i must admit to finding Neil's work, "How Do You Think It Feels?" in the compilation book "In The Shadow of The Gargoyle", and after reading it, seeing Neil in a completely different light. His vivid descriptions of sex- before during and through the act thereof - were so graphic and under the bulb that that the fact of his literary maturity shocked me.
okay, all *reviewer* bs aside, i realized that as a person i was not able to handle the work without getting a wee bit.. overheated. in Sandman most sex scenes are emotionally distant while being at the same time almost epic in their telling. this story was so almost-possible i felt some sort of sympathy... who or what inspired this story? was this a story of how someone could have hurt Neil? or how his relationship with his wife and family could have turned out, like a roundabout confession? but fiction is fiction, and i come *ahem* to wonder if this story wasn't written during some overly horny moment when boredom between writing some "serious" novel came *ahem* about. pardon my puns.
in fact, i see it as Neil's most based-in-hard-reality story, barring the "purple flower" and obvious woman-dragging-into-man's-chest gargoyle. maybe all this story is, is the description of one man's sexual therapy.
everything is always open to interpretation, and i'm curious what anyone else thought of the story, especially if there are any interviews that Neil mentions it in.
i also read Harlequin Valentine, and thought it was the pictures more often than the prose that *disturbed* me outright so that i hid the pages as i read them, from any onlookers. otherwise a very cute story.
[This message has been edited by Interit (edited 07-02-2002).]
