“American men prefer to be choked or beaten,” the dominatrix said. “European men like to be ridden like horses. Japanese men want to be treated as girls.”
The spontaneous overflow of feelings, recollected in tranquilityspecialdifficultcommandreceivegivereallyqueenqueenqueenNothing is true; all is permissibleAll is true; all is permissible—but only when all is consensualO the dominant’s joys! To set forth nimbly with candle & lash, servile to none! And O the submissive’s joys! To be plenteous & cheerful & ready for anything!* Slightly condensed and paraphrased (hence the absence of quotation marks), from David Perkins, ed., English Romantic Writers (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967), pp. 321, 328 (preface to 2nd ed. of the Lyrical Ballads, 1800).** Years ago an S&M porno actress in this city assured me that bondage as she practiced it derived from the Japanese art of wrapping up gifts. Today’s dominatrix rejected that. She insisted that bondage came from the tortures of the Edo period (ca. 1615-1867).
Kannon Sanjusan Ogenshin*** Context is everything, isn’t it? In isolation this sentence might be considered crass. But here in this genial, “literary” setting, it becomes not merely fit for a family publication, but a veritable jewel of “family values.”
