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jajalalaBack when I went to Readercon, there was a particular author on a panel about sex scenes, and I wrote down the book they mentioned writing which involved sex as an integral part of the plot, and now probably a full year later or so I have finally read the book: Docile by K.M. Szpara.
The first part of the book was difficult in that there's a lot of dehumanization of the main character. It's like, partly a poor country boy being taken in by the decadent trillionaire love interest, but then also for various reasons it's like a 24/7 master/slave relationship. I was looking forward to the "plot relevant sex" as I love erotica with a plot, but there wasn't necessarily huge eroticism here. There were sex scenes, and on occasion I found them hot, but many were just about emphasizing the main character's helplessness and not always in a sexy way (at least to me).
I liked the second half of the story better, after that particular relationship ends and there's kind of healing and growth on both sides, and there's a bunch of legal courtroom drama. It becomes much more focused on a person recovering from a traumatic time, and I like that it takes up a large portion of the book. I wasn't really cheering for the main couple for the most part, and honestly sometimes I was like "oh my god you two are so dramatic about each other and I DON'T CARE" but by the end I honestly was fairly happy with where their relationship ended up.
For various reasons the main couple is in, functionally, a dubiously consensual 24/7 master/slave relationship. I certainly have kinks and enjoy dom/sub dynamics, but reading this confirmed for me that the 24/7 lifestyle IS NOT for me.
Reflecting later, though, I started to realize how much I like to micromanage people around me at times, paying close attention to their eating/drinking/energy and kind of corralling them like "Okay when was the last time you've eaten? Okay let's go for a meal now then..." Obviously people in my life are not beholden to me so they do not always take my advice, but I am satisfied when they take care of themselves at my behest. I consider it a motherly instinct of sorts, but while reading about one person completely managing another person's life, it made me wonder if that kind of instinct could be molded towards unlocking my inner dominatrix XD. On the rare occasions I have tried domming I have struggled, but in various reflections while reading this I considered ways in which domming could be appealing to me rather than an awkward thing to attempt for another's sake.
It's somewhat tangential from the book itself, but reading a book where control was such a theme spurred those thoughts.
ANYWAY I read it, was like "I liked it overall!" then I went to goodreads/thestorygraph, wrote my own review, and then read others on the site. I like to write my own review BEFORE reading others (tho I usually will wait to post the review until I read others) so that my review isn't too affected by what others said. Usually I don't get too much new from the reviews, but in this case... HOO BOY
The top review was this one which really succinctly identifies the story as slightly rebranded slavefic. That's not a trope I generally read in my fandoms, but as the review described it, it became clear to me HOW Docile and its vibe came about. It felt new and strange and different to ME, but for people in the AO3/fanfic space who are accustomed to the tropes/AUs it draws from, it's actually very by-the-book.
Reflecting on the story now, I high-key see the fanfic vibes. The plot and world is a bit hand-wavey, it's all just setup to push the two main characters together. The two characters go through shit, but it's a given that they should care about each other. The focus on internality and emotions and character are very typical AO3 style where it's all about exploring the characters and it's okay if the plot is a little wacky or doesn't make sense. I kind of like that style, but I hadn't really identified it in this case before reading that review.
Additionally, there were a bunch of reviews that really slammed the fact that THIS IS SLAVERY and it's all focused on these two poor sensitive white dudes, while the black supporting characters never mention slavery (one of the black characters called "Onyx", which has an implied in-universe explanation but is also like... a choice). Like it's engaging with questions and themes in regards to autonomy, dehumanization, the illusion of choice when so economically disadvantaged that there is no other option... All things that aren't just a thought experiment for white people, but a real lived experience for black people.
I read a tumblr post some time ago about certain horror narratives, and that a lot of white people gravitate towards stories that are like "What if someone did to US what we did to other people?" like how an alien invasion is a fear of a group displacing or eradicating you, meanwhile for Native Americans that's just like "That already happened to us in real life! It's not science fiction, it's our lived reality!" While reading the reviews, I realized that this story was along those same lines--exploring the horror of slavery while not engaging with the real history, and that as a white person I did not really realize it until reading those goodreads reviews.
Of course the story is not 1:1 to the historical institution of slavery--it's got all sorts of quirks and rules unique to the sci-fi setting, and it's especially about exploring the usage of medication while undergoing a set time period of being owned/used by another person. I'm not sure what the balance is in terms of whether authors should restrain themselves from writing those sorts of narratives if they're not going to engage with historical contexts, or if it's overly restrictive to claim that certain people cannot write about specific subjects and themes without directly engaging with the historical context. Then again, even if someone writes it, isn't it the right of readers to say "Yeah this sucked to me because [X]"? Like when I read Fifty Shades of Grey I could NOT take it seriously because the sex god love interest throws a tampon in the toilet instead of the trash--event if the point of the story is just to be sexy, when there's active misinformation and no engagement with parts of reality I care about, of course I'm going to critique that.
It's definitely complicated, but it made me reflect on my own ignorance to not have even made the connection, but after reading it I can't unsee the connection.
Anyways, since then I've read several romance novels that I think I'll bundle into one post at some point. Much lighter reading!
The first part of the book was difficult in that there's a lot of dehumanization of the main character. It's like, partly a poor country boy being taken in by the decadent trillionaire love interest, but then also for various reasons it's like a 24/7 master/slave relationship. I was looking forward to the "plot relevant sex" as I love erotica with a plot, but there wasn't necessarily huge eroticism here. There were sex scenes, and on occasion I found them hot, but many were just about emphasizing the main character's helplessness and not always in a sexy way (at least to me).
I liked the second half of the story better, after that particular relationship ends and there's kind of healing and growth on both sides, and there's a bunch of legal courtroom drama. It becomes much more focused on a person recovering from a traumatic time, and I like that it takes up a large portion of the book. I wasn't really cheering for the main couple for the most part, and honestly sometimes I was like "oh my god you two are so dramatic about each other and I DON'T CARE" but by the end I honestly was fairly happy with where their relationship ended up.
For various reasons the main couple is in, functionally, a dubiously consensual 24/7 master/slave relationship. I certainly have kinks and enjoy dom/sub dynamics, but reading this confirmed for me that the 24/7 lifestyle IS NOT for me.
Reflecting later, though, I started to realize how much I like to micromanage people around me at times, paying close attention to their eating/drinking/energy and kind of corralling them like "Okay when was the last time you've eaten? Okay let's go for a meal now then..." Obviously people in my life are not beholden to me so they do not always take my advice, but I am satisfied when they take care of themselves at my behest. I consider it a motherly instinct of sorts, but while reading about one person completely managing another person's life, it made me wonder if that kind of instinct could be molded towards unlocking my inner dominatrix XD. On the rare occasions I have tried domming I have struggled, but in various reflections while reading this I considered ways in which domming could be appealing to me rather than an awkward thing to attempt for another's sake.
It's somewhat tangential from the book itself, but reading a book where control was such a theme spurred those thoughts.
ANYWAY I read it, was like "I liked it overall!" then I went to goodreads/thestorygraph, wrote my own review, and then read others on the site. I like to write my own review BEFORE reading others (tho I usually will wait to post the review until I read others) so that my review isn't too affected by what others said. Usually I don't get too much new from the reviews, but in this case... HOO BOY
The top review was this one which really succinctly identifies the story as slightly rebranded slavefic. That's not a trope I generally read in my fandoms, but as the review described it, it became clear to me HOW Docile and its vibe came about. It felt new and strange and different to ME, but for people in the AO3/fanfic space who are accustomed to the tropes/AUs it draws from, it's actually very by-the-book.
Reflecting on the story now, I high-key see the fanfic vibes. The plot and world is a bit hand-wavey, it's all just setup to push the two main characters together. The two characters go through shit, but it's a given that they should care about each other. The focus on internality and emotions and character are very typical AO3 style where it's all about exploring the characters and it's okay if the plot is a little wacky or doesn't make sense. I kind of like that style, but I hadn't really identified it in this case before reading that review.
Additionally, there were a bunch of reviews that really slammed the fact that THIS IS SLAVERY and it's all focused on these two poor sensitive white dudes, while the black supporting characters never mention slavery (one of the black characters called "Onyx", which has an implied in-universe explanation but is also like... a choice). Like it's engaging with questions and themes in regards to autonomy, dehumanization, the illusion of choice when so economically disadvantaged that there is no other option... All things that aren't just a thought experiment for white people, but a real lived experience for black people.
I read a tumblr post some time ago about certain horror narratives, and that a lot of white people gravitate towards stories that are like "What if someone did to US what we did to other people?" like how an alien invasion is a fear of a group displacing or eradicating you, meanwhile for Native Americans that's just like "That already happened to us in real life! It's not science fiction, it's our lived reality!" While reading the reviews, I realized that this story was along those same lines--exploring the horror of slavery while not engaging with the real history, and that as a white person I did not really realize it until reading those goodreads reviews.
Of course the story is not 1:1 to the historical institution of slavery--it's got all sorts of quirks and rules unique to the sci-fi setting, and it's especially about exploring the usage of medication while undergoing a set time period of being owned/used by another person. I'm not sure what the balance is in terms of whether authors should restrain themselves from writing those sorts of narratives if they're not going to engage with historical contexts, or if it's overly restrictive to claim that certain people cannot write about specific subjects and themes without directly engaging with the historical context. Then again, even if someone writes it, isn't it the right of readers to say "Yeah this sucked to me because [X]"? Like when I read Fifty Shades of Grey I could NOT take it seriously because the sex god love interest throws a tampon in the toilet instead of the trash--event if the point of the story is just to be sexy, when there's active misinformation and no engagement with parts of reality I care about, of course I'm going to critique that.
It's definitely complicated, but it made me reflect on my own ignorance to not have even made the connection, but after reading it I can't unsee the connection.
Anyways, since then I've read several romance novels that I think I'll bundle into one post at some point. Much lighter reading!
no subject
Date: 2024-06-22 01:06 pm (UTC)My immediate reaction to this, as someone who has done 24/7, is that this can't exist. If it's dubcon, it's not 24/7, which is consensual by definition. But I think from reading the rest of your review, you came to the same conclusion! Without consent it is just slavery.
That said, I think kinky fiction can be written on different levels of "reality" and still be successful, but it does depend on whether the reader can get on the same page with the writer or not. Because like, I can write a fic about characters doing consensual D/s, and the meaning of that is pretty clear to most people. But I can also write a fic where similar actions or power dynamics are depicted but they're not consensual in the context of the story, and then it takes more interpretive effort on the reader's part to decide what I mean. Am I trying to write about what this would REALLY be like if it happened in real life, or am I just exploring a D/s fantasy "from the inside", like a very elaborate script for a possible D/s scene, where realism is not the goal?
In my experience as a reader, a common failure state of kinky fics is when it doesn't seem like even the author knows what they're trying to do. If the mix of fantasy and reality is too contradictory, you start to ask questions like why a slavefic isn't engaging with the historical truth of slavery and why it centers white people's feelings. But if it's more clear that we're experiencing this story from inside the author's fantasies AND the reader is also able to engage with those fantasies on that level, disbelief is successfully suspended and those questions don't come up, because D/s (whether played out as a scene or conveyed through a fictional fantasy) is not actually slavery even if you are using that imagery and terminology to tap into it.
To be clear, I'm not disagreeing with your point that white writers of speculative fiction can sometimes seem to be saying "yeah yeah but what if this happened to US", and I also don't think anyone is obligated to engage with an author's fantasies. The rules of consent also apply to the reader, who does not have to step into a scene they don't want to be in.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-22 07:50 pm (UTC)Ostensibly, the story is kind of framed as a critique of capitalism (the literal tagline is "There is no consent under capitalism"), but the worldbuilding is clearly arranged primarily to support the master/slave kink and tropes of the genre, rather than to service as a genuine/nuanced critique of capitalism... but then it ALSO gets critical of the master/slave dynamic by the end.
Probably the thing that's rattling my brain right now is that in the context of the world, what is happening is NOT a kink really. It's like... rich people get poor people to be obedient slaves in exchange for paying off debt, but those poor people usually take a drug that helps them be perfectly obedient and forget whatever they were made to do. The poor main character refuses to take the drug (one of the few rights he maintains while enslaved is the right to refuse it), and so the rich love interest ends up using BDSM techniques to train him into complete obedience instead. The thing is... that rich love interest jumps RIGHT into the BDSM techniques, including a safe word, in a way that thinking about it now, I'm like "Why does he know all that??" like, rich-guy was expecting to give his slave the drug so he'd be obedient, so he wouldn't have researched it before. And maybe he just had a general interest, but it creates a weird zone while reading it where you can SEE the BDSM practices he's using extremely clearly, but the whole setup and premise is inherently nonconsensual. And like, later on he admits that he didn't really know what he was doing, but in the moment it's written like he's well read on BDSM while never thinking more deeply about it.
I'm asking myself "Did it feel like the author knew what they were going for?" and I'm honestly not sure. It felt like a critique, but it also felt like "but of course the sexy love interest was generally a GOOD master WHO CARED considering how he was raised, and he changes and makes reparations, and now there's a court battle where we take it all seriously..." which maybe is part of the fantasy, to have the master know BDSM basics and then also eventually realize how horrible he was and make reparations...
SO who knows! When I finished the book, I liked it, but every time I start to think deeper about the intentions/implications/worldbuilding/relationship etc etc I keep finding it shallow.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-23 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-22 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-22 08:06 pm (UTC)Yeah I've been ruminating on what the author's ultimate goal was, and I'm honestly not sure. The worldbuilding and premise feels like truly just an excuse to go through all those slavefic beats, they don't hold up if you look more closely at them. But the more serious "this is actually a critique of capitalism" vibe that fill the second half of the book kind of flounders with the worldbuilding prioritizing those tropes rather than engaging with realistic things like, say, the real-world history of slavery and how that was handled. Maybe it's ultimately meant to be just taking a slavefic premise seriously and going like "Okay so what would that actually be like and how would it play out in the real world?" and exploring the natural issues with it, but because certain parts of the premise are silly it feels strange to go from "oh kink premise" to "okay now we're in court about it".
Interesting to hear that the AO3 slavefics you've read may have changed over time... I also feel you on the sudden "lectures on consent" often hurting the intended vibe. I'm a big fan of dubcon/noncon stories, and when characters suddenly turn to the camera like "But of course, this is WRONG and BAD CONSENT CULTURE" I'm like "I DON'T CAREEEE I know that and THAT'S WHY I'M HERE" XD XD XD
no subject
Date: 2024-06-23 06:09 pm (UTC)Hear, hear XD