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Also by Richard Perez:

Permanent Obscurity, April 2010
Paperback

Permanent Obscurity
Richard Perez

Or A Cautionary Tale Of Two Girls And Their Misadventures With Drugs, Pornography And Death

Ludlow Press
April 2010
On Sale: April 1, 2010
Featuring: Serena; Dolores
464 pages
ISBN: 0971341540
EAN: 9780971341548
Paperback
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LGBTQ

A youthful bohemian satire, a story of alienated nonconformists, a "girls on the lam" story, a sexploitation and S/M romp. Welcome to the psychosexual world of PERMANENT OBSCURITY.

Inspired by the underground sexploitation films of the 1960s, this bold updating of the "roughie" subgenre largely takes place in New York City's East Village (ca. 2006), and it chronicles the rise and fall of a unique and intense relationship.

Dolores and Serena, two chemically dependent, down-and-out artists set out to take control of their lives by making a fetish-noir/femdom movie.

Of course, things don't exactly turn out as planned.

Comments

1 comment posted.

Re: Permanent Obscurity

A Cautionary Tale of a Reluctant Dominatrix: PERMANENT OBSCURITY, a novel by Richard Perez

Dommes are all the rage these days -- from Melissa Febos to Elise Sutton. Take it as a sign of shifting gender roles, take it as a sign of female empowerment, take it as a sign of embracing a subculture that just years ago was considered freakish and taboo. Richard Perez's darkly comic novel, PERMANENT OBSCURITY explores the world of dommes and "dominas," particularly from the point of view of two down-and-out East Village wannabe artists who enter it partly out of curiosity, partly out of desperation.

This is by no means a politically correct book -- even regarding BDSM culture; the story involves drugs, which as some may or may not know don't mix with that world, or shouldn't mix with that world. And this is partly the point of this cautionary tale. Shifting gender roles does not grant anyone the license to abuse others; with power comes responsibility. So maybe the most obvious question this story asks is: How can you dictate to others when you can't control yourself?

The narrator of this story is Dolores. And she and Serena are best friends; both are young. Both have drug issues. It's Serena, the more self-confident of the two, who takes ads on Craigslist for willing male subs. Dolores, although dominant by nature, is conflicted and can't identify that way, and that would make her the more middle-of-the-road character:

"Oh, right," Serena laughed. "I forgot how you hate being a top."
She said it sarcastically, but I thought it was true. I mean, it was more responsibility than I wanted.
Usually." (p. 142)

The story of PERMANENT OBSCURITY hinges on empowerment vs. being powerless; and it underscores the debilitating, soul-sucking quality of addiction, which undermines any possibility of control. And this is the major dilemma in the arts. Addiction of some sort seems to come with the territory. Who and what are artists, poets, writers if not addi
(Carla Melendez 10:42pm November 28, 2010)