All Comments on 'An Apologia'

de·lir·i·ous

/dəˈlirēəs/

adjective

in an acutely disturbed state of mind resulting from illness or intoxication and characterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech.

There are people who get off on snuff films and kiddie porn too. Doesn't mean their desires should be fulfilled. (Reductio ad absurdum, not to be taken as a direct comparison)

Here's a thought to chew on. Are "real" existing or latent rapists satiated, or incited, by reading of their "victims" desires?

Another thought. Perhaps Trump's modeling agency might be more akin to an art gallery?

Added this essay to my favorites (perhaps a temporary status). I have not read the stories. I will, because I want to know if the author can pull off this idea of people being in a very lopsided power relationship where the powerless party is the one who gets to decide. The idea is facinating and difficult. There are some circumstances of voluntary suffering which I personally can not stomach (e.g. physcial torture, mental illness as obvious examples) and some I find distasteful, but what is left (for me) is a slender domain with erotic potential and so I want to see if this author finds the treasure he/she seeks.

The author has writing and language skills as can be seen from just this essay, but we will wait to learn if there is more. I have logged in specifically so that this is not an anonymous comment. I have taken note of the authors website referenced in the profile. Who knows? Maybe this articulate person will fail miserably or succeed gloriously in the construction of a balanced, edgy, story gengre that escapes the sickness of mind and inhumanity that lurks in the depths of the BDSM category.

@mikeswives

Thanks for your close reading and comments.

I suspect that I will have failed at treading the tightrope you describe in many of my stories from your p-o-v.; they probably go too quickly to harsher scenarios - albeit always dancing around on the line of voluntary submission.

These two sketches are the closest I get, I think, to what you describe, and I have not, so far, taken them further.

https://theharshwriter.netlify.app/tags/storyofs/

I don't know which comment on which stories prompted this writing. At least some portion of objection comes from so many of your stories placed in BDSM, as opposed to NonCon/Reluctance. I haven't read all your stories. I've read enough, and the descriptions of others, to have a feel for your common themes.

I am not the only one who feels great negativity at the takeover of the BDSM category by reluctance, abusive interactions and basic torture porn. There is a place for those things. Consensual BDSM should not be it. I will one star bomb it every time, and often comment negatively.

Anonymous. Thank you!

As someone not involved in any 'community', I approached the categories naively.

For me, 'The Story of O' seems very clearly to be a BDSM book, and since the territory I write in is pretty much defined by that book, I thought I was using the right category.

But you have made it clear to me BDSM is - at the very least here, and perhaps elsewhere, too - more tightly defined as a genre - needing more clearly to adhere to the culture of what I call 'lifestyle' BDSM - which I only know of at third - or perhaps fourth - hand.

Clearly, in that context, my stories, which are strictly fantasy, unconstrained by imagining that anything I describe might actually happen in real life, often go too far.

I have no intention of upsetting or disturbing people. I wish someone had been as clear before as you have been.

I will set about having all my stories recategorised. I will also add a paragraph to this essay, in the hope of making it less likely that people will read things that they don't want to.