Occasionally, The Q Letters have been compared to The Story of O. This comparison does a disservice to both books. �O� is presented as a piece of realistic fiction about a young woman�s descent into darkness. The Letters are supposedly based on real facts, a memoir of a Dom man known as Sir John. The protagonists could not be more different. O is independent, unmarried, and faithful to Rene in the sense that she obeys him in every way. Sir John is married and (because he discovered BDSM after his marriage) has spend more than half his life in extra-marital relationships with women who have been submissive to him in some sense of that word.
The Letters are arranged in a way that illustrates the different reasons that draw women into BDSM. There is the one clearly sick in her head (though outwardly fully functional) who asks him for tortures which grow progressively more and more extreme. There�s a masochist, a woman working through guilt issues, the classic submissive whose life while she was with Sir John is surprisingly parallel to the submissiveness of O. All together there are twelve or so women named and Sir John takes pains to write about what drew each of them to BDSM, what motivated each to seek him out, and how he handled their individual needs.
The Letters are clearly the work of someone who, well, is not educated in the finer points of writing. It is impossible to gain a sense of chronology or even cohesiveness, difficult to see any growth in the characters. Though the Letters are not intended for fiction, this is a legitimate complaint because one of the foundational elements of BDSM is personal growth for those involved; however that phrase may be interpreted. There is no sense of personal growth in the Letters, not in the women whose lives he touches, no even in Sir John himself. The prose is workmanlike, blunt, teetering almost into pornography and occasionally landing one foot on that side of the fence.
The Letters are, in this woman�s opinion, far more shocking that The Story of O could ever be. Because the Letters treat sex and relationships (particularly marriage) so casually, there is no sense of honor, decency, or even beauty in BDSM. O makes her submission lovely, her marks beautiful. Sir John makes submission a cruel curiosity, the marks he leaves crude and ugly.
The most valuable reason for reading the Letters is that this book highlights a wide variety of motivations for participation in BDSM and illustrates the many ways these differences can be handled. No two submissives have the same reason for being submissive. The Letters make clear they shouldn�t be treated the same way either. Beyond this fairly obvious lesson, there is nothing of value in the Letters and their somewhat clumsy style doesn�t invite rereading at a later date. Certainly the Letters have their place on the BDSM novice�s book list but it isn�t worth purchasing. This woman recommends borrowing a copy from somewhere. It is unremarkable enough that you�ll only want to read it once. On the other hand, The Story of O is one you will want to read once a year.
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