It’s one of those questions people always ask, isn’t it? What got you into BDSM? Or into D/s?
Some people think it is to do with their nature from birth, others think it is how they are nurtured and what they experience in life. I think perhaps I am somewhere between the middle in my belief on that issue.
However, I think a lot of my interests and fantasies have been sparked from what I’ve read both as a child and an adult.
As a child, I liked adventure stories with strong female characters like Lucy in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Roberta in The Railway Children and Mary in The Secret Garden. I also liked books like the Famous Five where the kids generally got into trouble and often locked away. As I got older I liked stories where the heroine was often captured with the prospect of torture. I liked all types of adventure, and I have always liked classic literature too. At college, some of the texts we read, whilst classic, had a hint of D/s to them – novels like Tess of the D’Urbervilles and The Handmaid’s tale. All these things sparked my imagination and somehow or other it led to all this.
Well when I first got into D/s I did not know really what to read, there has always been so much out there and much of what I read on the internet gave me ideas of what I thought I should be that I absorbed without really thinking about what was really right for me, or what I wanted, I was just taking in how the majority seemed to think it ‘should be’.
When I was with my Ex I was quite newly into D/s and he suggested we read Story of O. Well we read it so far and then watched the movie. Part of me wanted to be like O, or at least how she was at the beginning of the film, but other parts of it didn’t resonate with me – like being given away – I have never wanted that. For me, I want to submit fully and wholly to one man and no other. I think it is a story worth reading (or watching) to see one representation of D/s, but I also think there are a great many people out there who think of it as being some sort of bible as to ‘how it should be done’. Maybe a lot of people can take something from it, but everything ? Perhaps not.
I also read practical books when I was new as well, such as Screw the Roses and also some of the books that are available for making equipment. Those are extremely handy and well worth a read.
I have to be honest in that despite having two good friends who write fetish fiction, I don’t generally read much of it. I like reading fetish fact, people’s blogs, stories of what they have done. Books that set out to be about BDSM and D/s don’t usually interest me that much, given a lot of them seem to be slanted at what the male reader likes as in lots of action and lots of kink and the action generally follows the same path.
However, recently I have been really pleased to find a series of books that fit the literature category but also have a hint of themes I am familiar with. I have been reading the Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey. This series tells the story of a young girl who is born into slavery but later excels as a courtesan and spy due to her talents as an anguisette – a woman who is aroused by the joy sadism gives a man. I’ve enjoyed it because the plot is substantial and interesting but I can relate to the masochistic and submissive feelings of the central character.
I suppose what I am saying is that I like books that have a little kink and D/s in them but are worthy as literature as well, and that carry other themes as well as being for want of a better phrase, ‘wank material’
So, what books do you guys like reading? Have you found something in modern literature that you can relate to your submission? Or an erotic writer that you like? Please share your thoughts :)
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