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Book Review:
The Real Thing
Reviewed
by Jim Drew
Originally published in OutNOW! (August 8, 1995)
Author:
William Carney (1958, 1995)
Publisher: Richard Kasak Books
Publisher: 160 pp / $10.95
ISBN 1-56333-280-9
In Further Tales of the City (1982),
Armistead Maupin described the then-current gay community through
the mouth of Mouse, mentioning the stand-and-model mentality,
the t-shirts with sexual slogans, the fake bikers and fake soldiers
and fake lumberjacks. What Maupin described is fully recognizable
as the ancestor of today’s gay community.
In The Real Thing (1968), William Carney
described the then-current S&M/leather scene through the
letters of one of the Perfect, teaching his nephew about masters
and slaves, the signals and the means of responding to them,
the fake bikers and fake soldiers and fake lumberjacks. What
Carney described is fully recognizable as the ancestor (the Daddy?
the Master?) of today’s leather community.
Over the course of a year’s worth of letters
sent by an uncle to his nephew, Carney takes the reader through
all levels of a leather lifestyle, starting at the lowest echelons — the
Fetishists — through what he terms the three ranks: Purists,
Exemplars, and Perfect — the untempted, the uncorrupted,
and the incorruptible. Through the uncle’s letters,
the reader sees the growth of the nephew into a leather lifestyle,
making mistakes and advances along the way.
A great deal of information useful to the novice
leatherman is imparted along the way, of course, since the uncle
is acting as a teacher. This is not a pornographic novel,
however; the information is less in the form of sexual instruction
than it is in the whys and wherefores of leather interaction. Chief
among this is the concept that the ultimate goal of leather interaction — “The
Real Thing” — is the interaction itself rather than
merely reaching orgasm. The means do not justify the ends;
they are the ends.
The Real Thing is a difficult novel
to get into, initially, largely because the theme of letters
from a superior to an inferior is atypical today. The superior
tone of the uncle is a potential stumbling block to many readers,
coming off patronizing, as is the one-sidedness of the narrative,
lacking any direct response from the nephew. On the other
hand, since the narrator truly is superior — one of the
Perfect, the incorruptible — any other tone would damage
his credibility. The lack of input from the nephew heightens
the superiority of the uncle and creates tension in the later
portions of the book as something goes wrong in the teaching,
damaging the relationship, leading the uncle to commit exactly
the failings he earlier warned against. (Or does he commit
them?)
Richard Kasak has made a splash recently by publishing
(or republishing, as in this case) several books with erotic
and/or leather content. The Real Thing is perhaps
the best such presentation yet. Unfortunately, priced at
$10.95, it is very expensive even for the value and entertainment
it contains.
[This review is reprinted as
it was originally written, in 1995 for a general gay newspaper
audience, except for typo corrections. I might not
write it the same way today. The final note about
the price seems especially off now, in 2005.]
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