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The Flesh Made Word: Erotic Tales of Writing
Strip away everything external, and the act of writing becomes profoundly physical: writer, writing tool, medium. In this anthology of erotic stories, THE FLESH MADE WORD, editor Bernie Mojzes shows that from that seed grows the deepest intimacy — the hidden self expressed upon a surface, transforming it in the process, naming erotic possibilities.
The tap of typewriter keys on ink-wet ribbons, the tickle of the calligrapher's brush, the press of fountain-pen nib to flesh. The scent of hot metal molded into text and the shuffle-clank of the printing press. Give yourself over to the sensuality of the words themselves, to the sound and the shape and the taste of them. The expression of ideas intersects with the body in all its physicality; pleasure is never distinct from how we express it.
Ten writers explore the seduction of written language from the sensual to the lewd, from a mysterious woman whose lovers write their stories upon her skin to a playwright who declares to his rival that he does his best writing in whorehouses. A broken typewriter awakens the searing ghosts of desire, and a woman becomes a living scroll of prophecy. Permanent or ephemeral, the lines etched in flesh reveal an astonishing vulnerability, offering both the opportunity for profound insight, and an instinct to hide and dissemble.
The Flesh Made Word features stories by A.C. Wise, A.B. Eyers, Andrea Zanin, Benji Bright, Trish DeVene, Nadine Wilmot, Delilah Bell, Kannan Feng, Sasha Payne, and Sunny Moraine, who show that while the word may indeed transcend the flesh for a time, it always comes back for more.
The tap of typewriter keys on ink-wet ribbons, the tickle of the calligrapher's brush, the press of fountain-pen nib to flesh. The scent of hot metal molded into text and the shuffle-clank of the printing press. Give yourself over to the sensuality of the words themselves, to the sound and the shape and the taste of them. The expression of ideas intersects with the body in all its physicality; pleasure is never distinct from how we express it.
Ten writers explore the seduction of written language from the sensual to the lewd, from a mysterious woman whose lovers write their stories upon her skin to a playwright who declares to his rival that he does his best writing in whorehouses. A broken typewriter awakens the searing ghosts of desire, and a woman becomes a living scroll of prophecy. Permanent or ephemeral, the lines etched in flesh reveal an astonishing vulnerability, offering both the opportunity for profound insight, and an instinct to hide and dissemble.
The Flesh Made Word features stories by A.C. Wise, A.B. Eyers, Andrea Zanin, Benji Bright, Trish DeVene, Nadine Wilmot, Delilah Bell, Kannan Feng, Sasha Payne, and Sunny Moraine, who show that while the word may indeed transcend the flesh for a time, it always comes back for more.
- GenresFantasyScience Fiction
164 pages, Paperback
First published May 3, 2015
1 person is currently reading
220 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 30, 2019
My copy disappeared before I got to write a review so I can't comment in as much detail as I'd like. But I adored reading this anthology. There's such a broad range of writing styles and types of stories, each with their own charms.
The one that stood out most to me was All The Spaces In Between by A.C. Wise, which is so powerful and full of lyrical beauty.
But I enjoyed them all.
(I hope someday soon, my copy emerges - though I can buy the ebook to reread, I'd been writing my own story in the pages included for that purpose. I don't know if the book was taken by an untrustworthy person or just disappeared into the ether/some hidden corner of my home)
The one that stood out most to me was All The Spaces In Between by A.C. Wise, which is so powerful and full of lyrical beauty.
But I enjoyed them all.
(I hope someday soon, my copy emerges - though I can buy the ebook to reread, I'd been writing my own story in the pages included for that purpose. I don't know if the book was taken by an untrustworthy person or just disappeared into the ether/some hidden corner of my home)
April 18, 2016
Not for the Faint of Heart – The Flesh Made Word, ed. Bernie Mojzes Review
As a writer, and especially as an erotica writer, reading erotica about the act of writing is an interesting, nearly meta experience. When you look into the pen, the pen undresses you with its eyes sort of thing. Which makes this collection rather perfectly suited to me, especially because (like all Circlet Press anthos and work) it's all SFF. With how much I loved the Best of Circlet Press anthology that I read a while back, I was super excited to read this one and it did not disappoint. What is contained within are a great range of stories about writing, about sex, about bodies, and about stories. These are not all stories that are necessarily happy smut, nor do they make the promise of a happily ever after or a happily for now sort of thing. Instead what is examined are the marks people make. On themselves, on the page, and on each other.
The speculative worlds show in the collection are really quite impressive. There are science fiction stories and there are second world fantasy stories and there are contemporary fantasy stories and all of these bring a slightly different flavor to the mix. Roll in on top of that the various sexualities represented and celebrated and there really is a little bit of something for everyone. Or, if you're like me and are into a bit of everything, each story offers its unique charm. This collection is also very good at bringing on the feels. Many of the stories center on loss, on conflict, on how words can be caresses from a lover or thorns raked across skin by a rival. There were numerous times in the collection that I found myself fighting back tears, and there were a few times when I just gave in and let them fall because of the tragic beauty of some of the stories.
There so many good stories in the collection that I can't really speak to each one. There are stories that follow old typewriters and ghosts and war, stories that revel in celebration and magic and prophecy, stories that walk the line between definitions, between genders, between bodies. There are stories show playwrights destroying each other through their letters and stories where betrayal and resistance and sex all live in the same razor-thin space and love is a bruise that might fade immediately or linger. The stories are more difficult than I'm used to for erotica, but also more rewarding, with great world building and characters at turns charming and repulsing, heartbreaking and exhilarating. The stories capture that rush of life and despair that goes along with writing, that goes along with sex, that unites the two in one action.
And in the end the stories are mostly sexy. Where they're not quite sexy they're certainly erotic, and all of them have a weight, the sting of a quill tracing along skin. There's so much to like and experience, and most readers will probably walk away…satisfied. Sated. It's not a huge collection but it impacts like it's a thousand pages. And there's even room in the back for the reader to write in some erotica of their own. Which is great and infinitely appropriate. A fine collection of smutty SFF and to me an 8.5/10.
As a writer, and especially as an erotica writer, reading erotica about the act of writing is an interesting, nearly meta experience. When you look into the pen, the pen undresses you with its eyes sort of thing. Which makes this collection rather perfectly suited to me, especially because (like all Circlet Press anthos and work) it's all SFF. With how much I loved the Best of Circlet Press anthology that I read a while back, I was super excited to read this one and it did not disappoint. What is contained within are a great range of stories about writing, about sex, about bodies, and about stories. These are not all stories that are necessarily happy smut, nor do they make the promise of a happily ever after or a happily for now sort of thing. Instead what is examined are the marks people make. On themselves, on the page, and on each other.
The speculative worlds show in the collection are really quite impressive. There are science fiction stories and there are second world fantasy stories and there are contemporary fantasy stories and all of these bring a slightly different flavor to the mix. Roll in on top of that the various sexualities represented and celebrated and there really is a little bit of something for everyone. Or, if you're like me and are into a bit of everything, each story offers its unique charm. This collection is also very good at bringing on the feels. Many of the stories center on loss, on conflict, on how words can be caresses from a lover or thorns raked across skin by a rival. There were numerous times in the collection that I found myself fighting back tears, and there were a few times when I just gave in and let them fall because of the tragic beauty of some of the stories.
There so many good stories in the collection that I can't really speak to each one. There are stories that follow old typewriters and ghosts and war, stories that revel in celebration and magic and prophecy, stories that walk the line between definitions, between genders, between bodies. There are stories show playwrights destroying each other through their letters and stories where betrayal and resistance and sex all live in the same razor-thin space and love is a bruise that might fade immediately or linger. The stories are more difficult than I'm used to for erotica, but also more rewarding, with great world building and characters at turns charming and repulsing, heartbreaking and exhilarating. The stories capture that rush of life and despair that goes along with writing, that goes along with sex, that unites the two in one action.
And in the end the stories are mostly sexy. Where they're not quite sexy they're certainly erotic, and all of them have a weight, the sting of a quill tracing along skin. There's so much to like and experience, and most readers will probably walk away…satisfied. Sated. It's not a huge collection but it impacts like it's a thousand pages. And there's even room in the back for the reader to write in some erotica of their own. Which is great and infinitely appropriate. A fine collection of smutty SFF and to me an 8.5/10.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews