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| TheFalconer |
on Wed 22 Apr 09, 9:40 PM to TheFalconer's blog.
Peter Masters is the author of The Control Book, which is hands down the best book I've ever read on D/s (as opposed to BDSM). So when I heard he had a new book out, I ordered it basically sight unseen.
| "This Curious Human Phenomenon" looks under the hood to find out what's really going on, at why people "do" BDSM, at what makes it so enticing, at what needs it meets, and at why these can't readily be met elsewhere. This is not a how-to book. Instead, it is designed to be a bridge to understanding for people who want to take their BDSM to that mythical "next step" |
This is an interesting topic, and I think there's definitely space for someone to write an excellent book about it. Unfortunately, This Curious Human Phenomenon isn't that book. Which isn't to say it's terrible - in fact in places it's very good - but rather that it feels like an early draft for a longer, better book.
The book begins, sensibly enough, with a couple of chapters detailing the activities people undertake within BDSM. This is fairly basic stuff, and is just there to ground the discussion from that point on. It's followed with a couple more chapters covering basic ideas around the conscious and unconscious mind and also identities, to fill out the groundwork before we take the promised "next step".
This comes in the form of two chapters - the first of which defines BDSM as requiring the presence of an "other" to be successful (i.e. you don't see Doms whipping pillows to get hot), and the second talking about Master's idea of "penetration". This is essentially the idea that BDSM activities force an invasion of the space/self/body of the submissive party. It's a tricky thing to explain fully in less time than he gives to it, but a recap of one of his examples will probably illustrate well. A female submissive is at a play party, where she is ordered by her Domme to perform oral sex on one of the male Doms there. This creates three levels of penetration - the physical penetration by the male Dom, the psychological penetration of the female Domme imposing her will, and also the additional penetration of the voyeurs to the act.
The next section of the book looks at relationships and motivations, and similarly to the first section spins around a bit between laying down basic common understanding and drawing interesting conclusions. Perhaps the most useful chapter in this section is on Surrender and Anchors. This is a very short chapter (six pages) discussing the fact that BDSM is most satisfying (for both parties) if you give yourself over to the experience (i.e. surrender to it). Anchors, then, are anything which stops you achieving this state. An anchor can be anything from a lack of trust, to worrying about how you look naked, to simply being distracted by the fact you have the vicar coming to tea in an hour and so have to be done by then.
Personally I think this is a very interesting idea and would have been happy to read much more on the topic of how to recognise and unhook anchors, but unfortunately they're not covered in any greater detail.
Following this there's a couple of chapters covering health concerns and what published research there's been on BDSM. This takes you up to pg 140 (of 230), and really I have few concerns about anything up to that point. As noted there's some ideas I would have liked to seen explored at greater length.
The main issue I do have with the early part of the book is that there's a focus principally on the submissive perspective on BDSM activities. This wouldn't really be noteworthy, since almost all BDSM books take this view, if it wasn't for the fact that Masters notes the issue when talking about other writing and research, and then still does it himself. In fairness to him, most of his ideas on motivations are presented such that they can be inferred to apply symmetrically, but in the interest of balance it would have been nice to see them presented from the Dom perspective more often.
Anyway, back to the latter part of the book. The next thirty pages are spent talking about groups, and in particularly talking at great length about BDSM societies and how these might be structured, with membership committees and such-like choosing which Doms and subs to admit, and who gets to learn the group's hidden secrets. Additionally there's a section detailing how tunnel-vision could be a problem in such groups, with their exercise of authority over their members potentially being non-consensual on non-members (such as a group forbidding a Dom member to enter a relationship with a sub who is unaware of the group). Which was all kind of interesting in passing, but I finished the chapter very much thinking that it might be interested academically, but since nothing like this actually exists in the real world it was something of a waste of space in the book.
I was therefore somewhat surprised to discover that the following chapters were largely taken up by a series of anecdotes about occasions where the author was inconvenienced by the actions of secret BDSM societies. In none of these cases was the author a member of such a society, in several of them he never had any direct personal contact with anyone who was, and in all cases he wasn't aware of the society's involvement until after the fact.
Now I should note that Mr Masters is in Australia, and I know nothing about that country's BDSM scene. So it's entirely possible that such groups exist there, and that all of these anecdotes happened exactly as he said. But from my personal perspective, information on how to interact with secret BDSM societies is not especially useful.
Once that digression is over the book closes out with a couple of chapters on training and abuse, and then finally a "Conclusion" which is actually just a recap of what's already been said.
In summary then - there's definitely a kernel of a good book in here. A revised edition which devoted more time to the actual novel ideas presented and worked through more of their implications and practical uses would be a book I could whole-heartedly recommend (and if page count is an issue I have some suggestions as to which 50 pages to cut...). As it is - it's more a book to borrow from the library.
(this is a copy/paste from my LJ, all the formatting fell off in the process and I'm too tired today to be arsed with fixing it other than the one quote)
Edited Thu 23 Apr 09, 10:38 AM by TheFalconer
| 22 Apr 09, 9:52 PM syndeetoo UK(WC), 6 yrs |
I pasted Peter Masters into amazon- it came back with "Physicians of Souls: The Gospel Ministry " errrrrrrr...................isbn? Here in the bipolar ward if you shower you get a gold star, but I'm not going far till the Haldol kicks in-until then, until then-I'm strapped to this fucking twin bed and I won't get any cookies or tea till I stop quoting Nietzsche and brush my teeth and comb my hair. (Rennie Sparks) | ||
| 22 Apr 09, 9:58 PM TheFalconer UK(S), 6 yrs |
Think he gives Amazon links for all of his books off of his own site : http://www.peter-masters.com/wiki/index.php/Main... "Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace." - Oscar Wilde | ||
| 22 Apr 09, 10:00 PM MadamEmme UK(SE), 5 yrs |
Interesting analysis of the text. I'll then, probably buy it, read it and then give it to a Library ... So that it can be borrow. lol No, no, seriously... Thank you. Be Safe and at Ease with your Nature... | ||
| 22 Apr 09, 10:06 PM syndeetoo UK(WC), 6 yrs |
ta muchly- it's not listed on amazon uk which is where I originally looked. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193462568X?ie=U... but now I have it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curious-Human-Phenomenon... Here in the bipolar ward if you shower you get a gold star, but I'm not going far till the Haldol kicks in-until then, until then-I'm strapped to this fucking twin bed and I won't get any cookies or tea till I stop quoting Nietzsche and brush my teeth and comb my hair. (Rennie Sparks) Edited 22 Apr 09, 10:08 PM by syndeetoo | ||
| 22 Apr 09, 10:08 PM TheFalconer UK(S), 6 yrs |
It is on Amazon UK, that's where I got my copy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curious-Human-Phenomenon...
EDIT: NM you found it "Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace." - Oscar Wilde | ||
| 22 Apr 09, 10:10 PM TheFalconer UK(S), 6 yrs |
Well yes that is the problem with my suggestion of course "Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace." - Oscar Wilde | ||
| 22 Apr 09, 10:12 PM Tenderdom2 4 yrs |
Oh... that's just me then. Whatever it is, I'm against it! - Rufus T. Firefly | ||
| 22 Apr 09, 10:18 PM syndeetoo UK(WC), 6 yrs |
You should get to a whip workshop. <coff> Here in the bipolar ward if you shower you get a gold star, but I'm not going far till the Haldol kicks in-until then, until then-I'm strapped to this fucking twin bed and I won't get any cookies or tea till I stop quoting Nietzsche and brush my teeth and comb my hair. (Rennie Sparks) | ||
| 23 Apr 09, 10:11 AM TheFalconer UK(S), 6 yrs |
Just noticed that I shouldn't have bothered wasting time trying to explain Master's definition of Penetration, as he's actually posted this bit on his own web site. http://www.peter-masters.com/wiki/index.php/Pene... Also there's a brief bit about Surrender and Anchors - http://www.peter-masters.com/wiki/index.php/Defe...
So I think I'll amend my recommendation to being "read the good bits for free on his web site" "Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace." - Oscar Wilde |
