Love Stories? Valentine’s Day and Literature

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Secretary // Mary Gaitskill

bad behaviourI first encountered this story via the 2002 film of the same name. If you’ve read my review on Steven Shainberg’s Secretary, which is loosely inspired by the narrative, then you may be wondering how it has come to feature in this collection of anti-love stories. The fact is that despite the film’s poignant, romantic approach to this unusually heightened relationship between a lawyer and his latest secretary ‘Debby,’ Mary Gaitskill’s original short story is nowhere near as idyllic.

While the film attempts to empathetically reach out for answers and maintain a refined sense of beauty in its depiction of BDSM, Gaitskill’s narrative – from her erotic anthology Bad Behaviour – is blunt and brashly systematic. There is no romance between the two characters, and their altercations are not built on the same mutual level of understanding as in the cinematic adaptation.

Here, the lawyer is definitively dominant and favours sadism far more prominently than in James Spader’s portrayal. For instance, there is an excerpt in which he orders ‘Debby’ to recant the words “I am stupid” for several minutes, as a form of humiliating penance for her typing errors. Meanwhile, ‘Debby,’ unlike Maggie Gyllenhaal’s characterisation, is presented as feeling infinitely more anxious about being the submissive in these unorthodox interactions with her boss.

There is, however, a shared sense of curiosity in their brief yet unflinchingly graphic moments together. Though the ending is anti-climactic, and nowhere near as happily resolved as in the film, there is a feeling of strange acceptance in the character of ‘Debby.’ Unsure as she is, she remains fascinated. While this subject – being overtly sexual – will not appeal to everyone, this forthright view on a subject made topical by the likes of Fifty Shades of Grey is fascinating. And the differences between it and the film only further fuel the wonderment of how love and BDSM mix – for better and worse.

Words by Annie Honeyball

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