Are there any GOOD literally novels about MAPS?

Art and fiction
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Hi,

I’m a middle aged MAP who has been dealing with romantic and sexual feelings for preteen and young teen girls. I never read much erotic fiction because I never felt it very satisfying. I remember a long time reading an erotic story online that made me feel very ill. It was well written but it was very sadistic. It actually made me cry because the acts were so horrible. I couldn’t relate to it all since I never had any desire to hurt a child and I didn’t feel any arousal from it. I stopped reading erotica altogether after that.

Are there any literally novels that deal with an adult male and minor female relationship in a mature and relatable way? I know of Lolita and while it’s not a bad book and has plenty of literally and artistic merit, Humbert Humbert is such an abusive jerk it’s hard to completely relate with the story and character. I would like to read a novel and think “Yeah that’s me. That’s how I feel. This writer understands!”

I’d write the book myself but I don’t feel like I have the talent needed to create powerful everlasting prose.

The closest I’ve come to finding a relatable literally story was in Alan Sillitoe’s collection of stories called “Loneliness of the long distance runner.” In it there is a story called “Uncle Ernest” which is about a lonely alcoholic who ends up befriending a couple young girls at a cafe. He buys them cakes everyday and finds happiness in their company. He is able to stop drinking and looks forward to every day he spends time with them. Then one day the police approach him and tells him he can’t be around the girls anymore because of rumors that he is a pedo. Afterwards he goes back to being a depressed alcoholic. It’s a very simple short story and one that ends sadly. There is nothing erotic in it but I found it very relatable. Uncle Ernest isn’t a bad guy, he was just misunderstood.

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I would recommend Past The Dark Field by Sheila van den Heuvel Collins. It’s a collection of short-stories about minor-attracted characters, and so far the best and most relatable fictional work I’ve read.

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Plus Shiela donates a share of the sales to Prostasia.

There’s also the follow up: “The Teen Stories”. However, it doesn’t seem to be available in the UK yet, well not on Amazon anyway.
https://www.amazon.com/Past-Dark-Field-Teen-Stories/dp/1090707770/ref=pd_aw_fbt_img_1/134-5373012-5173327

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Thank you! I’ll check it out!

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Hello, FT! Yes, this is an issue. I am a writer myself (of horror, dark fantasy, surrealism and sci-fi mainly) and I am currently working on a series of books called Lostsol that has a prominent MAP character in it. If you like that sort of thing, the first book, AL+ER, is posted in its entirety on my LOSTSOL & Other Oddities blog. I’m currently about 2/3rds complete with the sequel, called God/Gog, and what I have finished is there as well. You can read a synopsis of AL+ER here:

If it sounds like something you’d be interested in, the link at the bottom of that page will take you to the beginning of the book, and each chapter has a link to the next. I am also and artist and illustrate these books. I will point out here that the first book has almost nothing to do with pedophilia, though there are a couple of (not very explicit) scenes of sexual abuse in it, as well as some graphic violence, drug use, suicide, etc., so if these are triggers for you, you may want to avoid it. Thgere are also some short stories there, two of which deal pretty directly with sexual abuse. Those are How I Escaped from a Black Hole (And Freed You in the Process) and Lone Kidd, or the Boy Who Grew Up Too Soon.

None of these have a particularly positive take of pedophiles, but you should understand that the Lostsol series will gradually put its MAP character in a more positive light, so if you stick with the series you will eventually be rewarded with a much more positive representation as he begins to better understand and accept himself.

Now that I’ve tooted the hell out of my own horn, I have found a handful of interesting pedophilic characters and/or themes in stories I’ve read. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are positive portrayals or that there is no sexual abuse in them, but I found them to be either fair or neutral in their representation. Most of what I’ve found has been in genre fiction because that’s what I tend to read, though there are a few literary novels too so I will focus on those for now since it is what you requested. If you’re interested in the genre works let me know and I’ll list those as well. So without further ado…

Of Love and Other Demons - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Dream Children - A.N. Wilson

Nothing Is Terrible - Matthew Sharpe

Child of My Heart - Alice McDermott

Lamb - Bonnie Nadzam [there’s also a film based on this book–not the horror film of the same name that just came out this year but the 2015 film directed by Ross Partridge]

Touched - Scott Campbell

The Jewel of Medina - Sherry Jones

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Hi Todd, when I originally read your response I didn’t spot that it was your good self, nice to hear from you. (…unless you’re someone else who’s just stolen his name to be on here that is.:wink:)

So anyway, though I enjoy a good fantasy movie, I’m not really into fantasy literature. So though I will read through your stories (just cos it’s you) …eventually, I was more interested in the other titles you mention.

So I thought I’d do a bit of research on them:

‘Del Amor y Otros Demonios’ is the original title of ‘Of Love and Other Demons’, and I was surprised to find that it was adapted into a Costa Rican/Colombian film in 2009 (directed by Hilda Hidalgo) and an opera that premiered (with quite good reviews) at the ‘Glyndebourne Festival’ by Hungarians Péter Eötvös and Kornél Hamvai the year before.

It is interesting to note that in the film version, both the character of ‘Sierva’ and the actress Eliza Triana are stated as being 13 when the film was made (Sierva being 12 in the book). It’s intriguing as: if compared to the film adaptations of Nabinkov’s ‘Lolita’ (principally shot in America) it suggests a more relaxed attitude to younger actors portraying sexually evolving characters. In ‘Lolita’, 'Delores Haze’s age is similarly bumped up by a year, but both Sue Lyon and Dominique Swan were at least 15 when they played her. Imagine the outcry if they had cast an actual 11-13 year old!

Although I can’t find much about ‘Dream Children’ (Wikipedia informs us that “Paedophilia is at the heart of the story. Oliver Gold’s pure thoughts, and seemingly asexual life contrast with the reality of his desires and deeds. Oliver abuses Bobs over a long period.”) It could be that the title is partially in reference to ‘Dream-Children; A Reverie’ published in the early 19th century as part of Charles Lamb’s ‘Essays of Elia’.

Lamb’s work - though having no sexually romantic theme - nonetheless focuses on the wishful hopes of what might have been in an alternate ideal life, were it possible.

‘Nothing Is Terrible’ - Matthew Sharpe is described in reviews of this book as having a style that is variously compared to Charlotte Bronte & Jane Austin… no mean feat for a guy from New York. It focuses on a girl (she is described elsewhere as “asexual”/“androgynous”) who runs off with her 6th grade female teacher. However, conservative (I’m assuming) responders to the reviews did decide that this book is indeed “terrible”.

I was mildly amused by a quote that I wonder if Andrew Pari (who recently did an interview for Prostasia) might consider using in any of his lectures: “Now listen carefully, dear reader, because I am going to give you some very important advice: don’t ever have sex with a boy. He sticks you with that thing and it HURTS! And, what’s worse, it feels GOOD!”

The general consensus about ‘Child of My Heart’ seems to be that it’s brilliantly written, but as well as the main character being too unbelievable (narrated in retrospect; ‘Theresa’ is a mature-beyond-her-years 15 year old) the main issues seem to be the neglect and abandonment of the children she cares for by the parents, and her reciprocated affection for a 70 year old artist.

…I wonder whether Alice McDermott drew any inspiration from the 1969 Michael Powell film “Age of Consent” (feat. James Mason & Helen Mirren).

The story of ‘Lamb’ [and ‘Tommie’] has been, with some justification, compared similarly with that of ‘Humbert’ and ‘Delores’. The characters are similar ages and they both involve the older man spiriting away the child, ostensibly so she might avoid a worse potential reality. Except in ‘Lamb’ this isn’t as “ostensible” as with the earlier novel.

In some ways - though not in an obvious fashion - it explores the concept of CSA occurring as a result of circumstance. Where the “abuser” would not consider himself, nor be technically considered by others a paedophile (at least, that’s how I understand it from the reviews anyway), in contrast to ‘Humbert’ …who definitely is.

‘Touched’ is almost the opposite of the above stories. It deals with a 12yo boy (‘Robbie Young’) who reveals to his Mother that he has been molested by the local postman, and this story is, by all accounts, a nuanced “vivisection” of the lives of ‘Robbie’, ‘Linda’ (his Mother), ‘Jerry’ (the molester) and ‘Jeanette’ ('Jerry’s wife) and goes on to explore the repercussions.

…A lot of guilt & self-loathing going on all over the place.

And finally… ‘The Jewel of Medina’ - Sherry Jones… Well… I might warn folks, (@ForbiddenTruth in particular) that you might need to check your insurance before considering this book. When ‘Gibson Square’ announced it would publish this book in the UK in 2009 the publisher’s house was firebombed.

Seemingly it’s an historical take on the life of Āishah bint Abī Bakr who was the 9 year old 3rd wife of the prophet Muhammed. From reviews I’ve read, it seems quite conceivable that the publisher was firebombed by literary critics rather than terrorists.

So, certainly intend reading some of these myself, AD(H)D permitting.

This exercise of reviewing the reviews has certainly been interesting, even if it did take me all day when I should have been searching/applying for jobs.

I’d be writing my own novel(s) if I could write faster than 50 words an hour, it’s not that I don’t have any ideas. Although my genre would be more of a mystery/crime detective story… I think.

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This may be a little tangential, but my pseudonymous trilogy-in-one-file ‘This Moonless Sky’ (This Moonless Sky by Mark Rogerson | The FriesenPress Bookstore), in its second book, features a major-ish character that we in the LGBT community would have called a ‘chicken hawk,’ who might now be thought of as a variation on the theme of MAP. The action in this middle book of 3 takes place in an ancient near-eastern type society where the solution to socially unacceptable urges is generally to buy a slave – something the main characters linking the three books are opposed to. The chicken hawk character is also opposed to slavery so, without going too far with spoilers, is not a villain. Another much more minor MAP-like character is one.

This book has a lot of philosophy content and all the stories have some purpose in the development of that theme, which, though not religious in itself, also involves Christianity, Islam and Hindu-Buddhism to some extent. I mention that to warn people that even though there’s, in my view, some ripping stories there, if you’re intolerant of wide ranging philosophy, the book will kick you out. There’s some discussion of the MAP villain’s actions in the context of the statements on consent in the hadiths of the prophet Mohammed, even though the villain is an ancient near eastern polytheist, not a Muslim. It all makes sense when you get there.

On an even more tangential note, a magnificent opera, of all things, has recently appeared on the topic of same-sex sexual abuse, namely Fire Shut Up In My Bones, by Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons (Fire Shut Up in My Bones - Wikipedia). A recording of an NYC Metropolitan Opera production is being widely shown in theatres; I just saw it on the weekend. Another sexual abuse story may be the last thing would-be positive thinkers are looking for, but this one is very well done, psychologically acute in its storytelling (it’s based on an autobiography), and musically fascinating, especially if you’re partial to the kinds of modal music scales used in modern classical music and upscale jazz. Blanchard is a long time movie soundtrack composer and jazz musician. He’s the first black composer to have an opera staged at the Met. The cast is also all black. One non-stereotypical aspect of the story is that the abuser is a free-wheeling older teenager rather than the canonical machinating old man.

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Hey, why let that stop you? I go whole weeks writing very little and posting chapter updates to my blog about once every four months (at my current rate). But it’s published there free of charge to anyone who wants to read it. I write for the sheer pleasure of it, not to make money.

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