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History's most successful pervs
Jul. 6th, 2010 11:51 pmWho are History's most successful pervs? No doubt Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and the Marquis de Sade should rank very highly. They left their kinks as words in the English language. On the other hand, their fiction is not really all that widely read.
For the number two slot, I'd pick William Moulton Marston. He had a serious kink for bondage, and his view of love was all about dominance and submission. From these kinks, he created the iconic superhero, Wonder Woman.
But number one? Robert Graves. Like Marston, he wanted women to dominate him. But while Marston only turned his mistress into a superhero, Graves literally deified his. And when I say "literally", I mean "literally" literally. Graves cast Laura Riding, his longtime mistress, in the role of the White Goddess, alluring but fickle, cruel, and hungry for sacrifice.
And Graves re-interpreted Celtic mythology and Greek mythology in light of his personal mythology, which he invented from whole cloth out of the things that turned him on. Graves's goddess became an actual deity for Wiccans and other neo-pagans. Graves's goddess became one of the stock tropes of fantasy literature forward; almost any literary goddess, priestess, or witch will have at least a hint of Graves's invented mythology about her. This is the most deeply embedded private fantasy I know of.
For the number two slot, I'd pick William Moulton Marston. He had a serious kink for bondage, and his view of love was all about dominance and submission. From these kinks, he created the iconic superhero, Wonder Woman.
But number one? Robert Graves. Like Marston, he wanted women to dominate him. But while Marston only turned his mistress into a superhero, Graves literally deified his. And when I say "literally", I mean "literally" literally. Graves cast Laura Riding, his longtime mistress, in the role of the White Goddess, alluring but fickle, cruel, and hungry for sacrifice.
And Graves re-interpreted Celtic mythology and Greek mythology in light of his personal mythology, which he invented from whole cloth out of the things that turned him on. Graves's goddess became an actual deity for Wiccans and other neo-pagans. Graves's goddess became one of the stock tropes of fantasy literature forward; almost any literary goddess, priestess, or witch will have at least a hint of Graves's invented mythology about her. This is the most deeply embedded private fantasy I know of.
