These books intrigued me. They caught my attention in that postpubescent way. You know what I'm talking about? Think back on when your 7th grade science teacher started teaching about the reproduction system and she starts to show those cartoonized genitals where everything is labled. There is always that group of kids that laugh out loud, maybe to express their embarrassment.. or the ones who try to refrain from laughing at the way the teacher, of course, uses the scientific name for lady parts; "vagina" in a monotone, clinical way.
Then there's that one group of kids who kind of stare in amazement and very softly, trying not to be heard; avoiding looking or sounding like a prude, utter to themselves "so that's what it looks like".
Then there was me. Uninterested. Unmoved by the term. Unamazed at the pictures.. just silently observing my classmates, and their enthusiasm.
Had they never had the "Birds and Bees" talk with their parents? I mean this is middle school! Had their grandparents not forced them to watch their birth at age 11 as a "warning off predators" of young adolescent, pre-marital sex, that of course leads to child birth, or death, if you asked my Grandma.
I begin skimming through the book. I'd sit there for at least two hours waiting to get to the good part. My mother, had called at least 15 times to come on out. The thing about these books though, was that even when it got down to the (supposed to be) intense, juicy, very descriptive; almost too descriptive love-making scenes.. I was still uninterested, unmoved, and unamazed. To myself I think.. "I almost risked an 'ass whipping' for this?"
This was like everyday conversation with my rather "free spirited-experimental" friends, as they called themselves to avoid using the derogatory terms.
Then summer before freshman year, on my way to pick up my summer assigned books, I headed to starbucks as usual, but I think I'll try something new. So, Vanilla bean frappucino with extra caramel drizzle and whip cream in hand, one thing I don't switch up, is my walk thru the LR section. This time though, I'll try one of those dirty porn-like titles. The illustration however is the really interesting part, there's just a woman sitting on a bench facing forward. She's not a sexy woman, with lots of cleavage showing either. She's an average looking woman, with brunette hair, tied into a high bun. She's dressed like a grandma in my opinion, with flats on. I assume she's a business woman? Why she's sitting outside on a park bench and not in her office is a mystery to me, so at this point Im ready indulge, to figure out these mysteries.
As I'm reading she's describing her everyday routine with her boss at the law firm she works at. So, a multitude of things, from running errands, taking notes in meetings, revising and editing emails before he sends them, all sorts of stuff.
Eventually she begins to have feelings for this boss of hers, and in one scene he hands her a box of unsharpened pencils, and of course her job is tho sharpen them. She takes them to her desk, and begins the task.
At first, this seemed pretty normal to me.
Until she describes the taste of her bosses pencils... When the hell did she put the pencil in her.... OH. OH WOW. I say to myself. They kind of slipped that one in there! Good job, writer's name I don't recall.
I mean, pretty cliche sexual metaphor, but the way they never actually SAY the two engaged in a sexual encounter; you just realize it, was so AWESOME to me.
In "Lord of the Flies" there's a scene where the boys are thrusting a wooden stick into the pig they found and killed; definitely comes off as a rape to me.
So many other times in literature, you don't realize the writer is referring to sex, but they are. So, there I was.. Frappucino long gone, BOOK in hand..Interested. Moved. and Amazed. Finally.
