Title: Sex and the Armed Services
Author: L.T. Woodward, M.D. [pseud. of Robert Silverberg]
Cover artist: Uncredited [Robert Maguire]
Yours for: $12
Best things about this cover:
- Navy women sleep with sophisticated diplomats, where Army men sleep with French whores.
- I have to say that I am disappointed with the balance here between "Sex" and "the Armed Services." You mean I have to *imagine* the sex? Total ripoff.
- This will sound weird, but the more I look at our two protagonists, the more I like them. They have a distinctly cool look that makes me want to know more about them. I want them to be rivals, scheming for ... something. They would have chemistry, but they would not be a couple. They might have to team up, perhaps using the French whore to pull a scam on the sophisticated diplomat. I'm not sure where the sex comes in, exactly.
- I LOVE these fake sciencey books that the sex publishers put out in the '60s (complete with caduceus / "Human Behavior" logo, Ha ha: "4 out of 5 scienticians agree, our books contain plausible human behavior"). Part of the whole post-Kinsey "Your Right To Know" "studies" of "real" sex lives, allowing adults to unembarrassingly indulge their penchants for voyeurism. I'm pretty sure the sex anecdotes contained therein are entirely fictional.
Best things about this back cover:
- "Code Red, Code Red, Emergency ... I'm gonna have to go lesbian!" Once you go lesbian, you never go back. Or you do, whatever.
- What the hell does "mingle promiscuously" look like? Is that when you grope boobs at a cocktail party? "Can I freshen your drink? How 'bout stick my tongue down your throat? No? OK..."
- LOVE the last sentence, which posits that the military encourages "abnormal" behavior.
Page 123~
The old nurses handled me impersonally, like I was something made of wood, but the very young ones would blush and glance away when their attentions aroused me.
Heh heh. "Wood."
~RP
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]
10 comments:
L. T. Woodward was one of the many pseudonyms used by Robert Silverberg.
Rex: "I'm not sure where the sex comes in, exactly."
Most commonly, it's the vagina, though other orifices're known to be used too.
I was disappointed "tough boys" didn't turn out to be a euphemism for bull dykes, but I was placated by the "service woman" servicing all those men or women.
Rex: 'What the hell does "mingle promiscuously" look like?'
How about, "May I freshen your drink...by peeing in your mouth or on your tits?"
Cover, (love the art, especially the service woman):
French whore: "'Ey, buddy, I know it looks like am standing 'gainst this lamppost to disguise ma spastic 'ip an' ma 'unch, an' 'cause I spend most of ma day on ma back, but really it is 'ca's' I am in the process of inventing what some day will be call'd pole dancing!"
Diplomat: "Girl, one anal prostrate fingering, please!"
Service woman: "Jeez, can't y'see I'm already try'n'o pull the damn rubber surgical gloves on?"
p.s.
Good blog, Rex. I know you're a real scholar, an' all, but you're never so engaging - or funny - as when you're downright filthy!
In short, for God's sakes never succumb to the temptation to raise the tone!
Ann Francis, John Gavin, Robert Ryan, and Kim Novak set the screen ablaze in SEX AND THE ARMED FORCES.
I kind of like the protagonists on the cover, too. Like, who are we to judge? when they were fighting for freedom etc during the war. No wonder there was a baby boom. I like their vim, interesting to see how a woman can be just as uh, intrigued by romance as a man, on the same cover. I'm sure there were a million stories like this, the cover, depicting temptation. They were young, they were at war, etc. Men and women, too. Heightened times, passions.
Rex, that cover art is Maguire's work. My usual source is Official Price Guide, Paperbacks by Jon Warren
@McC,
I gotta get me one of them there guides. I'm just glad to know that my eye is unerring. At least today. Maguire is my favorite paperback cover artist ever. Ever.
Thanks,
RP
@Scott,
Silverberg! Cool. I'll add that info. You guys are founts of useful information. Thanks for fleshing out my knowledge of these books.
~RP
Deb: "Ann Francis, John Gavin, Robert Ryan, and Kim Novak set the screen ablaze in SEX AND THE ARMED FORCES".
Good, apposite casting, Deb, but they'd've turned it into a musical called SAX AND THE ARMED FORCES, with an ensemble wedding at the end.
Robert Silverberg, the science fiction writer?
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