FEATURE MILLENNIAL SEX
Did the earth move for you.
Millennial sex wouldn’t be the same without a good dose of science fiction. Deirdre Molloy asks a select panel for their favourite sci-fi sex moments.
Grant MOHISOH Glaswegian graphic novelist tor Invisibles
and Justice League 0! America (00 Comics)
‘In Barbarella. the bad guy Duran Duran has got Barbarella (Jane Fonda) in this huge organ — the XS Machine — which he plays a sonata on. It’s supposed to bring the victim to ultimate orgasm and then kill them. Barbarella gets in there. The guy’s trying desperately to play his mad future classical music. His hair‘s flying. the sweat‘s pouring out. but no matter how hard he tries. the machine can‘t out-do her -— she‘s so sexy — and the whole thingjust explodes from sheer exhaustion. I first saw this film when l was fourteen and it destroyed my mind.‘
he didn’t like that at all and split.’
14 The List 7-20 Feb I997
Jahn seabrOOk Writer for The New Yorker
‘I went into one of these on-line ehatrooms with my handle changed to Bambi and entered a private room with a gentleman caller. I didn‘t think it would constitute adultery because the moral universe of cyberspace isn‘t resolved enough to make it count yet. So I called in my wife just to play safe. shouting: “Hey Lisa. I think I'm about to get laid for the first time on-line." He asked where he could start and was soon sucking on my nipples. A little weird but. whatever. I’m sort of into it. Then he asks if he can work a little lower and I tell him: “You might be surprised at what . you find down there. it’s bigger than a bread box‘ — something of an exaggeration — and he says: “Oh, don’t tell me you’re a man!" It seemed odd to expose myselfas a man and I didn’t wantfio disappoint him but I knew it would be
" difficult to remain coy as a woman. He immediately backed off and got v
was.
Sadle Plant Cyberteminist and lecturer at Warwick University "l‘his is a passage in William Gibson’s book Neuromalu‘er where Case has sex with Molly — she’s the one with famously retractable razor-blade fingernails. . . he knew — he remembered — as she pulled him down. to the meat. the flesh the cowboy mocked. It was vast thing. beyond knowing. a sea of information coded in spiral and pheromone. infinite intricacy that only the body in its strong blind way could ever read.“ It’s a classic cyberpunk moment but it also subverts the common disembodied fantasies of cyberspace. Molly is taking Case by surprise and she has the upper hand. Plus it‘s about self-image and the llesh which the rest of the book is really
dismissing.‘
Zeros And Noughls by Sadie l’laltte is published by Fourth Estate.
Douglas Rushkoff Novelist and critic
‘Jeff Noon’s futuristic novel Vurt has a scene where the guy’s in the Vurt world describing a scene with his sister. He’s in love with her. To me it was extremely romantic and sexy. with all the cold. futuristic qualities of this new technology. all the dream qualities ofthis dream-vision quest space and all the taboo of having sex with your own sister. It was like the innocence of the garden of Eden \\ here a brother and sister can
just love each other. It was
innocent love that was totally taboo. but also the most graphically pornographic section of the book.’ A
( 'hildren Of Chaos by [king/as Rush/(off is published by ‘ llarperC'o/lins. v
5‘
Paul McAuley
Sci-ti novelist
‘ln Nicholas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell 7;) [fart/t David Bowie plays an estranged alien who gets corrupted by Earth when he lands on it. In one scene his girlfriend persuades him to take off the bits and pieces he‘s added on as a human disguise and then she's horrified when he tries to make love to her as he would with his wife. It ends up with her huddled in the kitchen. and you see it through David Bowie‘s eyes — he‘s taken out his human eyes and has cats’ eyes. It‘s a very powerful scene and emphasises the fact that much as we might be attracted to it. the alien is still the ‘othcr'.‘
upset. I suggested he play the woman but
Deeper: A Two year Odyssey In C yberspaee by John Seabrook is pub/is " (l by Faber And Faber in March.