[e-mail] (gay novel)

Don Bapst

Description

[e-mail]

Don Bapst

Victor dear,

I have a project that you won’t be able to turn down. Last week, Richard Dowling had the nerve to take me aside after a tedious financial meeting to ask if I had a “little desk job” his son could fill for a couple of months to “break him in.”

Jamie is a charming young thing (if you go for the barely pubescent virginal type). Get here right away, sweep the little baby off his feet, fuck his brains out till he begs for more.

When you get a glimpse of Jamie Dowling, you’ll see this is no dreary chore I’m assigning you. And as if that weren’t enticement enough, you can always count on the night of hot sex I’ll serve you upon completion of your little PR assignment.

xoxo

Terry

Also available in a French or bilingual edition. All three versions are followed by Dangerous Liaisons (in French) by Choderlos de Laclos.

Retrouvez tous nos ouvrages sur http:www.textesgais.fr

Sujets

• Homosexuality
• Écriture
• Homosexualité
• Lettre
• Sexualité
• Littérature

Informations

• Publié par: Éditions Textes Gais
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 142
• EAN13: 9782363070296
• Langue: English

Extrait

 

 

[e-mail]

Don Bapst

Novel

 

Éditions Textes Gais

31 rue Bayen

75017 Paris

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of three electronic versions of the novel:

• the original, in English;

• the French translation,

• and a version including both the English and French

versions.

 

 

 

 

 

The novel’s principal characters

 

TERRY SIMMS, a somewhat effeminate yet strikingly handsome man in his early forties, publisher of Liaisons, the bible of über fashion.

VICTOR STEPHENS, a cocky, ruggedly handsome, muscular man in late thirties, editor of Liaisons.

RICHARD DOWLING, a rigidly diplomatic man of average features in his late 50s, publisher of New York Information, the most influential financial publication in the world.

JAMIE DOWLING, Richard’s naïve and adorable teenage son. While interning at Liaisons, he meets and falls in love with Peter Marquez.

PETER MARQUEZ, a darkly handsome Latino in his late teens, publishing intern at Liaisons in love with Jamie Dowling.

CHRISTOPHE TOURVEL, a modest, confident man in his early forties with a very slight French accent and piercing good looks, founder of Habiller, the trendy prêt-a-porter boutique.

DOUGLAS SCOTT, a gentle, elderly professor, coordinator of important HIV benefits.

 

Disclaimer

The “editor” of this book claims its contents are entirely authentic. Now while I find this text entertaining and timely, I have never doubted for a moment that the entire work is a completely fabricated work of fiction; after all, the antics of its characters are downright incredible.

In the fast-paced world of publishing—whether in print or online media—overworked publishers and editors don’t have time to run around hatching insidious plots for destroying each other. Does anyone—least of all someone as well placed in the media as the players in this drama—still send incriminating email messages through a company server?

As for the likelihood that these people would engage in careless, unsafe sexual activities in an age of heightened awareness about HIV and other STDs, I leave it for the reader to draw his or her own conclusion.

Despite any implausibility, there’s much to entertain here, especially for readers who are able to suspend their disbelief and think of [e-mail] as a sort of time-capsule piece, capturing a moment during which the Internet was still new to even the most powerful people.

This book, though supposedly set at the turn of the twenty-first century, is frozen in a time of technological innocence—a time we’ve moved far away from. Imagine one of today’s leading editors forced out of publishing, not because he or she made a risky editorial decision, but because some naughty email messages were found left on the server! That seems very much a thing of the 1990s. Larry Choderlos, Publisher, New York, March, 2000

 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Pédro Torres, Denis-Martin Chabot and Stéphane Vallée for working so hard to bring this novel to life in French.

Don Bapst (donbapst.com <http://donbapst.com> ) is the author of three novels and an award winning filmmaker.

He has also translated several works from French into English, including Manplay by Denis-Martin Chabot and The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop.

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer

 

The “editor” of this book claims its contents are entirely authentic. Now while I find this text entertaining and timely, I have never doubted for a moment that the entire work is a completely fabricated work of fiction; after all, the antics of its characters are downright incredible.

In the fast-paced world of publishing—whether in print or online media—overworked publishers and editors don’t have time to run around hatching insidious plots for destroying each other. Does anyone—least of all someone as well placed in the media as the players in this drama—still send incriminating email messages through a company server?

As for the likelihood that these people would engage in careless, unsafe sexual activities in an age of heightened awareness about HIV and other STDs, I leave it for the reader to draw his or her own conclusion.

Despite any implausibility, there’s much to entertain here, especially for readers who are able to suspend their disbelief and think of [e-mail] as a sort of time-capsule piece, capturing a moment during which the Internet was still new to even the most powerful people.

This book, though supposedly set at the turn of the twenty-first century, is frozen in a time of technological innocence—a time we’ve moved far away from. Imagine one of today’s leading editors forced out of publishing, not because he or she made a risky editorial decision, but because some naughty email messages were found left on the server! That seems very much a thing of the 1990s. Larry Choderlos, Publisher, New York, March, 2000

 

 

 

 

 

Editor’s Note:

 

TERRY SIMMS, a somewhat effeminate yet strikingly handsome man in his early forties, publisher of Liaisons, the bible of über fashion.

VICTOR STEPHENS, a cocky, ruggedly handsome, muscular man in late thirties, editor of Liaisons.

RICHARD DOWLING, a rigidly diplomatic man of average features in his late 50s, publisher of New York Information, the most influential financial publication in the world.

JAMIE DOWLING, Richard’s naïve and adorable teenage son. While interning at Liaisons, he meets and falls in love with Peter Marquez.

PETER MARQUEZ, a darkly handsome Latino in his late teens, publishing intern at Liaisons in love with Jamie Dowling.

CHRISTOPHE TOURVEL, a modest, confident man in his early forties with a very slight French accent and piercing good looks, founder of Habiller, the trendy prêt-a-porter boutique.

DOUGLAS SCOTT, a gentle, elderly professor, coordinator of important HIV benefits.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Pédro Torres, Denis-Martin Chabot and Stéphane Vallée for working so hard to bring this novel to life in French.

Don Bapst (donbapst.com <http://donbapst.com> ) is the author of three novels and an award winning filmmaker.

He has also translated several works from French into English, including Manplay by Denis-Martin Chabot and The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop.

Date: Tue, Aug 3, 1999 12:22 PM EDT

From: [e-mail]

Subj: Life in the Big Apple

To: [e-mail]

 

Hey Sue,

Things have been crazy since I arrived. New York City is awesome, and working at Liaisons has been really intense. I say “working,” but most of the time I run around the office just wondering what it is I’m supposed to be doing. Hopefully, it won’t be long before I find a real position as a graphic designer at another publication. It would be nice to get something without my father’s help.

But for now just observing the office from an assistant’s perspective is a lesson in itself. It’s so different from what we learned at school during all those design and layout classes. For one thing, editors don’t stand around workshopping artists’ work. They’re always frantic, and sometimes it looks like they don’t even take the time to care about what an image looks like as long as it gets into print on time. (God, I’d probably be fired for saying that!)

What’s really exciting is watching all the models and fashion celebs pass through. Some of them are really gorgeous! Okay, so I’m only looking at the men. Yeah, I’m pretty sure now that I’m about 99% gay, even if I haven’t really tried anything yet. My father says to give it time, I’m only 18, etc. He doesn’t want me to have to suffer what he has, and that I should wait and be patient to allow myself time to really know my feelings.

I think things are really different now than they were when he was my age. After all, he had to marry my mother just to keep up appearances. I can’t help but think life is easier now than it was in his day. All I have to do is look at all these models and designers running around me, talking about their boyfriends.

My father swears they have trouble competing in what he says is a homophobic industry, and for every one who has made it in publishing and fashion, there are dozens who were rejected only because they are gay. But even if that’s true, is that any reason for me to change who I am?

Thank god I have you to write to, Sue. You’re the only person that I’ve really been able to trust with all this!

Come to New York and explore the Big Apple with me!

Love,

Jamie

Date: Wed, Aug 4, 1999 10:12 AM EDT

From: [e-mail]

Subj: Proposition

To: [e-mail]

 

Victor dear,

I’ve been running around like a nut case trying to close the last issue. There was an ad pulled at the last minute, and… Anyway, how dreadful of me to start off with business! Surely you’re not actually conducting any yourself in that horrid parody of a city?

Between drinks at the poolside and long dinners on the patios of West Hollywood, just who’ve you been doing?

I should know better than to send you on assignment to the celebrities. ;-)

I’ve been having my own adventure with a lovely Hispanic boy, Peter Marquez, a 20-year-old intern who came to me fresh out of some journalism program in Chicago. I’ve been educating him as best I can, though I must say that those early morning sales meetings have become doubly tedious since I started conducting private training sessions until the wee hours, complete with all the usual vitamins: E, K, C... :-P

But that was just a little appetizer to my real news: I have a project that you won’t be able to turn down. Last week, Richard Dowling had the nerve to take me aside after a tedious financial meeting to ask if I had a “little desk job” his son could fill for a couple of months to “break him in.” Victor, you can imagine the ten shades of blue I turned before I was able to collect myself and respond, “Of course!”

But he is the boss, after all. If only he’d sever Liaisons from New York Information once and for all! Think of what I could accomplish as publisher without that old fart breathing down my neck!

Since little Jamie has started as an assistant in our office, everyone has noticed what a little queen he is, just like his father. You’d think by the age of 18, he’d already have had sex a thousand times, but apparently, his father has kept him isolated in the countryside since his early teen years—putting him through a high school seminary before sending him off to an intensive two year design program at some tech school up the coast.

Meanwhile, you’ll never believe where Dowling is trying to land him a permanent job… At Jonathan Banks’ new brokerage site. That’s right, the same Banks who pulled out of an online business partnership with me at the last minute. You know what a withered old troll he is, and Dowling Jr. is a charming young thing (if you go for the barely pubescent virginal type), so, naturally, Banks has offered to take the kid under his wing. Dowling figures he’ll be a good role model since he’s too old to actually put the moves on the boy and too conservative to let Jamie blab about his homosexuality.

See, Dowling is still living in the dark ages. In his head, his son’s outing would be cover page material: “Financial Publisher Turns Son to Life of Gay Vice.” (As if anyone gives a shit who does the little brat!) Part of Dowling’s paranoia stems from the support of the Republican-loving financial and tobacco companies that fund both his publication and Banks’ site.

With Banks as Jamie’s boss, daddy figures, the kid will stand a better chance of keeping discreet and closeted.

That really would be too boring, so get here right away, sweep the little baby off his feet, fuck his brains out till he begs for more, and convince him to say no to the job at Banks’ trashy site. Meanwhile, I’ll convince Dowling’s sponsors to pull an ad or two from New York Information when I let it slip that the CEO has been trying to pimp out his son to a dirty old troll in exchange for online advertisements. Imagine how gorgeous it will be to watch those two old queens squirm! Maybe we’ll finally give Dowling a heart attack.

When you get a glimpse of Jamie Dowling, you’ll see this is no dreary chore I’m assigning you. And as if that weren’t enticement enough, you can always count on the night of hot sex I’ll serve you upon completion of your little PR assignment.

xoxo

Terry

Date: Wed, Aug 4, 1999 12:45 PM EDT

From: [e-mail]

Subj: Re: Re: Life in the Big Apple

To: [e-mail]

 

Sue,