Defining the Orgasm || Nin Andrews

Chapbook Selections From Web Del Sol

DEFINING THE ORGASM

Nin Andrews

Perhaps you don't want to admit you've never had an orgasm.Maybe you don't even know what orgasms are, much less what style they comein, and how they might become available to you. That is why you are readingthis guide to orgasms. You want to enter the realm of intimate revelations,heightened awareness, evocative sounds and silence. Indeed the historyof orgasms is nothing other than the history of the world.

The fact is, orgasms are everywhere, though when we askwhat an orgasm is, we find ourselves at a loss for words. Some call orgasmsfaith, others consider them music, still others say they are the best ofourselves in our best possible positions.

However they are defined, orgasms take great pleasurein men and women, good and evil, visible and invisible, real and unreal.Orgasms can happen to anyone, and there are all kinds of orgasms for allkinds of people.

For example, there are the lyric orgasms, which expressdeep feeling for an imagined person. You never know when your passionate,moaning lover is actually having a lyric orgasm. There is the ballad orgasm,which is kept alive orally, the dramatic orgasm, which speaks for itself,and the epic orgasm, a long-winded orgasm in which one lover plays thehero or conqueror and then relishes his victory. Men are often contentwith the small and discrete haiku of orgasms, which are said to aroundemotions and spiritual insight in a mere matter of syllables. Ministersand somber folk talk about the elegiac orgasms, which are mostly enjoyedby the dead, while celebrities and exhibitionists are inclined towardsthe performance orgasm, a style enacted before audiences. Good old-fashionedmen and women never tire of the pastoral orgasms that appear in the midstof rural scenery. And at any time of day or night, lost orgasms aimlesslywander the streets, waiting to be found.

from The Book of Orgasms, ClevelandState University Press, August 2000

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