In the beginning there was porn.
And it was probably tasteful, painted on cave walls and such.
Then man discovered paper, and printed porn was born (thank you, Larry Flynt).
Then came the Internet. We’d rather not expound on that one.

But the one high-quality element to come out of it all was Nerve.com, a site that billed itself as “literate smut,” wrangling respected figures like Norman Mailer, Joycelyn Elders, and Rick Moody to write about sex. It seemed almost redemptive?returning that Ana?s Nin je ne sais quoi to the highly oversexed Internet.

Now, just to turn the tables on us again, Nerve is in print. It hits newsstands today.

Look for photography by Nan Goldin and fiction from Robert Olen Butler. Headlines include “11th Century Raunch,” “Amy Bloom’s First Time,” and “Down With Thongs!” (and “Sex With Al Gore”).

And guys, Nerve is a lot hipper to leave on top of your copy of Playboy than Maxim is.