Fetish · an Anthology

At some point, we all crave something. That craving -- an unnatural longing -- can be as innocuous as a strong desire for chocolate or a cigarette. Chinese food. Crocodile leather heels. An angora sweater. But at the heart of all intense desires lie impulses heavy with psychosexual implications. This anthology, put together by New York cultural hipster John Yau, explores some of the more extreme variations on this theme. Many of the stories in Fetish are wildly funny -- absurd to those of us with a 'normal' mindset -- and others expose readers to a psychic underbelly, at once menacing and intriguing. Many appear here in print for the first time.

Sex with corpses, John Yau's feet, SM bars, and magical aerosol sprays are discussed -- in depth -- algongside pederasty, unfulfilled and unfulfillable longings, aching for lost love, and dreaming of a body not one's own.

But the stories in Fetish are not just about sex: you don't have to be a pervert to be a fetishist. A fetish is something we worship, a magical totem. Recent films such as Fetishes , Female Perversions , Kissed , and Crash suggest the wider public's growing interest in fetishism. Eric Kroll's best-selling photography book Fetish is a further example, as is the media's fascination with fetishists from Susie Bright and Robert Mapplethorpe to Imelda Marcos and Howard Hughes.

Fetish is outrageous, at turns funny, sad, and provocative. It is a sparkling collection of unfettered work by some of today's most interesting writers.