This week’s Internet alert pearls include a Crimestoppers call for help to those who may have witnessed a sex toy theft, an extremely amusing look at awful sex scenes in books by comedian Ken Levine, and an article the charts the history of the vibrator.
Crimestoppers seeks info on sex toy theft
Source: www.wataugademocrat.com
‘The suspect stole two sex toys, lubricant and adult DVDs, according to police.’
Well, no prizes for guessing what he’s going to do with those. Clearly, a night alone with his hand didn’t hold a great deal of appeal for this particular perpetrator. Although the thing that really made me giggle when reading this article? The name of the street upon which the store, Night Secrets, is located: ‘Blowing Rock Road’. Could this sex shop’s locale be any more perfect? (I’m guessing they aren’t going to want the stolen items back if the pilferer is eventually caught …)
Bad sex writing… or rotten erotica
Source: http://kenlevine.blogspot.co.uk/
This is a wonderfully humorous blog post from television comedy writer, Ken Levine. A lovely little collection of terrible sex scene excerpts from well-known and not-so-well-known authors, including John Updike, Kathy Lette and David Guterson. It’s not easy to write good sex and as Mr Levine points out, it’s all very well poking fun but when it comes right down to it, how many of us really have the knack?
‘I’m not sure if I could write one of these passages without a voice in the back of my head saying, “This is the Springtime for Hitler of sex scenes.”’
He also poses some amusing questions to authors, my favourite of which relates to raunchy writing conditions:
‘Do you need to get in the mood? With my training in television where we’re always up against a deadline, I’ve learned to just sit down and crank it out. Can you do that with erotica? Can you drop off the dog to the groomer, pick up the cleaning, come home, empty the dishwasher, then sit down and write TROPIC OF CANCER?’
The buzz: how the vibrator came to be
Source: The Guardian
This interesting article by Decca Aitkenhead charts the evolution of this ever-popular sex toy: its beginnings as a medical device designed to cure ‘chronic anxiety, irritability and abdominal heaviness’ in women, through to its current role as an item of sexual pleasure. Aitkenhead’s examination of the stigma that surrounds the vibrator – in relation to academic research and drama in particular – is enlightening.
If you’ve visited the Chintz Pinterest page, you’ll know that we have a board dedicated to the movie Hysteria, a film that loosely relates the patenting of the first vibrator by Victorian doctor, Dr J Mortimer Granville, but for those of you who’ve not yet seen our trailer pin, which features the magnificent Maggie Gyllenhaal, behold: