Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish...
Finally! I've finished reading Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish (hereinafter referred to as ETSF) by Supervert. I've been slacking on reading lately.
ETSF revolves around the world of our lead character, Mercury de Sade. I'm intentionally not using the word "protagonist". Simply put, he's not a likeable character. In fact, there were no likeable characters. There were parts in the early stages where I got a few kicks out of some of his depraved acts or ways of thinking, but as the story went on and the level of his sadism unfolded, he became a repulsive character. There is no heroic protagonist in this book. Anyway, Mercury de Sade is a computer programmer with a sex fetish involving aliens. He is obsessed with alien life, wanting to find it and fuck it. This is an unusual fetish in that other fetishes are achievable - shoe fetishists can buy scores of shores. What is one to do with a fetish of a life form that may or may not exist? And if it does exist, it doesn't present itself in an attainable fashion. As posed in the book: "Practical restrictions on space travel make it impossible for the fetishist to travel to other worlds. And though rumour has it that aliens do come to earth, their visits are, to say the very least, unpredictable. What is the exophile to do - put out a little sign, 'Aliens welcome?' You almost can't blame Mercury de Sade for his compensatory strategies, which consists largely of trying to jam humans into alien molds."
Mercury de Sade can't just call up an alien prostitute to take care of his urge. Instead, he kidnaps teenage girls, tries to deprogram them (they are then called "Ninfa" with a Roman numeral to show how many girls he's done this to), and fit them into alien molds such as a body suit covered in bright green liquid. But it's not enough. It (the girl, the object) is still human which is what Mercury de Sade loathes. His increased frustration drives his violent reactions.
The book is written in four parts that rotate (i.e. ASS, MOD, LIE, DAT, then back to ASS, and continue):
Alien Sex Scenes (ASS) - What Mercury de Sade wants. His fantasies of going to other planets and fucking the inhabitants by any means.
Methods of Deterrestrialization (MOD) - What Mercury de Sade does. What I consider to be the story, the plot and arc of how he gets girls, specifically his latest victim named Charlotte (Ninfa XIX), and exploits them to his needs (making them alien substitutes).
Lessons of Exophilosophy (LIE) - What Mercury de Sade thinks. The philosophies of extraterrestrial life. The most boring sequence of the book that I tended to skip through because it didn't interest me.
Digressions and Tangents (DAT) - Various commentaries, observations, and supplementary materials relating to Mercury de Sade. I read most of them, but if they were similar to LIE, I skipped them.
You can read it in a linear fashion (I did) or flip back to read all of ASS, then MOD, then LIE, then DAT.
There are a number of themes in this book that people may be disturbed by including rape, torture, pedophilia, and incest. In the cases of rape, they obviously come up a lot in the ASS sequence because that is what Mercury de Sade wants: to rape aliens. Human abductee stories involve tales of being raped, probed by aliens. What would happen if the roles were reversed? In his fantasies, there are many aliens who enjoy being raped. Pedophilia happens in the ASS sequence as well with children/teenage aliens, but also in the MOD sequence since the girls he kidnaps are all in their teens. In his fantasies, more than one alien species want their children molested. You can see here that in Mercury de Sade's mind, the moral issues that most humans have (rape, pedophilia) is acceptable by aliens to suit his desires. I can handle reading those in this book.
The things that disgusted me involved:
1. The repeated discussion of defecation during his alien rape fantasies. Once, okay. Multiple times? My stomach is lurching now and I think I might vomit.
2. Also in the ASS sequence, an alien species having their nose replaced with a rectum. That's...just...gah.
3. The incestuous storyline, of course, made me cringe.
Supervert was wise to include an appendix called "Statement by the Case Historian" to discuss why he (I'm assuming Supervert is male) wrote this book and the character. As I was getting further along in the book, I couldn't help but wonder what the fuck was wrong with Supervert. As he describes Mercury de Sade: "The psychology of a character caught in such a dilemma will naturally be one of frustration. He is intelligent - or rather, intellectual - and yet his potency in matters cerebral is matched by a fundamental impotence in his sexual desires. As a character this does not make Mercury de Sade either likeable or sympathetic. He is superior and, like many frustrated people, basically mean. Moreover, Mercury de Sade learns nothing, undergoes no revelations, experiences no reverses of fortune. He is one-dimensional - and yet this very flatness is the psychology typical of the fetishist. Unless he is caught, embarrassed, shamed, arrested, the fetishist is characterized by the subordination of his entire personality to a single-minded goal: the satisfaction of his 'thing.'"
Just as I was getting closer to the end, I thought to myself, "I don't like this book." That's simply not true though and that was just a reaction to being challenged by themes that disturb me...which is the point of such stories. Now that I'm done it, I mean, I don't hate it. Do I love it the way I love Supervert's other book, Necrophilia Variations? No. There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed, like the early parts setting out Mercury de Sade's frustrations of such a fetish. The MOD sequence, even though parts of it made me cringe with horror, I found it fascinating. I enjoyed the majority of the ASS stories because I found them interesting and sometimes humorous but, as I said, I could have done without the shit storms and one vomit fest described therein. I can see myself reading this book again in the future, and actually reading the whole thing instead of skipping the LIE segments that bored me. I have to admit that I liked this book for making me feel such repulsion and hating the fact that there is no hero in this story.
As for the physical book itself, I love its design. It's paperback, but the cover has subtle embossing of alien designs. The simple white cover with the complimentary simple black type with small alien head is beautiful.
ETSF revolves around the world of our lead character, Mercury de Sade. I'm intentionally not using the word "protagonist". Simply put, he's not a likeable character. In fact, there were no likeable characters. There were parts in the early stages where I got a few kicks out of some of his depraved acts or ways of thinking, but as the story went on and the level of his sadism unfolded, he became a repulsive character. There is no heroic protagonist in this book. Anyway, Mercury de Sade is a computer programmer with a sex fetish involving aliens. He is obsessed with alien life, wanting to find it and fuck it. This is an unusual fetish in that other fetishes are achievable - shoe fetishists can buy scores of shores. What is one to do with a fetish of a life form that may or may not exist? And if it does exist, it doesn't present itself in an attainable fashion. As posed in the book: "Practical restrictions on space travel make it impossible for the fetishist to travel to other worlds. And though rumour has it that aliens do come to earth, their visits are, to say the very least, unpredictable. What is the exophile to do - put out a little sign, 'Aliens welcome?' You almost can't blame Mercury de Sade for his compensatory strategies, which consists largely of trying to jam humans into alien molds."
Mercury de Sade can't just call up an alien prostitute to take care of his urge. Instead, he kidnaps teenage girls, tries to deprogram them (they are then called "Ninfa" with a Roman numeral to show how many girls he's done this to), and fit them into alien molds such as a body suit covered in bright green liquid. But it's not enough. It (the girl, the object) is still human which is what Mercury de Sade loathes. His increased frustration drives his violent reactions.
The book is written in four parts that rotate (i.e. ASS, MOD, LIE, DAT, then back to ASS, and continue):
Alien Sex Scenes (ASS) - What Mercury de Sade wants. His fantasies of going to other planets and fucking the inhabitants by any means.
Methods of Deterrestrialization (MOD) - What Mercury de Sade does. What I consider to be the story, the plot and arc of how he gets girls, specifically his latest victim named Charlotte (Ninfa XIX), and exploits them to his needs (making them alien substitutes).
Lessons of Exophilosophy (LIE) - What Mercury de Sade thinks. The philosophies of extraterrestrial life. The most boring sequence of the book that I tended to skip through because it didn't interest me.
Digressions and Tangents (DAT) - Various commentaries, observations, and supplementary materials relating to Mercury de Sade. I read most of them, but if they were similar to LIE, I skipped them.
You can read it in a linear fashion (I did) or flip back to read all of ASS, then MOD, then LIE, then DAT.
There are a number of themes in this book that people may be disturbed by including rape, torture, pedophilia, and incest. In the cases of rape, they obviously come up a lot in the ASS sequence because that is what Mercury de Sade wants: to rape aliens. Human abductee stories involve tales of being raped, probed by aliens. What would happen if the roles were reversed? In his fantasies, there are many aliens who enjoy being raped. Pedophilia happens in the ASS sequence as well with children/teenage aliens, but also in the MOD sequence since the girls he kidnaps are all in their teens. In his fantasies, more than one alien species want their children molested. You can see here that in Mercury de Sade's mind, the moral issues that most humans have (rape, pedophilia) is acceptable by aliens to suit his desires. I can handle reading those in this book.
The things that disgusted me involved:
1. The repeated discussion of defecation during his alien rape fantasies. Once, okay. Multiple times? My stomach is lurching now and I think I might vomit.
2. Also in the ASS sequence, an alien species having their nose replaced with a rectum. That's...just...gah.
3. The incestuous storyline, of course, made me cringe.
Supervert was wise to include an appendix called "Statement by the Case Historian" to discuss why he (I'm assuming Supervert is male) wrote this book and the character. As I was getting further along in the book, I couldn't help but wonder what the fuck was wrong with Supervert. As he describes Mercury de Sade: "The psychology of a character caught in such a dilemma will naturally be one of frustration. He is intelligent - or rather, intellectual - and yet his potency in matters cerebral is matched by a fundamental impotence in his sexual desires. As a character this does not make Mercury de Sade either likeable or sympathetic. He is superior and, like many frustrated people, basically mean. Moreover, Mercury de Sade learns nothing, undergoes no revelations, experiences no reverses of fortune. He is one-dimensional - and yet this very flatness is the psychology typical of the fetishist. Unless he is caught, embarrassed, shamed, arrested, the fetishist is characterized by the subordination of his entire personality to a single-minded goal: the satisfaction of his 'thing.'"
Just as I was getting closer to the end, I thought to myself, "I don't like this book." That's simply not true though and that was just a reaction to being challenged by themes that disturb me...which is the point of such stories. Now that I'm done it, I mean, I don't hate it. Do I love it the way I love Supervert's other book, Necrophilia Variations? No. There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed, like the early parts setting out Mercury de Sade's frustrations of such a fetish. The MOD sequence, even though parts of it made me cringe with horror, I found it fascinating. I enjoyed the majority of the ASS stories because I found them interesting and sometimes humorous but, as I said, I could have done without the shit storms and one vomit fest described therein. I can see myself reading this book again in the future, and actually reading the whole thing instead of skipping the LIE segments that bored me. I have to admit that I liked this book for making me feel such repulsion and hating the fact that there is no hero in this story.
As for the physical book itself, I love its design. It's paperback, but the cover has subtle embossing of alien designs. The simple white cover with the complimentary simple black type with small alien head is beautiful.