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Pink Flamingo
Reviewed by Jean Roberta
(04/28/04)
This modest book, a novella in twelve chapters, looks like a volume of poetry. In some sense it is, because of the meditative and poetic quality of the writing. The image of a coiled whip in a black frame on the beige cover gives the reader a clue about the subject-matter, much like a flower motif on a collection of love poems.
Enhanced was written under circumstances that are characteristic of our time, but suggestive of an old-fashioned correspondence across a distance. As Mackenzie Cross explains in his introduction:
I first encountered D [Dani Benjamin] on a posting board, somewhere deep in the Internet.... After exchanging a few stories with each other, we came upon the idea of writing one together. Now, the idea of two people collaborating on a story is not exactly a new concept. However, you must understand that D and I have never met in person, in fact we know nothing of each other's real-time life.
The structure of the story was agreed-on in advance. As Cross explains:
Each chapter consists of two sections, "Sir" and "the girl." With the exception of the first chapter, I would write the first section of each chapter and D would respond with the second section. We did not edit each other's material.
In the first chapter, which both writers wrote at the same time, the man known as "Sir" describes his state of mind before "the girl" comes to him:
"Dive to the deeps in the ocean of your mind. Down below the surface winds of conscious thought.... Here, removed from all distractions, thought becomes clear. Here, you may focus without distraction. It is the center.
I am deep into this place. This is required for what I will do this evening. She will be here soon.
The Dominant narrator met the girl, the submissive wife of another Dom, at a business function. "Sir" is surprised at the pleasure he gets from observing her, and her husband offers her to him for one evening.
The rest of the book recounts the events of the evening, when a relationship develops in a few hours. The Dom decides that he will repay the girl's husband for his generosity by sending her back "enhanced." Neither the girl nor the readers knows exactly what this means until "Sir" is almost finished with her.
Dani Benjamin's sections, focused on the girl, are written from a third-person viewpoint, but the character's thoughts are included in italics. Before she goes to meet the mysterious Dom, she thinks about her fear:
The darkness. That place I've never gone before. I'm not afraid of him. It's my own darkness that frightens me. He knows. Somehow, he knows. He can take me there. Where I need to go. Into the dark.
Inch by inch, "Sir" leads the beautiful red-haired submissive into her own "dark" and out again. She presents herself to him at his loft, where the sliding steel door protects their privacy and shuts out the rest of the world. His expectations are made clear:
I do not expect that you are ready to submit. You are attracted to me, but still unsure of the situation. I am aware that you cannot yet yield to me. That will come later, if at all.
Gradually, he leads her deeper toward her submission, bringing the reader along.
In the tradition of The Story of O, the Dom uses various methods to gain what he and the girl both seek, but the instruments, and even the pain they cause, are not the point.
After the girl has been marked by hot wax, the Dom strokes her clit. He describes her:
She is very beautiful, my girl for the evening.... The skin creamy white contrasting with the blood red wax markings. A masterpiece of exposure and vulnerability. She yields to the moment. The sounds of her orgasm are full, almost complete. They fill the air with harmonies of pain and pleasure. She squirms within her binding, a dance of captivity and surrender.
During a brief "intermission" between phases of intensity, the Dom reflects:
We bond, the two of us. It is a bond of equals, who occupy different positions in a common reality. She submits, I dominate, but there is no superiority or inferiority. How could there be? We both require what the other can offer. We both offer what the other needs.
In a corresponding chapter, the girl is grateful for the Dom's gentleness:
She melts against him, feeling small and fragile. Her softness molds itself to his powerful figure. Safely enveloped within his warmth, she nuzzles her face into his neck, a purr sounding in her throat as her flesh responds to the delicious friction of flesh on flesh. Suspended, the moment seems to last forever.
After each sensual "intermission," the Dom takes the girl to another level. The leisurely pace of the writing allows the reader to experience the different flavor and rhythm of each phase.
In an exceptional passage about an object, "Sir" describes his single-tailed whip as an extension of his personality:
My left hand opens just enough to let the braided coil of leather drop from her waist.... I drag the handle from belly, to chest, and around her neck. The thong of the whip follows with the languid motion of a snake. Six feet of sensuality and danger plaited together in a single instrument.
The girl has chosen the whip as the fastest route to the state of relaxation which is meant to lead to her "enhancement." The significance of this word, repeated throughout the encounter, takes on layers of meaning as the girl experiences deeper levels of intensity.
This book, like the fictional relationship it describes, is a harmonious duet by two artists who were lucky to find each other. What the authors don't know about each other, and what the reader is not told about the characters, ultimately seems irrelevant. Enhanced is a little gem that will probably become a classic.
