The Marketplace Trilogy
~Book Review By Slave kat
For a different perspective on the life as a 24/7 slave, I highly recommend a series of
three books by Sara
Adamson: The Marketplace, The Slave, and The Trainer.
This trilogy presents a story in the venue of an underground organization called the
Marketplace, whose
mission is to fulfill the demand for slaves world-wide by taking those who have the inner
desire to serve,
training them to stringent standards, and then offering them for auction to a very select
group of Masters.
(The term Master, by the way, is used generically and can indicate either a male or female
Dominant).
In the first book, a group of four perspective slaves, all from different backgrounds and
with different
reasons for applying for entrance into the Marketplace, are taken through training by a
Master and
Mistress and their majordomo, Chris Parker, who is the one character in common in all
three books.
These applicants are put through six weeks of rigorous training in all aspects of service.
Their fears,
desires, thoughts, and feelings are explored in depth and gives the reader a tremendous
appreciation for
what might cause one to seek a life of service.
In the second book, a female submissive, with the help of her lesbian lover, a Marketplace
member,
recognizes her greater need to serve one who can Master her fully and applies to Chris
Parker to take her
as a trainee. The story follows her path through her training, her time on the auction
block, and her life of
service after her purchase.
Mr. Parker himself becomes a focus of the third book which shows the training of a
trainer. Chris is now
struggling himself between his role as a trainer and his inner desire to serve as a slave.
He goes back to his
original trainer, a female called only Anderson, whose reputation places her at the
pinnacle of her field. A
novice trainer is taken by Anderson, with Chris’ help, to learn his skill and the
reader’s perspective is
shifted to how one becomes a trainer and how difficult this skill is to master and
maintain.
Although these books are fiction and nowhere is it indicated that the stories are based on
any real
Marketplace, the reader can easily believe that such an underground network is possible
and may even be
real. The books are well written, thought provoking, and, while highly erotic in places,
are not aimed to
the audiences seeking pornography.
I highly recommend this trilogy for anyone seeking to understand his or her own desire to
serve and or
own.
The Complete Reprint of John Willie’s Bizarre
Edited by Eric Kroll ....Published by
Taschen....Book Review By Midnight
Throughout the period from 1946 to 1958 Bizarre magazine, billed as "a fashion fantasia" "Just for slaves of fashion!", appeared at irregular intervals.
JW (John Alexander Scott Coutts) is called by Kroll the "Leonardo da Vinci of Fetish" because of his superb fetish and bondage drawings and photos of leggy, dark-haired women, including Betty Page. The 26 volumes of Bizarre contain articles, photographs, readers’ letters and photos, drawings (mostly by JW) and his Sir d’Arcy d’Arcy comic strip with Sweet Gwendoline.
Topics included bondage (gloves, leather, rope, hoods, bridles, gags, cages, yokes …) hydrophilila, corset (including full-body) and ultra-heel training, hobble skirts, French maids (both male and female), body modification (piercing and tattoo experiences, with letters by Fakir Musafar as well as other readers), domination and submission, pony-girls, spanking and other corrections for a wife or husband in need of discipline (including scolds-bridles, and variations on hoods and wooden cage ideas), and a brief taste of poetry.
The stories and articles, some serious, some amusing, follow JW's philosophy that the War was fought so people could have "Freedom to say what we like, wear what we like, and to amuse ourselves as we like in our own sweet way."(Bizarre, Vol.2, January 1946). Topics included: old Chinese and European ways to discipline an unruly or nagging spouse; experiences whilst stranded on a desert island of pony-girls; corset training both modern and historical, including the imaginary discovery of Eve in the first corset ~ snakeskin of course, with matching stiletto heels ~ and Adam soaking up the apple cider; and a lighthearted look at a suburban "Utopia" with wives bound, cuffed, or chained, in some cases literally to the kitchen sink. Readers letters cover questions, comments, descriptions of their kinks and experiences. The professional and amateur photographs and drawings compete with any modern equivalents.
Bizarre’s circulation, to readers in the US and Europe, appears to have not been all that big (with circulation and paper rationing difficulties in the beginning…not to mention the difficulties in getting hold of silk stockings after the war!), and started with Volume 2, Volume 1 appearing in 1954 after Volume 13. Why? A mystery…maybe because JW just liked being Bizarre in all ways.
Wary of censorship problems, and with a sense of humour, Bizarre camouflaged its interest in bondage photographs by adding the caption "Don’t let this happen to you ~ Learn jiu-jitsu, the art of self defence", and many fetish articles are written in the guise of fashion items or predictions.
Bizarre is gentle, often amusing; a peek at DSBDSM and fetish Lifestylers of the post-War years, and as I read it first right through, and since browsing for relaxation, I am struck by how similar many of the comments, activities, fetish clothes, and BDSM toys were to those we are still coming up with 50 years on. Although the public Scene was not so developed, there were Masters and Mistresses, submissives, fetishists and kinksters all over the world enjoying their lifestyle and finding out, to their surprise, that they were not alone out there.
I started reading out of curiosity for "how the modern Scene started" with not much interest in fetishism, but hoping to partially satisfy my appetite for information on D/s BDSM… and I finished with many delicious ideas that I hope my Master will like, and a yearning to get into some ultra-high heels and begin corset training…perhaps blindfolded for stretches at a time…with my arms behind me in a single leather laced glove……but now I am rambling…it was really the most excellent read I have had on holiday in years!