Misadventures in the Fetish Trade
Misadventures in the Fetish Trade
Quickly, I'll say that PERMANENT OBSCURITY, the novel by Richard Perez, is a rough, lurid, and kinky story about two dysfunctional women who set out to stay afloat in New York City, artistically and financially, by involving themselves in sleazy Craigslist domination ads and the film/video end of the fetish scene. What makes it odd is that this book is actually intended to be a comedy. And what makes it even more strange is that it's actually funny.
Now let me go into detail: the full title of this novel is PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez); and the main characters, Dolores and Serena, are two artistically inclined yet ultimately aimless (or maybe just "young"), drug-dependent downtown women who have adopted a confrontational/anti-establishment lifestyle and attitude in dealing with life. Much of their confrontational style comes across in the abrasive language they use in describing their situation, other people, and even when talking to each other. When I say "abrasive," I mean it's often repellent, using the most insulting, vulgar words imaginable (the "c" word comes to mind). It's Dolores who's narrating the story, and of course it's she who is the most foul-mouthed, curse-a-minute addicted person of all. The character (and author) seems intent on pushing a few tolerance buttons, and while the book sometimes goes overboard, it does seem to achieve a kind of rough and trashy urban realism.
Essentially the main plot kicks off as the two ladies take a road trip through Cambridge, and one of the characters, Serena, picks up a bundle from a "distributor" who is referred to by Dolores (in her standard weed-paranoid state) as "Charles Manson." Whether Serena is acting as a "mule" to transport drugs or simply picks up the package for personal use is unclear. What we soon realize is that Serena has a serious drug problem; and while getting into hock with this Charles Manson character, it turns out that she owes money to many other people. Drug money. She's already involved in shooting fetish spreads and films and the idea of taking control of her own fetish money-making future by shooting her own videos presents itself as a desperation move. Dolores, however, wants no part of it until Serena finds herself in a bit of a jam; and Dolores begins to understand the extent of her drug debt. Assembling the necessary equipment and conditions to make a fetish film proves to be no easy task, however, especially since we're dealing with two drug addicts, which is essentially what we have here. (Dolores' drug of choice is weed.) So as Charles Manson and the other stray dealers close in, the two struggle to save themselves, as best they can. The final piece of the puzzle arrives in the form of a self-effacing, suicidal writer (with a name similar to the author of the book, in a meta-fiction touch), who promises to contribute a fetish scenario, co-starring himself, one that ultimately propels Dolores and Serena's partly delusional filmmaking ambitions to a bizarre and dramatically lurid end.
Here's my assessment of this novel: If not for the over-reliance of dialog to tell his story, Richard Perez might have contributed a rare kind of underground novel truly deserving of cult status: because, despite some awkward moments, it is roguish, relentlessly witty, caustically funny. As it stands, it's a good book, but requires a certain amount of patience (especially in the beginning, which is slow) and at times (because of the slang-heavy dialog) exhausting. It is not until one reaches the last 100 pages of the book, that one realizes this novel's true potential (because it's actually a perversely engaging story), and had the entire narrative been edited this tightly, it would've been a book to contend with. To grade it (on the basis of sleazy entertainment value alone) I'd still give it a 8.5 out of 10.
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