Monthly Archives: March 2013

Dream Girl

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Never in his wildest dreams had Tom imagined that a girl like Bethany would be interested in a guy like him. Tom was the first to acknowledge that he was no Cupid. His beer belly bulged obscenely over the top of his threadbare trousers and his tangled hair was in urgent need of a wash and comb. However for some inexplicable reason here he lay next to a gorgeous blonde bombshell who had only just turned 20.

Softly Tom stroked Bethany’s firm young breasts. They felt like beautiful ripe pairs bursting with juice under his hands.

“God your skin is perfect just like silk”

Beth’s response was to kiss Tom full on the mouth. He wanted to explode, to shoot pure spurts of joy into this goddess. Tom reached for the comdoms which lay conveniently placed on the bedside table.

“Yes baby I want you inside me. Come on honey I need you”, Bethany moaned.

“God you are so wet” Tom exclaimed.

Suddenly it was all over. The background whirr ceased. The lights flickered and went out leaving Tom stirring disconsolately at his computer screen …

 

 

Every man has his price

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According to Marxists prostitution is merely one manifestation of the middle class family (Engels held that marriage often degenerates into prostitution) see, for example an article in Slate Magazine, “Socialist Hoares: What Did Karl Marx Think of Prostitution?” (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/11/socialist_whores_what_did_karl_marx_think_of_prostitution_.html). I am no Marxist. I am however interested as a writer to explore why certain people (primarily women but men also) take a conscious decision to sell their bodies in return for financial security. In my story Rent (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/03/15/rent/) for example, Leah a girl from a tough council estate in East London’s Tower Hamlets becomes the girlfriend of Ian, a wealthy stockbroker as a means of escaping her grim existence. Leah makes the calculation that sleeping with Ian is a price worth paying to escape from a world in which drug addicts inject themselves on the stairs and the lifts stink of urine. However Leah’s fine clothes and expensive jewellery come at a high price – she sells her soul. Leah doesn’t love Ian (his contemptuous treatment of a young waitress in an expensive restaurant revolts her). She is, however unwilling to break away from the luxurious existence which Ian’s wealth allows her to enjoy.

Again, in my story Damned (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/03/10/damned/) a young Thai girl, Nan determines to seduce her western employer in order to benefit financially when he dies. As a girl of 14 Nan knows that by encouraging John to sleep with her that he is breaking the law and, as such Nan has the power to blackmail him by threatening to inform the authorities if he doesn’t agree to leave her financially secure on his death. Nan has experienced hardship (prior to meeting John she sold food on the streets of Bangkok) and in order to better her condition she calculates that having intercourse with John is a price worth paying.

There are obvious differences in the two stories. Leah lives in the UK where despite her life being grim the welfare state will prevent her from starving (her life in the tower block is horrible but she won’t die). In contrast there is no welfare safety net in Thailand and Nan must work or die. So is Leah more “culpable” than Nan when she determines to provide sex in return for economic security? On one level this is true. Nan is a child who, arguably does not possess the capacity to make an informed choice about selling her body. As an adult John could have resisted her advances however, being weak willed he fails to do so. In contrast Leah is an adult who possesses the intellectual capacity to make informed decisions regarding her own body. One may argue that economic circumstances push Leah into the arms of Ian, however many other people in the same situation as Leah do not opt to sell their bodies by becoming the mistresses of rich men so, ultimately Leah does make a conscious choice. Whether her decision is right or wrong is a matter for my readers to determine. For my own part I am wary of passing moral judgements on others. We are all fallible human beings. Life is rarely black and white, it tends rather to be made up of shades of grey.

 

 

Can someone pass the fountain pen please?

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One of my new year’s resolutions was to review books which I’ve purchased in the Amazon Kindle store. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Amazon inviting me to review a book I’d downloaded. Just as I was about to dip my quil pen in the brass ink well which stands in pride of place on my oak desk (well put fingers to keyboard actually but quil pens sound much better)! I noticed that the book which I was being invited to review was my very own work, Samantha! Now how many stars should I provide my own book? And what kind of review should I leave? Answers please on a postcard written with your very own quil pens or, failing that a fountain pen will do! This will, of course be one book which I won’t be reviewing!

If anyone is wondering why I downloaded my own book the answer is a simple one – I wished to have my own copy on my Kindle.

I’m off now to buy blotting paper and fresh ink.

 

Kevin

Tales of the Unexpected

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I have for so long as I can remember enjoyed stories with unexpected endings. As a child growing up in Liverpool I watched ITV’s Tales of the Unexpected (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Unexpected_%28TV_series%29). Each episode featured a different tale all of which ended unexpectedly.

Tales of the Unexpected was in the back of my mind when I wrote Sting in the Tail (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/03/16/sting-in-the-tail/). In the story a highly educated and charming fraudster meets his match in the most unexpected manner in the form of a blind girl, Laura. The fraudster makes the fatal mistake of perceiving Laura as a poor disabled woman who poses no threat, indeed he determines not to defraud her as stealing from a blind woman is a step to far even for a hard bitten criminal such as him. The fraudster’s fatal mistake is to assume that disability equals intellectual inferiority rendering Laura a helpless victim who he, in a rare moment of conscience determines not to exploit.

Sting in the Tail is above all a story who’s aim as with all stories is to provide enjoyment to the reader, however, as a registered blind person I am also interested to explore how people can, quite erroneously conflate disability with what used to be known as feeble mindedness. As the fraudster finds to his chagrin in Sting in the Tail this is a costly error!

The Mechanical Lover

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Human relationships, particularly those entailing love are complex and often messy. They require a good deal of commitment and hard work to maintain. What if, in the future a robot where to be invented with the capacity to demonstrate love or, at the very least to give the appearance of doing so? Let us further suppose that this robot could be produced relatively cheaply bringing it within the reach of a mass consumer market. How popular would such a robot be and what would be the impact of it’s creation on society as a whole?

As I said at the start of this post, relationships require love and commitment. They need to be worked at. In contrast a preprogrammed robot would not, presumably need commitment, the user could programme the machine to replicate his (or her) desires at will. Your own ideal man or woman could be yours in the future for the price of a car and not, necessarily the most expensive model of vehicle.

Doubtless such an invention has the potential to cause great social disruption, however if free citizens in a democracy choose to purchase such artificial persons in the future what right would society have to prevent them from doing so? In modern democracies there is an acceptance among most people that individuals have the right to pursue their own conception of the good/happy life provided that they do not interfere with the equally valid rights of others to strive for their own conception of happiness. Given the prevalence of this liberal perspective what right (if any) would a future society have to place limitations on the development of artificial persons designed to fulfil the emotional and/or sexual needs of future generations? These are interesting issues and ones which I mean to address in future stories.

Hemlock

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Hemlock

 

The girl approached Malcolm and taking his hand in hers intoned in a soft musical voice “Darkling I listen; and for many a time I have been half in love

with easeful death, called him soft names in many a mused rhyme, to take into the air my quiet breath; now more than ever seems it rich to die, to cease

upon the midnight with no pain, while thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad in such an ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain – to

thy high requiem become a sod”.

The audience, hard bitten venture capitalists all, gaped with wonder at this beautiful girl with her long blonde hair falling in cascades down her back,

at her deep blue eyes and her slender figure.

“OK Professor, the jokes over. Who is this young lady? What is her name?” asked the chairman of the board, Sir Steven Carter.

Professor Steel smiled indulgently and speaking in a manner which he usually reserved for his more obtuse students said “As I explained at the start of

this demonstration the lady you see before you is Becky the first ever truly intelligent robot. Becky is designed for the discerning gentleman, for the

man who wants to be around a beautiful and intelligent lady but who, for whatever reason is not in (or does not wish to be in) a relationship with a flesh

and blood female. Imagine the potential of this invention gentlemen. No more need for the man of means to wine and dine a girl, buy her expensive presents

and (god forbid actually marry her)! If you gentlemen can come up with the finance then your company will be world famous. Imagine being known as the firm

who launched the first ever artificial woman of culture!”

A hand was raised “Yes, the gentleman at the back of the room with the red tie and white shirt”. “Can she er … I mean can Becky do other things”. The Professor

smiled (he smiled a lot but the smile never reached his eyes), “Indeed she can. Becky has a very convincing set of female organs all of which are in perfect

working order. Even gentlemen of culture have their needs and Becky is designed to cater to your, sorry I mean their every whim”.

“I want one” said the chairman. “I’ve often wished to switch off my wife and now this robot has come along it is, at long last possible for me to do just

that”! Miss Mortimer the only female board member looked daggers at the chairman who vissibly shrank in his seat and coloured deeply, “I was only joking,

no offence meant” he mumbled turning as red as the curtains which flanked the stage on which the Professor stood.

Another hand was raised. It was that of Malcolm Fisher the journalist who had been the recipient of Becky’s attentions. “Yes Sir, the gentleman with the

press pass sitting in the front row”. “Isn’t there something sacrilegious about Becky?” “Sacrilegious, what do you mean?” Malcolm thought of Jane, of how

they’d walk for hours in the countryside. One day, as dusk was falling the song of a nightingale had reach their ears. Jane’s eyes had become moist and

turning to Malcolm she said “It’s to beautiful, I want to cry and she quoted those self-same words that that “thing” had just intoned. He’d taken Jane

in his arms and softly kissed away the tears from her gentle brown eyes. With a jolt Malcolm pulled himself back to the present, the Professor was staring

expectantly at him. “I don’t know how to put it accept to say that this invention seems to have crossed some line. Once we have crossed the Rubicon who

knows what will happen”. The Professor suppressed a sigh, “My dear sir man is but a machine. He takes in food to fuel his body and his very mind is but

a highly intricate mechanism for processing thoughts and emotions. Becky is a machine, why should not two machines come together. This invention will enhance

the sum of human happiness by enabling those who can not find (or do not want for whatever reason to find) a human companion and from the perspective of

you gentlemen it will to borrow a phrase mean “loads of money”!

“Well Professor we are certainly very interested in your invention. I’ll discuss it with the board but I’m sure that you will be hearing from us in the

very near future. Many thanks for your informative presentation” said the Chairman.

As he left the building those words of Keat’s popped into Malcolm’s head “As though of hemlock I had drunk”. “I need a drink” he thought turning his steps

in the direction of the nearest pub but perhaps not hemlock.

 

(The above story can be found in my collection of short stories, The First Time. For this and other stories in this collection please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-First-Time-ebook/dp/B00AIK0DD6 or http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Time-ebook/dp/B00AIK0DD6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363296273&sr=8-2&keywords=the+first+time+kevin+morris).

 

As insubstancial as a dream

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“How do you know that you are here” my friend Jeff asked as we sat in our favourite local Indian restaurant. “I don’t. I’ve experienced vivid dreams during which I’ve believed myself to be awake” I replied. My friend responded that there was no answer to that!

The above exchange got me thinking about what constitutes reality. If I believe an event to be truly happening that occurance takes on concrete form as for a moment, however brief I experience the firings of my dreaming brain to be the occurance of an event in real time. Consequently one may argue that dreams are real while we are caught up in our dreaming but what if we never wake? What about the person in a coma who spends months (sometimes years) dreaming? Are their dreams real? My tentative answer to that question is that one’s dreams are real while one is dreaming them.

One may object that once one awakes the dreamer knows the difference between the dream-like state and the experience of wakefulness but what of the person who believes themselves to have awoken but who has, in point of fact moved from one sequence of dreaming to another?

Ultimately we must all work on the basis that we are experiencing actual events rather than dreams. If We do not proceed on this basis then the world would fall apart. I, for example need to shower, have breakfast and leave for the office in the next hour or so, that is the reality of my current situation. Or is it? Perhaps I am dreaming and rather than it being Wednesday morning it is, in fact the weekend and I will awake in a few hours to find myself with Saturday and Sunday to enjoy away from the office or maybe not!

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A powerful post which makes one think.

Coco J. Ginger's avatarCoco J. Ginger Says

I Don't CareOne day, your little sister is going to fall for a man who is not kind…
who’s intentions are not pure, a man who treats  her with disregard and disrespect.
You’re going to hate this man. You’re going to want to destroy him. You’ll wonder how one could run off such cowards blood. And in that moment of hate for this man, I hope you remember
you were that same man
to me.
So   instead of looking  him in the eyes, look back at yourself in the mirror—you are the man you now HATE.
Tell yourself, “I don’t care“,  just like you said it to me,  say it [again] for me, for your little  sister, for the man who will treat your sister that way— someday. Tell me how it feels to know your sister is being treated  that way and you are…

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to kindle or not to kindle, that is the question

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There is a lot to be said in favour of Amazon from the perspective of authors. KDP Select enables authors to promote their book for free for upto 5 days in any 90 day period (during the recent promotion of my book, Samantha a total of 96 copies where downloaded during the promotion, 3-7 March), a statistic with which I am rather pleased. However there are other aspects of Amazon’s services for authors (in the UK) with which I’d take issue.

On amazon.com there is an option to give Kindle content as a gift. I would dearly like to provide family, friends and readers of my blog with gift copies of my books, however the service does not work in the UK (the country in which I live) so I’m not able to avail myself of this excellent facility.

To my mind authors should be eligible for the same high standard of service irrespective of the country in which they reside. At present those resident in the UK are not obtaining the same services as those living in the USA. I for one hope that Amazon rectifies this situation as a matter of urgency.