I’ve been reading erotica since well before it was “legal” for me to do so. I used to run a BBS (kids, ask your parents) and visit many more, and let’s just say that age verification wasn’t very well-done back in those days. So as a teenager I got to read lots of sex stories — I didn’t know erotica was a term back then — and they shaped a lot of what I thought sex was.

Then I had sex, and I realized just how wrong I was, but that’s a story for another time.

I had reason recently to think about some of the formative erotica that I read as a teenager. Some of it was appallingly bad; some of it was amazingly good. Some of it I can’t find anymore. But what most of it had in common was that it was pure fantasy — things that I knew would never happen to me, but that I still enjoyed reading (and masturbating to — I mean, come on, I was a teenager after all).

Let’s start with a story whose name I can’t remember. It was about a guy who quit his job to become a landscaper, and one day he was working while an attractive young woman was sunning herself. They met, they talked, they fucked, and the next day it was raining and he came back and they had anal sex in her poolhouse. I can’t find that story anywhere, but what I remember about it is how it made me feel: like sex could be a positive thing, that it didn’t have to be “dirty” or “hidden”.

Then there’s “Slippery Fun”, which is 100% fantasy. It’s from the point of view of a young blond woman who has several girl friends and they all fuck out in the sun, and later another friend comes over with her new boyfriend, who pleasures all of them. The writing is absolutely male-gaze-y, but one thing it did do for me is fetishize (to a certain extent) copious male orgasms. I consider myself lucky that I fall into that category, because if I didn’t, I fear I’d have been disappointed in myself when I came. (Seriously. Ask my partners. They’ll tell you that when I come there is a hell of a lot of it. I think it’s because I drink so much water.)

“Suzy Q’s Party Game” is definitely unrealistic; it starts off fairly okay, a sort of truth-or-dare game that is heavily sexualized, but then it gets completely out of hand. It is one of the first two sex stories I ever read (the other one I can’t share here because of its content) and I remember I only had the first half for a few years. Then I got the second half and I was like… um… what the hell is going on here? Still, if you’re into anonymous sex, it’s a good one.

One interesting thing is that, while none of these stories had spanking in them, they still very much influenced my sexuality, as happens when you’re exposed to sexual material at a relatively-young age. I’ll look for more formative erotica and, if I find any, I’ll let you know.

Do you have any formative erotica you’d like to share with me? I’d be very interested in reading it.