A review by akemi_666
Toddler-Hunting & Other Stories, by Taeko Kōno
4.0
Exceedingly unnerving high-class BDSM set in post-war Japan.
Recurring theme of the eroticism of subservience (hysteria) perhaps mirrors a collective libidinal need for Japan to reshape its national myth (from dominator to dominated) under neoimperial rule by the United States of America.
The necessity to derive joy from the other's cruelty (masochism) acts as a sublime defense mechanism, knitting back together a totally shattered psychic landscape.
Additionally, willing one's own abnegation (in the face of an external negator), while still self-destructive, may be read as an attempt to return to oneself control (over what already feels inevitable, or perhaps, has already come to pass).
Recurring theme of the eroticism of subservience (hysteria) perhaps mirrors a collective libidinal need for Japan to reshape its national myth (from dominator to dominated) under neoimperial rule by the United States of America.
The necessity to derive joy from the other's cruelty (masochism) acts as a sublime defense mechanism, knitting back together a totally shattered psychic landscape.
Additionally, willing one's own abnegation (in the face of an external negator), while still self-destructive, may be read as an attempt to return to oneself control (over what already feels inevitable, or perhaps, has already come to pass).