BBC on erotica

I’ve spent most of last night on the sofa, watching sexy things on BBC 4 and taking notes. (What? You mean *you* don’t take notes while watching erotica?)

First, there was the second episode of “Fanny Hill“, newly adapted by Andrew Davies. I loved it – it’s pretty, it isn’t even a little bit coy or shy of the sex or its selling, and there was even a birch present briefly. (I didn’t care for the fact that flogging was a particular speciality of the main bitch of the piece, but I may have been picky.) Best of all, it didn’t moralise in any way that John Cleland would have disapproved of. Now, Mr Davies, please adapt “Frank and I“.

Then the BBC chased their piece of costume bawdery with a documentary about porn in the 18th century. So, you think sex worker blogs are something new? Wrong, munchkins: one of the most popular genres of erotica – before erotic novels, before even novels were invented – used to be the so called “whore biographies”: the whence and wherefores of anyone from courtesans to street walkers. It appears, our friend Niki with her memoir is working in a fine, century-old tradition of erotic writing.

Finally, I caught a repeat of another Andrew Davies piece, “The Chatterley Affair“: a film about the “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” obscenity trial. This was also great; I’d never known that a courtroom scene could be so erotically charged. The prosecution and the defence argued whether a piece of writing that describes every sexual act most of them could imagine (though probably some of us could imagine more than that, particularly having watched Fanny Hill an hour before) – whether that piece of writing could be said to have artistic merit, and whether it has a tendency to “deprave and corrupt”.

Curiously, this is a charge that could conceivably be levelled at producers of spanking erotica, as well. We are none of us DH Lawrence, my friends, but I doubt that your friendly spanking pornographer – a film-maker, a writer or a model – has an aim of depraving or corrupting anybody. I personally don’t care whether you’re depraved… nor would I make a judgement on the subject, nor would I try to make you more or less so. Now, exciting, entertaining, making think, making feel, making feel alive – I could subscribe to goals like that.

Today’s piece of depraving and corrupting advice would be this: treat yourself to as many Andrew Davies adaptations as you can find. Start with “Tipping the Velvet“.

The Willing Secretary’s Spanking

People in the UK: do you watch “Californication” on Thursday nights? I suspect it may be more of a girl-show than a boy-show (hell-O my childhood idol David Duchovny having sex three times per episode and speaking dirty!), but I’m guessing there’s much there to make everybody happy, too.

And here’s the scene that made me happy last Thursday:

Just a minor request to the show creators… next time, can it be David Duchovny doing the spanking? And for longer than three seconds?

And, while we’re at it, can I be on the receiving end?

Bending Over a Wall

Mr Haze took me to Hadrian’s Wall last weekend. It’s a geeky weakness of mine: I like going there from time to time. There were plenty of people around as always, but we managed a few sneaky pictures.

Check out my new jeans. They’ve got wee beads on the back pockets, which is like wearing anti-spanking body armour. Mwaha!

(No, of course the little wall I’m climbing over isn’t The Wall. It’s just a wall on the way to the wall. If that makes sense.)

Niki on the Radio

So, guys, who caught Niki Flynn’s interview on REM.FM tonight? My Internet freaked out on me, so I missed it. I’m extremely cross about that.

Mind you, listening to it would have probably made me cross as well, because vanilla interviewers are usually pretty aggravating. But it would still have been interesting to hear. Niki says she was on air for 15 whole minutes.

If you heard it… please tell us what you thought.

Here’s a highly aggravated LolCat (from here):

Mistress Matisse’s New Podcast

Mistress Matisse, the blogger, dominatrix and columnist, has just recorded her first podcast. Have a listen. The first issue is a short, experimental dip into the sound waves, and is about poly issues rather than BDSM, but I’m hopeful for more SM discussions later.

If you’re aware of any more BDSM-related podcasts, do please tell me about them. My iPod is feeling a wee bit sterile with all the innocent Stephen King and snow-pure George R.R. Martin.