Castration in fiction books

[Karelescu (imported)]

MORE ON THE ANGELIQUE NOVELS

It turns out that Sergeanne Golon was neither a female, as Kortpeel thought, nor a male as I thought. He was a composite (I think it was Serge who's obit I read in the paper, but I cannot be sure). Serge did most of the research, Anne did most of the writing (hence Sergeanne. Like, duh?). And I was inaccurate with my dates. They were more 50s/60s, not 60s/70s, as I stated. Which makes me wonder why my father was reading them so much later. Ah, well. Anyway, old copies of these books seem to be selling like hot cakes on the collectors' market. So, dust down your parents' bookshelves and attics. Or even dust down your own.

Well, you learn something useless everyday.

Cheers, Nicky.

[SquirmEWorm (imported)]

* "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon: an Army officer who has been assigned to tail the hero, Slothrop, falls victim to a surgical castration that was intended for Slothrop himself.

* "Forever Amber" actually contains two eunuch nubian servants that make a brief cameo appearance towards the end. I think they may belong to Amber herself, either that or one of her well healed friends.

* "Dr. Adder" by K.W. Jeter briefly mentions a man who is castrated during sex by a woman with a vagina dentata.

* "Pilgerman" by Russell Hoban starts out fairly early with a full castration.

* "Regiment of Women" by Thomas Berger describes a futuristic dystopia where women rule and where castration is a common punishment.

I guess all these books are readable enough, with the exception of "Pilgerman" which is hediously and unspeakably unreadable. And of course "Gravity's Rainbow" is pretty difficult and not at all worth the effort.

See you around,

-Squirm E.

[Karelescu (imported)]

"THE WOMEN AT THE PUMP"

I thought I ought to point out that Amazon.com is NOT a DM gyno-sight, in case anyone was wondering, and had begun to wonder why they were buying books, not de-bollockings.

At the risk of being boring, Elke Kriehn e-mailed me from the Knut Hamsun Society in Oslo. I guess I owe her to tell you what she said, since she bothered to help me with my enquiry.

Elke writes:

"The book 'The Women at the Pump' a novel about a man called Oliver, who has a severe handicap since an accident on a ship where he worked when he was young. Through the accident, he has lost one leg and got his private parts damaged in a way that he cannot have children. His fiancee, Petra, gives the ring back to him and does not want to marry him any longer, but after a while, she comes back to him, obviously because she is pregnant by somedody else who does not want her. Oliver and Petra get married. In the course of the years, Petra gives birth to several children, and Oliver takes good care of them. Only when one of the children has blue eyes instead of brown ones like all the other children in the family, he shows signs of jealousy. All events are closely followed by the town's women who use to gossip when they meet at the (water) pump.

"The novel contains detailed psychological studies of the typical people of a small community on the coast at that time . But it also is true to a Darwinian 'Survival of the Fittest' concept. As usual, also this Hamsun-text is full of contradictory statements, so that it is difficult to say if there is any clear message apart from 'such is life'."

Elke Kriehn

If anyone wants to know more about Knut Hamsun's novels (And "Hunger" is his masterpiece - although "The Growth in the Soil" won the Nobel -yawny book!), let me know. In the mean time, I will write back to Elke and thank her for her time.

Yours, Nicky.

PS., I am sorry to have to correct Jesus in his message from way back. "Lord Jim" was written by Conrad (and not one of his best - read the stories, not the novels). You meant: "Lucky Jim", yet another worthless book by that over-rated crap-writer, Kingsley Amis.

N.

[Karelescu (imported)]

I have written to Elke and thanked her.

Nicky.

[Karelescu (imported)]

Would anyone like me to write more info on the Marquis de Sade's books? I can if you want (especially about clit-severance by volvano, if that's what you're into). In the meantime, the literary-lovers amongst you might like to read a completely different novel to de Sade's. It's also called "Justine" and is by Lawrence Durrell (the brother of the orang-utan guy - "My Family and Other Animals" - also recommended). No castrations (well, not directly); and is followed up with three more books ("Bathazar", "Mountolive" and "Clea" - and "Clea" is quite possibly the most beautiful book I've read, but you must read the others first, otherwise it won't make sense). If you like fiction, and want to read the greats, then these books are not a bad place to start. They reflect upon, and develop one another. True masterpieces, but try not to cry. Interestingly, Durrell was a one-time chum of that old goat Henry Miller. I can't recall if there were any eunuchs in "Sexus", "Nexus" or "Plexus", or the "Tropics", but then I read them yonks ago, so I dunno. Oh, and Durrell wrote "The Black Book" when under Miller's influence - or his pay-checks.

Oo. Gotta go. "Black-Eyed Peas" on TV.

Bye,

Nicky

[Karelescu (imported)]

Sad Nicky now. No one wants to play. Guess this is where a strand ends. Where's my teddy? Iceland? Yeah well.

Thanks for listening to all my bookish observations. See you another time.

See ya,

The sweetest Nicky in the world.

[Karelescu (imported)]

"Jandar of Callisto" by that old Fantasy expert, Lin Carter, had a slave-auction in which some buxom older wench wanted to buy the muscular hero and eunuchize him. (This was published by Ace Books - I think in the early 70's). I don't recall any castrations in Lin's "Thongor" books, or the "Conan" series he did with L. Sprague de Camp, Bjorn Nuberg and (deadly) Robert E. Howard.

Oh, and there is a eunuch in the late British writer Desmond Bagley's novel: "Running Blind". Although now pitifully dated, it is a good enough novel to make one want to visit Iceland (although the boy-girl stuff is as corny as a Cary Grant movie and it hasn't aged well). The evil guy in the book has had his bollocks shot off by the hero. At the end, he exacts revenge...I enjoyed that book, but I tried to re-read it just now and it's so rather dated in its style. Sad, because it's great about Iceland. Your choice, of course. You might find it amazing .

That's all.

Nix

[Karelescu (imported)]

Dear Mother,

Thank you for your remarks.

Nix

[Slammr (imported)]

As of this moment, there have been 2585 viewings of this thread. That is actually quite a lot for threads around here. Keep in mind that it only takes a few players to make a game, but many to make an audience, at least in theory. You have quite an interested audience ... play to it.

Keep it up.

Nicky:

As the good sister said, apparently quite a few people are reading this thread. I've enjoyed it, and have since even read some of the books mentioned here.

I re-read Farnham's Freehold. The term he uses for castration is "tempered." I enjoyed the book, although since it was written in the 60's, it's a little dated, referring to a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the USA. All the white guys who aren't used as studs get castrated. Heinlein displays his usual obsession with incest, except, in this book, the main character and his daughter only discuss the possibility. They don't actually do it. It seems strange, too, that he refers to blacks as negroes, a term which is rarely used today.

I also read Songmaster, since Card is one of my favorite Sci-Fi writers. There is the one nullification in it, but more important is that all the children in the school are essentially chemically castrated to delay puberty. The main character almost dies from his first climax because of the drugs he received as a child. All of the children are infertile.

I've already read several of the books you mentioned, including Ann Rice's and Mary Renault's books. I didn't realize that Mary Renault was a lesbian, but should have, since she spent so much time describing the homosexual nature of the ancient Greeks.

Posting on the EA boards is like writing stories for EA. Do it for yourself. If you worry about the responses you may-or may not-get, you'll probably be disappointed.

[Kelly_2 (imported)]

I will be ruled by you. Interestingly enough, there are two other novels that I haven't mentioned (too shy). Both are by me...The other (and the better one) is about a boy who gets magically (and totally and utterly) transformed into a totally biological female.

...

Your ever-loving Nicky.

That is a recurring dream by many of us.

But after many years, I saw that it just will not happen.

So, a surgeon did his best.

Reading this thread about castrations and penectomies in fiction perhaps does not seem so amazing, since for me, they are a fact of life. But life is so much more worth living now.

Hugs,

Kelly