dear alice,
we need to talk about sex.
you wrote this sexy bit in the story “Differently” (Selected Stories) that deals with sex in a frank way, so much so that i’ve often reflected on your writerly stance. here’s a sample:
And Georgia, herself, watching her children on the roundabout, or feeling the excellent shape of a lemon in her hand at the supermarket, contained another woman, who only a few hours before had been whimpering and tussling on the ferns, on the sand, on the bare ground, or, during a rainstorm, in her own car–had been driven hard and gloriously out of her own mind and drifted loose and gathered her wits and made her way home again (p. 422).
it stands out for me mostly because it’s told from the female perspective, which is complex. most of the time sex is male, which is to say, penetrating. the focus on the female narrator is what does it for me: Â she’s disintegrating in the face of passion.
i want you to know that i’m trying to ignore my bias against older people who i assume are squeamish about sexual matters. i am trying to grow up. but you should know i once took a piece of writing into austin clarke and he insisted on reading my entire story out loud. i blushed when he read “cock”.
what embarrasses you when writing the sexual perspective(s)?
.