An Apologia

As some of these stories seem not to fit with people's expectations, and thus upset some readers, I thought I would write this so that those who wish to can get an idea of the landscape of the stories before venturing in.

TL:DR

These stories are fantasies, but they are not genre fantasies; I try to write them so that, with some suspension of disbelief, they might actually happen. I am interested in the difficult and dangerous territory around control, submission, manipulation, cruelty, acceptance. This results in stories which seem to upset some people. I would rather you didn't read these stories if you think they may upset you.

I hope this helps; the intention is to avoid people reading things they won't enjoy, not to explain or excuse the content of the stories, to 'sell' them or to deflect criticism. Please, don't read anything you don't feel a positive desire to.

.........

de•lir•i•ous (dĭ-lîr′ē-əs) - adj.

1. Of, suffering from, or characteristic of delirium.

2. Marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion; ecstatic.

ca•pit•u•la•tion (kə-pĭch′ə-lā′shən) - n.

1. The act of surrendering or giving up.

These stories, while hopefully fulfilling their function as erotica, are explorations of the implications of a particular set of impulses and their outcomes, in the context of a more-or-less recognisable social setting (contemporary, no magic, new world order, or science fiction devices).

The results being some version of 'delirious capitulation' - a young woman surrendering herself to submissive impulses, in the context of the transgressive, dominant/controlling desires of (an)other(s), in some condition of delirium - intense and deep excess of feeling.

Behaviour which, outside of the world of fantasy (and these stories are wild fantasy and nothing else), would be considered insane or bordering on it (as with the behaviour of characters in most fantasy genres).

It is all too easy to see domination as a believable impulse - sociopaths rule us after all - but hard to see it as acceptable.

On the other hand, submission is built into our culture - all major world religions preach submission of one sort or another, while at the same time the whole of modern/enlightenment culture has been about rejecting it.

Domination has been codified (it's fine to be a boss of wage slaves living in poverty, or a general, or a government minister who cuts welfare payments; it's not fine to boss someone harshly in a one to one situation).

Submission has also been codified (it's 'sensible' to accept wage slavery, but 'perverted' to be a sexual submissive).

The codification is asymmetrical.

Because we (rightly) abhor cruelty, bullying and victimisation in a person-to-person context, having sexual impulses that relate to domination is a dangerous position to occupy - the circumstances in which these impulses may be gratified are, rightly, very tightly policed (therefore, lots of transference - people working to get themselves into acceptable dominant positions so they can get their rocks off that way - Trump starting a modelling agency, for instance).

On the other hand, having submissive sexual impulses - while regarded as 'perverse', is not as socially dangerous. Even happy, consensual submissives tend to be seen as the victims of dominants - and thus receive much less severe social sanction.

All of this results in a very particular condition, which is sort of what the exploration hinges on.

And it is this - that the submissive is actually in the position of power - in the wider world - while being in the subordinate position within the situation.

All a submissive needs to do (as is constantly an option in the minds of the protagonists of these stories) is to step outside the situation and cry foul. They don't even need to play the victim - the asymmetry of the social code will pour fire on the head of the dominant, while pitying the submissive, seeing them as the victim, in need of help.

This reality is not being complained about - it provides some at least some safeguards against real sadists abusing people, which is a Good Thing.

But it provides the landscape of these stories' exploration of the circumstances in which someone intelligent, thoughtful, not in a position of desperate weakness, or psychologically vulnerable, or blinded by love, might actually choose to submit to a dominant who is honest about their intentions (while also being understood by the protagonist as being machiavellian and manipulative), and who is clearly going to make rather extreme demands?

Is it possible to write a fantasy (and it is all the wildest fantasy) wherein this happens, from the submissive's internal psychological perspective, and have it 'stack up' in the reader's mind? Wherein the submissive is not a helpless or coerced victim, but a conscious, willing participant - however dark the places are which that might take them to?

In these stories, it is the submissive whose point of view we occupy, whose internal psychological landscape is rich, complex, sympathetically explored in great detail, while the dominants are cartoon-like characters - strong, rich, older, opaque, unemotional, mostly absent outside the sex scenes.

Further, despite the attractions of the present continuous tense in its offer of immediacy of emotional impact, these stories are (mostly) told by the protagonist herself from a position in the future - a position where the she is somehow free and able to tell her story in a measured way; where she has survived - more than that, she has grown (in understanding at least), and is whole, sane and sanguine.

In all the films of The Story of O, the male leads seem nervous, hopeful, tortured, while O is serene and calm; they are the supplicants, asking for what only she can give them - which is consent for them to indulge in their ultimately pathetic fantasies, while she is seeking to resolve some deep quality of her own psychology. When (if) she gets there, she will have moved on, while they will be left stuck in an endless cycle in which, having dulled their sensitivities by excess, they will never be satisfied - always needing new extremes to get their rocks off.

As at the end of The Story of O, for the landscape of these stories to have any real risk, any real light and shade, the possibility of things going too far must be 'in play' for the submission to have real meaning.

All this takes these stories far outside the 'lifestyle' bdsm world - which is the domain of reality - real people live those lives, and resolve their impulses in consensual, boundaried settings, as is sane and healthy.

But these stories wouldn't work there, because the 'high' and 'low' points are conventional, rather than bounded only by possibility.

Nevertheless, the protagonists of these stories are not intended to be understood as victims (either of their own weakness or of the depravity of others), but rather as people who walk the edge, in intensity of emotion and risk, in search of some new meaning.

This means that the stories - which are typically multi-part, go into fairly dark territory at times, without immediate relief - and this is clearly not what some readers want. So please, if you don't want to be taken to these places, don't read these stories!