Guest Post HE: A Sexual Odyssey by Stephan Morsk

Description: 18+

In HE the unnamed protagonist, a law student, is involved with a series of women who either loathe him, try to poison him, save his life or exploit him sexually. The first is the nanny of his ex boss’ kid. She sends him a hateful letter.

After observing a woman in a coffee shop whose breasts are ‘freaks of nature’ she leaves a briefcase and departs.

He’s unsuccessful in returning it to her, but this karmic event exposes him to a bevy of dangerous and seductive paramours.

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First of all, many thanks for allowing me to guest blog on Mythical Books. I hope to introduce you to myself and my work while addressing the proposed topic: the differences between erotica books written by men or women. My name is Stephan Morsk, and my novella “HE: A Sexual Odyssey” is what I’ll be referring to and encouraging readers to sample, like a small dish of caviar in a darkly lit room with a roaring fire at midnight.

First, let me jump in with a good natured objection. I’m against labeling of all types. To categorize a work as ‘erotica’ may in some ways be limiting. For example, was “Portnoy’s Complaint” erotica? How about a book by Norman Mailer (my favorite author) “American Dream” wherein the protagonist throws his wife over a balcony then goes downstairs and has anal sex with the maid? Is John Updike’s “Villages” erotica because it happens to have thirty nudes on the cover? I guess I find some of these categories arbitrary. None of the aforementioned works were labeled erotica in their time. Even Nabokov’s “Lolita” is roundly regarded as literature. Bottom line, writing is writing and should be judged on its own merits.

The difference between men and women authors who write erotically tinged literature is most obviously point of view. Men take the penile motif, women the more seductive or pussified elan... a difference between hunter-gatherers, and seducers perhaps. In my book “HE” the protagonist is a 30 year old, rather introverted law student in Manhattan who sees women as the answer to his universal detachment. He worships women. Far from a misogynist he looks toward the female gender for salvation, sexually and emotionally. Yet, like a wild flower burgeoned landscape, he sometimes stumbles upon a land mine. He lusts after the mega-hot nanny of his former boss’ kid but is only able to achieve sado-masochistic encounters with her in restaurant women’s rooms. He sees a woman in a coffee shop, Eve, whom he believes to be his possible salvation. Here’s a description of his first sight of her in a coffee shop.

“He’d seen breasts like those once before in a store in San Francisco, some trinket place that sold small souvenirs. The woman, a cashier, undoubtedly noticed his impertinent stare. Her breasts were viscerally launched from the radix of her chest, two emotive munificent barrels at right angles to her ribs. It was not their size but their rectitude, draped loosely with a thin fabric that astonished him. He could not help but ogle. These were the same in a woman who sat nonchalantly imbibing a chai latte. He was entranced, nor did he believe she noticed him through his dark sunglasses, which lent anonymity to his gaze. He could stare unabashedly.” p.11.

Clearly he’s more than a little enamored. But Eve, too, has pitfalls, and is a member of a ruthless gang of international thugs who smuggle all kinds of illegal contraband into the country. Another potential paramour known only as Tinkerbell tries to poison him, then, when that fails tries to put a few lead salvos into his testicles. Even the boss’ ex wife, known only as the Madam, and is unabashedly attracted to him, cares naught for anything but his well endowed organ. In short, men view women in salvific adoration, women seeing men as the fulfillment perhaps of a long vacuous yearning. I’m generalizing of course.

Think of Jong’s “Fear of Flying.” (I’m dating myself by now but so what?) The heroine yearns for the ‘zipless fuck’, the sexual imbroglio without entanglements whereas one might view this as more of a male prerogative. Misogyny I fear is often a mischaracterization of adoration, sexual and personal. Men hold women in the highest regard, even as they wish to fuck them. Certainly the protagonist of “HE: A Sexual Odyssey” is female adoring, if not pussy whipped and in a state of constant scavenging of the environment for possible saucy saviors. Here’s a description of our protagonist’s encounter with the slithery hot Misha’s shirt.

“...he noticed that shirt lying next to him on the brass-and-leather bench that graced the foyer. It contained the ghost-like remnants of Misha’s recent inhabitance. It was the closest thing to her skin, its propinquity alluring. There it sat steeped in her sweat, suffused in her perfumes, laden with the scruffy cells of her desquamated dermis, only inches away. Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, he picked it up, that neon schmatte, aphorizing his lust. It had the frilly quality of women’s wear, sleekly light, taffeta smooth. Staring at it a moment, uncertain how to ravage it, he put the armpit of her sleeve against his nose and inhaled...” p. 10.

In summation, men adore women and view them as salvific, whereas, perhaps, in generalization, women may regard men as the restoration of something long missing. Of course, I’m much more informed in the masculine viewpoint than that of women.

I hope these inchoate ramblings illuminated in some way the topic proposed. And, it is my fervent hope you’ll give “HE: A Sexual Odyssey” a chance. I’m a mental health professional who’s won awards and published stories. I maintain my own website morsklitmonthly.com where you can read a new short story monthly with no charge. Kirkus Reviews called “HE”, “A well-written, modern tale of lust and pleasure.” Available at Amazon of course and in e formats. All feedback is valued.

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About the author:

Stephan Morsk is a mental health professional who writes daily. He won a 7th and an 8th place in the Writer’s Digest competition 2001 out of a field of 19,000 writers. He has published a short story and won honorable mentions in other years. His web site morsklitmonthly.com offers a new short story each month. He is interested in novellas and recently submitted “Parrot Moon” to the Paris Literary Prize. He’s finished several other short books, part of a four part series including “HE”, “Trashy Novel-A Love Story”, “She” and “I”. He lives in rural Minnesota with his family. Favorite novelist, Normal Mailer. He enjoys exercise and is a reasonable amateur magician. 

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