The Best American Erotica 2006
Introduction
After Andrea
The week I put this edition of The Best American Erotica 2006 to bed, Andrea Dworkin died.
There was a time -- when I started editing and encouraging erotica writers -- that Andrea Dworkin's name would have inevitably been brought up in the first ten minutes of any conversation. Nowadays, I realize that I might have to explain who she was, due to the speed of American historical amnesia.
Andrea Dworkin was an influential political activist and writer, and was so charismatic that she molded a generation of attitudes toward sexual expression. She particularly dissected the image of women in literature, media, and pornography, where she saw it as evidence that our culture thrived on violence toward women as a gender, and humiliation of them. She didn't think sexism was naughty-cute -- she found it deadly, and culpable.
As far as she was concerned, "erotica" could go fuck itself. It ... read full excerpt from The Best American Erotica 2006 ebook
