Marco Vassi

Marco Ferdinand William Vasquez-d'Acugno Vassi (November 6, 1937 in New York City – January 14, 1989, in New York City) was an American experimental thinker and author, most noted for his erotica. He wrote fiction and nonfiction, publishing hundreds of short stories, articles, more than a dozen novels, and at least one play, "The Re-Enactment," (under the name of Fred Vassi) at the Caffe Cino in January 1966.[1] Many of his works appeared as "Anonymous" in their first printings. In his study of modern erotic literature, critic Michael Perkins said that "it is not .. (Vassi's) imagination but the power of his ideas that make him the most interesting figure in recent erotic literature."[2] He is most often compared to Henry Miller, has been called the greatest erotic writer of his time and "foremost of his generation," and praised by Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Saul Bellow, and Kate Millett.

Biography

Vassi was born and lived most of his life in New York City. He was married three times, but was well known for sexual, drug, and alternative-lifestyle experimentation.[3][4][5] He viewed life as the theory and practice of liberation, an exploration of being sexual, that is an all-sexual being, bisexual, and homosexual.[6][7] Vassi coined the term metasex, which meant any sex outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage.[8] He once wrote in Beyond Bisexuality:

When one transcends male-female dualism, eroticism becomes susceptible of a more subtle mathematical understanding. For each number, there is a different and unique quality of consciousness, and no one is intrinsically superior to any of the others. ... It is also fascinating to wonder whether *zero,* or metacelibacy, may be seen not as a renunciation but as an embrace of all metasex ...

The introduction of the metasexual paradigm is no less a shift in the history of our evolving understanding. The vast majority of the species has not seen past the conditioned strictures of the number *two.* And even those in the vanguard, having their orgies, still operate from the standpoint of a male-female dualism. The most sophisticated among them proclaim themselves bisexuals, not aware that this is the dead-end of that particular tunnel vision. The only way out is to go within to heal the internal split. A monad has no gender.

His biography in the book PoMoSexuals: challenging assumptions about gender and sexuality[9] states, in part: "Marco Vassi was a literary avatar of the sexual revolution. He was deeply attuned to the politics of sex and sexual orientation, as well as the intersection of sex and spirituality. In his writing, as in his life (until his AIDS diagnosis), he explored fearlessly, bringing back dispatches from sexual frontiers most people never visited."

Vassi helped found the alternative media thinktank RainDance in 1969.[10][11]

Although most of Vassi's fiction were in the genre of erotic fiction, his final novel (The Other Hand Clapping) was mainstream fiction and praised by New York Times which called it a "novel of intricate intelligence, tremendously witty and well constructed, with a plot whose tiny, focused center is like the eye of a hurricane.".[12] About this final novel, critic Hapax Legomenon noted that "(i)n many ways it is Vassi's most conventional novel – a psychological portrait of a married couple in crisis. Not sexually explicit in the least, it still simmers with sexual tension. It is contemplative but still has drama and twists."[13]

He died January 14, 1989, from pneumonia due to AIDS. According to the writer John Heidenry, despite his erotic explorations and adventuring, Vassi was tragically unable to sustain a love relationship, and died alone, with only the care of his former girlfriend Annie Sprinkle. Marco is survived by his son Eric Van Johnson.

Publishing history

His works have been reissued by numerous publishers over the years. In 1992, The Vassi Collection, a definitive ten-volume set of his works from Permanent Press, was published.

Published works

Novels
  • The Gentle Degenerates (1972)
  • The Saline Solution (1972)
  • Contours of Darkness (1972)
  • Mind Blower (1972)
  • In Touch (1975: Manor Books Inc, NY)
  • Couples, Loving Couples (1977)
  • The Erotic Comedies (1981)
  • Lying Down: The Horizontal Worldview (1984)
  • The Other Hand Clapping (1987)
  • A Driving Passion (1992)
  • Play Time (1992)
  • The Sensual Mirror (1992)
  • Tackling the Team (1993) Originally published in 1974 under the title Pro Ball Groupie.
  • Devil's Sperm Is Cold (1993)
  • Slave Lover (1993)

Autobiography
  • The Stoned Apocalypse (1973)

Collections
  • Metasex, Mirth and Madness: Erotic Tales of the Absurdly Real. Penthouse Press. (1975). This was later republished under the title Erotic Comedies.
  • The Wonderful World of Penthouse Sex (1976) (editor)
  • Erotica from Penthouse (1990)

Nonfiction
  • Pushing Ink: The Fine Art of Tattooing (1979)

Bibliography
  • Heidenry, John (1997) What Wild Ecstasy: the rise and fall of the sexual revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster. Reviewed by Robert Christgau in The New York Times, April 27, 1997.

References
  1. Stone, Wendell C. (2005). Caffe Cino: The Birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway. SIU Press. p. 102. ISBN 9780809388318. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  2. Perkins, Michael (1992). The Secret Record : Modern Erotic Literature. Rhinoceros Books. p. 237. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  3. Smart, Paul (December 9, 2018). "The Woodstock Flaneur". Hudson Valley One. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  4. Farber, David; Bailey, Beth (2003). The Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s. Columbia University Press. p. 139. ISBN 9780231518079. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  5. Lojo, Martin (March 22, 2013). "El deseo es una amenaza, por eso rara vez cedemos a él". La Nacion (in Spanish). Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  6. Collopy, Peter Sachs (August 21, 2012). "Cyber-Utopianism before the Internet". Medium.com. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  7. Lloyd, Carroll (May 7, 1997). "Look back in lust, A review of Sexplorations by Anka Radakovich and What Wild Ecstasy by John Heidenry". Salon.com. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  8. Lilly, John C.; Lilly, Antonietta (1976). The Dyadic Cyclone: The Autobiography of a Couple. Simon & Schuster. p. 98. ISBN 9780671222185. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  9. Edited by Carol Queen and Lawrence Schimmel; San Francisco: Cleis Press ISBN 1-57344-074-4
  10. Boyle, Deirdre (1997). Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited. Oxford University Press. p. 11. ISBN 9780195364590. Retrieved August 31, 2019. marco vassi RainDance.
  11. "Raindance Corporation". Experimental TV Center. May 16, 2011. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  12. Coale, Howard (Feb 14, 1988). "In Short: Fiction (Book Review)". New York Times. Section 7: New York Times. p. 20. Retrieved 23 April 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  13. Legomenon, Hapax. "Erotic Worlds of Marco Vassi". Existential Smut Book Website. Ripe Mango Take Two Press. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
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