In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the popularity of bondage, sadism, and masochism in Western Culture.  Among other things, the wide availability of information about sexual alternatives available on the Internet has helped drive “bds&m” into popular consciousness.  Notwithstanding, there is a suggestion that such themes were beginning to creep into popular literature some years before the real “breaking” of Internet as a source of pop culture. Anyone who doubts this should contrast the relatively brusque and distant treatment given to bondage in movies of the early and mid 1980s – for example After Hours, in which bondage was typically seen as something done by a rather caricaturish set of stereotyped “leather people,” with more modern portrayals, including the albeit rather tame screen adaptation of Anne Rice’s Exit to Eden.

The side effect of the popularity of the topic has been a subsequent bloom of fiction, much of it amateur or semi-amateur (as is this contribution).  Another side-effect which has been pervasive, while not universal, is the tendency of authors to create “safe and sane” consensual bdsm realities, or at the very least realities where despite being in exquisite agony and being allegedly miserable and wretched, everyone always seems to be having a pretty good time. 

There is certainly room for “cheery” fiction on the subject.  While fairly sophisticated bdsm fiction was being published underground during the 19th century, until recently the new reader’s most likely recourse was De Sade’s Justine, or Dominique Aury ("Pauline Reage")’s The Story of O.  

It is the personal belief of the author that sexual violence is inherently a part of our heritage as human beings – both male and female, just as are all other types of violence.  And just as a healthy society might celebrate the days of yore when knights were bold, yet channel its current violence and aggression into football or rubgy, one hopes that a modern civilized society might be learning to channel sexual violence into entertaining, and ritualized play.  The current explosion of literature and interest may be a steppingstone into a society where our sexual identities are not repressed.

Nevertheless, reality brings some grim stuff.  Historically, an overwhelming amount of violence has been done by men, frequently, and most especially in the case of sexual violence, to women.  Execeptions exist, but the fact is to believe in any general rule to the contrary is historically naive.  However, we know from modern society that men are not exclusively dominant sexually, and that women are not exclusively submissive...in general there seems to be a fair mix between the genders – enough to assume that equality is the rule.  Brute force and social structure can be presumed to be an adequate explanation for the discrepancy between human tendency and historical reality.  We must also remember that while anyone may be excited by sexual power exchange, just as anyone may be excited by physical violence, there are very real mental disorders associated with sexual violence in many of its more extreme cases. 

The following work is erotica, not pornography, in that it makes a genuine attempt to explore the emotions, dysfunctions, and passions behind our behavior, rather than to produce scenes for purely prurient enjoyment.  The price of this is that there will be parts which are not particularly pleasant.  The ideal goal is probably a sort of erotic dichotomy – where the reader is both excited and at the same time recognizes something as being wrong, or monstrous – and becomes aware of the sexual deviance within herself or himself.  The perrenial popularity of “slasher” films certainly attests to the fact that a darker sexual side exists in if not all of us, a very large number of us.

The author does not condone any sort of non-consensual sexual activity.  However, to write about it, with the goal of creating arousal, is in the opinion of the author no different than to write about fighting or killing with the goal of creating excitement.  It is to create in the imagination what cannot and should not exist in real life.