Becoming a Slave: The Theory & Practice of Voluntary Servitude

by Jack Rinella

Becoming a Slave is an authoritative, and well-documented book on the process of finding and submitting to a dominant. Beginning with a description of terms and the characteristics to be found in a master and in a slave, the book continues with how one realizes and understands their own desire to submit and serve, proceeds to the process of advertising, searching, meeting, and interviewing prospective masters, and ends with a great deal of practical advice on submitting, serving, and satisfying a dominant in a healthy and practical way.

Genres: BDSM, Nonfiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the realism of the book, always keeping it in the forefront that M/s is fun, but you also have other real life obligations. I liked that it had the perspectives of both partners in it. I didn't like the dictionary definitions and the repetitive concepts or statements. I can understand why they were included, but I think they took away from the book a bit. I appreciated the mentions of consent included throughout, and the chapter on Polyamory.

[Shari Malin]

Second time I'm reading this one. It takes time to go through the activities.

[slave paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to consentual slavery. i especially enjoyed reading the input from slave patrick at the closing of each chapter.

[Yingtai · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good and I need to stop kidding myself that I'll read more of it while I'm in such bad health. I can't read it without doing the homework.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

First: I greatly enjoyed reading Chapter 9 and 14. Between those two chapters I feel like there was a good mix of what to be weary of in the beginning and what to watch out for while in a dynamic. Additionally, I *very* much appreciated slave Patrick's reflections on the chapters. They were very valuable in hearing how Jack Rinella's words and message is lived in "real life". Patrick's words were thoughtful and intentional.

The rest of the book... not so much.

It feels like outside of chapters 9 and 14, the rest of the book was just repetitive expansions of those ideas. Sometimes literally so. With all of the dictionary definitions it also makes me wonder if this book might have been sponsored by Webster. I came to this book to hear Jack's thoughts - not the dictionary's!

This book was frankly a slog. It was dense (quite literally, the font size was about 9pt with very narrow margins!) and at times felt like it was verbose just for verbosity's sake. It's clear that Jack really values what he has to say and wants to just keep saying it. But it doesn't feel very engaging to the reader. I'm sure that there is lots of wonderful knowledge, but it's hard to parse out because I often felt myself skimming just to get past the same stuff he's already said.

Of all the books I've read, this is one of them.

[Alexander Collas · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of interesting information in this book. Its main flaw, and it really is a huge issue, is the redundancy. This book could be at least 33% shorter just by taking out the repeated comments. I could see repeating important points maybe twice. Here at least a 1/3 of each chapter is the same information over and over. It is unnecessary. I'm not normally one who points out typos and stuff, for I feel it should not affect the reader's experience with the book unless it is done excessively. Here words were not removed when the sentence was edited thus leaving the reader in the position to decode the sentence instead of just reading and understanding it.

[Supineny · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off, this is an interesting subject, and Jack Rinella has a lot of experience in the area, so for that reason this is an interesting book. That said, GET THIS MAN AN EDITOR. Lots of redundant, padded-out prose that needed to be cut down and organized. By contrast, the brief sections written by his slave are quick, lucid and specific.

an interesting aspect of this book is how it defies expectations. one might expect that this is a sexy enticement to give up one's volition to enter a life of fetishy submission. rather the book is in large part disclaimer and reality check. the book is really a guide to commencing, maintaining and planning for the eventual, all but inevitable end of a full time, live in Master/slave relationship. the odds are against you from the start. Rinella, with some resignation, points out that the process begins with a large number of dead ends: most people who say they are looking for owners are in fantasy land, are at best all talk and are usually only interested in 24/7 slavery as a masterbatory fantasy. for the devoted few who are serious and try to live it full time, most relationships last no more than four months. this book offers a sobering guide to the challenge of pulling it off, replete with self-help book exercises at the end of each chapter to push you along. ('write down all your fears', 'talk to a couple in a polyamorous relationship' etc).

thr trick is that there's no trick--despite the particular erotic power exchange that defines the relationship, it would seem that the most important fundamentals are things like communication, compatability, honesty and both parties being finacially secure and so forth. having 'spark' and an easy sexual rapport, being good kissers, these things all help. so much of the book is devoted to these sorts of important yet banal considerations that any reader more interested in the distinctive erotic core of a master/slave relationship will be bored for long stretches.

the good stuff is in here though i really felt like i was gleaning scraps after awhile. often the most interesting parts would be about the specifics of the authors relationship with his slave, Patrick. in fact some of the most interesting bits come from Patrick who, naturally, can speak from first hand experience what he likes and doesn't about being a slave. for instance, he contributes a diary excerpt in which he discusses what it's like to be whipped and beaten so hard that the usual feeling of pleasure and connection with his master was temporarily replaced with hatred, a feeling he didn't think he should have.

unfortunately, the poor writing makes all this quite a slog. Jack Rinella is evidently better at enthralling slaves than readers.

[J Crossley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an invaluable book to learn more about how to become a consensual slave.