Five Better Written BDSM Books to Explore

By Justine Camacho-Tajonera

The operative term is "better written." Better written than what? Better written than Fifty Shades of Grey, or the Fifty Shades trilogy of books by TV executive E.L. James that is purportedly earning her $1M dollars a week.

I recently sat in a book discussion on Fifty Shades of Grey by The Mysterious Reading Society (brave souls!) during the Filipino Reader Con that was recently held at Filipinas Heritage Library last August 18 and this is how this blog entry came about. While goodreads member Katrina Lumsden's famous gif-laden negative review of the book has been making the rounds on the internet, the book discussion group was very interested in what makes the book actually tick. No matter how badly written, it has spurred a lot of reading (and a lot of horniness, we hear). That can't be denied. We all came to the conclusion that this book is probably being read by non-readers...particularly virgins to the BDSM (bondage, domination, sadism, masochism) genre, pardon the pun.

Now, let's agree on that. I'm not going to talk about the literary merits (or horrors) of Fifty Shades of Grey. I'm going to talk about the genre and perhaps a revival of interest in it. Now that we're clear about that, I'd like to make a few suggestions to your literary...uh...foray.

The Story of O by Pauline Reage

This book was written by Anne Desclos, a French journalist, novelist and intellectual, in 1954...only to prove her lover, Jean Paulhan, wrong on his claim that no woman could write an erotic novel. It was published under her pseudonym, Pauline Reage. This book wreaked havoc. It was immediately banned the same year it was published and the ban was lifted only in 1967. In fact, the author only admitted to writing the book 40 years after the publication of the book! That bad.

 This book is significant to me because it was my very first purchase from Amazon.com. No way would I be able to buy this book in National Bookstore at the time. It took six months for this nondescript-looking paperback to reach me. But it was worth the wait. What a revelation it was!

While, of course, it is designed to get the reader hot and bothered...I was chilled to the bone by the possible conclusions it makes on sexuality and lust. It describes the total surrender, the total annihilation of the protagonist's individuality and claim to freedom in exchange for her utter abandonment to her lover and her lover's superior. The novel really pushes the boundaries and subjects the reader to the ecstasies and the dangers of surrender, devotion.

Justine (or the Misfortunes of Virtue) by the Marquis de Sade

Anyone would understand why I would be interested in this particular novel. And no, my mother didn't name me after this particular Justine. Readers will be glad to know that this piece of work has passed into the public domain and is free to download from Project Gutenberg. I got my copy of Justine from a friend in New York and I must admit, I could stomach only a few chapters at a time, though, I did finish it. It wasn't the writing that evoked such revulsion (unlike Fifty Shades of Grey) it was the subject itself. I couldn't stand reading about so much cruelty and death. And yet...cruelty and death are the stuff of real life.

Written in 1791 by the infamous Marquis de Sade (yes, the progenitor of the term sadism), this book also caused an uproar. Napoleon Bonaparte himself banned the book and had the Marquis imprisoned. This book is the sister to another book called Juliette (or Vice Rewarded). While it is indeed very graphic in its depiction of debauchery (gratuitous, it seems sometimes), the Marquis de Sade is making a point that is hard to miss: that in this earthly world, it is entirely possible for truly virtuous people to suffer by remaining virtuous while those who go the opposite way find themselves rewarded. There has been a long debate on de Sade's works. People find themselves concurrently fascinated and repelled by what he has written. Notably, he challenges our notions of good and evil...as well as what it means to be truly free. For the fainthearted, please do not venture into this territory. It is truly shocking, the likes you will only read in stories of true crime and accounts of serial murders. It is worth reading, though, for the sheer provocation, the shaking up of our assumptions about society. Was he a fighter for freedom of expression or was he a violence-inducing pornographer? You decide.

The Last Three Books: The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice

These last three books: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment and Beauty's Release were written by Anne Rice under the pseudonym A.N. Roquelaure in 1983. Apparently, this trilogy outsold her highly popular Interview With The Vampire. Well, there you have it, sex sells.

These books I truly enjoyed because, unlike the tragedies of The Story of O and Justine, The Sleeping Beauty trilogy ends well. It was a bit of a stretch of the imagination, though, because in this fictional world, no one seems to get pregnant! So, suspend your sense of reality and just enjoy it as what it is: an erotic fantasy. Well, on the BDSM part...I'll explain that at the bottom of this post.

Rice has been accused of pornography as well. But she defends her work as a political statement, a choice for women to make and an expression of creative freedom.

Is it well written? Well, a lot better written than Fifty Shades of Grey. So, if you have been initiated into this genre, anyway, this trilogy is your next step. It also explores different types of relationships between different types of men and women (in whatever group set you can imagine). Which leads me to my last point.

People ask why the rape fantasy is so prevalent in erotica, especially erotica that appeals to women. It is precisely because it is a fantasy. That's the key word. Women have no actual wish to be raped. Heaven forbid the notion! However, in the rape fantasy, women can control the outcome (and the pleasure) without taking responsibility for the actions. BDSM explores the boundaries of the erotic relationship because it is based on absolute trust and surrender. It is dangerously close to the line between love and the abuse of it.

So, I dare you to go ahead and explore that boundary by expanding your literary fare.