critical pieces to say that something is not what it seems at first glance. However, if ever this statement is true, it is true for “Dino Park After Dark,” a twenty page novella written by Christie Sims and Alara Branwen.
The surface narrative of “Dino Park” concerns Maria, an employee of the Dino Park. After some world building, which establishes what amounts to the universe of “Jurassic Park,” we learn that Maria is responsible for the plesiosaur, an aquatic reptile from the Mesozoic Period. We also learn that Maria is so dedicated to her job that she has no time for romance. As she dumps bucket after bucket of chum down the animal’s throat, her body becomes more and more tired as the ancient monster demands ever increasing amounts of food.
Eventually she slips into the tank. Her body is too weak to lift herself out, so she dumps her soggy clothes to decrease her weight. Still, she is too weak to escape, and the plesiosaur mates with her against her will. A janitor masturbates in the stands. He will be important later.
Of course, Maria comes to enjoy the plesiosaur’s assault, because this is a porno and that’s how these things work.
Maria functions in this piece as the perfect male chauvinist fantasy. She exists solely to feed the man in her life, in this case a colossal sea beast. When the man’s hunger is satisfied she services his sexual desires without very much resistance. She learns to enjoy fulfilling the plesiosaur’s needs, or at least to grin and bear it while she fulfills them.
Maria endures physical danger and hardship, both in her job and as a sex object for the gigantic animal.
Meanwhile, an unhelpful janitor is in the stands, yanking his salami like a frustrated butcher. The janitor, named Jim, raises some interesting moral questions. He knows he should help Maria out of the pool, and yet he is compelled to seek his own pleasure first, even at the expense of another person.
This challenges the reader; are we obligated to take action to help others, even if we stand to benefit from their suffering? Are you obligated to clean up after yourself after public masturbation? Probably so. The moral landscape of this story is not terribly complex.
“Dino Park After Dark” is stupid. It is so very stupid. It is so stupid that I am actually angry that someone spent money so that I could read this thing.
If I could go back in time and tell myself not to read it and do literally anything else instead, I would, despite the potential time paradoxes that might result. I would never ever recommend that anyone read this, even if the lives of innocent people depended on it.
