the problem with reading too much BL

[insaneneko]

I came across a delightful review for a book about an uke who is fucked by his twin younger stepbrothers and learns to love it:

木原・水原作品が好きで、よく読むせいか、
本作品を読んでも「黒い」とか「きつい」とは思いませんでした。
むしろ「この内容をあっさりと書ききってるなぁ」という印象を受けました。
義弟である双子に犯され調教されて、被虐の喜びに目覚めていく…ところなんかは、
「え？　抵抗はこれで終わり？　ていうかもうM自覚ですか？」と突っ込みたくなります。
（抵抗されてこそ萌えるので）
タイトルに「禁忌」とついていますが「タブー」という感じはあまりしません。
それは私が木原・水原先生で慣れているからなのか。単に愚鈍なのか…。
義弟っていうのが既に「OK!」と思っている段階で駄目なのかも知れません…

Basically she says that she'd found the whole thing unsatisfying because she expected more. More resistance (which is a moe point for her), more sinfulness, more whatever. She wonders if her dissatisfaction comes from the fact that she reads so many books by Konohara-sensei and Mizuhara-sensei. I totally understand her point. I think what it takes to shock/titillate me is growing worse and worse the more I read this stuff (especially Mizuhara-sensei's stuff, she likes abuse A LOT). :P Maybe I should stick with fluffy happy books for a while...Or at least books with consensual relationships...Though non-con is so common in BL it can appear when you least expect it, especially since rape is so often used as shorthand for great passion/love/obsession.

Comments

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

LOL disappearing intolerance levels. (I feel this way about brother-incest. It used to be an almost-squick; now it's so far from being a squick that it is almost a kink. I blame Wagamama Dakedo Itoshikute.)

What really made me laugh was the string of related books at the bottom of the book page you linked to. I think I could've figured out a lot about the book in question just by looking at the covers of the recommended items. Was there a single one that DIDN'T have a threesome on the cover? (I really hate threesomes. Yep, that one's still a squick.)

(I think we friended each other long after the squicks and kinks meme went the rounds, but for your amusement:

http://sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com/59268.html)

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

I totally didn't notice the row of related books! Wow, that is really declaring your contents, those covers. :P

Thanks for the link, it *was* very amusing. It's so interesting to see what squicks and kinks people have. I totally share your shota squick. Just...no. I get irritated when not-children are drawn looking like little kids, too. WHY!?! Catboys don't turn me off, I don't care enough about them to have any kind of reaction. Why are they so popular? Threesomes...bleah. I think they are usually done badly. I've seen a threesome scene used very effectively in several novels/mangas, but haven't seen a threesome as the main relationship work well yet. Not that I particularly pick up threesome books, so maybe my sample size/quality sucks. ^^;

[modorenai.livejournal.com]

I've seen a threesome scene used very effectively in several novels/mangas, but haven't seen a threesome as the main relationship work well yet.

I have to agree with you on this one. I generally like love triangles (not the kind where it's really obvious that two out of the three are going to get together leaving the other one in the lurch, but the kind where all three really work well together in a relationship), so after getting into BL I've tried looking for stories featuring threesomes, on the naive assumption that threesomes = love triangles just with the smut.

But alas, that is sadly not the case. Threesomes in BL are often just excuses for pure smut (I'm the kind who can't get into the story if the relationship between the characters isn't convincing), or excuses for the two out of three scenario mentioned above. So far, the only threesome I can think OTOH that fulfils my requirements and which I really love is the Twins x Hatsuhi pairing in Ze, but since they've been relatively undeveloped in the story so far they may not really count.