[Ad Hoc Bookclub] Review with Shakespeare
Jun. 1st, 2016 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So May is over and that means if you've been reading the ad hoc book club selection Sex with Shakespeare by Jillian Keenan, now's the time to talk about it. So I'll talk about it.
The book is partially a memoir of Ms. Keenan's short but very full life and how those events were tied into two central facets of her life, kink (in this case a spanking fetish) and Shakespeare. In particular, she uses the latter to help make some sense of the former.
The first thing that strikes you is how much Ms. Keenan has done. She took a gap year in Spain, went to Stanford, went to Oman, and was a Fullbright scholar among other things and most of that before she was 24. It makes you worry about what you've done with your life.
Anyway, since she has two main lenses to view the world, I'm going to tackle each of them in turn starting with Shakespeare.
Her conceit for Shakespeare is that she often has vivid conversations with the various characters in the plays. At times it seems a bit odd, perhaps like she's having a mental breakdown as the line between fantasy and reality blurs, but I wasn't terribly put off by this and it didn't interfere with her story. The good part about all of this is that she's able to offer some interesting new interpretations of Shakespeare's stories. What makes great literature great is that people can come to it again and again and come away with different impressions. Here, Ms. Keenan tries to show a less misogynist side to Taming of the Shrew and a darker shade to King Lear. I find a lot of her interpretations very interesting though not necessarily compelling in a "this is what Shakespeare meant" kind of way. Still, it makes Shrew more palatable and gives Helena a better motivation so it's thought-provoking in that way.
Now for the sex (or in this case spanking). Perhaps I live in too much of a bubble but I was a little surprised at how difficult it was for Ms. Keenan to figure out her kink and to meet like-minded people. Even in the early 2000's the internet was deep enough that you could pretty easily connect with fellow fetishists or look up reference material discussing the stuff that turned you on. It just seemed that she was extremely unhappy about her fetish for the longest time and I couldn't figure out why the internet had failed her so completely (aside from trying to do a search in Oman of all places).
And, of course, she's fairly young as she's recounting these stories so there's a lot of "oh no, don't do that!" Again, a few basic internet searches could've saved her a lot of grief -- although I'm sure many of my problems might get fixed that way too.
However, the real value of her stories is that they give a real emotional weight and clarity to her fetish and having a fetish in general. The idea that it's not just something you do for fun to spice up sex, it's more or less what sex is. Once she sort of gets things straight in her own head (or straight-ish anyway), she's able to convey that core value of her life in an elegant way.
Overall, I think this was a remarkable book. If you're into the kink/fetish scene I think it's a powerful read and if you're just curious, I think this is a great place to find out more (although I'd encourage you to try a second or third text from someone with a bit more confidence in their kinks).
If you're part of ad hoc bookclub, feel free to leave comments!
later
Tom
So May is over and that means if you've been reading the ad hoc book club selection Sex with Shakespeare by Jillian Keenan, now's the time to talk about it. So I'll talk about it.
The book is partially a memoir of Ms. Keenan's short but very full life and how those events were tied into two central facets of her life, kink (in this case a spanking fetish) and Shakespeare. In particular, she uses the latter to help make some sense of the former.
The first thing that strikes you is how much Ms. Keenan has done. She took a gap year in Spain, went to Stanford, went to Oman, and was a Fullbright scholar among other things and most of that before she was 24. It makes you worry about what you've done with your life.
Anyway, since she has two main lenses to view the world, I'm going to tackle each of them in turn starting with Shakespeare.
Her conceit for Shakespeare is that she often has vivid conversations with the various characters in the plays. At times it seems a bit odd, perhaps like she's having a mental breakdown as the line between fantasy and reality blurs, but I wasn't terribly put off by this and it didn't interfere with her story. The good part about all of this is that she's able to offer some interesting new interpretations of Shakespeare's stories. What makes great literature great is that people can come to it again and again and come away with different impressions. Here, Ms. Keenan tries to show a less misogynist side to Taming of the Shrew and a darker shade to King Lear. I find a lot of her interpretations very interesting though not necessarily compelling in a "this is what Shakespeare meant" kind of way. Still, it makes Shrew more palatable and gives Helena a better motivation so it's thought-provoking in that way.
Now for the sex (or in this case spanking). Perhaps I live in too much of a bubble but I was a little surprised at how difficult it was for Ms. Keenan to figure out her kink and to meet like-minded people. Even in the early 2000's the internet was deep enough that you could pretty easily connect with fellow fetishists or look up reference material discussing the stuff that turned you on. It just seemed that she was extremely unhappy about her fetish for the longest time and I couldn't figure out why the internet had failed her so completely (aside from trying to do a search in Oman of all places).
And, of course, she's fairly young as she's recounting these stories so there's a lot of "oh no, don't do that!" Again, a few basic internet searches could've saved her a lot of grief -- although I'm sure many of my problems might get fixed that way too.
However, the real value of her stories is that they give a real emotional weight and clarity to her fetish and having a fetish in general. The idea that it's not just something you do for fun to spice up sex, it's more or less what sex is. Once she sort of gets things straight in her own head (or straight-ish anyway), she's able to convey that core value of her life in an elegant way.
Overall, I think this was a remarkable book. If you're into the kink/fetish scene I think it's a powerful read and if you're just curious, I think this is a great place to find out more (although I'd encourage you to try a second or third text from someone with a bit more confidence in their kinks).
If you're part of ad hoc bookclub, feel free to leave comments!
later
Tom
