The Best American Erotica 2007
Introduction
Envy the young. Their beauty, their incomparable strength, cannot be bottled, as dearly as their elders try to squeeze a facsimile out of a jar or a needle.
Youth -- that petal before it uncurls, that curious morning dew -- what enormous potential. Anything is possible because nothing has been tried. Envy them? We want to gobble them up -- their very presence is an incitement, a rebuke to death. They are defiant.
But turn over the card. Power comes only with age, which elders have in spades.
You can't drive, you can't hold the keys, and you can't lay claim until you grow the fuck up. The very words "experienced lover" describe a life lived, adventures drawn upon.
Beauty and strength may open doors, but it's only wisdom that tells you how to cross the threshold.
When I was young, the phrase "generation gap" came into vogue. So did the thrilling insult of my old comrade Jack Weinberg: "Never trust anyone over thirty."
Those same baby boomers are rather testy these days, and trust no one. It's coming out in their erotica, as well as their children's.
The '60s generation, more than any before it, is outraged at the prospect of mortality and determined to beat it. No Olympian gods were ever so vain. ... read full excerpt from: The Best American Erotica 2007 ebook
