The Home for the Literarily Bent
Todd
(9 comments, 102 posts)
This user hasn't shared any profile information
Posts by Todd
Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet
02 years ago
by Todd
in Crime and Punishment
Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet front cover
by John Douglas and Stephen Singular
Published in 2003 by Scribner
Written by former FBI criminal profiler John Douglas and true crime author Stephen Singular, Anyone You Want Me to Be traces the life and criminal exploits of serial murderer John “Slavemaster” Robinson. If you’re unfamiliar with Robinson’s crimes you can read his Wikipedia article.
Because Robinson’s victims are not unlike many of the submissive women I know and care about, this book was a difficult read as I kept imagining one of them meeting a horrible fate. Anyone contemplating turning an online BDSM romance into a real life meeting would be highly advised to read this book. That isn’t because meaningful, fulfilling, and loving relationship with someone you meet online aren’t possible, but because you really don’t know who is on the other end of the machine.
One thing that I did find particularly satisfying is that while Robinson was able to con many women he met online, one wouldbe victim he met in person had the foresight to set up a safecall. To be fair, despite the safecall the woman didn’t survive her encounter with Robinson completely unscathed – Robinson stole her toy bag. If you ask me, even if they hadn’t found the barrels filled his bodies, stealing someone’s toybag is a capital offense. Kidding aside, it was this act that finally gave the police probably cause to arrest Robinson and led to the discovery of his victims.
Whether it is because, or in spite, of the fact that this book will haunt your thoughts for days after you read it, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Whip Worship
0
Whip Worship front cover
by Cliff Barrett, Ph.D.
Published in 1972 by Impact Library
The attention grabbing cover blurbs promises insight into a world of women who “live and love by whip and pain and twisted torture” and “…females who attain amazing summit fulfillment by painful agony aberrations.” Unfortunately, Whip Worship reads more like a series of random stories thrown together willy-nilly instead of a cohesive narrative of any form.
The first scene of the book is a rather standard case history of two teenage sisters. (Well, the tale they tell of turning tricks while hitchhiking isn’t exactly standard but the “case study” format of the concerned psychologist is.)
Next, we are then treated to a first person account of a group of soldiers enjoying the spoils of war. Even though the gangbang triple penetration described therein is arousing, the abrupt shift in writing styles is abrupt so much so that it proves distracting.
There’s little need to describe the rest of the scenes – they vacillate from tired third person narratives of sadistic prostitution rings to the confession of a depraved bisexual masochist – the sort of girl that fantasies are made of – to an upper class masochistic man who enjoys the charms of street urchins of both sexes. It’s the last vignette I mentioned that serves both as a crescendo of depravity and the books’ highlight. Despite the fact that it wasn’t at all arousing to me sexually, the vivid descriptions of enjoying cunnilingus with a VD sufferer and the glass table show made me feel a little morally superior. No matter how twisted or demented my fantasies might become, I can take solace in the fact that I haven’t sunk quite as low as Mr. Upper Crust.
In sum, this is a mess of a book. Readers who enjoy their smut straight, predictable, and internally consistent should stay away. However, sick fucks like me will find themselves happy.
Dr. Donsbach Tells You What You Always Wanted to Know about Prostate
02 years ago
by Todd
in Doctor's Orders
Dr. Donsbach Tells You What You Always Wanted to Know about Prostate front cover
By Dr. Kurt Donsbach
Published in 1983 by The International Institute of Natural Health Sciences, Inc.
I know I am different from most people, but the first thing I wondered when I read this book’s title was whether I could trust a book with such a grammatically awkward title. (I can’t.) Actually, that was the second thing I wondered. The first thing I wondered was if (and how) the book would handle the delicate discussion of the simple joys of having a finger up your ass. As much as I might like to claim otherwise, I honestly was not terribly surprised that the book did not discuss the joy of manual stimulation of the prostrate with a finger or other object. I would have been more surprised if it had, and you could have knocked me over with a feather if it had delved into the obscure subject of prostate milking.
Thanks to the fine folks at quackwatch.org, I was able to learn everything I wanted to know about the storied career of Dr. Donsbach. I personally am quite skeptical of alternative medicine, but even alternative medicine’s advocates would be well advised to be suspicious of the likes of Dr. Donsbach.
Even if I wasn’t able to read the quackwatch.org article, it takes little time for even a layperson like me to determine that Dr. Donsbach’s medical advice isn’t to be trusted as he devotes the book’s first half to outlandish and unsupportable claims about the restorative properties of nutrition as it relates to prostate health.
The most entertaining portion of this book is Dr. Donsbach’s “Liver-Kidney-Bowel Cleansing Fast.” Unless you enjoy scat play, I can’t imagine that anyone would ever attempt to follow this particular program.
Even though absolutely nothing in this book seems factually reliable, I did enjoy it thoroughly. However, it was the same sense of enjoyment that I derive from driving by a car wreck.
Sex Disasters and How to Survive Them
02 years ago
by Todd
in Doctor's Orders
Sex Disasters and How to Survive Them front cover
by Charles Moser, Ph.D., M.D. and Janet W. Hardy
Published in 2002 by Greenery Press
While most of Sex Disasters and How to Survive Them deals directly with the physiological side of sexuality, it does highlight a few emotional and legal issues that could arise from sex.
Written in an easy to digest “topic and explanation” format, the tone is light and easy to follow. Unfortunately, the topics aren’t organized, so if one hoped to find to find information on a pressing issue they would be forced to hunt through the index. Worse still, many explanations lack the comprehension one wants in the midst of that sort of crisis.
To be fair some of the topics such as “My Girlfriend and I were making out and her Doberman snarled at me” don’t really demand a great deal of detail. Then again, how likely is someone to seek out this book for that sort of advice? Having been confronted with issues covered in this book after I read it, my answer is not at all.
I have high expectations of Greenery Press. Their books tend to be the very best on topics devoted to sexuality (alternative or otherwise). Maybe it’s just cynicism, but I suspect that if coauthor Janet Hardy weren’t the head of Greenery Press this book wouldn’t bear their logo. Sex Disasters and How to Survive Them certainly is certainly the weakest of their titles I’ve encountered so far. (Note: little did I know that Intimate Invasions would make this seem like a modern classic. Oh well.)
If you happen to have had the sort of puritanical parents who refused to let you attend the fun portion of high school health class, then this book might be beneficial to you. Otherwise save your money and buy your lover something nice.
Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist
02 years ago
by Todd
in Multimedia
Directed by Bill Zebub
Released in 2005 by Bill Zebub
This review is the first I have ever done for something that I don’t have in my personal collection. It is also the first movie reviewed here. This is a hard movie to describe and harder still to review.
As I thought of what to say about it, my thoughts were informed by concepts like subversion and transgression. This isn’t because of what the film contains but rather because of what the film lacks. Even the most inept filmmaker includes elements like plot, setting, character development, narrative, and so forth. Despite protests from some corners, this is true even in porn. There’s a reason a cumshot can also be rightfully called a climax. Somehow Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist contains a savant-like genius because it contains virtually none of these elements.
It is as though the Zebub has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged the viewer to a mano-a-mano endurance contest. Where most directors might wish to challenge the audience to rethink their own values or worldview, Zebub’s opus is tacitly hostile towards its audience. The result is a trial of wills that even an Andy Warhol fan would be wise to not take.
Actually, that’s all wishful thinking. The best part of Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist is the title. The movie consists of a few random bondage scenes that introduces a slideshow all set to a droning death metal soundtrack. It’s a giant mess right from the beginning as the introductory title card (there’s no dialogue) contains a misspelling that gets things off on a confusing club foot.
The movie then goes tediously from one incoherent bondage scene to the next separated by title cards that are designed ostensibly to propel the story. Unfortunately, there isn’t a story to tell, or if there was one, the movie failed to communicate it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; sometimes a plot ruins what would be otherwise enjoyable porn. Worse still, there’s nothing remarkably erotic, sexy, or even titillating about the scenes. It’s as though the camera cuts away before the foreplay even begins leaving us with an incoherent mess.
After we endure the pointless bondage scenes, the movie’s second half begins. It consists of bad crucifixion bondage photographs (many of which were badly Photoshopped). The title card that introduces this mess claims that video slideshow was sent to the police. I can only imagine them being interested in tracking down its creator to punish him for boring them with this tedium.
The version I saw of this was apparently a remake. As bad as this was to sit through, I shudder to think of how awful the original was if this was an improvement. After all was said and done this was an hour and a half of my life that I want to squander on something, anything, else. Other than people I dislike and porn addicts, who would find this the methadone of erotica, I hope no one else suffers the misfortune of sitting through this film.