Viennese Sex Hotline To Help Library

By YourTango Admin posted May 9th 2007 12:20PM

Was her corset made of velvet?!

From Der Spiegel

A novel idea for municipal fundraising involves an Austrian actress reading from works of erotic literature.

For the benefit of lonely people who hide with old books in the rear stacks -- or anyone who likes literate smut -- Vienna City Hall now runs an "Eros-hotline" to benefit its main library.

Through May callers can pay €0.39 (53 US cents) per minute to hear an actress read from classic and modern erotic literature. Anne Bennent, an Austrian stage and film star, reads passages from the library's so-called "Secreta" collection of erotic fiction from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Callers will hear hot and heavy passages from German-language writers like Hans Carl Artmann, Annemarie Weber and Ferdinand Lasalle; or writers in German translation like Anaïs Nin.

Tango’s Take
Well, it is for a good cause. This seems like a bit of a stretch though. Most bodice rippers are probably unavailable as books-on-tape (in German, no less), but $0.53 a minute is getting fairly pricey. How does someone explain to their wife (or husband) that they spent $500 listening to Anne Bennent read them erotica? “Honey, it’s for … the kids.” “Nein, it’s to hear frau Bennent get you hot and bothered.”