Patrick Califia

It doesn't seem right to give a collection like this a starred rating, so I won't. This collection was put together and sold as a fundraiser to cover Little Sister's book store's legal fees in their case against Canadian customs for discrimination and censorship of material by seizing books meant for queer bookstores at the border and refusing them entry into Canada. 
One of the things that really stood out to me is how varied the materials in this collection are. It really goes to show how show more arbitrary the seizures were. Allegedly the material was considered to be obscene by customs agents, however the majority of works in this collection are academic, educational, or autobiographical. It's quite easy to see their artistic (and other) merits. Even the few stories (a vast minority in the book) that are pure smut or outright disturbing content cannot be said to have no artistic merit. Perhaps it's because I'm reading this in 2024, and now the internet offers access to writing on any number of topics, but it seems absurd to disallow these works into the country (especially when, it seemed, that in most cases works like these produced WITHIN the country were allowed). 
I thought that Pat Califia's introduction to the book was a little sanctimonious at times ("you must like weird kinky sex or else you're like, totally brainwashed by the man!") it was very informative of the cultural landscape at the time this book was published. Toward the end of his introduction, he says: "You may not agree with many of the things I've said in this introduction or some of the positions I take in my work. Perhaps you won't like some of the pieces that appear in Forbidden Passages. But don't you think you ought to have the right to read them in the first place?"
With that, I definitely agree. As book banning and censorship is on the rise again, I think that's a good lesson to keep in mind. Writing being disturbing (or even just objectively bad) is no reason for taking away the rights of others to have a chance to read it. We all have our own preferences, but we also have the right to try and understand different perspectives (even if we still decide we disagree with them). 
From what I could find, ultimately rules were changed so that the onus is on customs to prove that works they are seizing are "obscene", rather than before the court case where it was the responsibility of the business to prove they were not (which many did not have the financial means to do repeatedly). There was not much information out there, but it seems that book censorship at the border is quite rare these days. 
I don't necessarily recommend reading this book, due to some of the extreme content in it. However, I found many of the essays and autobiographical pieces to be informative, and I liked getting a sense of people's experiences in the world.  show less

I loved the introduction to this book and find Pat Califia to be fascinating but I definitely didn't vibe with many of the stories besides the first one. Worth a read though for the history of BDSM in lesbianism.

.... I'm really not sure what to say about this book. I loved it. I wasn't all that sure I would, but WOW. Even the incest one, which I'd usually go *squick!!* and skip, even that one gripped me. I think the best way to sum up my overall reaction to this book is this: With *every single story*, I would think "OMG this is definitely my favorite!!"... until I read the next one. When every single story gets that reaction, I think I've found a very special book.

Who says sex doesn't make you think? These essays about sex and how it relates to pornography, eroticism, perversions, and prostitution do. A point of view rarely heard, from a "sex radical". A defense of consensual enjoyment.