Anyway, back at the fantasy...
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3 years ago
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Oh, I'm Obsessed
I think that most, if not all of you, have worked out by now that the title of the blog is quite accrate. (Does what it says on the tin.) I've also mentioned that one of my favourite books is Venus In Furs, by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. (The guy after which Kraft and Ebbing named masochism.) Although I don't have a thing for furs, I am an incurable romantic. However extreme, this is a love story. I recommend it.
Anyway, back at the fantasy...
Anyway, back at the fantasy...
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8 comments:
Venus in Furs was the first femdom book I read. I like the Gothick atmosphere, though, looking back, I'm not sure whether Masoch really understood what he wanted.
Giles,
It was pain, at the hands of a woman.
I've also read his biography, written by his long-suffering wife, who didn’t understand him. Their marriage really was a cliché. He did his best work when she beat him. And when she stopped, he had an affair with a budding young writer that used him to further her own writing career. A life that was worthy of a gothic tragedy, sadly.
ptathuk
I read ViF a few times when I was younger, but I never cared for it. I never got the sense that whassername was attached or had any affection for the poor guy. And I didn't have a lot of respect for the guy who threw away all his stuff for a woman who demeaned him so.
I understand it better now, but I still don't like it.
Your picture, though, is very yummy.
Tom,
Thank you. I guess different strokes for different folks!
ptathuk
Yes, I got the pain from a hot chick thing. However, I think he had a problem with context. Did he want to be a slave, or a badly treated lover, or what? Fair enough that he should yearn for all these, but ViF seemed a jumble.
Also, the BDSM he depicts and seemed to try for is eroticised but non-sexual. Severin sleeps with Wanda at one point in the novel, but there's no hint that she remained dominant once they were under the sheets.
I suspect modern fetish practices would make his head explode.
Giles,
I get your view, but I have some points for you to consider:
- It was written in the late 1800s. Explicite sex would make it an underground novel, and it wasn't.
- The sleeping scene you refer to had a description that left readers of the times in no doubt that sexual intercourse had occured. Wanda complains that she was bleeding slighly from his vigourous assult. I read it as almost a boast, and satisfaction that she could inspire him so much.
- There were no wordprocessors back then! Editing was a lengthy and difficult chore. Leopold's life at the time was difficult and there was enormous pressure to publish and get the money rolling in. He had a family to feed. There were also a few relatives staying with him.
- Like all of us, he was exploring his own feelings. We do this today via surfing the net. We should of course be confiding in our loved ones. Back in the day, Leopold used his writing, and literature. I think if he had the resourses that we take for granted, he would be making a few of us explode!
Ironically, he was the head of a large household, but the archetypal submissive.
I like the ethereal romantic style of the storytelling. It transports me back to the time it was written. This maybe just me!
ptathuk
I agree with most of what you say, and I too love the ethereal style... just when I went to it looking for answers all I found was confusion.
Giles,
I think that you're picking up on the author's own confusion. The story is after all a journey. And it is only a piece of the jig-saw. Start with the edges (teases), it's always easier to see the picture, once you have the edges. :-))
ptathuk
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