Flesh Unlimited [Old Edition]

I've got something of a selective taste. For instance, I can read a book of depravity should the style resonate something within myself. Bataille's Story of the Eye did not reach me in a positive way, I found its grotesqueries too vivid and realistic to enjoy...and since reading it I have been wary of this sort of "Surrealist Erotica." Meanwhile, Flesh Unlimited has continued to pop up on my reccomended page, so after a bit of hesitation, I ordered and read the thing. I must say I find it more enjoyable than Story of the Eye due to the manner in which it was written. Apollinaire's first story (The Eleven Thousand Rods) is absolutely hilarious. The "action" in it is so over the top, cartoonishly scatological...expulsions of all sorts from the body descibed in almost campy detail. The characters in the story have no repercussions in mind regarding their actions, and the text feels as though Apollinaire felt the same in the way in which he wrote it. The story is essentially that of an unfulfilled promise (made in the throes of passion) and follows a man's quest across Eurasia and his various sexual conquests (featuring loads of "buggering," incest, sexual violence...even pedophelia and necrophelia). This may all sound shocking, but I assure you, it is written is such a manner that makes you snicker with an "O god" as opposed to shuddering. Apollinaire's second story, the infamous Confessions of a Young Don Juan, is written with less brevity. It is about a young man's early sexual awakening. While the boy's age is about 17 at the time of the story, the narration and content make him seem very, very, very young - around 12. This can add all sorts of disturbing overtones to the story if that sort of thing bothers you. I found this selection less enjoyable than the first. Finally the book closes with Louis Aragon's classic story Le C** d'Irene, which, as mentioned in an earlier review, is written in more of a "classic" surrealist style than anything else. If, at the very least, you are familiar with the chaotic "cut-up" style of William S. Burroughs, you should be more than able to handle and enjoy it. Overall the collection is entertaining and sometimes (albiet, for me, less frequently) titillating. If you're apprehensive as to whether or not this will offend you after this review, maybe you should hold off until you're more confident. However, I was not put off by Flesh Unlimited in the slightest, much to my surprise.

First thing to note about this book is that it is not one book. Its actually three different stories written by different french erotic authors. That being said, Let me explain that the authors are vastly different in style and mood. For Example, The story "memiors of a young don juan" is written very much like how you would expect a normal erotic novel to be written that panders more towards hedonism: "My sister, then, had tumbled to the foot of the stairs. She lay there with her skirt dissarranged, making no effort to get up again" While the story "Le C** D'Irene" is much more surrealistic then erotic. Mostly just rambling in foul language: "Don't wake me, for gods sake, you bastards, don't wake me, watch out I bite I see red." I don't care for the surrealistic rambling bit because I don't find it terribly creative and more foul then anything. Although I did enjoy the other stories quite a bit which read more like books. the writing is well done, which doesn't surprise me since I believe the translator of this book also did a good translation of marldoror I believe. Although, this is not extremely artistic or extremely elegent. It is very good if you are interested in reading some very hedonistic erotica that is extremely well written with a bit of artist in it.

Apollinaire delivers some of the most explicit erotica ever committed to the printed page, managing to do so with wit and a refreshing matter-of-fact bluntness that never degenerates into a mere exhibition of so-called perversion. This is not for the squeamish, or those easily put off by marginal sexual practices. These two works act as a fantastic clean sweep of the residual psychological Victorianism that still permeates our society, even after the sexual revolution. Like Bataille's "Story of the Eye" without that author's harrowing social vivisections, this book has caused more than one ostensibly jaded friend to recoil in disgust. That Apollinaire manages this with style is a testament to his twisted genius.

Flesh Unlimited sums up two novellas by the author Lez onze mille verges and memoires dún jeune don juan (11ooo pricks/ memoirs of a young don juan). Two notoriously wild and explicit works of erotica.