The Home for the Literarily Bent
Archive for July, 2009
Flogging
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Flogging front cover
by Joseph W. Bean
Published in 2000 by Greenery Press
The foreword to Flogging begins, “You cannot learn flogging – Top or bottom – from a book.” While many might find that a curious claim for a book that sets about teaching the art of flogging, that forthright admission is fine evidence of this book’s value.
Covering everything from negotiation, positioning, types of floggers, techniques, managing the scene, aftercare, toy care, and all points in between in detail, Bean offers a comprehensive guide that gives one the tools they need to explore the world of flogging.
My only complaint with this book is the heavy use of narrative scene interludes to emphasize the instructional text. While a standard format for BDSM technique books, it distracts from a book’s narrative flow. I wish I knew who was responsible for starting this trend in the genre so I could make them pay dearly for the literary agony their legacy has inflicted on me. (Actually, I do know who shoulders the blame for this. Though I haven’t read or reviewed that book yet, I will eventually. While I promise to read that book with an open and unbiased mind, I feel confident I’ll excoriate them appropriately.) Bean’s narratives describe flogging scenes in detail, and he references them frequently in his instructional text. If these scenes and their references were omitted, the finished work would be a pamphlet and not a book.
While Bean clearly knows his topic, I can’t escape the feeling that using a different format would have allowed him to cover it in greater depth and scope which is a shame. My complaint aside, Flogging is an essential reference that anyone who wishes to explore the erotic possibilities of flagellation will be well served to read.
The Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society
02 years ago
The Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society front cover
by Hugh Jones
Published in 1965 by Brandon House
This early representative of the pseudo-sociological exposé is a tough one to review for a couple of reasons. First, unlike many books of this genre that followed, this book does a fairly good job of selling the notion that it is reporting the unvarnished truth. Second, it somehow manages to straddle the imaginary exploitation line of simultaneously condemning and glamorizing the people it mentions.
The first clue that the “facts” we’re about to be introduced to may not be on the up and up, is that the foreword was penned by the imminent pseudo-psychiatrist Dr. Leathem. The appearance of a byline featuring the extraordinarily prolific Dr. Leathem is fair warning that you’re leaving the hallowed halls of the academia to peer through the glory hole in the men’s room stall.
Jones begins by explaining what a fetish is. Surprisingly, rather than suggest that having a fetish is in and of itself clear evidence that one is pathological, Jones takes the position (notably progressive for its time) that a having a fetish may or may not require psychiatric intervention.
Each chapter is devoted to a particular fetish and the book is devoted to the most common fetishes. Oddly, even though this book covers 15 or so fetish categories it is notably thin on lurid details, kinky or otherwise.
The standout chapter in this one is the one devoted to a tight jeans fetish. I’ve read about lots of fetishes (including some that make even me – and likely Jones too if he were familiar with them – cringe) and have never encountered a fetish for tight pants. Don’t get me wrong, there’s likely no bigger booster of hip huggers worn on the right hips than myself, I just never contemplated them as fetish wear per se.
That isn’t why I found this chapter so interesting though. Rather what made it fun to read was that rather than relay accounts from the perspective of a man that enjoyed tight pants, Jones wrote this chapter from the perspective of girls who enjoy the attention they get as a result of wearing them. As the story goes, a certain manufacturer sends out samples of the newest styles to select clubs of girls around the country. The girls then sit around and discuss the merits of the pants and report their thoughts back to the manufacturer. I suspect that the dynamic was supposed to mimic Beatles fan clubs and the like. It’s priceless at any rate.
At the end of the book, Jones includes a selected bibliography that lists most of the famous psychological books about fetishes. This was a nice touch that helps sell the notion that the book is reporting the facts. Unfortunately, I’m still not buying it.
Given the year when this book was published, it’s not too surprising that the book plays coy. Publishers had to be careful to keep their material above board lest they face jail time. Still, this book plays it too safe and fails to either educate or titillate.
If you want vivid, heart pounding erotica, this is not the book for you. But as an early time capsule of erotica disguised as educational material, The Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society is a winner.
Perversion and Beyond
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Perversion and Beyond front cover
by Robert H. Sheldon
Published in 1968 by Viceroy Books
I approached this book with a bit of trepidation and uncertainty that I’d be able to finish it. Not because I don’t like perversion. Those who know me well would vouch for my deep affinity for perversion. My uncertainty arose because the back cover features the word “incest” in large type and that is one of the few perversions I cannot abide by. However, only the first chapter is devoted to that topic and it is thankfully short.
I had hoped the book would take me for a shocking journey into the recesses of the depraved sexual mind. Instead, I journeyed back in time, specifically San Francisco in the 60s at the height of hippie culture.
Having been born after the 60s, and having parents who were anything but counterculture, it’s sometimes hard to relate to the turmoil and confusion of the Vietnam era. While I often hear people who lived through 60s talk about sweeping social revolutions and the incumbent fears that they produced, it usually comes across as self-aggrandizement. Old hippies can claim that they ended the war in Vietnam all they want, but they’re full of shit. I’m certain the Vietcong weren’t sitting around in their tunnels hoping that the next “Love In” was going to be the one that put the peace movement over the top.
But I digress. Good exploitation takes the worst fears of the middle class and puts them on garish display. By that standard, this book is an example great exploitation. (The implied bestiality didn’t hurt matters either.) Most of the tales follow the sexual exploits of outsiders, be they bikers, hippies, the young, blacks, and so on. I can imagine the various exploits of sex and drugs would make the average middle class Midwestern hausfrau flip her wig.
Readers with modern sensitivities may find themselves shocked by some of the racist language in the book. While I learned a new slur “ofay” (a slang term for crackers like myself), it’s not one that I’m likely to ever use. Oh, there’s a lots of uses of the “nigger” thrown in the mix too, and their use is particularly humorous when it’s used immediately before touting someone’s virtues.
If you want an accurate historical document of sexual outsiders, I can’t really recommend Perversion and Beyond, but if you want perversion and/or insight into the fears of the middle class during the end of the 60’s, you can’t go wrong with this book.
It Isn’t A Sin
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It Isn’t A Sin front cover
By John Solomon
Published in 2008 by Red Ribbon Press
Given that the only theology I subscribe to is that of the Church of Sleeping In on Sunday’s, I am not sure what compelled me to purchase this slim book which argues watching movies that contain sex and/or nudity isn’t sinful for Christians. I suppose it was my hope that Solomon’s tract would be from the foaming-at-the-mouth crazy school of old time religion. Disappointingly, while there are a few unintentionally comical passages as a whole It Isn’t a Sin is not interesting in either a straightforward or ironic way.
Though I have disqualified myself as a theologian or Biblical scholar, I am qualified to state that the scriptural analysis in It Isn’t a Sin is a mess – Solomon clearly lacks the wisdom of his baby-splitting Biblical namesake. While he deserves some credit for positing that masturbation for a single person is not sinful, he curiously decides that masturbating while looking at pictures of naked women is. Presumably, Solomon finds it sinful for singles to masturbate to pictures of fully dressed women or men though he never addresses the matter. He also neglects to discuss whether it is okay for a married man to masturbate. I imagine he’s also against that.
Solomon’s section on anal sex provides the book’s highlight. As he writes, “…common sense tells us that God gave us an anus for one reason, and I will leave it to the intelligent reader to determine what that is. Anal sex is revolting and disgusting.” Methinks Solomon doth protest too much.
The most striking thing about this work is Solomon’s failure to discuss women’s sexuality. I assume this is because Solomon thinks women lack sexual desire. Perhaps it is simply that the thought of women having sexual desire fills Solomon with so much lust that he has to retreat to the bathroom to commit self-abuse.
The final pages contain the author’s “Steamy Erotic Poetry.” Here’s a few sample lines:
“Sex in the shower / is so overrated, baby”
“In my yellow shorts / with purple hearts, / made of soft silk”
“Since you had our baby, / your jean skirt fits tightly / around your body, / and your hips might be / a wee bit wider, “
Men out there take note. If Solomon is to be believed, a good way to sex up the woman who has had your child is to remind her that she’s gained weight. Yours truly suggests that you might avoid this approach especially if there are any guns, knives, or heavy blunt objects in the vicinity where you sleep, but if you try it let me know how it works out.
Consensual Sadomasochism
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Consensual Sadomasochism front cover
By William A. Henkin and Sybil Holiday
Published in 1996 by Daedalus Publishing Company
This book’s table of contents left me wary because it devotes 150 pages to what the authors refer to as a “safety manual”. I am firmly of the opinion that if you think BDSM has to be “safe” you probably should find a different sexual outlet. That isn’t to say that I think it is okay to be reckless when you play. Far from it. we all have to recognize that BDSM is an inherently risky activity that demands we each take personal responsibility for when we play.
Usually, when we think of risk and BDSM, we think of physical risk, but the physical risks are the least severe. It is the emotional risks that we take when we play that are the most extreme. These risks aren’t the sole purview of bottoms (or submissives or bottoms or whatever the Hell it is someone chooses to call themselves. I could write a lengthy rant about how silly we can be about terminology. Someday I just may…) Indeed, tops (or dominants…same rant…) also take just as much emotional risk when we play.
Luckily despite my initial worries the discussions of playing safely aren’t heavy handed. Instead, they serve as brief introductions to the sorts of play they describe. Sometimes, these discussions seem too brief. However if these types of play were all covered in the depth they demand, the book would be so long it would be too intimidating for all but the most dedicated reader to pick up.
Also important to remember that BDSM is ultimately not something that one learns from a book but instead is only learned from practice and experience. (I should add that this process of learning is ongoing. The most dangerous sorts of people are those that maintain they have nothing left to learn.) This is a point the authors make more than once by cautioning anyone interested in such play to learn from someone with lots of experience.
Another refreshing thing about this book is the total absence of fictional fantasy sequences from its pages. I have no idea why such fantasy scenes take up so much of the space of most BDSM how-to books as their inclusion detracts rather than enhances.
Unfortunately, even though this book avoids the annoying fantasy sequences it does include another flaw that rears its head all too often in BDSM books: new age spirituality. Even though I don’t personally have much use for spirituality I recognize that there is a time and a place for it; I’m just dumbfounded why anyone believes that time and place to be inside a book about how to beat people.
BDSM spirituality almost invariably manifests itself in one of two ways, Wicca/paganism or Indian mysticism (Tantra). Most published BDSM books come from California and do little to contradict the the hippie-dippy California stereotype. Locally, most “spiritual” practitioners I know seem to be of the Wicca/Pagan/mother earth/bridge troll persuasion. Just once I would love to hear someone report that while they were “flying” in the middle of a scene they felt closer to, oh I dunno, Isis. Shoot, I’d settle for a report of an out of body experience where someone tongued Satan’s asshole. Alas, I suspect that I will remain forever disappointed.
But I digress, despite the predictable embrace of spirituality, Consensual Sadomasochism is an excellent introductory book for those wanting to explore BDSM and those interested in learning more would be well served by reading it.
P.S. Some of you poor misguided souls out there are under the impression that activities involving consent are “consentual.” Those of you who are sticklers for spelling and grammatical accuracy (like me) are already well aware that there is no such word as “consentual” and cringe upon seeing it. The word is properly spelled consensual. Learn it, love it, live it.