Eros Exotica

At the airport, Clara did not cry. She felt something more useful than grief — a kind of radiant clarity, as if someone had cleaned a window she'd forgotten was dirty.

• Film: Watch The Lickerish Quartet (1970) by Radley Metzger; Emmanuelle (1974) directed by Just Jaeckin; or the erotic works of Walerian Borowczyk.
• Photography: Look for the books of Helmut Newton (especially his "Big Nudes" series, which turn women into exotic architecture) and Guy Bourdin (whose fashion ads are violent, erotic, and utterly alien).
• Music: Play Martin Denny’s Quiet Village or Les Baxter’s Ritual of the Savage. Close your eyes and imagine the album cover—it is the sound of Eros Exotica.
• Literature: Read Anaïs Nin’s Delta of Venus, specifically the stories set in non-Western locales like "The Bengali" or "The Mousetrap."

She leaned into his palm.