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Recent reading
Apr. 7th, 2024 08:17 pmAristotle's Masterpiece, by Anonymous (1710)
I referred to this sex and relationship manual in a fic, and so I thought I should actually read it as well. Or rather, I listened to the Librivox version (which I see now doesn't have all of it, but I think I got enough). Wow, parts of this made me feel like the 18th century was so utterly alien: if you want a girl child, drink female mercury. *boggles* Noooo, please don't drink mercury! There was other stuff that was more reasonable--it explains that a virgin might not have a hymen, so a man shouldn't think his wife necessarily had sex with other men before him if she doesn't bleed on the wedding night. Here it is on the clitoris: "The clitoris is a substance in the upper part of the division where the two wings meet, and the seat of venereal pleasure, being like a man's penis in situation, substance, composition and power of erection, growing sometimes to the length of two inches out of the body, but that never happens except through extreme lustfulness or some extraordinary accident."
There's a Q&A about physiology at the end, here's a sample:
( Read more... )
The Mermaid Summer, by Mollie Hunter (1988)
Children's book about a seaside village, the capricious mermaid that lives nearby, and a man who offends the mermaid. Or actually it's more about his grandchildren who figure out how to make the mermaid promise not to hurt their grandfather, so that he can come back--and make her keep the promise, too. I enjoyed it!
I referred to this sex and relationship manual in a fic, and so I thought I should actually read it as well. Or rather, I listened to the Librivox version (which I see now doesn't have all of it, but I think I got enough). Wow, parts of this made me feel like the 18th century was so utterly alien: if you want a girl child, drink female mercury. *boggles* Noooo, please don't drink mercury! There was other stuff that was more reasonable--it explains that a virgin might not have a hymen, so a man shouldn't think his wife necessarily had sex with other men before him if she doesn't bleed on the wedding night. Here it is on the clitoris: "The clitoris is a substance in the upper part of the division where the two wings meet, and the seat of venereal pleasure, being like a man's penis in situation, substance, composition and power of erection, growing sometimes to the length of two inches out of the body, but that never happens except through extreme lustfulness or some extraordinary accident."
There's a Q&A about physiology at the end, here's a sample:
( Read more... )
The Mermaid Summer, by Mollie Hunter (1988)
Children's book about a seaside village, the capricious mermaid that lives nearby, and a man who offends the mermaid. Or actually it's more about his grandchildren who figure out how to make the mermaid promise not to hurt their grandfather, so that he can come back--and make her keep the promise, too. I enjoyed it!
