You could be hearing Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams in a whole new way, if you happen to be in New York on March 5. The Pinchbottom Burlesque is organizing "Naked Girls Reading Science Fiction." (NSFW pic below the fold.)

The event takes place at "the plush and decadent upstairs lounge at Madame X in Greenwich Village," and costs $25. Among the readers is Nasty Canasta, who has been known to dress up as a naughty version of both the fourth and tenth Doctors from Doctor Who. (We we wrote about the Pinchbottom Burlesque previously — link includes NSFW pics.) Tor.com attended one of their previous events, devoted to banned books, and wrote:

The effect on the crowd, mostly couples, was intoxicating. During the erotic readings, there were hoots and hollers. When Jo Boobs read a shockingly explicit passage from 1748's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, involving two women holding a third's legs wide apart for the pleasure of a young man, the catcalls came loud and fast. But during the non-erotic readings, the audience fell into rapt attention. Gal Friday's staccato, deadpan reading of American Psycho was an electric thrill of watching a broken mind at work. But the performance of the night belonged to Sapphire Jones, who read the Death of Snowden scene from Catch-22. Standing tall and straight as a lamppost, with light inflection and perfect rhythm, Sapphire evoked the bleak sorrow of Yossarian's inability to save, or even comfort, the dying Snowden beyond feebly repeating "There, there. There, there." That she was tall, trim, and not wearing a stitch of clothing meant very little by the end of her reading, compared to the stark beauty of Joseph Heller's devastating prose.


The event is an offshoot of Naked Girls Reading, a series started in Chicago and featured on various TV shows. Besides Asimov and Adams, they say featured authors will include Aldous Huxley and H.G. Wells — but here's hoping they include some female authors too, since it's a bit odd to have naked women reading only works by men. (I'd like to nominate Octavia Butler's Kindred, and maybe some Le Guin.) Images by Beau Allulli. [Pinchbottom via Broadway World]