Lurker60031

NOTICE: Submissions to this group are now back on.

Welcome to Lorelei Station!

Lorelei-Station (the group) is a group for artwork and stories featuring bound and barefoot beauties of the science-fictional sort. In addition to the universal rules of "Don't violate DeviantArt's TOS" and "Play nice" the group-specific rules are:

1. Contributions must have a science-fictional connection of some sort and must feature characters who are bound, barefoot, and female. Additional characters who are male, hermaphrodite, and/or shod may be included in the work provided that those additional characters are NOT bound.

2. The female character may be of any species, provided her background is science-fictional (as opposed to fantasy). In fact, non-human characters are encouraged. Fan works of existing characters, original characters of known species from various franchises, and completely original characters are all acceptable.

3. The female character must NOT be shown as being mistreated in any way, beyond being bound without discomfort or chastised via tickling. There are already oodles of bondage and fetish works out there that indulge in lavish depictions of harshness and cruelty for "teh sexy." One of the missions of the Lorelei-Station group is to find and gather those rare works that avert this.

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Lorelei Station (the fictional starbase) is an independent and neutral space habitat whose primary business is the purchase, sale, and shipment of beautiful humanoid females, along with various accessories and restraint-items for the same. It is located in a file-off-the-serial-numbers-and-slap-on-a-coat-of-paint setting that combines and amalgamates various published and original space-travel 'verses. Star Trek and Star Wars are the most prominent of these - but not the only ones. Likewise the Orion Slavers Guild and the House of Hutt are two major players on the station, but again, not the only ones.

The items of female merchandise may be green skinned slave women, blue nymphs with antenna-horns, brain-tailed females of various colors and much yum-yum, furry space-felines of various sorts, terran humans, or rare and seldom-seen species, (including those original to contributors).

The basic in-setting regulations of Lorelei Station are:

A. "No male or hermaphrodite items of merchandise - females only."

B. "Female items of merchandise must be restrained. Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis by the station Administration - but the inquirer should expect the default answer to be 'No.'"

C. "A zero-shoe policy is in effect: Female items of merchandise must be kept barefoot at all times. No exceptions."

D. "Mistreatment of female merchandise is strictly against station policy. Note that this regulation applies equally to the owners of the merchandise in question."

NOTE: "The Administration operates on the principle that happy females are attractive and high-value females, and Lorelei Station jealously guards its reputation for dealing only with attractive, high-value items of female merchandise."  

E. "Beings who are currently members of any 'space patrol' or analogous organization must be accompanied by a Guild-approved escort while on board Lorelei Station. Purchases or sales of female merchandise by 'space patrol' members require special approval from the station Administration. Conversion or transformation of female 'space patrol' members into items of merchandise while on board the station is strictly prohibited."

First, I don't blame DeviantArt for their often-cramped rules. They're looking at the spiky mace of government power crashing down to crush and rend them if they displease Our Bureaucratic Overlords.

Second, the obvious intent is to have the definition of "pornography" in literature mirror the definition used for drawings, photos, and other images. But there are a few wrinkles where writings are different from drawings.

Third, I think the definitions for images are mostly clear. (In fact, I sometimes wish other sites would be equally clear in their definitions.) The chief problem is when images have naughty porn-bits that the artist blocks or blurs in self-censorship. This leaves the artist open to having his self-censorship "deemed insufficient or lacking by the reviewing staff member." But an artist acting in good faith should be able to tell ahead of time if his blurring or blocking of naughty porn-bits has avoided being "insufficient" or not. He shouldn't have a ban-hammer come down on him because he made a reasonable guess that the reviewing staff member turned out to disagree with.

Fourth, the problem above is much more severe when it comes to writing. Either the author leaves sex scenes out entirely (which is a bigger burden on writing than on images), or he does the writing equivalent of "blurring" them by using euphemisms rather than anatomical or vulgar-slang terms, by not giving details about what ...things... look like or about how ...things... interact, and by using indirection and innuendo. But how can an author tell ahead of time if his efforts have avoided the dreaded "insufficient"?

Fifth, if DeviantArt can't completely avoid subjective judgments, can it at least avoid double jeopardy? If a piece is reported, but then deemed to be acceptable after all by a staff member, will it be tagged so, to prevent the unfairness of a second review by different staff member bringing down the ban-hammer?

(Expanded from my comment on a DA post here)

One of my pet peeves is that there are so very few actual bondage stories out there, as opposed to BDSM stories that happen to have a lot of bondage included along with the D/s and the SM. The very few I have found all seem to be a variant of “woman is introduced to consensual bedroom bondage games by a partner, and find that she likes it.” To make it worse, I’m either oversensitive or else most other people are blind to just how much SM there is in various “bondage” stories. It makes me feel like a character in the Monty Python “Spam” skit:

Me: Don’t you have any stories without SM in them?
Them: Well, there’s this story, featuring SM, SM, SM, bondage, and SM – it only has a little SM in it…

Now D/s I’m OK with – as long as the D/s is SM-free. This means leaving out humiliation, degradation, and other forms of “mental” SM, as well as excluding the straight-up physical-pain-for-teh-sexy sort of SM. For a long time, I thought I didn’t much like D/s either, but I’m actually a big fan of fantasy female enslavement. It turned out that I was confused by so much of the D/s fiction out there having SM mixed in with it.

I really am most sincerely allergic to SM, to inflicting pain, humiliation, and degradation for “teh sexy.” Instead, what rocks my boat is when pleasure is “inflicted” on the “victim.” Instead of being a character in the Spam skit, I want to be the Monty Python version of the Spanish Inquisition, where the cuffs and collars are comfy, and the “punishments” pleasant ones. (“Cardinal Fang, give her fifteen caresses with the lambswool duster.”)

So I love bondage. I love the fantasy of a bound and barefoot slavegirl, struggling helplessly without the slightest possibility of either hurting herself or getting loose. I love the idea of her cuddling with an affectionate master, as opposed to her being treated like a sexual chew-toy by a bastard master in love with his own masterlyness. I love stories that either leave off the whippings and the groveling in the dirt, or that relegate these things to the villains’ acts of villainy, without any sexiness being imputed to them at all. But stories about these things are so rare that I have to write them myself, and the desire to see more such stories in existence is a major motivator of my writing.

Now this does create certain problems with plotting the stories I want to write. “Slavegirl suffers and struggles under the boot of a Master in love with his own masterlyness” is an easy plot to fall into. So easy, in fact, as to be a trap. Even though I dislike it, I have to make a conscious effort to avoid it. Thus far, I’ve found the best way to avoid this trap is to adopt a template along the lines of “He’s a Master. She’s his slave girl. Together, they fight crime!”

(Note: This is a newer version of the essay; I've also kept the old version for the sake of reference and to preserve the comments.)

NOTE: This is the older version, kept for reference and for the sake of preserving the contents. See: Bondage Stories (version 2) for the new version.

One of my pet peeves is that there are so very few actual bondage stories out there, as opposed to BDSM stories that happens to have a lot of bondage included along with the D/s and SM. Not only that, but the very few bondage stories all seem to be some close variant of "woman is introduced to consensual bedroom bondage games by a partner, and find that she likes it." Anything more exotic seems certain to be full of pain, punishment, humiliation, and degradation.

In fact, a major driving force for my own writing is to produce more bondage stories that are not BDSM stories. When I do include D/s and SM elements, I try very hard to make them a combination of something lighthearted, something rare, something necessary but undesirable, and something that only the bad guys indulge in. I have lots and lots of barefoot slavegirls in my stories, yes. But I make the slavegirls saucy and cheerful, their masters kindly and indulgent, and the frequently-applied bondage comfortable and even cuddly. Inescapable, yes, but also comfy.

What I want, and try to write, are stories about slavers who resemble the Monty Python version of the Spanish Inquisition, where the cuffs and collars are comfy, and the punishments pleasant. ("Give her fifteen strokes on the back - with the lambswool duster.") Where the bound slavegirl can snuggle happily against her new master, with the smiling master holding her gently in return. Sugary scenes of luv are no problem. It's the spicy spankings, stingy fetishistic croppings, and the sour taste of humiliation that I want to leave out.

Of course, this does create some challenges when it comes to telling a story.

Sometimes I wonder how much people want their kinky erotic fiction to be real stories with actual plots, conflicts, and all the other stuff that gives a piece the story-nature. If people skip ahead to the "good parts" then why not write vignettes consisting solely of "good parts," rather than expending brain-sweat in crafting a plot and in writing out all the non-kinky and non-erotic scenes needed for a complete story?

I know it's not all one way or the other, but maybe writers - including me - are spending too much effort trying to write all stories, all the time, when we should be doing a greater proportion of simple vignettes, concentrating on the description and setting. Or maybe it's just me that needs to do this.

The advantage of the traditional story-with-a-plot is that it's a time-proven way of providing extra interest. If done right, a story will explain why the kinky action is taking place, and will give the reader reasons beyond "hey, it's kink!" to care about the characters who are being bound or tickled, and/or the characters who are inflicting these things. The disadvantage is that a real story usually requires a number of non-erotic scenes with a lot of non-erotic verbiage. The reader may have to go through a fair amount of material before reaching the "good parts."

The advantage of the vignette is the other way around. It jumps straight into the hot stuff and will stick to being pure sexy kink all the way to the end. The disadvantage is that there is no reason other than the sexy kink for the reader to be interested in going through to the end. The characters risk being flat and generic, and there won't be any tension, or any reason for the reader to care about why these particular characters are suffering (or enjoying) the bondage, tickling, etc.

A writer can try to combine the two, producing a piece that's almost all sexy kink with only a minimal or implied plot. But this is hard to pull off and can easily backfire, with the minimal plot repelling the reader more than it attracts, and thus diminishing the value of the "hot" scenes rather than enhancing them.

One idea might be to write a series of vignettes, all in the same setting (preferably an exotic and interesting one) and with recurring characters. That might make them more interesting to read than simple one-off vignettes.