I'm not sure if it was Helen's intent, but I read this as John not really being a sub per se (nor Rodney being much of a top), but both of them forced into the roles by the rigid hierarchy of their society, and going along the best they could.
I read a fair amount of BDSM, because it's one of my kinks, and one thing I noticed about Helen's story was that there was *nothing* in the sex scenes that led me to believe John was actually submissive. Maybe because they were a straight-forward accounting of actions, with minimal description of how John *felt* at any time, but the relief at giving up control, the shifting power dynamic, that's typical of the genre just wasn't there (I had many issues with Xanthe's stories, but that's one thing she did very right). That made it difficult for me to evaluate the romance aspect of the story. I thought the commentary on feminism was brilliant - incredibly well done, and every snippet of John's past experience explained who he was in *this* story. I'm still confused about what John and Rodney got out of their sexual relationship, though.
Obviously, both of them were bad at it, John probably more so than Rodney. Why then did John keep coming back to Rodney? John was labelled a certain way, as a submissive. But there was nothing behind that label, no substance to convince me that he got anything out of being beaten by Rodney as punishment or even the sexual games. And given the feminist agenda, which used the dom/sub roles to explore how gender politics have disadvantaged women throughout history, and John's determination to succeed in his career, I needed a compelling reason for him to continue this relationship that had to be hidden, that would damage his authority if made public. That lack keeps me from endorsing the story wholeheartedly.
Another issue I had was Elizabeth's behavior, which came off to me as demonized. Her punishments of John lacked any sympathy, and she was portrayed as repellent. Maybe this was just to drive home the inherent injustice of this BDSM-structured world and further the feminist agenda (and I agree with that agenda - BDSM world is a nasty, nasty place and I wouldn't want to live there), but Elizabeth is a character I like and it was difficult to read her as The Enemy. (I was probably influenced in this from reading Lenore's recent BDSM-themed story first - Elizabeth in that one was really horrific, and I was primed to dislike the more subtle use of the same trope in this story)
For those reasons, I'm unable to say that I *loved* this story, but it was very well-written and explored ideas that I think are important. I know I'll think about it for a long time to come.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-11-17 02:06 am (UTC)I read a fair amount of BDSM, because it's one of my kinks, and one thing I noticed about Helen's story was that there was *nothing* in the sex scenes that led me to believe John was actually submissive. Maybe because they were a straight-forward accounting of actions, with minimal description of how John *felt* at any time, but the relief at giving up control, the shifting power dynamic, that's typical of the genre just wasn't there (I had many issues with Xanthe's stories, but that's one thing she did very right). That made it difficult for me to evaluate the romance aspect of the story. I thought the commentary on feminism was brilliant - incredibly well done, and every snippet of John's past experience explained who he was in *this* story. I'm still confused about what John and Rodney got out of their sexual relationship, though.
Obviously, both of them were bad at it, John probably more so than Rodney. Why then did John keep coming back to Rodney? John was labelled a certain way, as a submissive. But there was nothing behind that label, no substance to convince me that he got anything out of being beaten by Rodney as punishment or even the sexual games. And given the feminist agenda, which used the dom/sub roles to explore how gender politics have disadvantaged women throughout history, and John's determination to succeed in his career, I needed a compelling reason for him to continue this relationship that had to be hidden, that would damage his authority if made public. That lack keeps me from endorsing the story wholeheartedly.
Another issue I had was Elizabeth's behavior, which came off to me as demonized. Her punishments of John lacked any sympathy, and she was portrayed as repellent. Maybe this was just to drive home the inherent injustice of this BDSM-structured world and further the feminist agenda (and I agree with that agenda - BDSM world is a nasty, nasty place and I wouldn't want to live there), but Elizabeth is a character I like and it was difficult to read her as The Enemy. (I was probably influenced in this from reading Lenore's recent BDSM-themed story first - Elizabeth in that one was really horrific, and I was primed to dislike the more subtle use of the same trope in this story)
For those reasons, I'm unable to say that I *loved* this story, but it was very well-written and explored ideas that I think are important. I know I'll think about it for a long time to come.