Good Writing + Kink = Hand in Pants--NOT!
I don't recommend "Yes Ma'am: Stories of Male Submission". It might be worth purchasing if you simply had to collect every porn anthology on the topic, but ultimately, there are better books to jerk off to.Published: November 11, 2008
Pros:
Two stories, "Secretary's Day" and "Taming the Unruly" were worth re-reading.
Cons:
Quality of writing was mostly mediocre, stories did not incite masturbation.
I just finished reading Yes Ma'am: Stories of Male Submission, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Before my review, I want to include a couple caveats, so you can understand my review in it's context:
1. I'm not much of a domme. I identify as a switch who mostly bottoms, but I thought to myself "meh, bottoming is bottoming, kink is kink, I'm sure it will be HOT!
2. what I am looking for in porn can be summed up with the following formula: Good writing plus kink = hand in pants.
I found only two stories in the collection, "Secretary's Day" and "Taming the Unruly", to be sexy. I was disappointed by the remainder of it. While the writing itself was typical of porn anthologies (a couple that weren't very good, most of them mediocre, one or two that were sexy), I found it hard to relate to the scenes described.
The stories feature situations involving bondage, humilitation, ass play, forced exhibitionism, group sex, and control/denial of the submissive's orgasm. The situations themselves were not hard to relate to--I've performed or fantasied about almost all the acts mentioned. It was more the way the material was handled by the various writers. I like writing that contains details on the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, textures of the character's world. In the context of porn, it's those details that arouse me. This collection had very little of that.
I haven't been able to determine if I disliked this collection because of:
*some idiosyncracy of mine, that I cannot seem to enter the world of the story because the sub is a man, or
*my sensibility, having been fed a diet of highly literary porn, just didn't like the work of less established writers, or
*what I focus on as a sub in a scene or as a reader immersed in a story just wasn't present in most of the collection.
1. I'm not much of a domme. I identify as a switch who mostly bottoms, but I thought to myself "meh, bottoming is bottoming, kink is kink, I'm sure it will be HOT!
2. what I am looking for in porn can be summed up with the following formula: Good writing plus kink = hand in pants.
I found only two stories in the collection, "Secretary's Day" and "Taming the Unruly", to be sexy. I was disappointed by the remainder of it. While the writing itself was typical of porn anthologies (a couple that weren't very good, most of them mediocre, one or two that were sexy), I found it hard to relate to the scenes described.
The stories feature situations involving bondage, humilitation, ass play, forced exhibitionism, group sex, and control/denial of the submissive's orgasm. The situations themselves were not hard to relate to--I've performed or fantasied about almost all the acts mentioned. It was more the way the material was handled by the various writers. I like writing that contains details on the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, textures of the character's world. In the context of porn, it's those details that arouse me. This collection had very little of that.
I haven't been able to determine if I disliked this collection because of:
*some idiosyncracy of mine, that I cannot seem to enter the world of the story because the sub is a man, or
*my sensibility, having been fed a diet of highly literary porn, just didn't like the work of less established writers, or
*what I focus on as a sub in a scene or as a reader immersed in a story just wasn't present in most of the collection.
Experience
To reality-check my experience, I gave the book to my husband Rod to get his perspective. Rod is a switch who is primarily a dominant, and a general all-around pervert. He reported that he liked the same two stories that I did. Overall he told me he found that some of the stories seemed too short, or were boring, badly written, or otherwise lacking in sexiness.
This product was provided free of charge to the reviewer. This review is in compliance with the
FTC guidelines.
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That's too bad, I was under the impression that Rachel Kramer Bussel usually worked on higher quality books.
Where is all this highly literary porn? Point me in the right direction, I'm there.
Like CW I'm interested in that porn too! Too bad about the book, I thought it might be a good read even if I wasn't always a dominant person in the bedroom.
Hey Sienna and Cock Wrangler--
I'd recommend
"Macho Sluts" by Pat Califia,
The Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (actually Anne Rice, writing under a psuedonym),
"The Story of O" by anonymous, and
anything by Anais Nin (her writing is not kinky as such, but is so well written, it's worth a taking a stab at.)
You might also try any of the Best Of _______ 2008 anthologies, They can be uneven, but generally the quality is high.
hope it helps!
Buttercup
Could you post a participant snippet you liked or disliked?
That's a shame. :[
That's too bad. I was hoping this would be a good book.