August Renfelt's Blog: Adventures in Femdom
March 2, 2014
Smashwords' Free e-book week
Smashwords is running a week long free e-book promotion, ending March 8. As part of that event I put two of my short stories up for free, namely:
The Tail: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
Impregnator: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
The coupon code for both is RW100.
The Tail: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
Impregnator: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
The coupon code for both is RW100.
November 14, 2013
Why can't porn be Art? Why? Why, why, why, WHY?!
So I wrote a guest blog at http://www.bdsmbookreviews.com/home/ and thought I might as well repost it here:
Why can't porn be Art? Why? Why, why, why, WHY?!
Vanilla erotica and romance has a problem. If two people loves each other and want to do the thing and proceed to do that thing, it is no different from some guy wanting a hotdog, getting it and eating it. There is no tension, there is no struggle, no test of character.
You can of course build in some conflict. Lovers can be kept apart by dastardly villains, or our hero can omit to tell our fair heroine a crucial fact or five, and confusion insure. But then, all of a sudden, the story is all about the villain or the misunderstanding and not at all about what we really came for: juicy hotdog eating.
Well, good news everyone. Stories about sexual domination and submission have the conflict build in. Right there between the main characters. The story can have all kinds of stakes and circumstance, and you can still get straight to the hand to hand combat. Tension? Right there in the relationship. Character? The dominant part gets to show his ingenuity or brute force, and the submissive gets to resist... for a while. Struggle? Try to get out of those ropes, baby.
But wait a minute, you say. If Bob is looking for a nice domme and finds Goddezz Ilze, and they both go down into the dungeon and have a nice time, how is that any different from any romance ever written?
It is and it isn't.
If Bob and Goddezz Ilze are established BDSM life-stylers, then their story is indeed a straight romance. Ilze is not really making Bob do anything he doesn't want to. They both know it. And we know it. God bless her.
But what if Bob doesn't know? What if this is his first time, and he is somewhat reluctant? Now you have a coming of age story, or a story of self realization. Yes, a vanilla romance could have the same setup. But it gets better.
What if Bob has very good reason not to succumb to Ilze? Maybe she wants to brainwash him into a cult? Maybe she wants the safe combination to the bank he manages? Maybe she was hired by his sister to turn him into a faggot so that the sister would get him disowned by their rich parents?
All kinds of scenarios can be inserted into a Dom/sub relationship without the story turning into being about something else than that relationship. As long as you establish some stuff first.
Genre conventions
Because in real life, you can't really grab a random person of the street, break them, tame them and turn them into a sex slave. You can't base your bank robbery on something like that. You can't use such techniques for anything reliably. So wouldn't a Dom be stupid to try? And we don't want a stupid Dom.
Enter the genre conventions; the assumptions we can pick up when we pick up the story.
Assumption One: Everyone can be made into a sub with the right pressure.
This assumes that we all have a hidden submissive nature that can be brought out. It is true insofar as the readers have a submissive nature and that is why they choose to read the story, but otherwise it is far-fetched. But no more far-fetched than conventions in other genres like super hero costumes, the proliferation of mastermind serial killers in crime series or the ever-present faster than light travel in sci-fi.
Assumption Two: The clever Dom can spot a potential sub.
This is really straight forward. The Dom knows how to call it, does, and that is that.
Assumption Three: This is the story about that time where it worked.
Ordinary crime shows gets settled in the interrogation room. CSI type shows gets settled on the physical evidence. Both types of shows get the right guy in the end. Seems like an odd coincidence that things always fit so neatly, unless you assume that those detectives have other cases, boring and irrelevant cases, that are never shown. Same with a Dom/sub story. We can assume that the Dominant did all kinds of other stuff before the story began, but what we are about to see is the part that interest us: hotdog.
You don't have to use all of these assumptions every time, not as a reader and not as a writer. In most cases any one of them will do. And as demands on our suspension of disbelief goes they are pretty gentle compared to what happens in other genres.
So, can erotica be Art?
F&%# me if I know, I'm just a guy who writes pulp femdom and shemaledom.
Yours
August Renfelt
Why can't porn be Art? Why? Why, why, why, WHY?!
Vanilla erotica and romance has a problem. If two people loves each other and want to do the thing and proceed to do that thing, it is no different from some guy wanting a hotdog, getting it and eating it. There is no tension, there is no struggle, no test of character.
You can of course build in some conflict. Lovers can be kept apart by dastardly villains, or our hero can omit to tell our fair heroine a crucial fact or five, and confusion insure. But then, all of a sudden, the story is all about the villain or the misunderstanding and not at all about what we really came for: juicy hotdog eating.
Well, good news everyone. Stories about sexual domination and submission have the conflict build in. Right there between the main characters. The story can have all kinds of stakes and circumstance, and you can still get straight to the hand to hand combat. Tension? Right there in the relationship. Character? The dominant part gets to show his ingenuity or brute force, and the submissive gets to resist... for a while. Struggle? Try to get out of those ropes, baby.
But wait a minute, you say. If Bob is looking for a nice domme and finds Goddezz Ilze, and they both go down into the dungeon and have a nice time, how is that any different from any romance ever written?
It is and it isn't.
If Bob and Goddezz Ilze are established BDSM life-stylers, then their story is indeed a straight romance. Ilze is not really making Bob do anything he doesn't want to. They both know it. And we know it. God bless her.
But what if Bob doesn't know? What if this is his first time, and he is somewhat reluctant? Now you have a coming of age story, or a story of self realization. Yes, a vanilla romance could have the same setup. But it gets better.
What if Bob has very good reason not to succumb to Ilze? Maybe she wants to brainwash him into a cult? Maybe she wants the safe combination to the bank he manages? Maybe she was hired by his sister to turn him into a faggot so that the sister would get him disowned by their rich parents?
All kinds of scenarios can be inserted into a Dom/sub relationship without the story turning into being about something else than that relationship. As long as you establish some stuff first.
Genre conventions
Because in real life, you can't really grab a random person of the street, break them, tame them and turn them into a sex slave. You can't base your bank robbery on something like that. You can't use such techniques for anything reliably. So wouldn't a Dom be stupid to try? And we don't want a stupid Dom.
Enter the genre conventions; the assumptions we can pick up when we pick up the story.
Assumption One: Everyone can be made into a sub with the right pressure.
This assumes that we all have a hidden submissive nature that can be brought out. It is true insofar as the readers have a submissive nature and that is why they choose to read the story, but otherwise it is far-fetched. But no more far-fetched than conventions in other genres like super hero costumes, the proliferation of mastermind serial killers in crime series or the ever-present faster than light travel in sci-fi.
Assumption Two: The clever Dom can spot a potential sub.
This is really straight forward. The Dom knows how to call it, does, and that is that.
Assumption Three: This is the story about that time where it worked.
Ordinary crime shows gets settled in the interrogation room. CSI type shows gets settled on the physical evidence. Both types of shows get the right guy in the end. Seems like an odd coincidence that things always fit so neatly, unless you assume that those detectives have other cases, boring and irrelevant cases, that are never shown. Same with a Dom/sub story. We can assume that the Dominant did all kinds of other stuff before the story began, but what we are about to see is the part that interest us: hotdog.
You don't have to use all of these assumptions every time, not as a reader and not as a writer. In most cases any one of them will do. And as demands on our suspension of disbelief goes they are pretty gentle compared to what happens in other genres.
So, can erotica be Art?
F&%# me if I know, I'm just a guy who writes pulp femdom and shemaledom.
Yours
August Renfelt
