Pornucopia, a 1989 Piers Anthony porn novel

Did you know that science fiction author Piers Anthony — best known for writing the Xanth series — also wrote porn? According to his web site, he has written two adults-only erotic novels, Pornucopia and The Magic Fart. The subject of Pornucopia came up last night; that it's about a guy whose superpower is the immunity to venereal disease. Here's a summary from Amazon:

Pornucopia is a picaresque black comedy that transgresses all bounds of everyday good taste. It begins in a near-future world where sex-vending machines and genital transplants are taken for granted.
Prior Gross, the hero and sex object of this wild adventure, thinks his fantasies have all come true when a beautiful young woman seduces him on a public beach. She turns out to be a succubus, beginning his initiation into a realm populated by demons that are not merely horned, but horny. He encounters a perverse cast of characters that includes a satyr, a vampire, and a pair of luscious sisters, one of whom tricks him out of his manhood.
So Prior Gross sets out on a perverse odyssey, taking him to a distant planet where he discovers the key to the return of his property and, ultimately, the origin of the universe itself.

And a few words, supposedly written by Anthony on the inside flap of the book, via one fan site:

...In 1969 Essex House was publishing some highly fantastic erotica, and I though I'd try my hand.
I started Pornucopia [as 3.97 Erect] that year--and quit a month later when the publisher shut down the line. My sexy market had been yanked out from under me just when I was getting hot! Later I recovered and completed the effort in 1970, my fourteenth novel. Now, after almost twenty years and considerable struggle, it is my seventy-fourth published book.
I try to do the best job I can do of whatever I do do. Here I was trying for something truly fascinating, outrageous, erotic and funny, as a challenge. I oppose censorship, and I feel the erotic urge should be considered healthy and fun, not obscene. I do have limits: you will find no sado-masochism. If there are any other erotic or scatologic taboos I have not gleefully parodied, I regret it; I plead a sheltered life.
However, in the interim I have developed a considerable juvenile readership, and I don't want my young readers to get in trouble. This novel is therefore being published and marketed for an exclusively adult audience, and may still shock and disgust many. Be warned: this is not Xanth. But those who want their minds wickedly stretched, read on.

Piers Anthony official web site
Pornucopia on Amazon

I'm a contributing editor here at Boing Boing. I also have a blog (TokyoMango), a book (Urawaza), and I freelance for Wired, Make, the NY Times Magazine, PRI's Studio360, etc. I'm @tokyomango on Twitter.

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slamorte

It’s not just Anthony. Also check out Richard Adam’s (of Watership Down fame) novel Maia. Hot! =D
elfspice

i used to be a huge fan of piers anthony novels in my teens, from about 13 or 14 until about 18 i must have read about 30 of his books. one of my favourite things about them was his lurid erotic scenes, i mean, they weren’t quite so outright and in your face as regular porn literature, but it certainly got my teenage brain excited. i remember in the phase (can’t remember the name of them exactly, it’s about a planet with a parallel reality coexisting) books in particular one about a shape shifting amoeba woman was particularly exciting.
- arielariel
  
  Exactly this! I read his books, even Xanth, knowing FULL WELL it was a good place for my budding 13 year old mind to read something dirty. I particularly remember the part of the Xanth books around Dolph and Electra (? — the ones centered around The Color of her Panties) and all of the panty talk as incredibly…INTERESTING.
  
  Way more interesting than the romance novels I otherwise had access too, as well, I have to say — I don’t think I could call them feminist, exactly, but definitely more exciting for my 13-year-old girl self for more reasons than just the porny parts.
Coherent

I have always thought very well of Piers Anthony for having the balls to put erotic images and concepts in his writing. Even, yes, underage sexuality. My youth was filled with sexual discovery: Sex isn’t something you discover magically at 12, or 14, or 18 by someone flipping a switch in your body. For me, the introduction to sexuality was a journey that started at 6 years of age and continued to flourish until maturity. The idea that children are sexless is a myth. It’s perpetuated by those who would prefer to forget how sexuality gently pervades our lives, from our conception until our death.

So I’ll always think fondly of Piers Anthony for putting himself out there by including titillation or more in his young adult stories and novels. As a young reader, I very much appreciated it.
deckard68

Linda Jaivin’s “Rock n Roll Babes From Outer Space” is really good. She’s better known as the author of “Eat Me”. And for the collector who loves pursuits with slim chances of success, if you are very lucky you may find a rare promo CD — http://tinyurl.com/2dslzt5 — of music based on the book…by the band that inspired the book.
Anonymous

Heh, even Roald Dahl wrote erotic fiction, including, and I’m not making this up, a penis expansion story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch_Bitch
senorglory

http://www.hipiers.com/newsletter.html

Piers Anthony’s July (“Jewel-Lye”) newsletter indicates that he was forwarded a link to this post, and that he thoughtfully read both the post and the comments. He takes gentle exception to comment #40 above, but gives his own comment and compliment to #43 above.

Thought you guys would be interested.
ian71

This novel looks like a good bit of fun. Then again, it’s not my mind that I’m used to getting wickedly stretched. :)
Anonymous

My copy of Pornucopia doesn’t have a dust jacket, so I can’t confirm the words quoted on the fan site, but it’s similar to the Author’s Note in the paperback version.

Pornucopia is amazing! I’ve read it three or four times. It includes succubi, detachable penis attachments, demons, and many other joyful things. And lots of sex. Try and find a copy if you can, it’s worth it.
Anonymous

I like that we’re hearing about Pornucopia, but I think I would prefer to have heard about The Magic Fart, for what are obviously mature and thoughtful reasons.

Fart.
knoxblox

I enjoyed the Xanth novels so much, I think I’ll try this out.

If I lived in Xanth, my power would have been the ability to avoid being corrupted by money…by being eternally broke.
Anonymous

Good lord, I’m surprised that nobody mentioned “Firefly”. While not strictly a porn (more of a porn/scifi/horror) it has more than enough to qualify.
Anonymous

If you’re shocked by this, do not read his Bio of a Space Tyrant series, or Apprentice Adept series, or his Tarot series… Xanth is actually kind of out of character compared with his other books. And showing your parents Xanth is a good way to sneak the other books by them– “No, mom, it’s appropriate! It’s by Piers Anthony!”
- jockmac22
  
  The Xanth series is how I got a hold of FireFly when I was 15. It was a big joke between me and my cousin cause our parents thought we were reading something akin to Vale of the Vole … if they only knew.
Anonymous

I was introduced to Piers Anthony by the Incarnations of Immortality. Coming off that series Pornucopia and The Magic Fart were a good laugh and didn’t seem out of place at all.
arkizzle / Moderator

I read this when I was around 14. Along with “Firefly”, which has some pretty far out erotic stuff, including a long, graphic depiction of very underage sex. It’s weirdy weirdy weird, and as I was underage at the time, it was a bit.. weird.

I love Piers Anthony, but he definitely pushes the limits in some places (which is funny, because so much of his work is light hearted).
- Anonymous
  
  Wow. I mean, if the guy didn’t write so much about cross species sex, with unicorns, and winged centaurs and the like, one might think that his “underage” sex, with pre-pubescents was actually pedophilia. Wait….
Rob Knop

I haven’t read a lot of Anthony’s stuff. Read the first few Xanth novels in high school (but only the first three). Read “Cluster” in college upon a recommendation from the friend. I was underwhelmed by “Cluster”, but my observation was that despite being science fiction, it was fundamentally porn. The plot could be summarized as “come up with a reason why our protagonist has to occupy as many diverse and strange alien bodies as possible so that we can describe the sex act in as many geometries as possible.”
Anonymous

Didn’t he write “In the Barn” for Again Dangerous Visions? About a visit to another dimension where mindless human women with enormous breasts are bred for dairy animals. This leads to something close to bestiality, graphically described.

Since this is the first thing of his I read, I’ve always had a different view of him…
Brainspore

Is it technically “porn” (as opposed to “erotica”) if it doesn’t have pictures?
alisong76

“However, in the interim I have developed a considerable juvenile readership”

The Magic Fart’s not juvenile?

(I’d totally read it).
musicman

Yeah, I’m pretty sure there were sex scenes in the series Apprentice Adept, Bio of a Space Tyrant and Incarnations of Immortality from memory.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’m pretty sure there were sex scenes in the series Apprentice Adept, Bio of a Space Tyrant and Incarnations of Immortality from memory.
  
  Don’t forget that Melody of Mintaka kicked that dude’s foot off and fled the scene.
Anonymous

Heres an interesting question what do you consider most suprising?

All the sex and nudity and sexual situations that he wrote in his books OR that you know about all the sex and nudity and sexual situations in his books as you have read them and continued to read them after the first few lines where you could make out what he was writing about?
SKR

I checked out his website to confirm and was stunned to find out that he is still writing Xanth. I stopped reading them when I hit high school and now that is only about a third of the way through the series. That’s quite impressive.
knodi

Wait, you’re telling me the author of the classic children’s book “The Color Of Her Panties” wrote porn? Shocking!

Most of his books are full to the brim with nudity, underwear fetish, underage sex, and rampant sexual harassment. The covers of half his books feature coed nudity… Tatham Mound features a main character named “Bear Penis.” I could go on and on… This man is a brilliant writer of popcorn fantasy, and he’s a raging pervert.

That’s okay, but this post is hardly shocking, and it’s definitely not worth of the “can you believe it?!?” tone. There are lots of pornographic novels, and there are lots of pervy writers, and look, here’s one. Ta-Da.
Anonymous

No sado masochism? I guess he saved all his S&M for Bio of a Space Tyrant. Thanks to Bio of A Space Tyrant, most of the naughtier bits of the internet seemed fairly tame once Al Gore finished inventing it… well except for 2G1C and Goatse… ok and a lot of that Hentai stuff, Piers didn’t really cover that tentacle stuff.
allen

I haven’t read this, and maybe it’s well done? But this seems like a good place and time to register a deeply held belief that many sci-fi / fantasy writers would do well to either get MUCH better at writing erotica, or just leave it out of their books.
Galoot

Read “Anthonology,” then tell me you’re surprised.
Anonymous

NOT SUPRISING AT ALL.

Next youre telling me Heinlen begged his wife for a threesome every night they were married.
Anonymous

I am not surprised. Peers Anthony is after all the writer with the human-cow sex story in ‘Again Dangerous Visions’.
wylkyn

I remember Piers’ work fondly from my youth, but it is difficult to read him now without wincing a little. What my horny teenage brain thought was awesome and exciting, my adult brain thinks is a bit creepy and sad.

Ah, to be young again…
Anonymous

Something of note: Piers Anthony’s first published novel, Chthon, had some erotic / S&M themes.. it’s about girls (called Minionette’s) who experience pain as pleasure and about a guy who gets sent to a subterranean prison world for loving one of them.
DavLaurel

Anybody remember his “The Bridge”?
Halloween Jack

Someone else here that’s not surprised at all by this, after skimming through Firefly. When I heard that there was going to be an SF TV series by the same name, I was pretty skeeved out until I found out that it was actually going to be a space western by Joss Whedon.
JDMcDonnell

The Magic Fart.

Wow, after half a lifetime of uttering words in seemingly random combinations, I have come upon a combination of three simple words which I know I have never thought or uttered or scribbled down until now.

The Magic Fart.

It’s what puff the magic dragon lets loose after gorging himself on five alarm chili and vienna wieners.

And if it’s anything other than this then I just don’t want to know.
Antinous / Moderator

Die Zauberfurz?
- The Mudshark
  
  Almost. Der Zauberfurz.
lesbianjesus

I’m sure bio of a space tyrant, after the first trilogy was actually full of S&M with pubescent and some kind of immersive sex with stuff inserted in every orifice, mind you I haven’t read it in 15 or years.

Then he had some other book that was focused on a tree in a backyard or something that was all pedophilia.
Dewi Morgan

Heh – I know the feeling of surprise expressed in the OP, though: I was surprised at reading Samuel R Delaney’s “The Tides of Lust” cos I’d always thought of him as a sci-fi author.

That’s another one with very underage sex in.

I feel kinda guilty about leaving it, along with the rest of my porn stash, in the hospice drop-box when I reduced my life down to two suitcases.
Noah Tall

I have this, and it boring as it can be. I have no idea how a writer as capable, sometimes brilliant, as P.A. can make having a multi-function, interchangeable penis seem like a bad idea.
Anonymous

I tried to read one of his books…the writing was so bad i had to cleanse it with Latin tomes. i imagine he is a very creative, plot driven writer, but the words themselves are SOOOOO bad.

Just goes to show that the value of free education is sometimes the equivalent of McDonalds.
SamSam

There was plenty of mild erotica in his Incarnations of Immortality series, including S&M and other stuff. I always imagined him as a bit of an old perv.

I really liked Incarnations of Immortality, but I could never stand his Afterwords in the books, where he talked about his life and stuff. It really put me off him. Of course, I could have just skipped them, but I was a voracious reader as a kid and would read any part of a book, especially after just finishing a story and not wanting it to end.
Anonymous

The sex scenes in most of his books played a prominent role in my puberty. I remember his extra-surreal books Chthon and Phthor had especially saucy bits that were perpetually book marked.

*cough*
baxterdog

As a young atheist (8), On a Pale Horse, was a thought provoking read. A supernatural being comes across a dying woman (was it a woman? it has been almost almost 25 year!) in a bathtub, and attempts to grab her soul at the end of her life. Her lifeforce sifts through the fingers as the sould does not believe in any afterlife.

The moment I read that was as mind blowing as the first time I read the premise posited by many, including Pascal, that the odds were better to believe in a God. (Still an atheist, but a thoughtful, philosophical one)
Anonymous

PA is a fine writer and a fine writer can do fine pr0n if he/she/it wants to.

I’m looking forward to reading this.
Anonymous

I love the pervy old scifi, from Sturgeon to Heinlein to Clarke, but Anthony always seemed — off. Firefly’s most disturbing scene makes no sense.

The other guys did realistic, fumbly, dirty, hot sex. Good and bad, it reflects the complexity of sexuality.

Anthony seemed to have a simplistic, childish ‘how can I refuse?’ attitude, that actually contained “She was asking for it.” Given that his Marty Stu always managed to refuse other things she asked for, this rings hollow.
Dewi Morgan

Thanks for the pointer to the newsletter. There’s a lot to like, I think, about him as a person. Like, him being a computer geek tickles my soft spot for geeks :)

I’m gonna keep an eye out for more books by him, I think: I’ve read almost none. I do hope he finds a publisher for the book he mentions, but otherwise, I hope he self-publishes.