soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2013-10-02 07:25 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-10-02 07:25 pm
Entry tags:
- anent: book thoughts 1,
- author: anonymous,
- author: james gurney,
- book theme: alternate earth,
- book theme: dinosaurs,
- book theme: fantasy,
- book theme: history,
- book theme: history (modernish when writ,
- book theme: kidlit,
- book theme: reread,
- pub date: 1680,
- pub date: 1992,
- rating: ****,
- rating: *****
(no subject)
Two books today! VERY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER.
Dinotopia, by James Gurney, illustrated by same
CHARMING NOSTALGIA. A utopian island where dinosaurs and humans live in happy friendly unity! With pretty pretty pictures! YEAH THAT'S ALL I GOT. I read this book so many times when I was younger. (...as a kid I wanted to grow up to be a paleontologist, okay? I was big into dinosaurs! Dinosaurs and horses. I accidentally delivered my rant about the naming of eohippus/hyracotherium to a group of friends earlier this week. Oops. But also we sang the Song of Dinotopia together in four-part harmony, with piano accompaniment! It helped that the tune is the same as that of a hymn we all knew already.)
The School of Venus, or The Ladies Delight, Reduced into Rules of Practice, by Anonymous
WHAT AN EDUCATIONAL BOOK. This is a book published in 1680 which endeavours to teach the (assumed female) readers all about the joys of fucking, via a dialogue between two young women - Frank (Frances) who is well experienced in love, and Katy, her innocent cousin, who is (at first) entirely uninformed on the subject. It is hilarious and fascinating!
You too can read this book for free on Google Books! (Google books labels Michel Millot as the author, but Millot was in fact one of the publishers and not known/confirmed to be the author.)
(fyi, there's a line or two in the book that might be triggery consent-wise, so be warned if that is a thing you are sensitive to.)
BUT my biggest take-away point here is WOW I SHIP KATY/FRANK SUPER HARD and if I were the least bit capable of writing porn I would be writing Katy/Frank porn right now. THE BOOK IS JUST ASKING FOR IT, holy crap. The book is uninterested in monogamy anyways, and also it teaches about dildos and fingering and so forth as well as what can be done with a prick. And at one point one of the women says to the other, after some particularly vivid conversation, that she'd better stop talking or she's going to spend! And Frank is well familiar with and admiring of Katy's thighs! And they clearly esteem each other highly and enjoy time spent with each other and love talking about sex and love the pleasures that can be gained from sex! And really it would be pretty much no reach at all to get them to the place of exploring and teaching/learning in a practical hands-on sort of way, or to masturbate while discussing their respective Fucking Friends with each other, or ALL SORTS OF THINGS.
Also I must say that the eternal dilemma of what words to use to discuss the relevant body parts in cisfemslash are solved in this fandom at least, as Frank instructively provides the reader with a list of the words she would use for such parts and then both Frank and Katy proceed to liberally use these words throughout the book.
I'm also intrigued by some differences between this book's opinion of things and modern opinions. Like: a cunt being hairy is a GOOD thing, instead of the current approved look of being carefully shaved and/or trimmed. Also, labia that stick out and hang down and are altogether undeniably present are good in the 17th century; compare that to the modern rise of labioplasty.
Also I feel the need to do research into clothing (and underclothing) of the time so I can properly understand what's going on when Katy describes the way she and Mr Roger have discovered for fucking in company. If anyone has useful resources on the subject, please link me?
Finally, I must say that I am alarmed by the instructions on how to avoid getting pregnant because WOW THAT IS SOME MISINFORMATION ALL RIGHT.
Dinotopia, by James Gurney, illustrated by same
CHARMING NOSTALGIA. A utopian island where dinosaurs and humans live in happy friendly unity! With pretty pretty pictures! YEAH THAT'S ALL I GOT. I read this book so many times when I was younger. (...as a kid I wanted to grow up to be a paleontologist, okay? I was big into dinosaurs! Dinosaurs and horses. I accidentally delivered my rant about the naming of eohippus/hyracotherium to a group of friends earlier this week. Oops. But also we sang the Song of Dinotopia together in four-part harmony, with piano accompaniment! It helped that the tune is the same as that of a hymn we all knew already.)
The School of Venus, or The Ladies Delight, Reduced into Rules of Practice, by Anonymous
WHAT AN EDUCATIONAL BOOK. This is a book published in 1680 which endeavours to teach the (assumed female) readers all about the joys of fucking, via a dialogue between two young women - Frank (Frances) who is well experienced in love, and Katy, her innocent cousin, who is (at first) entirely uninformed on the subject. It is hilarious and fascinating!
You too can read this book for free on Google Books! (Google books labels Michel Millot as the author, but Millot was in fact one of the publishers and not known/confirmed to be the author.)
(fyi, there's a line or two in the book that might be triggery consent-wise, so be warned if that is a thing you are sensitive to.)
BUT my biggest take-away point here is WOW I SHIP KATY/FRANK SUPER HARD and if I were the least bit capable of writing porn I would be writing Katy/Frank porn right now. THE BOOK IS JUST ASKING FOR IT, holy crap. The book is uninterested in monogamy anyways, and also it teaches about dildos and fingering and so forth as well as what can be done with a prick. And at one point one of the women says to the other, after some particularly vivid conversation, that she'd better stop talking or she's going to spend! And Frank is well familiar with and admiring of Katy's thighs! And they clearly esteem each other highly and enjoy time spent with each other and love talking about sex and love the pleasures that can be gained from sex! And really it would be pretty much no reach at all to get them to the place of exploring and teaching/learning in a practical hands-on sort of way, or to masturbate while discussing their respective Fucking Friends with each other, or ALL SORTS OF THINGS.
Also I must say that the eternal dilemma of what words to use to discuss the relevant body parts in cisfemslash are solved in this fandom at least, as Frank instructively provides the reader with a list of the words she would use for such parts and then both Frank and Katy proceed to liberally use these words throughout the book.
I'm also intrigued by some differences between this book's opinion of things and modern opinions. Like: a cunt being hairy is a GOOD thing, instead of the current approved look of being carefully shaved and/or trimmed. Also, labia that stick out and hang down and are altogether undeniably present are good in the 17th century; compare that to the modern rise of labioplasty.
Also I feel the need to do research into clothing (and underclothing) of the time so I can properly understand what's going on when Katy describes the way she and Mr Roger have discovered for fucking in company. If anyone has useful resources on the subject, please link me?
Finally, I must say that I am alarmed by the instructions on how to avoid getting pregnant because WOW THAT IS SOME MISINFORMATION ALL RIGHT.