Book Review: Darklady’s Carnal Archives and Mesmerizing Hate Mail
Reading Time: 2minutes In her book, "Darklady's Carnal Archives and Mesmerizing Hate Mail", Darklady literally knocks it out of the park with the collection of past writings, combined with fiction, excellent quotes, personal confessions and (my favorite part at times), hate mail from people that read something she wrote and pushed back on her with moral outrage!
Our crew at Sssh and Wasteland.com have known and adored Darklady for over 15 years now as both a friend, and one of the few authors that cover the “adult” beat who actually have the knowledge and writing skills to reveal the complex nuances of BDSM, porn, and sex, both as an industry, and its role in society.
In her book, “Darklady’s Carnal Archives and Mesmerizing Hate Mail”, Darklady literally knocks it out of the park with the collection of past writings, combined with fiction, excellent quotes, personal confessions and (my favorite part at times), hate mail from people that read something she wrote and pushed back on her with moral outrage! In 254 pages, she covers a vast amount of territory, ranging from pornography to transgender politics. From kinky sex and BDSM to Polyamory. From masturbation to sex parties (like the Masturbate-a-thon). If it has anything to do with sex, gender, sexual politics, moralistic repression and pretty much anything else you can think of, it’s here for a glorious romp through her amazing paradigm.
Darklady’s writing style is like honey for the mind, with complex topics summed up in words that stimulate the mind. For example, in her chapter entitled “Pleasure, Pain and Purification”, she eloquently begins with:
“Le petite morte. The little death. Orgasm. A moment of both seemingly infinite sensation and solitude. No matter how much one loves their partner – if one chooses to have a partner during sex – the actual moment of orgasm is uniquely personal, like love, death, like the kiss of a whip on bare flesh.
One of the things that I love about this book is that it is written from a first-person narrative viewpoint. She dishes out her thoughts and experiences from a personal and often intimate level that you just don’t see in the current white noise of sex coverage in mainstream publications (think, “10 ways to give a better blowjob so your boyfriend doesn’t dump you” clickbait articles that fill the pages of Cosmo and Ladies Home Journal). This is the real thing, drawing on her 20 years of living inside the world of kink, porn and the many other counter-cultures she walks between freely and joyfully.
Never pedantic or trite, often hilarious, and aways thought-provoking, I highly recommend “Carnal Archives and Mesmerizing Hate Mail”.
Book Details via Amazon Kindle Store (available in both Kindle and print):
Coleen is a writer, photographer and film maker at Wasteland and Sssh.com.
Here at BDSMCafe.com, she is editor and curator of this comprehensive library of BDSM fiction, informational articles and other educational features that date back to the early days of the internet in 1996 when the site was first launched.
