BDSM Book Club

This is a discussion group which will feature a monthly book that has a BDSM theme. The book will be announced at the beginning of each month with topics for discussion.

FEBRUARY: "Story of O" by Pauline Reage

Is O's experience soul-destroying or soul-fulfilling? Is she living out her destiny, or is she being ruined? At the novel's conclusion, is she free, or is she experiencing the ultimate imprisonment?

Do O and Rene, and eventually Sir Stephen, truly love each other and do what they do as the result of that love? Are they using professions of love as either manipulation, in the case of Rene and Sir Stephen, or as rationalization, in the case of O?

Awesome idea, will deff read thx :)

Good idea! Will have a look at it again, and get back.

I'll have to re-read it. I realise I haven't read it since the 70s, and at the time I wasn't paying attention to such subtleties: I was just revelling in the first BDSM book I'd ever read that wasn't hack pornography. These days I know it better from Guido Crepaux' graphic novel version.

While I'm doing that, a side note: the French are most amused that thanks to this book Roissy and Samois are names to conjure with among English-speakers, because to Parisians they're just suburbs with no more romance than Neasden or Hoboken. A US couple I knew on alt.sex.bondage went on holiday to France and discovered that Samois' claim to fame these days is a jazz festival. So the sub got her photo taken next to the Roissy road sign, wearing a Samois Jazz Festival shirt, and sent it round her kinky friends with the caption "My Master took me to Roissy and Samois and all I got was a lousy teeshirt."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flaming_Redhead

Do O and Rene, and eventually Sir Stephen, truly love each other and do what they do as the result of that love? Are they using professions of love as either manipulation, in the case of Rene and Sir Stephen, or as rationalization, in the case of O?

My views:
O loves, or thinks she loves, Rene. But Rene loves Sir Stephen. Sir Stephen loves noone.

We do not hear anything about the love life of O and Rene, the book starts with the travel to Roissy. This means that that love life is not important.

The meaning of getting O trained there is to make her ready for Sir Stephen, although this is not known to O, or the reader, at the time.

O will do anything for Rene, as long as she thinks he loves her and he knows that.
He does not love her, but she means a great deal to him as the person he will please Sir S with. At the entrance to Roissy he says: ...you're just the whore, I am the pimp who has furnished you."

During the first slave rape by 4 persons one of whom is Rene, O blindfolded, she does not know which one was Rene. I think the point is that Rene does not love her, and his lust as well as well as his feelngs are really meant for another. His primary aim is to make O ready for Sir S. Later, when Rene helps another person to take her, she is much more excited than she has ever been with Rene. Although this is in part the sub side awakening, I see it again as sign of Rene's lack of feelings for her personally.
Another example is his care to stretch her anus, so she is ready for Sir S, while he himself has not used that possibility and does not do so until after O starts to be used by Sir S there - always after the nights Sir S has had her.

The description of Roissy is a hot, erotic fantasy for most of the part, but it is also mixed with a totally inhuman regime. No humanity, no human contact, the last time there spent under conditions almost as in sensory deprivation. This does not bother Rene.

So no, Rene does not love O, she has great value for him as the link between
him and Sir S, but he does not hesitate to hand her over to him when she is deemed ready. The scene in which this happens is again dehumanising for O.
I also see it as important that while Rene still has a relationship with O, his lovemaking is only after she has been with Sir S, and bears his marks and body juices.After a while, O tries to get more time with Rene, but his answer is to hand her over to Sir S and asking her to punish her seriously.

O's feelings are harder to grasp. She is franctic about loosing Rene, if she does not love him, at least she needs him, very much. Only at the very last part of the story are her feelings for him gone, all to Sir S. She wants him so much to love her, but I do not think he does, or even can. But at this point O is unable to break free, or take serious decisions.

Sir Stephen does not, as I read it, love anyone. His younger half-brother, Rene, worships him and would take up as his lover/sub in a heart beat, but Sir S only likes women. So O is the link, they love each other, in a manner of speaking, through her. Sir S has inhuman self-restraint, and does not allow himself feelings. To him she is a valured accomodation, until he gets tired of her.

Quote:

Is O's experience soul-destroying or soul-fulfilling? Is she living out her destiny, or is she being ruined? At the novel's conclusion, is she free, or is she experiencing the ultimate imprisonment?

I see it as soul-destroying. She has without a doubt strong sub feelings, but these are being exploited by the two men in her life. They make sure that she has little or no contact with other people - a sure sign of manipulation to control. When Sir S realizes that O is getting interested in Jacqueline he forces her to make love to her only to please him as he watches, no romantic interest or friendship is allowed, it must all be for him. He comes between them, and makes O betray Jacqueline to Roissy. When Jacqueline's little sister falls in love with O, she too is dragged into it.

There are two different endings, but they are in effect the same:
In one, Sir S leaves O, and she wants to kill herself, which he allows. Love? Ha!
In the other ending, the description of her is as one already dead:

"..But even though they did these things to O, used her thus, even taking her for an example, for a sample, or for the object of a demonstration not once did anyone adress a word to her. Was she then a thing of stone or wax, or a creature of some other world, and was it that they thought it pointless to try to speak to her, or was it that they didn't dare?"

When I read this book first years back, it was simply mostly a hot fantasy, though it also upset me. Now, years later, I see why.

What is March's book, please?

I too would like to know and read this months book.

I'm in for March/April if there is going to be a new book.