The Story of O - Pauline Réage
I recently read and reviewed Exit to Eden by Anne Rice (you can read my review here) and in it the main character references The Story of O. The next day I went to Chapters and found it. It was very cheap, $11, and had a half naked woman on the cover. If you are at all familiar with Exit to Eden you know it's not for the faint of heart: spanking, whipping, dominating, penetrating. A great read actually, which is why I was excited to head straight to the inspiration for all those -ing verbs.
The Story of O is interesting. I am aware that using 'interesting' is about as noncommittal as I can get, like calling someone 'nice.' But the truth is I have a mixed bag of emotions about this book. There was nothing in it that was particularly offensive or shocking, for this reader anyways, but would have been had I have read it when I was 13 - the year it was released. The labia piercing and ass branding were interesting touches. Not enough detail at all went into explaining these processes, in fact the author went from leading the protagonist to the branding area to a disappointing "A week later..." Ugh, nothing worse than a build up with no follow through.
I think I my problems with this book stem from it being written in the 3rd person from the POV of the main chick. It left me feeling disconnected from her and in the end I had no real sense of her as a character. Even when she struggled in her relationships it was without any believable emotion of any kind. Maybe this was the point. Maybe she was so fucked up or so well balanced that her life as a slave was as simple for her as it was portrayed. No way to know really.
Reading The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice and hearing all of the brutal and juicy inner thoughts of the characters has truly ruined me when it comes to books about Sub/Dom play. I wanna know the anguish and torture, I wanna feel how badly it hurts them and how they suffer. Is this sadistic? Yep, but I was raised on gory TV and movies and desensitized or not I still want those details.
But there were many things that made this book worth the read. The relationship with O and René and how it developed was quite odd and delightful. Her love of women was a pleasant twist and I love love loved her attention to detail when describing her attraction to them. Her interactions with women were more natural and thus more interesting to read about. She was the dominant partner in her relationships with women and having that control was probably what kept her from achieving the same level of intimacy that she experienced with men. But even when O was whipped and caressed by Anne-Marie, O's enjoyment came solely for knowing it pleased Sir Stephen. She loved women but she admittedly only saw women as objects to men. And her male partners, like René, also saw her as an object:
"...he had so often told her that what he loved about her was the object he had made of her, the absolute disposition of her he enjoyed, the freedom that was his to do with her as he wished, as one is free to dispose of a piece of furniture which one takes as much, and sometimes more, pleasure in giving away than in keeping for oneself..."
It is what it is, no need to explain really. Being an object gave her great pleasure and its not like she was ever taken advantage of. The way this book is written, nothing seems unnatural or out of the ordinary at all. Why not seduce a coworker and get her to move in with you and your boyfriend while another man watches through a false wall? Why not keep her 15-year-old sister in the room while you two have sex and then she has sex with your boyfriend. How about we get her to watch while O's whipped and left hanging and spread open for hours. That's just life man, that's just life.
But I must say that the ending just killed me. A new character is introduced, they meet, O's dressed up and at a party.... the end. WTF? The final chapter has been "suppressed" but don't worry, they tell you what happens, THEN they tell you an alternative ending.. . in a couple of sentences with no explanations or idea how the hell either ending could possibly have happened. And, both endings are terrible. But I guess they could be good in context? If we knew the context?
So, although the book had interesting parts, I'm am not totally overwhelmed either way. Read it if you've never read anything like this before, or if you thought "Labia piercing and ass branding?" and wondered what that could possibly be about. Just remember to drop all that conservative, romantic bullshit you've been fed by popular media and open your mind to a whole world of pleasure in all its different forms...
Xx Cara
I recently read and reviewed Exit to Eden by Anne Rice (you can read my review here) and in it the main character references The Story of O. The next day I went to Chapters and found it. It was very cheap, $11, and had a half naked woman on the cover. If you are at all familiar with Exit to Eden you know it's not for the faint of heart: spanking, whipping, dominating, penetrating. A great read actually, which is why I was excited to head straight to the inspiration for all those -ing verbs.
The Story of O is interesting. I am aware that using 'interesting' is about as noncommittal as I can get, like calling someone 'nice.' But the truth is I have a mixed bag of emotions about this book. There was nothing in it that was particularly offensive or shocking, for this reader anyways, but would have been had I have read it when I was 13 - the year it was released. The labia piercing and ass branding were interesting touches. Not enough detail at all went into explaining these processes, in fact the author went from leading the protagonist to the branding area to a disappointing "A week later..." Ugh, nothing worse than a build up with no follow through.
I think I my problems with this book stem from it being written in the 3rd person from the POV of the main chick. It left me feeling disconnected from her and in the end I had no real sense of her as a character. Even when she struggled in her relationships it was without any believable emotion of any kind. Maybe this was the point. Maybe she was so fucked up or so well balanced that her life as a slave was as simple for her as it was portrayed. No way to know really.
Reading The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice and hearing all of the brutal and juicy inner thoughts of the characters has truly ruined me when it comes to books about Sub/Dom play. I wanna know the anguish and torture, I wanna feel how badly it hurts them and how they suffer. Is this sadistic? Yep, but I was raised on gory TV and movies and desensitized or not I still want those details.
But there were many things that made this book worth the read. The relationship with O and René and how it developed was quite odd and delightful. Her love of women was a pleasant twist and I love love loved her attention to detail when describing her attraction to them. Her interactions with women were more natural and thus more interesting to read about. She was the dominant partner in her relationships with women and having that control was probably what kept her from achieving the same level of intimacy that she experienced with men. But even when O was whipped and caressed by Anne-Marie, O's enjoyment came solely for knowing it pleased Sir Stephen. She loved women but she admittedly only saw women as objects to men. And her male partners, like René, also saw her as an object:
"...he had so often told her that what he loved about her was the object he had made of her, the absolute disposition of her he enjoyed, the freedom that was his to do with her as he wished, as one is free to dispose of a piece of furniture which one takes as much, and sometimes more, pleasure in giving away than in keeping for oneself..."
It is what it is, no need to explain really. Being an object gave her great pleasure and its not like she was ever taken advantage of. The way this book is written, nothing seems unnatural or out of the ordinary at all. Why not seduce a coworker and get her to move in with you and your boyfriend while another man watches through a false wall? Why not keep her 15-year-old sister in the room while you two have sex and then she has sex with your boyfriend. How about we get her to watch while O's whipped and left hanging and spread open for hours. That's just life man, that's just life.
But I must say that the ending just killed me. A new character is introduced, they meet, O's dressed up and at a party.... the end. WTF? The final chapter has been "suppressed" but don't worry, they tell you what happens, THEN they tell you an alternative ending.. . in a couple of sentences with no explanations or idea how the hell either ending could possibly have happened. And, both endings are terrible. But I guess they could be good in context? If we knew the context?
So, although the book had interesting parts, I'm am not totally overwhelmed either way. Read it if you've never read anything like this before, or if you thought "Labia piercing and ass branding?" and wondered what that could possibly be about. Just remember to drop all that conservative, romantic bullshit you've been fed by popular media and open your mind to a whole world of pleasure in all its different forms...
Xx Cara
RSS Feed
