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REVIEW: Pleasure Dome GN




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geishageek



Joined: 28 Nov 2005
Posts: 571
Location: Pleasant Valley, NY
PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:28 am Reply with quote
I found this a chore to read and a bit boring. I was overly dissapointed with most of the stories. I've attempted to re-read several times and I just can't seem to finish it. It's a shame because this is really the *only* BL book I have read and didn't like from the get go.
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portgas



Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:38 am Reply with quote
It's good to see a review of this kind of material. I think reviewers often get frightened off by the contents.
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kirbyboy102



Joined: 04 Jul 2007
Posts: 157
PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:28 am Reply with quote
Casey, you should start reviewing stuff like this more often. It was a nice review, and not overly pessimistic! Surprised
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the_seventh_l



Joined: 26 Jul 2007
Posts: 108
Location: Florissant, MO
PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:09 pm Reply with quote
geishageek wrote:
I found this a chore to read and a bit boring. I was overly dissapointed with most of the stories. I've attempted to re-read several times and I just can't seem to finish it. It's a shame because this is really the *only* BL book I have read and didn't like from the get go.


Agreed. I'm happy a yaoi/BL book has been reviewed, but Pleasure Dome isn't really a material that'll hook people into the genre, or entertain those already reading BL books.
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portgas



Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:25 pm Reply with quote
the_seventh_l wrote:

Agreed. I'm happy a yaoi/BL book has been reviewed, but Pleasure Dome isn't really a material that'll hook people into the genre, or entertain those already reading BL books.


I'm not so sure about that. Pleasure Dome is certainly different from much of the BL we see in English and surely has a potential audience, if only for the novelty. Even if what you say were absolutely true, that's no reason not to review the book.

I'm not so sure I buy the argument that it's taboo subject matter that's point here, rather than the images. I don't find any of the subjects taboo - maybe the one from the Christian era and only for those who subscribe to Western Christianity. Or maybe I'm nothing thinking properly about "subject". Is the subject the notion of the the particular "perversity" as opposed to it's graphical representation? I'm not that subtle a thinker.
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gynocrat_rex



Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:07 pm Reply with quote
I didn't think it was boring because... I wasn't looking for a full court story--it was a collection of erotic shorts. LOL! Most of the critically acclaimed BL like Kizuna have multiple volumes and are meant to tell a story where the plot tends to run more than 2 pages before sex takes place. Pleasure Dome, on the other hand, is a collection of shorts meant to 'titillate'.

It's like complaining because your porn DVD didn't have enough plot. Laughing

Edited: spelling.
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poonk



Joined: 05 Jun 2008
Posts: 1490
Location: In the Library with Philip
PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:43 am Reply with quote
I may check this out when all my open pre-orders from Amazon are done trickling in next month. The fact that it's a book of one-shots is a plus, to me. I got Megumu Minami's Rose of the Rhine earlier this year and I have to admit I found it somewhat hard to follow (there were flashback scenes/chapters that I didn't realize were flashbacks until after-the-fact, making for a confusing read-- "Hey, didn't they just declare their love for one another? Why are they acting like that didn't just happen?"-- etc.). I had to read it 2-3 times to wrap my head around the chronology of the story. But it's hard(er) to get lost inside a one-shot (in theory, at least).
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portgas



Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:06 pm Reply with quote
You don't read Rose of the Rhine - you just look at the pictures. Story is stupid and beyond comprehension but that's not why you're "reading" it.
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sunflower



Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 1080
PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:09 pm Reply with quote
I thought Rose of the Rhine was hilarious and sweet, and I loved the story. The sex wasn't even worth considering. To me the dialogue and the little chorus commenting on the action made the book. It was more comedy romance than anything else.


Pleasure Dome though did nothing for me. I wish I had the money back I spent on it. It's not just that it lacked story (because regardless of how people want to label BL readers, some of us do prefer story to smut), it's that it lacked coherence. It was just a book of short disconnected smutty scenes, even within the same story. There's nothing wrong with that, but I like my BL to be more.
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portgas



Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:05 am Reply with quote
sunflower wrote:
I thought Rose of the Rhine was hilarious and sweet, and I loved the story. The sex wasn't even worth considering. To me the dialogue and the little chorus commenting on the action made the book. It was more comedy romance than anything else.


I couldn't figure out the story in Rose of the Rhine and didn't care. But the drawings were lovely.

At least Pleasure Dome tried to present stories with some more successful than others. It would have been nice had the stories fulfilled the promise that some of them had. But with Pleasure Dome, it really boils down to whether or not the reader can accept the "perversion" it presents.
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