Using a wheelchair

OK! I ended up writing a ve-ery long review here so if you are just hoping to find a hot story go straight to electricblue66's magnificent Rope and Veil. Another excellent story I'm going to discuss is Tribad's Alice's Curiosity but I can't give a link to it as there is naughty unsafe sex in it! :eeek!: (It's on Literotica. Just google, dahlink.) Plus, I will talk about my own story which has a wheelchair user as a central character: The de Winter's Tale. 

Yayyy! Go and read, vote - and give feedback. I know I need to edit my own story, so I am really keen for feedback. 

NB I have previously reviewed electricblue66's art here. The pictures he mentions in his story are on his Tumblr blog. Sorry about the quick lecture I put in at the start of this review - back to flirting soon, I promise. For those who want to think about writing in a more responsible manner ... 



Mainly this review is about the flawed brilliance of the first story I discuss, by electricblue66. I'm glad I wrote my own story about a wheelchair user before reading Rope and Veil, as I would never have had the nerve to tackle it had I read electricblue66's much better piece first.

Why would an able-bodied person write a story about a wheelchair user? Well, for 'real' writers, it's important that we represent diversity in our stories: the world as it is rather than an air-brushed version. 

People with disabilities (PWDs in the States) experience discrimination on what's called the 'social model'. Most people think disabled people have a medical problem (the 'medical model') which could be overcome if they had a prosthetic limb, or better hearing aid etc. However those who argue for the 'social model' say the problem is with society not people who have particular access needs. In one town in Virginia it happens that so many residents are deaf, that everyone can use sign language. Residents don't need a medical aid for hearing because the local society has adjusted. Where there are accessible shops and offices, etc, wheelchair users can engage in society 'normally'. 

Clearly a group of people who are struggling to 'get a foothold' (even everyday language can be discriminatory) in ordinary activities are likely to have to face prejudiced views about their sexuality. For able-bodied and disabled writers to write good erotic stories offers an affirmation to disabled readers (as the heartfelt comment on Tribad's Alice's Curiosity demonstrates). It reminds the rest of us not to make assumptions. 

For a writer, to realistically and positively represent a wheelchair user as the central character of an erotic story is an exciting challenge. Plus, I think Tribad and myself have succumbed to the temptation to 'use' the wheelchair, although electricblue66 has resisted. Speaking for myself, to write about someone who is disabled offered a golden opportunity to write about how sex is more of the mind than the body. I think this is utilising an opportunity rather than exploiting one, that certainly was the intention. 

OK, now on with the review-y bits!

The issues with Rope and Veil are small stylistic ones which are even more annoying because of the brilliance of the rest of the story. E.g. the word 'bright' is so over-used in the first few paragraphs that after about the fifth time I saw it, I was having to grit my teeth to prepare for it coming up again. 

This is a better piece than electricblue66's last Summer Lovin' entry, which I found mannered and self-conscious. This is a danger when a writer takes him or herself seriously, attempting to produce a poetic beauty through wordplay in the ironic ethos of a postmodern world which does not like us to take things seriously. I could bang on about the moment when romanticism shattered into the sharp world-weary cynicism of modern writing (WWI), but let's get on with banging of a different kind (wink).

electricblue66 is as forthright as his heroine Amelia herself. He is upfront about her disability, and about the likely reactions of an able-bodied male who notices the wheelchair - because who wouldn't. When he describes the bright (grrr - I just counted six uses of the word in as many paragraphs!) hair and beautiful crafted jewellery (just say 'crafted' if you've already used 'beautiful' in the paragraph above), it's not in a superficial way, drawing our attention away from the wheelchair. He goes below the superficial to show how Amelia uses colour to draw attention to her self not her disability. Nor does he shy from the harshness of her emotions: anger, bitterness, mourning. Like the chiaroscuro shades which make a renaissance painting come to life, these are an integral part of Amelia's vivid attractive personality. 

There is some fantastic word play in this story, which I won't spoil for you. electricblue66 also handles expertly the verbal duelling that goes on between Amelia's hurt pride and Alex's efforts to show her he is aware of the wheelchair, and aware of the woman who sits in it. Characterisation is absolutely top dollar: sharp, honest, heart-rendingly appealing. "[A]fter a while I'd figured out what was OK, what was not." electricblue66 demonstrates his understanding that understanding has to be worked for - the friendship Alex makes with Amelia is negotiated. This is the case, of course, for all relationships. The fact that he has to figure out what is OK in talking to a wheelchair user, makes this boldly apparent. We can't intuit what people find acceptable or not acceptable for us to say about them but must always find our way with tenderness around bumps in the road.

The one word play I am going to mention is on 'bound'. electricblue66 was inspired to write this story by a comment on Alice's Curiosity which mentions that PWDs find the phrase 'wheelchair bound' problematic. Some might have been inspired to write a story about a wheelchair user that was more respectful. A true poet, electricblue66 was inspired to write a story about rope. Amelia is bound, but not to her wheelchair, she chooses meditational rope binding to express herself.

The piece as a whole is a meditation on the body and suffering, on the ways we manage our mental pain through physical sensation. Amelia has a history of cutting herself - until her accident left her with no sensation so this became meaningless. This probably is too much for one short story to carry - a loose end. It would be a neater piece of work if electricblue66 just wrote about the rope binding, although less interesting.

The sex is hot: a melange of exhibitionism, voyeurism, sucking mouths and fucking hands. electricblue66 works to make that poetry too; I might advise doing away with the languorous tone induced by using 'And' at the start of paragraphs. Make it rougher, harder-edged, more realistic.

Why would someone able-bodied write about a wheelchair user? The fear is that this would be a fetish, that the perceived helplessness of the wheelchair user would be a turn-on. To objectify others instead of allowing them to be the subject of their own desires is something that again I could write at length about. (In fact I did write a whole PhD thesis about it!) 

All three of us writers want to avoid this. The harsh beautiful realism of electricblue66's story necessarily includes depiction of Amelia's limited mobility. Maybe Tribad succeeds best here. He has an excellent passage where Alice enjoys being Domme - issuing orders to Rick as to how fast, how slow he should wank in front of her, and where to direct his spunk. Tribad doesn't shy away from telling how pleasurable Alice finds this when she is used to feeling that others have  control over her. 

Tribad develops well the timidity of the two characters as their friendship slips into something more sexual. However as the story develops, his writing becomes rushed. Alice asks for a rough dirty face fuck, but Rick is described as being gentle. An editorial decision has to be made: does he enjoy being gentle and careful with her in spite of her request? or is the sex going to be a bit rougher and what might that do to the back of Alice's throat? When the two have sex with the parents in the house, it's mentioned but I would have liked Tribad to talk about it in more detail, wouldn't the possibility of being walked in on excite the two exhibitionists more?

On Alice's Curiosity is the heart-felt and revealing Anonymous PWD comment which inspired electricblue66. Its key point is about communication. When you are in a situation of potential vulnerability, communication about consent becomes even more important and one moment where there is a lack of such communication (about anal teasing) is more intensely felt because in the rest of the story this is handled so sensitively. 

Communication, consent - these are key in any relationship. Tribad does use the situation of his character Alice to point up human truths, rather than as an object for an exploitative and selfish titillation, although neither he nor I do this as sensitively as electricblue66. I suspect that for Tribad, to write about a wheelchair user offered an opportunity to write about a story that goes gradually into full-on penetrative sex, that can linger over exhibitionism and kissing before the protagonists leap on each other - as often seems to improbably happen at first sight in Literotica stories.

In The de Winter's Tale, I wanted to show how variable good sex is, and that sex depends not on bodily perfection but on a dirty mind. A comment by MSTarot rightly draws attention to my making too much of Jeff's upper body strength, I must edit the story to keep to my brief. Jeff is weak and physically unattractive but his wife is totally turned on by his pleasure in voyeurism. I wanted to write a story about women's exhibitionism, that describes the way women are made to feel our sexuality is shameful. Then it becomes intensely pleasurable to show our pudenda (the Latin root for this word is pudere - to be ashamed) to someone who is enjoying the view. To do it ostensibly for someone-else's pleasure, allows such a woman to enjoy her own sex. 

I snuck yet another layer of story in under that. This became a story about writers, about the ways people who write erotica think about our work. We all start off thinking sex sells, then realising that the internet is full of sex stories. This doesn't mean we can't make our stories work for our living - we work hard enough to produce them for others' pleasure. If you want to sell your stories, though, you must think about what goes on around the story.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene, 
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

There is so much amazing writing which quietly folds itself up and disappears into the infinite space of the internet. You have to go supernova if you want people to notice a bit of hot stuff you have spun out of your dreams. Or get reviewed on here (wink).