Karina Cooper - Corroded

I had, after all, nothing left to lose. In the end, sobriety had become the demon I feared most.

* * * * *

“But, Karina,” you might be saying to yourself as you ponder the events within the Midnight Menagerie, “everyone knows the English were prudes. What’s all this talk of racy showmanship and possession?”

A fair question. If you’ll allow me, I’d like to introduce you to a man who might give you something of a new view about Englishmen and Brits in general. Through one man’s efforts, I will show you a time in which sexual deviancy, pornography, piracy of the literary kind, and mass mailings all took place.

Although the exact date is unclear, it is proposed that two clubs were formed at the same time in 1863. The first, The Anthropological Society, which is a club whose interests are obviously included in the name. The second, founded by Sir Richard Francis Burton and Dr. James Hunt, was given a name much less telling—or, given your nature, all the more so: The Cannibal Club. It’s thought that the name was derived from Burton’s obsession with the act, which he had long regretted he’d never seen in his many travels.

Burton was a man whose healthy regard for sex and sexuality often put him in conflict with the rather, erm, rigid viewpoints of the Victorian Era. Within The Cannibal Club, he held meetings—which he liked to call “orgies,” though his wife’s father and brother often visited—wherein deviancies of all kinds could be discussed. If it was considered wrong, taboo, or otherwise unacceptable by the staid British institution, then it was ripe for the talking—and, rumor goes, testing.

The members of this club were all men, naturally, though rented girls would have to be an occasional part of the equation. From discourse to experimentation, and rumor had it more than just that, The Cannibal Club played host to any number of vagaries uncommon for the time—or rather, uncommonly spoken about for the time.

Not content with discussion, the members fancied themselves authors, of a sort. They’d gather to write pornographic stories, utilizing a round-robin style that started with one man beginning the tale, then passing the story on to the next, then the next, each adding to it. Sound familiar, writers?

Sir Richard Burton’s contribution to the, ahem, betterment of English mores and morale did not end there. An accomplished spy and polyglot, he was well-traveled and extremely adept at hiding his origins as an Englishman, even so far as darkening his skin to better fill the role. He spent years in India, and he also achieved a disguised pilgrimage to Mecca—not the only Englishman to successfully do so, but arguably the most famous. He was known for the books he brought back, and while the most widely known might be The Arabian Nights , certainly the most infamous came from India— The Kama Sutra.

There was never any secret that Burton was fascinated by sex and sexuality. His writings were often frank about the sexual practices of the cultures he visited, and his journals detailed. The Kama Sutra , translated with help from Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot and archaeologist Bhagwanlal Indraji, was the kind of book suggestive, seductive and scandalous enough to get a man jailed. Quite literally, no less. Since the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, many publishers had been jailed after prosecution by the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and publication of “obscene” material had become too much a risk.

In 1883, convinced that the unhealthily uptight Brits could use some education, Burton brought The Kama Sutra back with him, and proceeded to employ a campaign of letter-writing to associates who might be willing to risk a little jail time for the privilege of owning the first English translation of this scandalous and educational book.

Can you imagine what the letter must have said? While most consider The Kama Sutra a tell-all on sexual positions, it also includes advice regarding prostitution, some discourse on how to deal with a cheating lover, and various texts regarding love, family, and other pleasure-oriented goals for a man or woman who wants to live a full and healthy life. Do you suppose he focused more on the lotus or the living well portions in his pitch?

As it turns out, Burton wasn’t the only one with a healthy interest in sex. The requests for a copy of the book came back, and one by one, Burton had them printed and sent off.

So tickled by the contents, at least one of the recipients of The Kama Sutra duplicated his or her copy a few times, then sent that along to friends. Friends reproduced the book and passed it on, leaving a trail of scandal and sex so far and wide that when the authorities tried to trace the source, it proved too tangled a web to follow.

To recap, not only had Sir Richard Francis Burton engaged in unlawful distribution of pornographic materials, but he’d used a mass mail campaign to do so, inspired some early piracy, and got away scot free!

All the while, we hope, enlightening more than a few of those prudish Society trendsetters as to all the good stuff they’d been missing.

While the Victorian Age arguably holds the record for “most sexually repressed” in history, I would point you to all the anecdotes recorded in letters, individuals breaking the norm, and pictures of the time as a suggestion that this might be more of a widely accepted misnomer than absolute fact. It’s certainly true that the expectation of society was that of repression—that women were expected to behave a certain way, that sexuality was no fit topic for any environment, that the appearance of the thing was all that mattered. However, it’s also true that history is so often written by those who live in the time, from a position of power and influence—in more peaceful times, the equivalent of “the victors.” Whatever they wanted further generations to think of them, whatever they expected people to do, that is what they wrote. (Which bears consideration: What do you suppose future generations will think of us?)

From the prostitutes plying their wares across London, to the close-mouthed fascination among the uppercrust with all things dark and occult, to the commonplace but silent acceptance that a man—and occasionally, a woman—would “take a lover,” the obsession with sex and sexuality was never truly stamped out of the Victorian Era. This was a time when men were encouraged to develop such close bonds that their letters to each other sound more like a love letters than a shout out between bros; when women of no relation could inhabit the same home, speculated to be lovers, and simply be spoken of as if they were “aunt” and “niece”—when spoken of at all. It’s a period when we’re rather more focused on the “society” folk, so we forget that it’s also a time of great social upheaval—suffragettes willing to die for their cause, union men banding together, great scientific breakthroughs, rampant drug use, and yes, the repression of gender, class and social distinction.

When Micajah Hawke speaks of ownership and possession, is he really so far out of place as to be a deviant?

Or is it simply that he speaks of it that breaks the mores?

I’ll let you, dear reader, be the judge.

A final note: My greatest of thanks goes to Sophia McCloy, for taking the time to help me with Chinese idioms. You have inspired me to learn again.

After writing happily-ever-afters for all of her friends in school, Karina Cooper eventually grew up (sort of) and went to work in the real world (kind of) where she decided that making up stuff was way more fun (true!). She is the author of dark and sexy paranormal romances, steampunk adventures and crossover urban fantasies. She writes across multiple genres with mad glee. Her steampunk series, The St. Croix Chronicles, has won a Romantic Times Award and has been nominated for an RT Seal of Excellence.