Extraterrestrial Sex
Fetish
Supervert
New York: Supervert 32C Inc
216 pp. , $15
Purchase information at:
www.supervert.com
In ETSF, a rogue
author named Supervert has offered us a bizarre literary assay into parts and
orifices unknown by attempting to combine philosophy, psychology, science
fiction, and serial pornography (a la Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom) into a
single, sound literary work.
Sound like a difficult
proposition? Like a pipe-bomb text more likely to explode in the hand of its
creator than in the mind of the reader? Assuredly. Should the self-inflated
tenor of the author’s nom de plume give further pause to any
prospective audience? Probably. Does Supervert deserve a round of applause for
this blending of discipline, subject, and raw psychic fiction?
Strangely enough, he
does—as well as meriting a standing O and a curtain call or two. Extraterrestrial
Sex Fetish is nothing short of brilliant. Misanthropic, satirical,
informative and undoubtedly shocking to many for its ongoing examination of
pedophilia and exophilia (alien sex fetish), ETSF resounds as a deft dissection
of the disaffected mind in the post-postmodern period. While the
protagonist, a computer programmer/philosopher/practicing pedophile named
Mercury de Sade thinks he has evolved into a philosophical creature quite beyond
the simple apathetic sentiments of existentialism and nihilism, the author’s
controlled exposition and development of de Sade’s sickness—a fetish for
something beyond the boring, disgusting human sphere— shows that despite its
space age manifestation, this sickness springs from the same basic earth: a
deep-seated loathing for mankind. However, the inverted posture of de Sade’s
misanthropy does make for unique viewing. We seldom see distaste for one’s
fellows based on their frustrating inability to be or become
extraterrestrial.
The format of ETSF
follows a parallel development of four precisely related lines of fantasy, plot,
analysis, and dissertation. “Alien Sex Scenes” chapters (ASS) represent
the imaginary encounters of Mercury de Sade’s ever stalwart erogenous accompli
with just about every orifice and/or skin surface available on a series of alien
worlds. Death, dismemberment, intergalactic whores, detachable genitalia, sex
battles, humiliation, excretory prolapse, sexual time travel, and pedophilia of
the third kind are just a few of the delights that greet the protagonist on his
voyage, which must be perceived in the greater context not as pornographic
science fiction per se but as the stuff of the protagonist’s boiling
brain.
The plot heavy “Methods
of Deterrestrialization” (MOD) chapters deal with a real time liaison between
Sade and a shoplifting sixteen-year-old schoolgirl named Charlotte Goddard, who
Sade (in the frustrated context of his impossible fetish) seeks to convert to an
alien or more accurately an alien surrogate. As with other victims in his past,
his disenchantment with the veracity of the stand-in leads him to sadistic
extremes. The twisted line of plot in these chapters helps bind the book
together, lending a disturbed sense and subtext to some of the more abstract and
clinical sections.
Chapters marked Lessons
in Exophilosophy (LIE) might read like studies from a well constructed
Western Philosophy textbook were it not for their often subtle connection to the
perverse action in the MOD and ASS chapters. In LIE, Supervert lays out a
historical progression of argument from Anaxagoras and Heraclitus to Kant,
Schopenhauer, and even Sartre on questions of extraterrestrial life and sex. The
convolution and bastardization of logic in his syllogisms displays de Sade’s
monomaniacal psyche perfectly, while the controlled use of fetishistic obsession
as handmaid to philosophical method lends a humorous lightening hand to the
material. The use of veritable philosophical works to prop up a burning desire
to fornicate with aliens summons to mind the old maxim of the Devil quoting
scripture for his own purposes. One is often tempted to decry the protagonist’s
ill use of reason until one remembers that it is the character’s disease
talking; as such, every fallacy falls perfectly in line.
“Digressions and
Tangents” chapters are mostly diary entries, descriptive texts, and self
analyses wherein de Sade confronts and studies his demons and their
psychological / cultural /physical origins. The subtitle for ETSF is Materials
for the Case Study of an ET S&M Freak; the DAT chapters expand upon this
principle, feeding and being fed upon by the whole as the protagonist seeks to
justify, deconstruct, and even explode the basis of his fetish.
We should castigate the
author for the repeated de-capitalization of Earth (though there is
perhaps some textual support for this “de-capitation”) and for one or two
exceedingly minor copy-editing mistakes, but since we’re sure this gem was
never sullied by a trip through the entrails of the regular publishing beast, we’ll
offer a sly wink instead. In the interest of clarity, ALR isn’t
especially fond of the self-published book industry—it leads too many young or
under-talented writers to publish long before they understand their craft—but
occasionally an author like Supervert throws his work into the press, knowing
full well that no publisher would ever take the chance on his book. Marcel
Proust self-published Swann’s Way due to a staid and unreceptive
market; in the same vein, accomplishments like ETSF need to be printed,
distributed and sold.
To sum up: Had Immanuel
Kant, William Burroughs, Carl Jung, the Marquis de Sade, and an overly
libidinous Captain Kirk been confined to a single spacecraft to write a book, ETSF
would have been the result. That this montage of reason, disease, and
literary style is the work on one writer is laudable; that it not only hangs
together but spins and thrums, creating a perfect, demented cosmos is a
miracle; that the author of such a fantastic work is named Supervert is
hysterical. If you have philosophical and transgressive cohones large
enough to appreciate it, you should buy this book.
– CAW –
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