All Comments on 'Know Who Your Friends Are'

old man with the ambition to write and of course it has to be about being a sick fuck.

Result. Dull.

The clipped pace of events and narration incorporated masses of socialogical references, and left them all stranded with no power of effect. Monogamy really isn't a natural state of humankind. It is only a safety net for polygamy and polyamory. And all of that is filled with risks. Three of five marriages end in divorce. The same stats for adultry. But when a marriage combines consensual adultry, and it works, only then is the panacea of human achievement reached. Fabulous story.

But wanted to respond to anon. I've seen many friends and acquaintances attempt "consensual aldultery." Never seen the marriage last more than 5 years. I'd place good money on the proposition that your 3/5 number spikes to 9/10 or higher for such couples. The power dynamics are just too imbalanced in such a relationship, and clearly no real attachment. . .

sorry tale. nothing more to say.

I much preferred the sparser crudity of your first story. This was wordy and overwrit...for me, this time. Keep writing.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!

Excellent story!!!

but your initial smugness turned me off

No too many polyamory stories. So many marriages end in divorce, it's hard to know if polyamory is any more to blame for the failure than cheating or just growing apart. This was a nice exposition, talking about the anger and insecurity of your spouse going to a rival. Brian would have been a deal breaker for me, it's one thing to share your wife, another to share her with someone who is fucking a lot of other woman at the same time. Too much chance of STD's.

Anyway, good to read about even though I couldnt do such a thing.

Chilley

I stopped after your smug preamble that told me you were a wimp writer.

Simply brilliant ... very descriptive, not only of the physical action but also of the inner feelings of the characters ... brings the reader right into the scene ... fantastic plot with good buildup ... a few technical errors here and there but brilliant overall ... keep it up

I would have been angry with the husband and so-called friends. To talk about swapping openly is one thing. To be seduced by your friend with your husbands permission because he was having an affair is cheating and lying. If they never discussed desires to sleep with others or getting turned on by thinking about their spouse with others, she should be pissed. I also knew that her husband was having the affair when he was staying with the friends. Her being seduced left him off the hook so he didn't have to feel guilt.

Pure shit. Sorry just didnt work.

...do you know even one man who gets a hard on as a womans name is mentioned? Apart from that this story is not believable, has no real plot and is so far from reality that it must hurt.No one would behave as your characters do.

Congrats Clear, I must say how much I have enjoyed your fictitious story. From the Author's notes to the open-ended ending. I thought that you covered the subject of Polyamory with sensitivity and clarity. Your character's unfolded their POV with smart reasoning.

Even though I personally would never have accepted such a relationship, I am not the center of the universe and other people have their own lives to live.

And my warm congratulations on the quality of your writing and how much you managed to enrage the inmates of the monkey cage.

Good story very nicely written. Talent on display

No love, no marriages, no honor, just fucked up sick people.

Only read the first page. Sometimes stories get under my skin, maybe they are too close to my own experiences or close enough they make me question my reality. I do know that life is more than living to societies expectations and if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad... I wish I lived in a reality that allowed me mental creativity to read things like this, but it throws me so off balance mentally, I cannot do it.

Do you publish your work other than here?

Well done. The multiple perspectives more or less work, which is rare.

well written, fascinating reflection.

are not friends

More like Friends with Benefits.

Spreading disease,luckily, some are fatal

I would hope no children come into these sick marriages. Mary can still escape and find a new faithful husband. Then what? John get jealous that he only has Kate occasionally while Angela has at least three men. Eventually John will leave and look for a stable woman.

This is a great story.. erotic, hot, sexy. Skilled writing and the honest, plausible depictions of real people in serious relationships who are pulled by forces they are trying to understand and control. Attraction happens to us all; what we do with it matters most to ourselves and our loved ones. I appreciate hearing the feelings of the participants in their own words. Good going!

This is a rather transparent take on cheating all wrapped up in pseudo-philosophical tissue. And not the stronger two-ply stuff, but the one-ply. Does any sane person use one-ply? Really!! That stuff should come with a latex glove.

One thing that would go a long way in providing a shred of depth or honesty in the justifications, observations, and other mental ephemera present in writing such as this would be a broader context for relationships, sex, and marriage. If there is a writer capable of doing so in the last five or ten stories that this reader has consumed it would be this one.

There is a convincing verneer of subtlety in the rendering of this story. This writer could have probably provided the aforementioned context and still kept the sex alive in the storyline. But it didn't happen that way.

Just because most people seem to be trashing their marriages doesn't mean the institution should get the blame. And the same for monogamy. It's very easy for glib talkers to wax on about how unfeasible monogamy is, but far far more difficult to develop an understanding of the mysteries that permeate sexual attraction - secreted, as it is, right into the very marrow of the human physical constitution - and how it has always been the object of wise oversight in any civilisation worthy of the name. That isn't a moral observation as much as a logical, even binary one.

Anyone who is forty or fifty years old knows how easy it is to run off half-cocked in some way of thinking or other for months or even years at a time - something that later on makes the same mind, now wiser, cringe. Well, listen to these characters say it themselves! These protagonists well admit what a mental circus it is to manage these flitting, sexual relationships.

But why the need to get so wrapped up in a situation like the one described in this story? Do unimaginative people simply need excitement if not outright mayhem to stay interested in life? Surely, something else more subtle in the substance of human marital relationships might get crowded out of consideration. Ya think?

And why is it that writers feel that to even mention the word "insecurity" is a free pass to credibility of some sort? One wishes that all of this "insecurity" bullshit psychology would finally go the way of that horrid, gouhlish Freidan.

Behind all the "insecurity" that people hate is blood, sperm, and testosterone, and families, children, and something else: Salvation. For ten thousand years nobody would have ever tried to contradict that. Until now, that is. Yes, we live in an age of despicable abstractors and their abstractions.

The writer expended quite a bit of natural talent on this promotional for craziness, and for that some credit is deserved. But even a small dose of 1970's paperback feminist psychology can stink things up.

What he said. Ridiculous premise leads to another poor story.

Really well written. The characters were very realistic. And I didn’t think you were smug, I simply thought you were being frank and truthful.

As long as everyone is aware of what is going on, and accepting it, I see no issues, other than the normal built-in reluctance, brought on by our early years of being taught what's right and wrong.

pure shit and totally unbelievable. If someone believes the characters are realistic I suggest they change their meds, see a new doctor or prepare for hell, because sane people do not act this way, think this way, feel this way, and at some point will turn on you.

Blecch. Don't like the characters either. Oh well ...

It's well written and all the motivations are explained, but I have a hard time liking or even rooting for any of the characters. Brian to me seems the most boorish and insincere but they all are very flawed. Swinging can never be this congenial in the long term.