By David Futrelle
I‘m taking a break from the usual misogynistic horror today to post some pulp novel and, er, “nonfiction” covers. The theme: The (retro) future of human earth sex!
Also, this is an open thread. No trolls!
Categories
Earth Sex in the 21st Century: A pulp break/open thread
Well, the cover artist for Earth Sex in the 21st Century was at least right about beards coming back into fashion.
Where can I get that sweet vest?
The guy in front of the computer on the “Computer Swap” cover looks like he’s trying to insert his skee-ball tickets into it.
I sort of want to know what O.R.G.Y stands for now.
I’m mostly disturbed by the cannibalistc overtones on Computer Swap.
Just imagine Shatner intoning the words
@Fabe
‘Organization for the Rational Guidance of Youth’
It’s an anti-Communist, anti-Fascist, pro-everyone-have-lots-of-diffetent-sex organisation; its agent has pornographically explicit Bondian spy adventures, but he seems to actually like women and wants them to be happy—I’m sure they’ll look as regressive as hell now, and Fleming is a low bar, but still a definite improvement thereon. I recall that like a lot of one-handed literature of its time, there’s obsessive concern with ‘positions’.
His opponents mostly come from a non-religious, dictatorial, group that wants a world with maximum reproduction and minimum pleasure; for all I know, they turn out to be alien cattle breeders and skull-farmers.
In one novel, he gets pregnant.
Heh. Earth Sex.
Kind of reminds me of how the phrase “Space Age” used to be affixed to all kinds of household products, as a marketing tool. For example, the thermos in my school lunchbox was supposed to be Space Age.
M-preg is always worth a read, I guess?
But seriously, “Starship Intercourse” is a great name, especially if we can imagine it intoned by Shatner.
Is that an alien or a two-headed penis peeking out of the man’s loincloth on the Starship Intercourse cover? Both amusing and disturbing.
Please tell me John V. Ception has siblings named Extrasensory, Wedding, and Immaculate.
Fabe:
Organization for the Rational Guidance of Youth
Obviously, right?
And, no, I didn’t just KNOW that; I looked it up on wikipedia. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I admit, I’m a sucker for a lurid pulp cover.
I think I could pull off the dude on Earth Sex’s sweet jacket in black though with the woman’s swimsuit thingy still in black and boots in black
@Gerald Fnord
At first, I though you were kidding. Apparently not.
The series was 15 books and also involved time travel, evil twins, the Lilluputian Liberation Army, and better mousetraps.
http://spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=593
@AuntieMameRedux
Personally, it looks like the alien IS the loin cloth.
As a history professor of mine said back in college, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
(Turns out it’s an L. P. Hartley quote)
This reminds me of an embarrassing sci-fi book recommendation I need that I haven’t known where to ask for: I’ve seen so much ado about John Norman’s Gor series that now I kind of want to see what it’s like, and if it’s really that terrible. Is there any novel in the series that is the least terrible, or at least is interesting? I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s irredeemable, but I can’t help being curious anyway. The MST3K episode was fun, so maybe I’m hoping reading it could be too. Or am I making a huge mistake in trying to read it (even if it’s to hate-read it)? The BDSM stuff doesn’t bother me.
These are the voyages of the Starship Intercourse, thrusting its way forward on a penetrating mission.
To bawdily go…
@calmdown
The first in the series (Tarnsman) is probably the least enraging. Still poorly written crap, but Norman hadn’t gotten into his stride with the really shitty stuff – it’s more a Conan rip-off than anything else.
@Calmdown,
I haven’t exactly read through them (read sections at random instead), but I’ve heard the first five books at least have the series’ overall storyarc pretty much front and center. The later books put the main plot on the far back burner while indulging the crappy stereotype stuff.
Open thread? Can I vent?
I have to see my mom’s estate atty tomorrow, I have a feeling he’s going to yell at me.
My friends are here to make sure I don’t over drink because I surely do not want to deal with this hungover. Remain calm, they keep telling me.
I think I have a phobia with these things, all paperwork, I need to get a grip on myself. I’m not kidding either, I think I got this panic because money was always tight when I was a kid. But it was a big panic over ‘the paperwork’ and about everything else, too.
If I can quote something I found lately –
This was on some reddit thread, link here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/965ksk/what_are_some_tough_pills_the_us_needs_to_swallow/
it’s pretty far down so I’m going to copy the thing, this comment is by a poster called “whenevertheycome” :
“Holy shit the fear is pervasive, and I hate it.
My MIL is scared of everything (coincidentally she watches nothing but Fox News, a bit of correlation). Some examples include:
Wife and I went on a mini vacation to Chicago to visit some college friends. We stayed in the Loop, by the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. She swore up and down we’d be shot and killed or robbed. She was utterly convinced Chicago is basically Mad Max. Oh, and our flight was destined to crash, because planes always crash going into O’Hare, don’t you know!?
Going to a fair with the kids, she spent an entire 10 minute phone call warning us that someone was going to snatch our kids and run away with them if we didn’t lock them in a stroller or a wagon the entire time. She told us not to eat because someone would poison the kids and not to let the kids on rides because a carny would molest them.
She went out of town to a lake for a few days. She asked us to check on her house 3 times a day, make sure the doors were locked, and water her flowers (okay, the last part was no big deal and the only thing we actually did). We checked twice in the week she was gone, so we could water her flowers. She swore someone was going to come from urban city nearby and rob them while they were gone. You could not convince her that someone hadn’t been ready to rob them the minute they left.
The moment it starts to rain, she calls and warns us to go to the basement because she is certain a tornado will hit. Last time she called, I sent her a video of me standing at the back window watching the storm with my son, explaining to him that being scared of storms is silly (note: there wasn’t so much as a severe thunderstorm warning for that one).
Basically the woman lives in perpetual fear of everything and everyone, and she sits in her house with her dog watching Fox News and being scared. I don’t know how people live in that perpetual fear bubble.”
My relatives were like this. Terrified of EVERYTHING and everything was a huge big deal and anything and everything could, and WOULD go HORRIBLY WRONG! and it was the end of the world!
Finance wise: WE’LL END UP IN THE POOR FARM YET!!!
And I honestly believed there was such a thing for too long a time.
Into my late teens.
I have anxiety surrounding money and paperwork. And I do not need to be yelled at over BS like signing my name with my middle initial or paying something too early.
I need to get a grip on myself with this, I have huge anxiety with it all, not to mention that I’m depressed because my mom died.
Any thoughts appreciated.
@Z&T
Apologies if I ramble here. That’s a really difficult situation to deal with. My sympathies. I’m trying to remember back to when I was grieving what would help with my anxiety. Because of course it gets worse when you’re dealing with grief, since you’re in a state of stress, and that just makes anxiety worse.
I think I have it: patterns. Following a routine in your day, solving a physical puzzle (doesn’t have to be jigsaw or new to you – puzzle rings are great for me for this purpose), just tracing patterns in the tiles or bricks with my fingers. Patterns help calm me. Not sure if that’s helpful for you at all.
More long-term, knowledge helps. Ask the atty to walk you through every single step, explain when you need to do what and why and what it means. You’ll have less anxiety over paperwork if you understand better why the problems to date have come up and what you can expect for a road map of future paperwork (that sounds like some kind of horror novel to me lol). Anyway, if you know to expect that in X days you’ll need to sign something, but not before then and not after Y days, you won’t worry about signing at the wrong time, because now it’s not just some random thing that you didn’t know was wrong. Does that make sense?
So much is uncertain for you right now because you’re dealing with a difficult mental process that can fluctuate a lot and feel very random, and on top of that you have this paperwork that’s very important but it’s coming back as wrong for what feels like random reasons. So the only thing you can do is take away that randomness. I don’t know if you can do that with grief (mine was too much for me, so I couldn’t get myself to a therapist during it because that required about 10x more emotional strength than I had at the time), but for the paperwork you’ve got a professional you’re paying to do exactly that job. Now, I’m not saying the atty isn’t doing their job, but they’re not realizing the effect the lack of explanation is having. So just ask them to lay it all out for you. Explain that this is causing you stress so you just want to be able to plan. Hopefully they’ll understand.
Also, hugs if you want them.
So I came out completely at work this week. Everyone was rather supportive and chill, with the exception of my girlfriend’s aunt, who also works with us. Her reaction was to try and take sneaky pictures of me in the break room, but left her flash on and earned a chat with HR. Flash forward a few days, and she sent the pics to my mom, who I hadn’t told yet. And today she moved on to my sister, who also didn’t know.
I don’t think my girlfriend’s aunt will be working at the same place as me for much longer.
Z&T, I feel you on the financial form anxiety. I have that big time.
Bakunin, congrats! And I’m sorry your gf’s aunt is so awful; I hope she does get fired.