We haven't had anything to say about Fifty Shades of Gray, the bestselling "erotic romance" novel. For one thing, we haven't read it and don't intend to; for another, we're never too impressed by pop works featuring BDSM generally (and spanking in particular) because they're done by people who either aren't part of the scene they're trying to represent or who don't have enough talent to bring it vividly to life. Hollywood, that mixture of faux sophistication and untalented hackery, is usually responsible for our discontent, but cheap literature is almost as bad and Fifty Shades of Gray has all the earmarks of being just that. For the reasons we outlined in Progressive Paddling, once the novelty wears off and the next trashy book takes its place as the sensation of the month, adult spanking will be regarded by our society exactly the same way it is today - slightly outré and not at all understood, although vaguely "naughty" enough to be a little exciting to some.
Of course, there could be isolated cases in which women (it's mostly women who are reading this book) who have always dreamed of erotic submission through BDSM might be inspired to act on some of their fantasies, and these could result in a few more active spankos joining our ranks, which would be a welcome development. One such case is depicted below in a short comic strip by Tim, whose work has been seen in CSR before. Entitled "The Impact of Good Literature" our story shows us a feminist type (we may infer) who is initially shocked that her boyfriend wants to take her OTK, but the more she thinks about it, the more she likes the idea! In the end, she assumes the OTK position and gladly takes a good spanking. We decided this was technically a comic and not some other form because it uses a sequence of pictures to tell a story, although it is unusual in having no word balloons and particularly in having the captions written in (irregular iambic) meter. Perhaps the most attractive feature of this little drama is the girl giving up the feminist ideals she's been brainwashed into holding and finding real happiness by embracing her natural submissiveness.
Thanks to Tim and to Michael, who sent it in.
The Impact of Good Literature, in a double sense. Art by Tim. Posted by the Web-Ed on 02/22/2013.
