Mainstream Books of Interest

[yankee masha (imported)]

There are many books which approach the subject of male castration by mainstream writers, SF writers, which are not considered offensive or pornographic. I think I have stumbled on so many of them over teh course of my eyestrained life and I was wondering if anyone would care to have them recommended?

One of my favorites is by SF genius writer, Philip Jose Farmer, adn it is called "A Feat Unknown." It takes teh character of Tarzan and pits him against his arch enemy (here) Doc Savage. In this one Tgarzan never does obtain a loin cloth and is subject to all sorts of devilish mischief. One section he stands before a council of 12 immortals and they calmly make him prove his worth by cutting his scrotum sac, slicing his still-attached testicles into thin tournedos and eating them right off the vine so to speak. If he makes a flinch or a sound or bats an eyelash he is doomed. If he does not they allow his balls to grow back. But he feels the pain of the slicing.

Another one is a biography of a eunuch by Mary Renault, and is called "The Persian Boy." A rich Persian Boy is taken by his father's creditors in ancient Persia and castrated then sold into slavery. the main point of hte slavery is that he is rented out as a prostitute by his master. When Alexander the Great conquers the land the boy is given to him as his personal eunuch. It is a sensitive story told first person by the eunuch and at times is heart rending as we see the loneliness that he endures all his life.

Both books are pretty old and might only be available through the library or special order but both would fit into the interests of the members of this site, I think.

[Charlieje (imported)]

I just checked Amazon.com, and it seems as though "The Persian Boy" is still available. I am about to order it, so we'll see...

Oh, and it's a HELL of a lot cheaper than MY book.

[Pueros]

'The Persian Boy' by Mary Renault is actually the middle story in the author's excellent 'Alexandran Trilogy'.

The first book, 'Fire From Heaven', describes Alexander the Great's boyhood, whilst the third, 'Funeral Games', tells of what happens in his vast Empire after his death. Bagoas, the eunuch, also features in the latter, as well as being the narrator, & main subject of, the second novel, although not quite in the storyline the starter of this thread describes.

All three books are highly recommended if you like historical works.

My own humble 'Nero' is an attempt to emulate Renault, along with Graves, albeit in racier &, alas, undoubtedly inferior form.

PUEROS

[yankee masha (imported)]

You are right about the trilogy. i never read Funeral Games. I think I read the first one because Alexander was one of myh historical heroes when I was yhoung. Then the second because it had that Michelangelo drawing on the cover of The Persian Boy. I confess I am not a big Renault fan but i liked the Persian Boy.

As to Graves, I share yor admiration despite his concerted homophobia and trying to assert that it wasn't that big a deal in ancient Greece or Rome. (yeah, Robert, right, whatever you need to tell yourself).

But what a writer he was! Who cares if his history is slanted in his favor? He understood poetry and was a magnificent story teller. Thanks for mentioning him here.

[Dave (imported)]

I was going to recommend "At Swim, Two Boys" by Jamie O'Niell but I realized that no one in the book is a eunuch. It's an excellent book and a good read.

Dave

[yankee masha (imported)]

I'm not a Hemingway fan buthis book "The Sun ALso Rises" is about a guyh whose penis was shot off in WWI and his unrecoverable lvoe affair for Brett Ashley. When I first read it i didn't know what it was about. Later I learned that was the point. I was wondering what you think of it, Dave? It is also interesting because of Hemingway's problems with his masuclinity and fighting his latent homosexuality all his life. The idea of being unable to achieve satisfaction sexually, having a desirable love object and being unable to have sex with Her/Him (she had a masculine name) I thought was pretty deep symbolism. Having sexual potency but not being able to use his penis. Any thoughts?

[Tomas (imported)]

There are a number of "mainstream SF" novels that touch on the subject, and here are two that might be worth reading even if they didn't:

Steel Beach by John Varley, and Farnam's Freehold by Robert Anson Heinlein.

Varley's book I recommend in any case (and the followup book, Golden Globe, too) just because it is fascinating. John writes all too few books.

The Heinlein book is rather dated, but as usual takes a 'what if "X" happens' and then expands on the possibilities. This post-apocalypse society is populated by many eunuchs ...

Oh! One other I just thought of, Narabedla by, uh, hmmmm, er, I can't recall the author at the moment, but it's a well known SF author. Anyway, it's an enjoyable and rather fun lightweight book.

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[yankee masha (imported)]

I think Varley died many years ago as did Heinlein. I did remember from your choice of SF books that there was an interesting book that I can't remember by Piers Anthony. he visits one area of a planet where the women rounely cut the penises off their men and force them to take the feminine and slave roles in a primitive setting. The mena re lerft with enough stub to shoot loads for proreation. the women send their fingers up the asses of their husbands and work the prostates to force orgasms. I mention it because it used to amaze me how many male fantasies were allowed in SF books before the feminists took voer teh genre and it all became dragons and sorcery. It used to correlate to early comic books where the most violent SandM tgales were depicted. Like Flash Gordon, Brick Bradford, Prince Valiant, and one called Lance, which was about a post Confederate union soldier who wandered around the Old West getting stripped naked and tortured by Indians a lot once with Kit Carson. Lotsa fun then before political correctness took over and you were forced to make Tsk-sk sounds over such fiction instead of whanking off to it.

[Tomas (imported)]

No, no! John is alive and well and living in Eugene, OR! It's just about time for another novel ...

RAH died in the '80's

T

[yankee masha (imported)]

Varley is alive? He must have started writing at a pretty young age then or is remarkably alive mentally. I don't know why i thought he had passed on years ago.