The Home for the Literarily Bent
Archive for November, 2009
Story of O
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Story of O front cover
by Pauline Reage
Published in 1965 by Grove Press
I’m not much for fiction. I know lots of folks like fiction, but time spent reading about events that didn’t happen seems like time squandered to me.
Story of O is well established as a classic work of both modern literature and erotic writing. This is fine and well, but not reason enough to make me want to read it. That the book had a substantial impact on the evolving definition of obscenity in the US and represented a significant milestone in the history of erotic publishing did not sway me to put aside my aversion to fiction and read it. What piqued my interest and made me track down a copy so that I could wallow in the promised debauchery was reading feminist critiques of the book, written before true identity of the pseudonymous author was revealed, which claimed that the contents of the book were so misogynistic that the author could only be a man.
I am sure that anyone reading the site is probably familiar with the overall plot of Story of O, so I won’t rehash it here.
Because the book was originally written as a series of letters to a lover, there is a certain discontinuity to the prose, most notably at the book’s sudden and incomplete conclusion. Depsite this, Story of O is a captivating book and deservingly one of the foundational cornerstones of modern conceptions of BDSM.
Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns
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Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns front cover
By Philip Miller and Molly Devon
Published in 1995 by Mystic Rose Books
A friend is often fond of telling me that he was there at the moment that inspired this book’s title. While he is generally reliable, I don’t know that there is any way to ever verify the veracity of that claim.
Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns is often referred to as the ideal primer for anyone newly interested in exploring an interest in BDSM. Having read this and numerous introductory BDSM texts, I can only conclude that this book is so often recommended because it has a catchy title. Compared to all of the other BDSM primers, this is by far the worst of the lot.
While the flow of the book is consistent with others of its type, Screw the Roses is filled with cheesy photographs and even cheesier jokes. For example, chapter 9, devoted to flogging, is titled, “Philip’s Philosophy of Phlogging Phun.”
While using lighthearted prose to put a nervous beginner at ease with BDSM seems reasonable, rather than making the BDSM seem fun (or should it be “phun”?) the bad jokes interrupt the flow and undercut the authors’ credibility.
If one can wade past the distracting jokes, there really is lots of useful information that everyone new to BDSM play would benefit from knowing, and if this is the only primer you can locate you won’t suffer from reading it. However, if you are choosing an introductory BDSM book, you will be better served to read Learning the Ropes by Race Bannon or Consensual Sadomasochism by William A. Henkin and Sybil Holiday.
Teach Yourself Fucking
02 years ago
by Todd
in Multimedia
Teach Yourself Fucking front cover
by Tuli Kupferberg
Published in 2000 by Autonomedia
There are few self-instruction books are devoted to subjects which interest me. This is particularly true of the “for Dummies” series of books. I cannot imagine spending hard earned cash for a book that declares me a dummy. Where does one turn if the “for Dummies” proves to be too challenging? For Morons? For Nincompoops?
Given a choice, I think I would much rather my mother catch me having a lurid encounter with the family dog while I was clad in a nun’s habit than have the cable guy see any “for Dummies” book on my bookshelf. I don’t think I’m alone.
If you wonder if there is a “Sex for Dummies” book, be assured there is. It was written by sex educator Dr. Ruth Westheimer. As of this writing, it is in its third edition. While I am opposed to censorship, this is the one book I can make an exception for. After all, who on earth thinks it’s a good idea for dummies to fuck? If natural selection tells us one thing, it’s that when the stupid people spawn, it is likely their offspring will be stupid too.
Contrarians might suggest that as you teach the dumdums about sex you can also teach them about contraception, but I remain skeptical that they have the faculties to understand the importance of contraception and/or practice it properly. Nero may have played the fiddle while Rome burned, but Wiley Publishing seems to be actively fanning the flames of our society’s downfall.
What does that have to do with Teach Yourself Fucking? Not much really, despite its title, Teach Yourself Fucking is not a self-teaching aid. Instead it is a compilation of Kupferberg’s cartoons and collages which target journalism and people in power.
For those of you not in the know, Tuli Kupferberg gained fame as a member of the proto-punk art rock band The Fugs. He is also known for writing the classic hippie books 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft and 1001 to Live Without Working.
No one would accuse Kupferberg of being a talented illustrator, but his absurdist humor shines through his simple drawings. The work is filled with sexual imagery and language that make it definitely inappropriate for the kids. For instance, one work captioned at the bottom with “Hero Worship” is a crude drawing of a phallus. It appears directly opposite the drawing of a vagina labeled “The Land of Mystery.”
While Kupferberg’s best work is likely behind him, Teach Yourself Fucking is entertaining collection.