If you missed part 1, you'll find it quite healthy in our archives. But for now, here's where we left off:
CHRISTINA: What got me going was the character of Dallas. I had such a vivid image of her in my mind, of this woman bending over in this beautifully submissive, generous way -- but also being really demanding about it, and kind of impatient. The idea of obsession came out of that, out of her.
Adult FriendFinder: What got you going on that particular obsession?
CHRISTINA: Okay, I'm blushing now...
(And now for Part 2:)
---
CHRISTINA: Let's just say that it's personal, shall we? Seriously: Dallas'obsession is certainly one that I have a strong personal fondness for. But it's more than that. Bending over is such a complicated sexual position, or sexual act. It's submissive, of course, and it's de-personalizing in the sense of reducing a person to a purely sexual being. It's a position that focuses complete attention on the sexual body parts, literally raising them above your brain. But it's also such a "do-me" position. It's all about being the center of attention, about getting done rather than doing. So it's complicated, and that makes it interesting.
Adult FriendFinder: Where do you see these characters on the continuum of sexual interactions among human beings -- are they the extreme, the average, the few, the many?
CHRISTINA: Dallas is definitely extreme. Even in sex-obsessed San Francisco, I haven't known many people who make getting laid the center of their life and identity in the way she does. And I do admire her for it. Even though she's somewhat self-centered, she has this boldness, this courage of her sexual convictions, that I'm rather envious of.
The other characters, Dallas's lovers and ex-lovers and fuckbuddies, I think are more average -- or at any rate, average for the San Francisco sex-freak community. Which is to say, pretty damn extreme almost everywhere else.
Adult FriendFinder: It says on your web site that someone is interested in making a film out of your story. And as you stated, the story is all sex, and some hard core sex at that. But now that you've had time to think about it, how would you turn it into a movie? What things would you emphasize? How would you film it? Who would play Dallas? Who would play Jack and Betsy? Could you envision a way to convert the story into a mainstream film that would get by the censors?
CHRISTINA: I have no idea how I'd turn "Bending" into a movie -- for one thing, I'm not a screenwriter. I do think the biggest problem isn't necessarily the obvious one of finding good actors who'll do hardcore kinky sex. The big problem would be that so much of the story is mental landscape -- how Dallas is feeling during sex, what she's thinking, how it's affecting the way she sees herself and the world. That's a very hard thing to translate into film. Not impossible, but hard -- especially since most actors don't have much training or experience in complicated and subtle sexual acting.
I do, of course, have silly fantasies about who the actors would be. But I don't want to spoil things for people who haven't read the book yet. I want to let readers picture the characters for themselves. (We may wind up having a "Cast the movie of 'Bending'" contest at some point, though...)
And I don't think "Bending" could ever be mainstream, or anything other than NC-17. It's way too filthy. The art-house circuit is about all I could hope for. I do think that's not a complete impossibility, though.
Adult FriendFinder: You've said you are proud of this story (and for good reason) -- how is it a departure from other things you've done? As a writer, did you push an envelope for this one?
CHRISTINA: I worked harder on this story, and for longer, than I have on anything else I've written. I didn't have much of a life when I was writing it -- I pretty much had Dallas's life. (Fortunately, she has a pretty interesting life...) And I worked closely with a first-rate editor, Susie Bright, who spent a lot of time and pushed me extremely hard to make the story as good as it could possibly be. And that made a huge difference.
How is "Bending" a departure from my other work? Well, it's longer, obviously, and more complicated. But it's also... I don't know, better. Better as porn, better as literature. At the risk of sounding boastful, I think "Bending" completely immerses the reader. It's like being in a cave
-- you're surrounded. If I had to use one word to describe the book, it would be "relentless."
Adult FriendFinder: Are you working on anything of length currently?
CHRISTINA: I am, but I don't have a contract for it yet, so I don't want to say anything about it yet. It's not about sex, though. It's a completely different direction.
Adult FriendFinder: It's interesting to see what our product reviewer is up to in her free time. What other things do you do or are you working on that we should know about?
CHRISTINA: Free time... I dimly remember something about that. Seriously, right now I'm working a nearly-full-time day job, and doing as much writing as I can, so free time is a bit hard to come by.
I'm currently writing an essay on visual porn. I've been a sex writer for almost two decades, and yet I usually find dirty photos and videos much more arousing and compelling as jack-off material than dirty stories, so I'm writing a piece about why that is. And I just finished a long essay on the "Girls Gone Wild" videos for a sex collection that Disinformation is doing (tentatively called "Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong"). That was a lot of fun to write. Very surprising.
As far as my free time goes, I actually have very nerdy hobbies when I have time for them. Lots of English folk dancing.
Adult FriendFinder: What direction would you like to take from here with your fiction writing?
CHRISTINA: Mostly, I'd just like to do more of it. I've spent most of my career writing non-fiction, and while I love doing that, fiction is satisfying in a way that I've found very surprising. Erotic fiction especially. Writing smut is like digging down into the bones and muscles of my libido, and while that's difficult, it's also exhilarating. I want more.
(You can find Three Kinds of Asking For It at amazon.com.)
photo2med]
You can check Ms. Christina out on her web site, www.GretaChristina.com or visit her blog at http://gretachristina.typepad.com or write to her here on the site with your comments at handle Sextoyreviewer. Or you can visit Adult FriendFinder magazine every two weeks to read her wild sex stuff reviews.
