Permanent Obscurity
Permanent Obscurity (full title: Permanent Obscurity: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)) by Richard Perez, published in 2010 by Ludlow Press, is neo-sexploitation novel and dark comedy that explores various themes of dominance and submission, power exchanges, and a femdom relationship involving one of the two central characters, Serena, and her "sub" nicknamed Baby.
Synopsis
The story of Permanent Obscurity - broken into three parts: "The Kinky Hook," "Strange Hungers," "No Man's Land" - takes place in New York City's East Village (circa the Bush era), and it chronicles the rise and fall of a unique and intense relationship. The main characters, Dolores and Serena, two chemically dependent, down-and-out artists set out to take control of their lives by making a femdom movie. Of course, things don't exactly turn out as planned.
Written in three "episodes"
- Part 1 - The Kinky Hook: Whereupon we are introduced to Dolores and Serena and their kinky shenanigans.
- Part 2 - Strange Hungers: Whereupon Dolores and Serena grapple with relationship/sexuality issues, life-threatening drug dealers, irreversible money woes. Culminating in a desperate attempt at making a so-called "femdom" film.
- Part 3 - No Man's Land: Whereupon Dolores and Serena find themselves in a place not expected. Namely, hell.
Major characters
- Dolores Santana: the "author" and narrator of this "true life" cautionary tale
- Serena Moon: her best and partner in crime. A diva who becomes a fetish model and dominatrix
- Raymond: older boyfriend of Dolores
- Baby ... AKA "Sebastian": Serena's part-time boyfriend and sub (submissive)
- Dick: the author who is called upon to script a femdom scenario, featuring himself as actor
- Madblaze: drug dealer who wants to be paid by Serena
- Raul: drug dealer who wants to be paid by Serena
- Charles Manson, drug dealer who wants to be paid by Serena
Setting and locations
- East Village
- Williamsburg
- Lower East Side
First sentence
"WHAT LEADS US to do the wicked things we do?"
Themes and symbolism
Permanent Obscurity borrows from both tabloid sleaze, BDSM, and sexploitation. But tips more heavily toward sexploitation. So what is sexploitation? Generally sexploitation has been associated with bland T&A or softcore movies (and books), which is one side of it. The other side of sexploitation is dark. That form of sexploitation, taking its cue (as the name suggests) from more feral subcurrents, is devious and subversive. It’s primal. Even cruel. This form of sexploitation is associated with filmmakers and writers who use gratuitous (and often “deviant") sexuality in ways that challenge audiences and defy the norm. This makes them - these books and films - art, not just decorative “product," existing as audience pleasers. To quote William S. Burroughs: “Any honest account of human experience must be shocking. For it is the function of art to make the reader or viewer aware of what he knows and in most cases doesn’t know that he knows and doesn’t want to know."
Links
- What is PERMANENT OBSCURITY?
- PERMANENT OBSCURITY: the title and where it came from
- BAD GIRL CINEMA (and its influence on the novel)
- The subversive power of SEXPLOITATION
- "Notebook" for the novel
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