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Archive for July, 2009
The Compleat Spanker
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The Compleat Spanker Front Cover
by Lady Green
Published in 1996 by Greenery Press
While I am vaguely familiar with The Compleat Angler and know it originated the tradition of using the archaic spelling of “complete” for a book title, the apparent misspelling in The Compleat Spanker’s title still makes me wince a little. I can’t help but think that the book has a giant typo on its cover. People already have a low opinion of folks into BDSM; there’s no need to arm them with the belief that we are semi-literate too. But I digress.
Lady Green, aka Janet W. Hardy, deserves heaps of praise for keeping this guide to spanking short. I imagine she must have been tempted to pad this book to make it longer but the book is perfectly fine at the length it is. If there is something missing, it is a history of spanking. I, for one, would love to know more about spanking’s history and place in our culture. I cannot help but wonder how long has spanking been observed as an erotic practice. I would also love a formal explanation as to why the British seem particularly obsessed with spanking. I suspect the answer to the latter question stems from the practice of corporal punishment in the British elementary school system. But that’s only a guess. At any rate, the lack of a history is only a minor quibble and likely would do little to make one a better spanker or spankee.
The Compleat Spanker covers all the basics from negotiation to aftercare that one needs to have a wonderful spanking scene. It even addresses what can go wrong in spanking scenes from their possible causes to how to handle them when they arise – essential information because eventually, no matter how well you know your partner, something will go wrong.
Refreshingly, Lady Green’s writing is long on facts and short on opinions and avoids the use of fictionalized scenes that so often drag down otherwise great BDSM instructional books. Also handy is that instead of including definitions in footnotes or a glossary, definitions appear next to the terms in the book’s margins which neither detracts from the text nor for forces the reader to hunt for the meaning of an essential term. Beware that there are also occasional references to illustrations. Unfortunately, some of these references refer to pages without the promised illustration.
This book is an essential reference for spank-o-philes of all stripes and orientations and the only ass you should beat without it is your own.
Have My Cake & Eat It Too!
32 years ago
by Todd
in Magazines and Zines
Have My Cake & Eat It Too! front cover
By Ducky DooLittle
Self-published in 1996
Shame on you, if you’re not unfamiliar with the Ducky DooLittle. Her writing is always fun and informative and this little zine devoted to cake sitting is no exception. It includes many photos and informative tidbits such as the observation “cake is good lubrication for jerking someone off with your feet.” If you have a chance to pick up Have My Cake & Eat It Too! don’t pass it up.
The Bisexuals
02 years ago
The Bisexuals front cover
by George Bishop
Published in 1964 by Century Books
As I read The Bisexuals my depraved thoughts returned obsessively to one thing: typesetting. Why typesetting? Because The Bisexuals is so riddled with typesetting errors that I sometimes wished for a “Rosetta Stone” to help decipher it.
I debated rearranging this review so that it would be as poorly presented as some passages in the book. But since I’m the only one who would get the joke and no one else would realize the errors were intentional, I decided to spare everyone the torment that I suffered through in trying to decipher this book – there are limits to my sadistic streak.
Were this book printed overseas, I could have excused the typesetter on the theory that English wasn’t his native language. Unfortunately, in what is likely the only valid claim in the whole book, the title page says that the book was printed in the USA – shooting in the foot the notion that Americans used to take pride in their work.
Claiming to be “actual sex case histories collected by … the Western Adult Institute in its nationwide study on Sexual Incompatibility,” The Bisexuals crudely attempts to trace bisexuality through time and apply a “scientific” psychoanalytic approach to bisexual “deviation.” But beware, this book is to scientific inquiry what alchemy is to chemistry.
Still, there are a few good things about this book that kept me reading. For one, the prose flows easily and provides the requisite amount of salacious detail.
The chapter devoted to the Succubus was particularly interesting. Whether the tale of Carmen d’Angelo is historically true, I don’t know (a fast internet search turned up nothing), but the image of a repressed young man taking refuge in a cave and tying a leather thong to his cock to keep his sexual urges at bay was quite an entertaining yarn either way. Also interesting is the crime spree of Marcel Bonaventure (again, searching the internet turned up nothing). This passage proved un-arousing, but interesting all the same.
My favorite passage in the book is this quote credited to E. Burns Clarke (another likely fictitious source):
“An extreme form of this perversion (bisexuality) Burns Clarke continues, “is found when the woman watches a man have sexual intercourse with another woman and then, immediately following the orgasm, rushes to orally embrace his partially erect member, thus, in effect, performing the lesbian and heterosexual functions simultaneously by vicariously making love to the woman as well…”
How this man anticipated my fantasies several years before I was born, I don’t know. That he characterizes them as “an extreme form of this perversion” only serves to warm my little twisted heart.
Other highlights (or lowlights depending on your perspective) include bestiality, finger fetishism, and others.
Even though this book suffered from its poor printing quality and is an obvious work of fiction, I still enjoyed it and you may too.
Confessions of a Pervert
02 years ago
by Todd
in Fake psychologists
Confessions of a Pervert front cover
by Sadie Cousins, Ph.D. with Hugh Jones, introduction by Harvey T. Leathem, M.D.
published in 1968 by Classic Publications
This twisted tale claims three authors, but was in fact written by solely by Jones. The other two are his pseudonyms (see an excerpt from the Feral House book Sin-a-rama at http://feralhouse.com/press/sin-a-rama/excerpts/sin-a-rama–westcost.pdf, look for page 4 of the pdf, page 33 in the book).
“Confessions of a Pervert” follows the tormented perverted architect, Sam, as he receives treatment from Dr. Cousins. We begin with the introduction by Dr. Leathem. Unable to provide Sam treatment for his multiple sexual preoccupations, Dr. Leathem refers Sam to Dr. Cousins for intense psychoanalysis. Dr. Leathem warns the reader that while the treatment methods employed by Dr. Cousins seem extreme, the unedited tale is too important to censor. We are, after all, interested in the ever forward march of social science.
As Sam’s first session with Dr. Cousins begins, he confesses that he has the piles (hemorrhoids) which he claims they are not the solely the result of his homosexual relationships but are also aggravated by his long hours sitting at a desk. She demands that he disrobe so she can inspect them and then fingers his anus until he comes just to put Sam at ease. Sam begins to relate that his job takes him to various cities and he has a different “kinky sexuality” for each. In Los Angeles, Sam explores his homosexuality. He further confesses that his interest in anal sex is strictly limited to men.
Dr. Cousins recommends a radical experiment to observe Sam’s analism first hand. Following the doctor’s instructions, Sam disrobes and goes into an adjoining room to have an encounter with a fellow patient who is lying in the other room. Sam discovers the mystery patient completely covered by a sheet excepting a shapely ass sticking out proudly. Sam has a “fanny screw” with the mystery patient and afterwards while talking with Dr. Cousins he learns the truth about his encounter: it was Dr. Cousins herself under the sheet.
Before his first session concludes, Dr. Cousins brings Sam to yet another orgasm and he declares himself cured of his inverted sexuality. Unfortunately, this is only the first of Sam’s six perversions and he has several more to tend to.
Eventually, Dr. Cousins’ assistant Carol enters the picture as she assists the good doctor in Sam’s treatment. Sam views Carol as little more than the trash with the abusive motorcycle riding boyfriend. Likewise Carol views Sam with an equal contempt. During the course of their interactions, their view of each other changes.
If it all sounds convoluted, it is, but I won’t spoil the twists and turns for you. This is such an exaggerated farce that one wonders how it could have ever been presented as a real case history. Still, if you can forgive the book’s excesses, it’s an entertaining fast paced read.
The Orgasm Addicts
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The Orgasm Addicts front cover
by Nelson Johns
Published in 1968 by Classic Publications
I purchased this book knowing absolutely nothing about it other than its title. Judging from that, I assumed that I would be in for a predictable ride into the horrors of nymphomania and/or sex addiction. Not otherwise very exciting, but for some reason I bought the book anyway.
When I actually had the book in my hot little hands, I noticed the cover blurb promising “The confession of young married people whose sexual pleasures could be achieved only by brutality and pain, SADISM and MASOCHISM!” That promise warmed my twisted little heart, and I was glad to have avoided a ho hum nympho expose.
“The Orgasm Addicts” is the life story of a married couple, Nelson and Lana. Though the book only lists one author, the narrative was written as a dialogue. Frustratingly, it’s often difficult to tell when narrator from the other. However, the tone is conversational and the prose reads easily.
Nelson reveals himself a masochist and Lana a sadist. As Nelson recounts his childhood, we learn that Nelson could never quite live up to his father’s expectations of what it is to be a man. As Nelson grows apart from his father, he grows closer to his mother. In fact after Nelson’s father dies, they grow so close that only Oedipus (and perhaps Freud) would approve. Though Nelson grows into a successful real estate agent as an adult, his life story represents an near flawless archetype of a submissive male’s life story as it was (and still is) perceived in the popular consciousness.
Nelson’s wife Lana’s childhood also represents the archetypical background of a sadistic (man-hating) woman Lana too grew up in a “broken” home. Her father died when she was little and her uneducated mother had to work hard to feed Lana’s five siblings. Lana’s introduction to sex came from the landlord via a rape. Soon enough she discovers the power of her sexuality and uses it torment boys at every opportunity.
Neither Nelson nor Lana is able to find anyone they want to marry until they meet. When they do finally meet and date, their shared passion causes them to be hopelessly enamored of each other. The rest of the book is dedicated to the ebb and flow of their marital relations.
After they marry, they turn their back on their kinky sex interests. Their passion wanes and their sex life becomes predictable when it’s existent at all. They eventually rediscover and embrace their respective kinks and grow close again. Expanding their horizons of sexual discovery, they begin to meet other similarly perverted people through correspondence clubs. These encounters cause them to both accept and reject the notion that they’re all alone in the perversion.
And that’s that. Only it’s not. Despite the confusing and distracting prose previously mentioned, this is still a good book. While virtually every bit of this tome is clearly fiction designed to scandalize and arouse the reader, there are passages interspersed throughout that suggest a personal familiarity with a sadomasochistic relationship. Especially heartening for me was the passage where Lana discusses the deep respect they hold for each other in terms both endearing and romantic. Later in this same passage is a plea for sexual acceptance that may be the most eloquent I’ve ever read.