A DISTANT SOIL: The Ascendant Chapter 5 Page 8
We have another repeat provender. Thanks to ANTHONY SODERQUIST for coming back once again to hit the tip jar!
We have another repeat provender. Thanks to ANTHONY SODERQUIST for coming back once again to hit the tip jar!
17 Comments
Colleen
I believed the same thing Liana did when I was a kid. Well into my teens, actually. I honestly thought you got pregnant merely by sleeping in the same bed as a man.
amikael
It’s strange how these things differ. I know all about the ‘process’ when I was 6 years old.
Carla Speed McNeil
My grandmothers were both farmers. Hard to miss sex ed, on a farm, but I dunno if watching pigs really gives you a better impression of sex than guppies do.
Luckily my parents casually planted THE LIFE CYCLE LIBRARY in with the encyclodepias and National Geographic.
Colleen
My World Book Encyclopedia read “…when a man and woman lie very close together and the effect is very pleasurable between the two.”
And I thought that was it, and considered myself wise. It is hilarious that I can recall that quote to this day.
I also spent time on a farm. Of course I had seen animals do it, which is why I thought they were animals. I also worked at a vet as a kid.
I just assumed human beings were more civilized about it. 🙂
VT
My hippie/bohemian professor parents explained it to me at an early age — four or five? They were so nonchalant about it, that I didn’t realize it was a Big Deal until much later. Dad kept his stack of Playboy in the bathroom, and no one cared much. Looking back, though, I do wish they’d been a bit better about explaining that other people were more uptight about sex and bodies. That was a rude shock to discover in school. 😉
Colleen
LOL!
I remember turning to someone and saying, “My parents would never do anything like that.”
:):):)
Carla Speed McNeil
I was walking casually through the living room while my kids were watching DIRTY JOBS… the job in question being collecting sperm from a stallion and preparing a mare to be the recipient of same. Um… wow. Well…
scribblerworks
I’m not entirely sure when and how I got my “grown up” knowledge of sex (in the sense of knowing about it, that is 🙂 ), but I do know that by the time I was Liana’s age I didn’t have any goofy ideas about it left (if I ever had them).
I do remember in junior high reading “adult” science fiction and being amused by one scene of foreplay (it was written to be amusing), and shared it with some girlfriends, and they got all gee-whiz-giggly about it. More in the Beavis & Butthead way of “Heh heh heh he said ‘penis’!” My reaction to their reaction was “Ew. Weird. Last time I share that with you.”
Colleen
LOL! Awesome!
I remember the first gay love scene I read was in a book by Elizabeth Lynn. The only thing I was sure of was that the two guys kissed. I was kind of fuzzy on everything else. The description was no more explicit than “They cleaned up with wisps of grass,” and I had no idea what that referred to. I assumed they got sweaty.
But I remembered thinking that kissing was better than fighting, and the romance between Rieken and D’mer was born.
I filled in the details later.
Good lord, I remember lines from books I haven’t read in 20 years. “The Dancers of Arun” was the title. It had a Michael Whelan cover. Quite pretty.
Gemina13
Wow. You read “The Dancers of Arun” too? I found that in a comic shop when I was 16, got it home, and devoured it. Aside from Mary Renault’s novels, it was the first gay-friendly book I’d read.
My mother received a very benighted education on sex–which is to say, none at all. She therefore made sure I had all my questions answered, so I knew how things worked by the time I was ten. The fun part came when I was in high school, and a good friend confessed she and her boyfriend were having sex. (We were 15.) Her mother’s idea of birth control was to stand on one’s head after the act, then to pee. My response, when my friend told me this, was, “That’s great. So what are you going to name the baby?” She stopped speaking to me. She also dropped out that semester because, surprise! she was pregnant. 🙁
I love the last panel, where Seren and Liana saunter off hand in hand like two kids who’ve just declared themselves best friends for life. It’s sweet.
Colleen
I always thought Elizabeth Lynn was underrated. I am so happy to meet someone else who enjoys her work.
Mary Renault: Yep. Got a shelf full/
You know, my parents did try to teach me about sex, but I imperiously announced that I knew all about it because I had read the encyclopedia. My parent’s relief was palpable.
Many years later, I admitted that I had been terrified of getting pregnant on a cross country family trip because I shared a bed with my brother. I was ten years old.
I thought my folks were going to split a gut laughing at me.
Miki
I think I read the Sardonyx Net first before I read the Chronicles of Tornor. Given that it was nearly thirty years ago, I don’t recall many details except that I liked her writing and I always wondered why she did not publish more.
Colleen
It’s my understanding the lady simply didn’t make much money as an author. I have a novel she wrote a few years ago that I just found buried on my shelves. Haven’t read it yet. I have a tidy box of books behind the armchair in my office. While doing my great Closet Cleanup, I put them aside to read. Can’t believe I found so many.
I promised not to buy more than one book a month until I have finished what I have…comics don’t count.
And BTW, I can’t get enough of Tanith Lee who also doesn’t publish much anymore. She just doesn’t sell as well as she should.
Anyway, here’s an interview with Lynn. She was a big influence on my work, but hasn’t published much:
http://www.locusmag.com/1997/Issues/10/Lynn.html
Gemina13
I loved the Chronicles of Tornor, as well as a collection of short stories Lynn put out titled, “The Woman Who Loved The Moon And Other Stories.” She struck me as being a writer well ahead of her time.
I think her Tornor novels were recently republished in an omnibus. Time to go see–especially now that my bookshelves are already groaning under their loads . . .
Colleen
Wow, small world!
Trina Robbins adapted “The Woman Who Loved the Moon” for Marvel’s Epic magazine. I didn’t care for the adaptation, but I thought it was interesting that Marvel was willing to tackle that material more than 20 years ago.
There were many abortive attempts by publishers to handle high-end SF and Fantasy comic/GN material in the 1980’s.
Arlnee
I remember “The Woman Who Loved The Moon.” It was also in some anthology comic if I recall? I know I used to have it. Don’t know where it went… (resist urge to immediately tear closet apart)
Colleen Doran
UPDATED!!!