Rec, and a note on "Intake Counselor"
May. 11th, 2009 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maculategiraffeI am currently really enjoying a fic that I feel like it is total narcissism on my part to rec, because not only is it set in the Slave Breakers 'verse but it is being posted locked to
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slavebreakers (so you have to join the community to read it, sorry :P), but what the hell. It's called "My Donald" and is set in the same universe as, but an entirely different location and time period from, my stories, which I find fascinating in itself. No SB characters, all original. I am beyond flattered that the author chose to write in my universe, because this is a story I would have been extremely into regardless of that particular connection. And I was thinking about why this particular story really does it for me, and I came to the conclusion that it has several elements I really really crave in a story. E.g.:- The characters are fascinating-- and the story is all about them.
See, my definition of "porn" as opposed to "story" (and I don't have a problem with either one, but I do think there's a distinction) is not the ratio of sex to whatever else, or sexy stuff (eg slavery) to whatever else, but basically the lack of complex characterization and motivation driving the characters' actions, in porn. In porn, you don't need any motivation beyond "Laura is horny, the pizza deliveryman is there, grunt grunt grunt" whereas a story is like, "Laura was so incredibly bored and sexually frustrated that morning, on account of David being on the antipsychotic medication that killed his sex drive, that when the pizza guy showed up they had all kinds of wild crazy sex. She felt no guilt; as the pizza guy drove into her, drawing her body slowly towards its peak of ecstasy, she reflected that it was surely no different from taking iron supplements when you became a vegetarian for moral reasons. She'd stay with David, of course, see him through his difficulties, but there was no sense wasting away through neglect of her own body's needs. The only trouble was that the pizza guy, be he ever so well-hung, was no more a satisfactory substitute for David, David's dear familiar body over hers, his eyes gazing down at her as they had done before the hallucinations began, the sweet married sex with no fumbling, than iron pills were a substitute for a good juicy rare sirloin. Afterwards, the pizza guy, who was younger than she'd guessed at first, with a heartbreaking little soul patch on his chin, wanted to cuddle, but Laura managed to fend him off and get him back into his uniform-- "Franklin," said his nametag, which she hadn't bothered to read before undressing him. She tipped him generously before shutting the door. Franklin. Jesus. No wonder he was up for boning bored housewives. She wondered briefly whether she'd just deflowered him, then got down to the business of getting the sheets in the laundry and the pizza buried deeply in the trash where David wouldn't see it when he got home."
...er, anyway, I see a lot of slavefics where it's like, "The master is cruel, the slave has spirit, ACTION!" and then you get a lot of sexy non-con torture and writhing and creative product placement of toys from the author's playroom, and to me this is basically porn. Not that there's anything wrong with porn, but it's not a story. Stories are about people. "My Donald" is about people. Complex, confusing, interesting people. People I want to get to know better. People I want to get to know each other better. I'm madly in love with the characters and their interaction, and it feels so organic and cool and that's the kind of thing that will ALWAYS keep me coming back for more.
But then there's the fact that:
- It starts in with the slavery right away.
You know the first line of "Bran," the official first line of the entire Slave Breakers universe? "Bran lay on the floor, naked, bound and gagged, listening with dull despair to the conversation going on over his head." I started the story like that because I have read so many slavefics that start with an expository chapter, or a whole bunch of slave-free plot leading up to the slavery, and I will be totally honest with you and say I always skip that chapter and skim towards the part with the chains and the dull despair. That's just me and my cravings; to me hearing about the background and the setup and piddling around at the auction or listening to the elaborate justifications behind why the ethically impeccable hero has No Choice But To Own A Slave is like the part in a restaurant when you're sitting sipping water with lemon and waiting for your actual drinks and dinner to arrive, which is why I make it a point never to show up at a restaurant hungry, because I get very hypoglycemic and cross. If slavefic is your thing, this story sits your ass down and hands you a plate of foie gras and caviar (or a Big Kahuna burger, according to your preference). Loves. Plus:
- It's really funny.
And it swings wildly between heartbreaking and funny, and is sometimes both in the exact same scene or sentence, which is my favorite thing. I love laughing while gnawing on my bottom lip.
And and and!
- It has a girl in it! A violent girl with a shaved head! I love stories with girls in them. Especially violent girls with shaved heads.
Anyways, good good story. If you're anything like me, you should read it.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] 5</a>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]
<lj-cut text="Story rec: 'My Donald'">
I am currently <I>really</I> enjoying a fic that I feel like it is total narcissism on my part to rec, because not only is it set in the Slave Breakers 'verse but it is being posted locked to <lj site="livejournal.com" user="slavebreakers"> (so you have to join the community to read it, sorry :P), but what the hell. It's called "My Donald" and is set in the same universe as, but an entirely different location and time period from, my stories, which I find fascinating in itself. No SB characters, all original. I am beyond flattered that the author chose to write in my universe, because this is a story I would have been extremely into regardless of that particular connection. And I was thinking about why this particular story <I>really</I> does it for me, and I came to the conclusion that it has several elements I really really crave in a story. E.g.:
<ul><li>The characters are fascinating-- and the story is all about them. </ul>
See, my definition of "porn" as opposed to "story" (and I don't have a problem with either one, but I do think there's a distinction) is not the ratio of sex to whatever else, or sexy stuff (eg slavery) to whatever else, but basically the lack of complex characterization and motivation driving the characters' actions, in porn. In porn, you don't need any motivation beyond "Laura is horny, the pizza deliveryman is there, grunt grunt grunt" whereas a story is like, "Laura was so incredibly bored and sexually frustrated that morning, on account of David being on the antipsychotic medication that killed his sex drive, that when the pizza guy showed up they had all kinds of wild crazy sex. She felt no guilt; as the pizza guy drove into her, drawing her body slowly towards its peak of ecstasy, she reflected that it was surely no different from taking iron supplements when you became a vegetarian for moral reasons. She'd stay with David, of course, see him through his difficulties, but there was no sense wasting away through neglect of her own body's needs. The only trouble was that the pizza guy, be he ever so well-hung, was no more a satisfactory substitute for David, David's dear familiar body over hers, his eyes gazing down at her as they had done before the hallucinations began, the sweet married sex with no fumbling, than iron pills were a substitute for a good juicy rare sirloin. Afterwards, the pizza guy, who was younger than she'd guessed at first, with a heartbreaking little soul patch on his chin, wanted to cuddle, but Laura managed to fend him off and get him back into his uniform-- "Franklin," said his nametag, which she hadn't bothered to read before undressing him. She tipped him generously before shutting the door. Franklin. Jesus. No wonder he was up for boning bored housewives. She wondered briefly whether she'd just deflowered him, then got down to the business of getting the sheets in the laundry and the pizza buried deeply in the trash where David wouldn't see it when he got home."
...er, anyway, I see a lot of slavefics where it's like, "The master is cruel, the slave has spirit, ACTION!" and then you get a lot of sexy non-con torture and writhing and creative product placement of toys from the author's playroom, and to me this is basically porn. Not that there's anything wrong with porn, but it's not a <I>story</I>. Stories are about people. "My Donald" is about people. Complex, confusing, interesting people. People I want to get to know better. People I want to get to know <I>each other</I> better. I'm madly in love with the characters and their interaction, and it feels so organic and cool and that's the kind of thing that will ALWAYS keep me coming back for more.
But then there's the fact that:
<ul><li>It starts in with the slavery right away. </uL>
You know the first line of "Bran," the official first line of the entire Slave Breakers universe? "Bran lay on the floor, naked, bound and gagged, listening with dull despair to the conversation going on over his head." I started the story like that because I have read so many slavefics that start with an expository chapter, or a whole bunch of slave-free plot leading up to the slavery, and I will be totally honest with you and say I <I>always</I> skip that chapter and skim towards the part with the chains and the dull despair. That's just me and my cravings; to me hearing about the background and the setup and piddling around at the auction or listening to the elaborate justifications behind why the ethically impeccable hero has No Choice But To Own A Slave is like the part in a restaurant when you're sitting sipping water with lemon and waiting for your actual drinks and dinner to arrive, which is why I make it a point never to show up at a restaurant hungry, because I get very hypoglycemic and cross. If slavefic is your thing, this story sits your ass down and hands you a plate of <i>foie gras</I> and caviar (or a Big Kahuna burger, according to your preference). Loves. Plus:
<ul><LI> It's really funny. </ul>
And it swings wildly between heartbreaking and funny, and is sometimes both in the exact same scene or sentence, which is my favorite thing. I love laughing while gnawing on my bottom lip.
And and and!
<ul><li>It has a girl in it! A violent girl with a shaved head! I love stories with girls in them. Especially violent girls with shaved heads.</ul>
Anyways, good good story. If you're anything like me, you should read it.
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/2166.html>Chapter 1</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/2669.html>Chapter 2</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4159.html>Chapter 3</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4375.html>Chapter 4</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4746.htmlChapter 5</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4982.html>Chapter 6</a></lj-cut>
Oh and speaking of stories with girls in them: yes, <a href=http://maculategiraffe.livejournal.com/114632.html>"Intake Counselor"</a> was a teaser for a new SB-verse serial fic. I don't want to say too much about it just yet because I'm still not sure how long it's going to be, but I'm writing on it a lot lately, and figuring some stuff out. It's the first story I've written in this 'verse that I'd hesitate to call slavefic, although I've seen other fics that called themselves slavefic that had the same amount of slavery in them (that is, they started with the rescue and spent the story exploring the post-slavery fallout), so maybe it is, I don't know. But it Contains No Actual Slavery. I hope it's going to work out. I'm really enjoying writing it, more than I thought I would actually. And it's sort of nice to be writing primarily girls for a change; as my late lamented husband once commented on reading my work, "Well, this is a bit of a sausage-fest, isn't it?"
Plus, y'all missed Jesse, right?
I am currently <I>really</I> enjoying a fic that I feel like it is total narcissism on my part to rec, because not only is it set in the Slave Breakers 'verse but it is being posted locked to <lj site="livejournal.com" user="slavebreakers"> (so you have to join the community to read it, sorry :P), but what the hell. It's called "My Donald" and is set in the same universe as, but an entirely different location and time period from, my stories, which I find fascinating in itself. No SB characters, all original. I am beyond flattered that the author chose to write in my universe, because this is a story I would have been extremely into regardless of that particular connection. And I was thinking about why this particular story <I>really</I> does it for me, and I came to the conclusion that it has several elements I really really crave in a story. E.g.:
<ul><li>The characters are fascinating-- and the story is all about them. </ul>
See, my definition of "porn" as opposed to "story" (and I don't have a problem with either one, but I do think there's a distinction) is not the ratio of sex to whatever else, or sexy stuff (eg slavery) to whatever else, but basically the lack of complex characterization and motivation driving the characters' actions, in porn. In porn, you don't need any motivation beyond "Laura is horny, the pizza deliveryman is there, grunt grunt grunt" whereas a story is like, "Laura was so incredibly bored and sexually frustrated that morning, on account of David being on the antipsychotic medication that killed his sex drive, that when the pizza guy showed up they had all kinds of wild crazy sex. She felt no guilt; as the pizza guy drove into her, drawing her body slowly towards its peak of ecstasy, she reflected that it was surely no different from taking iron supplements when you became a vegetarian for moral reasons. She'd stay with David, of course, see him through his difficulties, but there was no sense wasting away through neglect of her own body's needs. The only trouble was that the pizza guy, be he ever so well-hung, was no more a satisfactory substitute for David, David's dear familiar body over hers, his eyes gazing down at her as they had done before the hallucinations began, the sweet married sex with no fumbling, than iron pills were a substitute for a good juicy rare sirloin. Afterwards, the pizza guy, who was younger than she'd guessed at first, with a heartbreaking little soul patch on his chin, wanted to cuddle, but Laura managed to fend him off and get him back into his uniform-- "Franklin," said his nametag, which she hadn't bothered to read before undressing him. She tipped him generously before shutting the door. Franklin. Jesus. No wonder he was up for boning bored housewives. She wondered briefly whether she'd just deflowered him, then got down to the business of getting the sheets in the laundry and the pizza buried deeply in the trash where David wouldn't see it when he got home."
...er, anyway, I see a lot of slavefics where it's like, "The master is cruel, the slave has spirit, ACTION!" and then you get a lot of sexy non-con torture and writhing and creative product placement of toys from the author's playroom, and to me this is basically porn. Not that there's anything wrong with porn, but it's not a <I>story</I>. Stories are about people. "My Donald" is about people. Complex, confusing, interesting people. People I want to get to know better. People I want to get to know <I>each other</I> better. I'm madly in love with the characters and their interaction, and it feels so organic and cool and that's the kind of thing that will ALWAYS keep me coming back for more.
But then there's the fact that:
<ul><li>It starts in with the slavery right away. </uL>
You know the first line of "Bran," the official first line of the entire Slave Breakers universe? "Bran lay on the floor, naked, bound and gagged, listening with dull despair to the conversation going on over his head." I started the story like that because I have read so many slavefics that start with an expository chapter, or a whole bunch of slave-free plot leading up to the slavery, and I will be totally honest with you and say I <I>always</I> skip that chapter and skim towards the part with the chains and the dull despair. That's just me and my cravings; to me hearing about the background and the setup and piddling around at the auction or listening to the elaborate justifications behind why the ethically impeccable hero has No Choice But To Own A Slave is like the part in a restaurant when you're sitting sipping water with lemon and waiting for your actual drinks and dinner to arrive, which is why I make it a point never to show up at a restaurant hungry, because I get very hypoglycemic and cross. If slavefic is your thing, this story sits your ass down and hands you a plate of <i>foie gras</I> and caviar (or a Big Kahuna burger, according to your preference). Loves. Plus:
<ul><LI> It's really funny. </ul>
And it swings wildly between heartbreaking and funny, and is sometimes both in the exact same scene or sentence, which is my favorite thing. I love laughing while gnawing on my bottom lip.
And and and!
<ul><li>It has a girl in it! A violent girl with a shaved head! I love stories with girls in them. Especially violent girls with shaved heads.</ul>
Anyways, good good story. If you're anything like me, you should read it.
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/2166.html>Chapter 1</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/2669.html>Chapter 2</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4159.html>Chapter 3</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4375.html>Chapter 4</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4746.htmlChapter 5</a>
<a href=http://community.livejournal.com/slavebreakers/4982.html>Chapter 6</a></lj-cut>
Oh and speaking of stories with girls in them: yes, <a href=http://maculategiraffe.livejournal.com/114632.html>"Intake Counselor"</a> was a teaser for a new SB-verse serial fic. I don't want to say too much about it just yet because I'm still not sure how long it's going to be, but I'm writing on it a lot lately, and figuring some stuff out. It's the first story I've written in this 'verse that I'd hesitate to call slavefic, although I've seen other fics that called themselves slavefic that had the same amount of slavery in them (that is, they started with the rescue and spent the story exploring the post-slavery fallout), so maybe it is, I don't know. But it Contains No Actual Slavery. I hope it's going to work out. I'm really enjoying writing it, more than I thought I would actually. And it's sort of nice to be writing primarily girls for a change; as my late lamented husband once commented on reading my work, "Well, this is a bit of a sausage-fest, isn't it?"
Plus, y'all missed Jesse, right?
