BEYOND LEATHER Reviewed by Jean Roberta, 2003
Sacred Exchange, edited by Lisabet Sarai and S.F.
Mayfair (New York: Blue Moon, 2003). [Note: The book
title is underlined in the original file.]
.
According to the description on the back of this
unusual collection of stories, "Sacred Exchange is
an anthology of original erotic fiction that explores
the transcendent, spiritual, or magical aspects of
the power exchange in Dominance and Submission." SM
as "sexual magic"? So how are these stories different
from other erotic stories with a leather or BDSM flavor?
The difference is in the atmosphere. This collection
emphasizes what most other BDSM fiction only implies
or mentions in passing: the part that is hardest to
capture in words. There are whips, restraints and
various sex toys in these stories, not to mention
attractive bodies, but there are no real fetishes
here. Physical things are presented as means of achieving
transcendent states in much the same way that communion
wine (or in some cases, other substances) enables
believers to bond with their Savior as they conceive
of Him.
Extrasensory communication and superhuman powers
are featured in several of these stories. In "Ghost
of a Chance," a woman goes to a very unusual job interview
and is fascinated by a man she once rejected. In "Living
in Hell," a beautiful male from another planet becomes
spiritually bonded for life with a "homluk," his contemptuous
term for a male earthling. Both characters must come
to terms with their frightening, unbreakable empathy
with a member of another species. In another space
fantasy, "Free Falling," a submissive female junior
officer on a spacecraft must confront her fear of
falling to her death when her dominant male lover
devises a series of tests for her. In "The Cold Heart,"
an ancient race of beings, the Fey, have moved into
the heart of a human city, where humans seek them
out at their own risk, knowing that the Fey can invade
human minds.
The power of the natural world is an important element
in this and several other stories. (The "Fey" or fairy-folk
have traditionally been associated with wild places.)
In "Return to Wildwood," the new mistress of an English
estate discovers her hereditary role as mistress (in
a sexual sense) of the Green Man, a tree-spirit who
takes his strength from her. In "White Coyote," a
dominant male takes on the persona of an animal totem
to give his female partner what she needs, including
a new name formed from "light and dark."
Since this collection is about magic and mystery,
the appearance of fairies, extraterrestrials, elemental
spirits and ghosts in some of the stories is not surprising.
In others, however, the mystery of intense mutual
attraction and understanding (often mixed with fear
or repulsion) appears in a gritty context of mundane
reality. In "Fuckwise," a man recklessly drives from
Florida to Seattle without stopping because he wants
to meet the submissive woman he met in cyberspace.
Once he arrives, he must deal with his own motivations,
which are complex and less than noble, as well as
those of his new companion. In "Thresholds," a woman
writer enters the foreign territory of a men's lavatory
and meets a man who can give her what she has only
imagined before. In "I Am Road Kill," a transgendered
man makes a journey with Angel, the woman who seems
capable of leading him from hell to heaven, in a kind
of condensed modern version of Dante's Divine Comedy.
The curiosity which leads the characters in these
stories into strange places is shown to be fueled
by an ageless, persistent human desire to go beyond
the ordinary, the bland and conventional. For better
and worse, what passes for the "real world" is shown
to be a thin veil between the human seeker and a realm
which is more compelling and more real in a sense.
For this reason, the harshness of the medieval world
in "Communion" (last story in the collection) seems
modified by the suggestion that even death is not
a final ending or separation.
The motif of a road-trip as spiritual journey is
combined with the motif of music in "Come for Me,
Dark Man," a kind of southern blues song about a travelin'
man who rescues a lonely widow from the living death
of her respectable life. Music also features in "Discordance,"
a fantasy set in a society in which emotions are "performed"
for an audience as musical notes, harmonious or otherwise.
Music is at the heart of the appeal of the diva in
"Sentry," in which her bodyguard willingly risks his
life to protect hers, and recognizes a similar compulsion
in the stalker who threatens her. As the art form
which is least physical (and arguably most spiritual),
music seems fitting in these stories. In some sense,
every character has a themesong.
This symphony of stories is pansexual or "post modern"
(a term used by Carol Queen to define sexuality that
crosses boundaries) as well as being a mixture of
styles and genres. Human heterosexuality is shown
to be only one option among many, and even the simplest
response to a simple command (as in the wittily-named
story, "Moving") is shown to have life-changing potential.
The stories can be read in any order, and they are
accessible to a variety of readers, from novices to
seasoned veterans. If you feel that you are in danger
of becoming jaded (at least as a reader), either because
of the excesses of your own life or those of the characters
in the kind of current sexual fiction which is promoted
as outrageous, perverse and over-the-edge (yawn),
try this book. So far, it seems to be one of a kind.
