Something Old, Something New 1.1 - July 2025

Cover art: “Danaë” by Gustav Klimt

Poetry: “My Naughty Book” by D. H. Lawrence

Reviewed: “Fly By Night” by Dani Finn & “Flesh and Bone” by Arden Powell

Featured short story: “The Universe’s Best Erotic Writing, Volume 1: A Book Review by Ian Harrison” by William Shaw

In an age of increasing Earth-isolationist sentiment, the ICFEL goes on to argue, it important to engage with the worldviews (and, yes, the fantasies) of peoples unlike ourselves. It is a worthy goal, and the resulting anthology, which presents the best of the original NASA tapes in book form for the first time, is a rich and engaging read. After a century of human-centric Flesh Gordon depictions of alien sexuality, it is gratifying to finally get a taste of the real thing.
The book opens with ‘The Erotics of Machinism,’ which recounts the creation of the Transceiver Collective of Bussnaum. Colloquially known as “the Radio People,” the Transceiver Collective derives sexual pleasure from what they call “a symmetry of transmission and receipt, encoded in the sensuousness of sound waves.” Originally evolving as organic multicellular organisms, their radically collectivist ideology saw the Radio People abandon fleshly bodies (described here as “wetware”) and install their consciousnesses in globally networked constructions of steel and copper.

Release date: 1 July 2025.