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For her debut novel,Luster, Raven Leilani wanted to write a Black woman who was pure id.
For those scenes and the novel itself, she found inspiration in Susan ChoisMy Education.
The kind of book Im looking for tends to have obsession at its core.
Thats where we start.
Where we end is with the professors wife, Martha.
My book basically does the same thing.
Theres something deeply off limits about that arrangement a subversion of the readers expectation.
Theres not quite a hundred pages before you get to this passage.
Choi is so precise in how she choreographs the buildup.
Theres a silent recognition but also a real barrier to their communication.
I often frame the erotic in terms of denial.
Theres violence all throughout this passage the sex is a torment, a hail of hot stones.
Theres a speed and a weight and a real physicality to it.
Not just the word choice but how its arranged.
Theres a speed to the rhythm of the sentences that intensifies the violence.
When I write sex, I refuse to pan away to the curtains.
The mummy thats a death image.
But part of great sex writing is the inclination to talk about the blisters and the mummy.
Theres a beautiful use of hyperbole throughout.
Theres florid academic language, and theres also the really frank language of her face in my cunt.
Thats a beautiful whiplash.
Like,Shes going all caps!I love that commitment.
The imagery of emptiness and the imagery of being made new.
Im thinking about what feels good and what feels true.
I havent found many portrayals of Black women like that in literature.
I wanted to see the freedom of that on the page.
