Erotica book review and author interview...
An interview with J.A. Finisterre author of Cocksmith at the Helm
As an editor of smut, I've read more than my fair share of dirty stories. However, I would like to offer this especially naughty author the golden-cock-shaped-crown (if I had one) for writing the dirtiest tale I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Cocksmith at the Helm is a self-published (self-edited, proofed, designed, and marketed too), two-part erotic novel by author J.A. Finisterre.
And a pleasure to read it was indeed. It's the story of aptly-named Myron Cocksmith, a big-dicked outcast at the Catholic school Our Lady of Gethsamane, who grows up to be a giant-dragon-dicked principal of the same school. Cocksmith is a horny, dominating, ass-worshipping, and (did I already mention?), gigantically endowed, man who inspires the respect and awe of those under his thumb, and under his cum.
What makes the book truly special to me is not the taboo inspired arousal, it's not the spankings, the glorious humiliations, the anal sex, the threesomes, or the frequent mention of a beautifully large dick (which are all wonderful elements indeed). But it's the intelligence, the literary merit, and the flowery, yet somehow cleverly direct prose that makes up the backbone of the story.
Like a good wine the story is deliciously complex with different flavors on both the front and back end. It's funny and insightful, sexy and strange, elegant and provocative, romantic and raunchy, thrilling and revolting.
Any writer who can turn a phrase like, "Her eyes fixed upon his, she stepped out of her shoes, her fingers gone to the button of her low jeans, and she slid them off slowly as well, standing finally before him in a whisper of panties the color of stolen lilac" has got my full attention.
I had the opportunity of asking Mr. Finisterre to explain his beautifully dirty prose. Here's what he had to say:
What inspired you to write Part II of Cocksmith? Part I felt very complete so I was surprised at the turn of events…
Cocksmith at the Helm: Origins and Structure
You
are right on regarding Book One of Cocksmith. It was indeed originally
conceived and executed as a novella of about 125 manuscript
pages—however many words that worked out to be. Cocksmith at the Helm
was part of a tremendous burst of creative activity that occurred the
school year of ‘05-’06, when I was teaching English in the Alaskan
village of Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island. At this point I had been
writing short erotic fiction (that seemed to grow ever longer and become
more complicated,) for some time, and had a dozen or so stories
published on-line by the lusty and literary ladies of the late and
lamented tit-elation.com—to a generally positive reception. I had
finished up Cocksmith, (Book One) and submitted it to tit-elation for
consideration as a serial. The women running the site, (Gracie Passette
was instrumental in the running; Roxanne Rhodes was involved…those are
the two I remember,) responded by asking if there wasn’t more, and would
I consider publishing. And of course I would consider publishing…and
actually had a contract briefly for the manuscript. Tit-elation sadly
sunk; it just got to be more than those guys could handle—and I just quit
hearing from them. But that ‘is there more?’ question… No, there
wasn’t at the time, but I was finding it impossible to let go of the
characters. They had come to life and were just getting warmed up. Mr.
Laborteau in particular. So I let them tell me their further
adventures—they would have come out soon enough anyway—and applied that
sticky patch of a paragraph between the two sections and hoped that it
would hold together well enough to create a plausible whole. Though the
bar for plausibility in Cocksmith at the Helm is indeed set rather low.
Your book is full of taboos, in your opinion what is it that makes taboos so titillating? Why are you willing to tackle topics that a lot of writers wouldn't touch with a yardstick? Mother/daughter relations, poopy panties, voyeuristic boys who turn out to be goat gods, principal/students, the list goes on and on...
Ah, Taboo
Cocksmith at the Helm is indeed full of taboo, and believe me, I giggled away long into many a night writing this stuff, perhaps a little bit stoned on that tremendously expensive Eskimo dope up there (in Alaska). But the taboo busting is for all sorts of purposes, big picture, and smaller.
Biggest picture, the engagement with taboo in this fashion, gently and challenging, in ways that make it hard to completely condemn, making these scenes beautiful and lyric, arousing and hilarious, was my way of saying “fuck you” to the uptight and hypocritical, the sanctimonious lying scoundrels who seeming had hijacked every aspect of discourse in America. And it was bound to piss somebody off.
Odd though the concept may seem, I wanted to write a moral tale both true and fantastical, to contrast what was sure to seen as obscene—if it was ever noticed at all—with what was truly obscene…that which was just beginning to happen in the U.S. and to the U.S. So it’s a fuck you and a declaration of fearlessness as well. So much of what is socially taboo is so because it revolves around the abuse of some sort of power (and I’m not talking about taboos such as intra-familial breeding—the common-sense taboos,) and Cocksmith at the Helm is also a consideration of the nature of power.
Now, if you’ll allow me to spit a little game, on a more egotistical level, I wanted to write about sex in a way that had not been done before, kind of revolutionary and subversive. That involved, almost by necessity, the taking of taboo and rendering it into something beautiful and touching, humorous, and regardless of how fantastical, true. To step out and look for new territory, which meant as well looking back literarily, to what I consider Cocksmith’s forebears—the fabliaux and other sorts of bawdy morality stories from the 14th Century or so. You know, shine a little light on the dark places, and write a hell of a fuck story.
And too, I have always seen it within me to produce an ultimate cult novel. A Confederacy of Dunces marked me as a kid, and other way outta the mainstream novels like that, drew me in because they were outside the norm. And I liked that. It’s been my nature for a long, long time to admire such things and gestures—something prankster-ish and bent. The impulse to celebrate the carnival all the while. Furthermore, and on an even baser level, if anybody ever heard about it, the controversial nature of even the novel’s rumored content would be enough to raise a ruckus—thereby drawing in the curious and hopefully selling books.
Taboo breaking functions as well to further the larger themes of love and acceptance running through the story. As each one falls away the openness to awareness increases. And again, Cocksmith is a story of fearlessness and confrontation of sorts, and the taboos broken are hurdles for the various characters who encounter them, functioning in different ways to illuminate various facets of their personalities, or whatever point I’m trying to belabor.
This makes it fun to consider a few of the ones you brought up—which range in intent from the sophomoric to the sublime. The Mother/daughter is a nice one, which I look at as another facet, or expression of the matri-centric universe within which Cocksmith exists. And of course it’s edgy.
The goat-boys are pure junior high dude. They’re me and every other curious little beat-off who have ever discovered the thrills of voyeurism and masturbation, and the pleasures involved in pulling upon their penises. A throwback to some pseudo-Victorian pornographic mythos, the little bastards are out there, waiting to devil you. These are the taboos that are simply fun to break, Forbidden Fruit Theory put into action. We’ll fail the test every time. Gillespie comes out this place too, a twisted Artemis-like figure, with her own agenda. Poor Wendy and her dirty drawers are another purely sophomoric touch. A tweak to the Freudian nose and another indicator of her humility. And I could go on and on…
What inspired the creation of your main character, Myron Cocksmith? He is a very realistic, full, and interesting persona. Is he a reflection of any parts of yourself or someone you know?
Me and Mr. Cocksmith
Hell…Myron Cocksmith is Everyman. As long as Everyman is an asshole with a big dick. There is a tremendous amount of me in Mr. Cocksmith: asshole-ish world-view (I’m really not that bad!), dirty mind and the appreciation for wonderment. We’re both ass-men from the get-go, though equipment-wise, I’m built more on the Albertson model. Yeoman-like.
But if we consider Cocksmith at the Helm from a proper mythological perspective, Myron Cocksmith is our Hero, and his journey does indeed mirror my own…that search for whatever sort of meaning you will discover in this life…who we are and how we fit in. Mine has been really a life-long coming to grips with myself as an artist, and what the hell to do about such a state of affairs. The search for balance.
Cocksmith is also Authority, and the exploration of power and control are huge issues throughout the novel. (I also wrote the novel while working under a dude up in Alaska who was effectively the fifth shitty principal in a row. That said, the character is also a tip of the hat and an Old Milwaukee for some later time, to a friend of mine, the first principal I worked under, and the only good one I worked under. So…ideal of principal?) He is a vehicle for having a look at how much control we really do have over things.
More than anything, Myron Cocksmith is a fun character, who came out of nowhere in that long Alaskan night and asked me if I was ready to sail. I told him I was.
Available at Amazon.com
Originally published September 2010