Kink and Fiction

[ysabetwordsmith]

A while back, a discussion with a friend led me to raise this question:

Does your kink polarity (Dom or sub, top or bottom, sadist or masochist, etc. if you have one) influence your taste in reading material?

Frex, a Dom might seek out character weaknesses while a sub might look for what strengthens them.  They might favor different points in the hurt/comfort plot cycle. Of course it also depends on which character people identify with and how.  

Thoughts?

Comments

[meirya]

Hmm. I'm a switch and favor all the pieces of the hurt/comfort cycle. I thrill to emotional pain in characters, it's a visceral thing that's part catharsis, part sadism. And then I feel a ton of things in the comfort part. And I don't like stories that are just the hurt portion; there has to be the comfort or healing or being-okay-at-least-sort-of afterwards.

(I actively avoid stories with bleak endings. I need at least a ray of hope. Dystopian fiction is always a dicey thing for me as it often ends with "everything sucks forever and there's no hope".)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Hmm. I'm a switch and favor all the pieces of the hurt/comfort cycle. <<

That makes sense.

>> I thrill to emotional pain in characters, it's a visceral thing that's part catharsis, part sadism. And then I feel a ton of things in the comfort part. And I don't like stories that are just the hurt portion; there has to be the comfort or healing or being-okay-at-least-sort-of afterwards. <<

Aftercare is important.

>> (I actively avoid stories with bleak endings. I need at least a ray of hope. Dystopian fiction is always a dicey thing for me as it often ends with "everything sucks forever and there's no hope".) <<

I share that stance most of the time. It's very rare for me to be in a mood for really bleak material. Usually I like things that push the edge, but don't go over.