What books are you reading right now?

I'm currently two stories in on Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison.

 

I'm filling in some gaps in my SF reading—some huge, glaring gaps. I didn't read SF as a kid, and I have reasons to believe I like a lot of SF more than a lot of fantasy. I just have to find out what I like. I think I might be into "New Wave" science fiction.

 

I think my being drawn to it is a crossover bridged by the likes of Gene Wolfe and Michael Moorcock, whose work I approached from the fantasy side of things. I admire their bending and blending of genres whilst serving up a significant amount of literary merit. There are several authors in Dangerous Visions whom I think I might enjoy based on what I've read about them and what others have said about them.

Reading this anthology will likely serve as a way to discover what I like.

 

I loved the first book in the series. Sturgeon's "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" in the original Dangerous Visions is one of my favorite SF short stories.
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In a world that has nearly perfect birth control methods, allows gay marriage, and offers abortion nearly on demand, the question is begged: Well, why not incest?

 

The New Male Sexuality: The Truth about Men, Sex, and Pleasure by Bernie Zilbergeld, Ph.D.

It's a bit dated ("new" in this case means "new since the '70s"), as the latest revision was in '99, but I'm hoping it will be good for a lot of the fundamentals that don't really change much.

 

Such as? I'm curious. How is it? I don't have many books on male sexuality in my collection.

 

So far it has focused on dispelling the myths of male sexuality, which I suppose is a subject that's still as relevant as ever.

It's criticizes the "training" men get regarding their masculinity and views of sex. It considers how it's harmful that men get funnelled into an identity that eventually views compassion, emotion, expression, caring, etc., as "feminine" attributes instead of basic human attributes.

What it says about men and their fathers hits the nail on the head, as far as I'm concerned. (Mostly regarding physical and emotional detachment/absence. Though there are certainly exceptions, and views of fatherhood have certainly changed since '99.)

I'm also still digesting the "myths of sex," which include the "perfect sex" of fiction/film and the idea that intercourse should be the be-all and end-all of sexual experiences each and every time. The main complaint about these myths (and about the sexual "training" that all men are exposed to from boyhood to manhood) is that it creates a lot of anxiety.

There's lots more, but I'm still only about a quarter into it, so a lot of this is still looking at the topic in summary/foundations. The book has a lot of how-to stuff in terms of "reprogramming" your sexuality to something more balanced/realistic/less damaging to one's psyche.

A good point also was made regarding how most of us are uncomfortable talking about sex. We think it doesn't require talking/planning, that it should always be spontaneous (and perfect). It made a funny comparison: We plan trips when we go on vacation. We don't just show up to the airport and ask the people at the counter what flights are heading out soon. So why don't we plan our sexual experiences?

Anyway, I could go on, but I think that would be too much for this thread. Maybe another thread.

Oh one drawback: It focuses on heterosexual males. The intro acknowledges this, but there is only a halfhearted attempt at a compromise. It says that a lot of the stuff could also apply to homosexual men, but I'm not sure how much of that is true.

 

For a general market book, wouldn't one expect it to focus on the 95% that are hetero?
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Earlier this summer I visited the John G. Neihardt Center, a small museum run by the Nebraska State Historical Society. Neihardt wrote Black Elk Speaks.