Fascinating thread with some very interesting contributions. I'm wary of wading too deep into this question, only because I find that this sort of introspection (for me) tends to disrupt and dissolve the fantasy element, which is why I'm here. But I did want to share a couple of thoughts.
First, I'd be mortified if anyone thought me capable in real life of the atrocities I regularly describe in my stories - that should go without saying, I suppose. But what if a real crime were committed by someone and it were shown to be inspired by/based on something I wrote? - I don't know how I'd deal with that.
Secondly, about point of view, or narrative position. When Eulalia started a thread called "Victim's Eye View" it started me thinking: with pictures, it's quite rare to get the victim's eye view; pictures nearly always show the act of torture from the master's/ torturer's/ dom's perspective, or at the very least, from the point of view of a spectator, which in these circumstances amounts to the same thing. However, with stories, the position is precisely the other way round - the victim's perspective is much more common, and I'd say it's relatively rare to read stories where the torturer is the narrator.
I've contributed a few stories here now; two were written largely from the female victim's perspective (
Prisoner 12 and
Carnival Queen) and three from a male perspective; in one case (
A Thief in the Macellum) crucifixion was described as a past event, but none of the characters participated directly. In the other two, (
The God of Filth and
What Happened in Aquileia) the narrators were involved, but unwillingly. Their accounts are tinged with regret. This is hypocritical of course, because I really want to indulge the fantasy of crucifying a woman, whilst pretending that I'm really against it. So I can have my cake (sizzling hot torture fantasy) and eat it too (avoid the moral contortions of speaking as a torturer). Having decided to make the effort to narrate from the male viewpoint, this was the compromise I found, because I couldn't quite stomach telling "the torturer's tale" - I just couldn't get inside the mind of someone like that (though now I think I must give it a try, as long as it's a fantasy, and understood as such). So, it's an awkward compromise, and it's really much simpler to tell such a tale from the victim's viewpoint - all the luscious BDSM thrills and no moral contortion. Though when I do that, I am called cruel for putting my heroines through such ordeals - I don't mind, I take that as a compliment
- but that wouldn't happen to a female writer I guess.
What would it be like, I wonder, to narrate a tale directly from the torturer's point of view? And is it a good idea? Would anyone care to direct me to some examples from CF's luscious, lubricious and lascivious library??
Well, that turned out a lot longer than I expected - sorry if I bored anyone
