:

"Always wear a condom"

which is a message that is not easily followed by the masses - even in this era of sexual diseases and the constant bugaboo of pregnancy.

Chip states (in no uncertain terms) that the street talk version of this is:

"Sucking dick is OK without a condom. You won't get AIDS but you could still get the clap."

There is no evidence whatsoever that AIDS can be transmitted orally. But instead of allowing the frightened, huddled masses one last sexual luxury, the conservative powers that be just want to reinforce their own repressive values on Others.

If any of the humble readers disagree, then mayhap you could ask Chip why, after sucking thousands of gay cocks, he doesn't have AIDS. It's because you can't get the virus from receiving oral.

My recommendation to you all is to go out and give and get as much oral as you like. It's good for you.

But if that were all to say about Chip's literary criticism, I'd be remiss in not talkiing about his views on exoticism, how science fiction should and must remain outside of literature.

His theory is that to adequately critique the mainstream world (fictional, poetic, real life), then SF must remain in/on the margins. From that view, the more mainstream and more conservative, more predictable out genre becomes, the less capable SF is in critiquing the world apart from it.

Which I interpret as another reason for stories with more sexual content, less rigidity in timelines, multiple POV characters, and less reliance on the absurdly heroic actions of single priviledged white male characters.

To those of you who know me, none of that should come as a surprise to you. Therefore, I recommend you read Chip's books for yourselves. You fiction writers and poets should know a little literary criticism so that you don't look like fools when you sit on your first WorldCon panel and some snotty grad student asks, "Do you think your stories reinforce a postcolonial viewpoint?"

Or you can rely on the standard dumb questions:
Where do you get your ideas?
Do you listen to music when you write?
Do you like Star Trek/Star Wars/Voyager/food/water/?

Er, uh, I'm finding myself digressing into something more bitter than I actually am. Best to sign off here and enjoy my bloat.

YES TANAISE YOU DO HAVE A NICE BUTT