Letter from the Editors
Our world is filled with erotic energy.
The word erotic is loaded and, at best, ambiguous; yet, for most of us, it’s also excitatory. It elicits
sensations, memories, fantasies, an entire world that is most often submerged below the surface of our
everyday selves. But what, exactly, is erotic and what does it mean to publish a magazine dedicated to
the erotic in arts and literature?
Perhaps in contemplating the erotic, we should gaze backwards toward ancient Greece where the
concept was borne from the flutter of Eros’s wings. The word erotic comes from the Greek myth of Eros.
Eros, once a primordial force within the universe and then, in later myths, the offspring of Aphrodite and
Ares, Eros came to represent those forces of love and fertility. In part, the early myths have endured and
even transmutated from culture to culture because they capture the complexity of the human experience and distill it into simple archetypes and stories. Eros is no different. Though Eros’s origins evolved over time, he has remained a force active in the lives of all of us, igniting within us our own carnality and desire.
With this in mind, I like to think of Eros as the seat of our soul from which the most primal and sexual
parts of our natures emerge. The erotic, then, is the form in which our carnality takes shape.
When contemplating the themes of Pink Disco, I thought hard about what it means to feel that energy.
On the one hand, we could easily look at what has become commodified as sex in our society and point
to that as erotic. To some extent, this works. But I also firmly believe some of the most potent sex we
encounter is founcd in the sublime and secret whispers of our everyday lives.
Don’t get me wrong. Pink Disco welcomes latex, leather, nipple clamps, and feathers. We want to see your O face. But we also believe the most explicit sex is not an isolated act but the apex of the totality of our experience; it is a celebration of what it means to be human, to have a body, and to experience sensation.
Pink Disco, then, is a celebration of the erotic, our carnality, our bodies, and ultimately our humanness.
Come play with us.
Pink
SURPRISE!
December 21, 2023
Winter has, for me, always been the hardest season. I suspect that is true for many people. The harshness of the landscape, its bitter coldness, and its perpetual darkness is hard on the spirit. There is another way of looking at it though. We can lean in and embrace its solemnity and welcome it for what it is, an opening to understanding the darker natures of ourselves.
Of course, for many others winter is a time of celebration and beauty. It means rest. It means community. And it’s the juxtaposition of these two extremes that creates surprise. This issue’s featured art piece captures that well with its jovial spirit, its playfulness and carnality. As the artist Keira Norton explains, there’s as much of a danger as there is a devilish delight that comes from carnal pleasure. I think you’ll see a little of both of those extremes in all these pieces.
This is a fun and playful set that at times can turn and bear its fangs in a flash. It’s precisely that give and take, the teasing of it all, the pleasure and the hurt, that gives it its shape.
Indulge, but beware. Things this tender sometimes bite.
Playlist here.
Of course, for many others winter is a time of celebration and beauty. It means rest. It means community. And it’s the juxtaposition of these two extremes that creates surprise. This issue’s featured art piece captures that well with its jovial spirit, its playfulness and carnality. As the artist Keira Norton explains, there’s as much of a danger as there is a devilish delight that comes from carnal pleasure. I think you’ll see a little of both of those extremes in all these pieces.
This is a fun and playful set that at times can turn and bear its fangs in a flash. It’s precisely that give and take, the teasing of it all, the pleasure and the hurt, that gives it its shape.
Indulge, but beware. Things this tender sometimes bite.
Playlist here.
Visual Art
Judgement
Fiction
Deviation
Poetry
A Sudden Wind
Askance
A Buckle of Steel
The Little Cunt
Zejel
Black Granite
The Weight
The Taste of the Living Ocean
Mark (Winter, 1978)
My Wife’s Daughter
Mint Choloclate Chip
Boys Being Boys
Hallmark Hubby
