Muscle Growth's originators

[Esperanto Lives]

It strikes me as interesting that a lot of things unique to the whole muscle growth fetish are actually older than the 20th Century.

To be clear: there are always stories of muscle growth, but what I find most interesting are the stories where such growth is presented in unambiguously erotic terms. That is, though the Incredible Hulk story has muscle growth, it isn't a muscle growth story in the way we mean the term, because the story doesn't invite us to intentionally see the Hulk as "sexy," or his growth as "sexual."

One is the great turn-of-the-century adventure novelist, mostly forgotten today, Robert Ames Bennet. (Doesn't that just scream made-up man name a woman would use? ) I've always felt a kinship to Robert Ames Bennet, because she's like me, clearly a lady with a tooth for beefcake.

In most of Bennet's stories, there's always a bigger than average muscular strongman that is the most sexualized, desirable of the group. In THYRA, ROMANCE OF THE POLAR PIT, there was Thord, a big arctic explorer. Then there was the Irish bruiser in DUST OF CEREBUS, who was openly desired as a stallion because of his size by the women in the novel.

Robert Ames Bennet was a strange one, that's for sure: writing adventure stories under a man's name, she was also a "Christian Socialist," a member of the Christian Left...a very weird turn-of-the-century animal that went extinct.

Then there too is Thomas Burnett Swann and his DAY OF THE MINOTAUR, written in the early 1960s. He gives us a "sexy" and heroic minotaur, a big hard-pec stud with trapezius like a city bus on either side of his neck. I always thought that was interesting, because he sexualized a monster decades before Anne Rice, and certainly years before this forum could come along and do erotic stories of muscular furries and vampires.

Something about DAY OF THE MINOTAUR strikes me as so very, well, "internet-ish." I guess it's the way Swann realized people find sexy things they're afraid of. And Swann told the occasionally graphic, erotic adventures of Dryads, Nymphs and Bee-People years before Rule 34 of the Internet.

"Rule 34: There is porn of it. No exceptions!"

The introduction of Eunostos, the last minotaur, always reminded me of the scene in Jean Cocteau's film version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, where Beauty demanded the Beast step into the light so she can see him. When he did so and stood revealed, Beauty made a face that could be either fear or orgasm.

Thomas Burnett Swann is a much more important figure in the history of what we today call "fantasy" than he is given credit for being. These days, LORD OF THE RINGS has emerged as the singularly important fantasy work, but it must be remembered that in the early days, LORD OF THE RINGS was one among many books in a weird fantasist movement that nobody had, as yet, even given a name to, including THE WORM OROBOUROS, A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, Dusany's GODS OF PEGANA...and yes, Thomas Burnett Swan's stuff.

[ts1976]

Very interesting! Thanks for that EL!

[Username3]

Call me stupid, but I had no idea

[Bilderi]

This ir really, really interesting. I had no idea either. And now I have to get my hands on the aforementioned works.

For the sake of fairness though, I too believe that there were a lot of fantasy books alongside The Lord Of The Rings but the weight that Tolkien's work carries is basically that of a systematically and meticulously crafted fantasy world that would fulfill his desire for a more elaborate english mythology. But again this does not mean it's the only good or important work.

[ClarkSavageJr]

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We can always count on you for some historical insight. Thanks, Espy!