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    Sex with Shakespeare: Here's Much to Do with Pain, but More with Love
    Sex with Shakespeare: Here's Much to Do with Pain, but More with Love
    Sex with Shakespeare: Here's Much to Do with Pain, but More with Love
    Audiobook9 hours

    Sex with Shakespeare: Here's Much to Do with Pain, but More with Love

    Written by Jillian Keenan

    Narrated by Jillian Keenan

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A provocative, moving, kinky, and often absurdly funny memoir about Shakespeare, love, obsession, and spanking

    When it came to understanding love, a teenage Jillian Keenan had nothing to guide her—until a production of The Tempest sent Shakespeare’s language flowing through her blood for the first time. In Sex with Shakespeare, she tells the story of how the Bard’s plays helped her embrace her unusual sexual identity and find a love story of her own.

    Four hundred years after Shakespeare’s death, Keenan’s smart and passionate memoir brings new life to his work. With fourteen of his plays as a springboard, she explores the many facets of love and sexuality—from desire and communication to fetish and fantasy. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Keenan unmasks Helena as a sexual masochist—like Jillian herself. In Macbeth, she examines criminalized sexual identities and the dark side of “privacy.” The Taming of the Shrew goes inside the secret world of bondage, domination, and sadomasochism, while King Lear exposes the ill-fated king as a possible sexual predator. Moving through the canon, Keenan makes it abundantly clear that literature is a conversation. In Sex with Shakespeare, words are love.

    As Keenan wanders the world in search of connection, from desert dictatorships to urban islands to disputed territories, Shakespeare goes with her —and provokes complex, surprising, and wildly important conversations about sexuality, consent, and the secrets that simmer beneath our surfaces.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 26, 2016
    ISBN9780062456816
    Author

    Jillian Keenan

    Jillian Keenan holds degrees from Stanford University and has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Washington Post, Slate, Foreign Policy, Playboy, National Geographic, Marie Claire, The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. She lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for Sex with Shakespeare

    4/5

    39 ratings14 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Despite the title, "Sex with Shakespeare" by Jillian Keenan is not about Shakespeare. It is, as is shown on the fine print, a memoir, a semi-autobiography focusing on her awakening and exploration of her sexuality. Sure, each chapter is framed with quotations from a different Shakespeare play, and Jillian imagines conversations with various characters, but the majority of the book explores the sexuality of spanking in her own life. While I admire the author for opening up and speaking frankly about this difficult and closeted subject, I admit I was looking for more connection to Shakespeare specifically. Her allusions and insights are only to her own personal life rather than anything more general, and frankly at times they are rather strained. However, I doubt a publisher would have been interested in publishing a memoir on spanking and sex, so Shakespeare it is.
    • 5/5
      Thank you, Jillian!

      I’m so glad / envious that you can easily say the S word now!

      Never did I think I’d find something that mixed Shakespeare and spanking…both of which mean something to me. The concepts are a recent and a lifelong interest of mine, respectively. Refreshing to have the blushing broken up with Shakespeare, and I love when authors read their own books!
    • 5/5
      I would give this book more than five stars if I could.

      First of all, the writing is excellent. Ms. Keenan's voice is clear and truthful and unaffected, which is particularly admirable given the fact that she is sharing thoughts and experiences that do not often get shared in public -- and sometimes not even admitted to one's self in private.

      There are three threads to this book. The first is the coming of age story of a smart, adventurous young woman from a troubled home: dropping out of high school to move to Spain, falling in love, discovering herself, finding out about the less-admirable aspects of her beloved, returning to the United States to attend Stanford, her life after graduation, and her developing relationship with the man she ends up marrying. If that had been all she'd written about, this still would have been interesting book.

      But Kennan goes another step and tells her story through the lense of her fetish as a spanking 'bottom' (someone who receives the blows rather than gives them). She writes of her early confusion and shame, and the frightening-but-glorious experience of finding someone to love her who can provide the stimulation she has always craved but never known -- and the consequences for that and future relationships.

      For those of you who are not sure whether you want to read a book about "such things," I encourage you to give it a try, because her descriptions of her experiences are never pornographic. They are very, very real and vulnerable and convey the complex layers of the experience: emotional, psychological, and physical.

      Finally, there is the Shakespeare thread. The first chapter opens with Keenan watching, in her imagination, a scene between Demetrius and Helena from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and realizing, suddenly, that the emotional impact of the scene is very, very different if you see it through the lense of a kinky relationship. As the book progresses, each chapter of her own life is refracted through a different play, and her experiences give her new insights into the old stories and characters. She does this not in a purely subjective, personal way, but through educated readings of the texts, including understanding of how Shakespeare's poetry works. Her passion for the Bard is every bit as intense as her passion for being spanked.

      The most powerful chapter for me was the one in which she looks at the textual basis for a reading of "King Lear" which proposes that Lear has molested his daughters, while simultaneously exploring the thorny question of how much -- or little -- her spanking fetish was rooted in her mother's emotional and sometimes physical abuse of her.

      As a kinky woman, Keenan's relationship with both her own kinky nature and her partners came across as authentic and lucid. As someone who has studied Shakespeare in a college classroom, as an actress, and as a director, I was impressed and enlightened by her interpretations of the plays. As a writer, I envied her highly intelligent yet unpretentious style.

      This is a terrific book and I hope she writes others, because I will be keeping an eye out for her name.

      September 2017 -- Re-read because it's the book-of-the-month for the Seattle Kinky Book Club for this week. Still as good as I remembered it, and I'm looking forward to discussing it with others.
    • 4/5
      As both a kinky person and an English major, I was very excited about a book combining kink with literary criticism. Finding links between the two was done well, and it was interesting to hear about the writer's history with her kink. The parts about her relationships that weren't related to her sexuality bored me, and the imaginary conversations with Shakespearean characters device started to feel forced by the end, but for the most part I enjoyed this book and think it would do a good job giving non-kinky people some insight into how it can work.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this book, since I'm a fan of both things mentioned in the title. On the whole, too pop for me. I came looking for revealing examinations of sexuality in Shakespeare, but on the whole, failed to find any. If you enjoy hearing about someone's kinky evolution, you might enjoy this, but if you're looking for insight into Shakespeare, this book may leave you ... frustrated.
    • 4/5
      This sits on the line between pop criticism of sexuality in Shakespeare's work and a sexual memoir. I enjoyed it, though I do admit to skimming Shakespeare stuff from plays I haven't yet read. Kudos to the author for being honest about her sexuality, kink, and relationship history. Her memory and retention of plays, characters, and plots is amazing to me, I get everything confused. Ms. Keenan is an excellent writer, and she weaves a very readable tale. 3.5/5 stars. I'm interested in anything else she may have written!
    • 2/5
      Despite the title, "Sex with Shakespeare" by Jillian Keenan is not about Shakespeare. It is, as is shown on the fine print, a memoir, a semi-autobiography focusing on her awakening and exploration of her sexuality. Sure, each chapter is framed with quotations from a different Shakespeare play, and Jillian imagines conversations with various characters, but the majority of the book explores the sexuality of spanking in her own life. While I admire the author for opening up and speaking frankly about this difficult and closeted subject, I admit I was looking for more connection to Shakespeare specifically. Her allusions and insights are only to her own personal life rather than anything more general, and frankly at times they are rather strained. However, I doubt a publisher would have been interested in publishing a memoir on spanking and sex, so Shakespeare it is.
    • 5/5
      Sex with Shakespeare by Jillian Keenan is that rare book that crosses genre and at the same time is capable of touching many entirely different people. This is of course a memoir, yet it is also rich with literary interpretations of many of Shakespeare's plays. Involved in the telling of her memoir within a Shakespearean framework is a work which speaks to anyone who has ever felt like an "other." Frankly, in one form or another, in one place or another, we have all felt that way and Keenan shows a way to come to terms with it as well as pointing out that we are more alike than we are different.As a memoir, it is very interesting in large part, initially, to the voyeuristic tendency we have when others share intimacies. In this case, since it involves sex and kink, we are doubly interested. When we tell our own stories we are rarely 100% accurate in the telling, that is normal, what is important is that we honestly express what we remember and particularly be true to how we remember it. As an example, I lived roughly 20 years of my life with some strong issues based on an event in my youth. Come to find out, my recollection was only half the story (imagine that) and even then there were a couple things that had been lost from my memory of it. When it was addressed my life, in that area, changed completely. Yet if I tell my story of those 20 years it will be from how I lived it, in other words, from a slightly less than totally accurate account but completely true to how I felt. Reading a memoir with this in mind allows us to understand how the person perceived her world, which is what telling one's story should be. Save the heavy fact-checking for the biographer.All of that is to say that when this is read with an eye toward understanding Keenan's life as she did through the years we can appreciate what many of her experiences meant to her. In explaining her kink, spanking, she is honest and shows both how she felt abnormal by just being curious and even more so when she realized she found pleasure there. Her story goes far beyond speaking to people who have ever been curious about any fetish or kink (though I think if we're all honest we have all pondered something we thought was fetishistic and likely had pleasure imagining it) and speaks to anyone who has ever felt that their insecurities are somehow visible to everyone they meet.Like I used to tell my students, as long as you can ground your interpretations and impressions in the text (expanded to include historical contextualization) then feel free to do so. That does not make every interpretation equally valid, it simply allows for more than the dominant one. Importantly, this allows more students (or readers in general) to find their own ways into literature, and I think that is a good thing. Keenan grounds her interpretations very well in both the texts and in the historical period. A few were a bit of a stretch for me, but nothing that I felt was grossly unfair to Shakespeare's text.The truly wonderful aspect of this book was the seamless manner in which Keenan weaved Shakespeare's plays through the fabric of her life's tale. She moved fluidly from an event in her own life to a related interpretation of a play and back, keeping the reader engaged in both the plays and in her life.I am a fairly open person and share most things readily with friends and, when appropriate, others. I would be afraid to open up as much as Keenan did in this book, and I find it empowering to see someone do so. It takes a great deal of strength and belief in oneself to do this. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to understand, from one person's experience, that what society considers "normal" is both nonexistent as well as beside the point. Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program.
    • 4/5
      A daring and provocative book unlike any other. A mind-opener.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book! Author is witty and funny. I was afraid this would be a "clinical" look at sex in Shakespeare, but it was not. Not being a "fan" of Shakespeare, what drew me to this book was the "Here's Much to Do with Pain", the masochist that I am. Love the journey the author takes us thru her personal experience, interweaving Shakespearian references throughout. Being a member of the BDSM community, its wonderful to hear other's stories.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book! It is a very explicit memoir that immediately drew me in. The interweaving of Shakespeare with Jillian's life was fascinating to begin-adding her kink as another facet was seamless and really hooked me. This book makes me want to reread Shakespeare as well as explore my/her fetish more. The two worlds seem like they couldn't be more different, yet Jillian deftly combines them to produce a well written, enjoyable memoir. I highly recommend this book!
    • 4/5
      This is a different type book....Interesting how she puts broken relationships and made up romance of movies & television shows to come up with an understanding of love & sexuality through the works of Shakespeare. ...Explains many different ways of thinking about sex - provocative - funny at times.. Not a book for everyone tho.
    • 2/5
      “Sex with Shakespeare” is probably one of the most challenging books I’ve had to review. On the surface, it seemed like a book that I was predisposed to enjoy. I like memoirs, and some of my favorite memoirs, such as Wendy McClure’s “The Wilder Life” and Emma Brockes’s “What Would Barbra Do?”, examine the subject’s life through the lens of other works. Consequently, Jillian Keenan’s approach of exploring her romantic entanglements and proclivities while also analyzing Shakespeare’s works seemed like a winner for me. Unfortunately, I found this book more of a slog than anything I have read in quite a while.The main element that frustrated me was that the book focused much more on Keenan’s relationships, ranging from her fraught interactions with her mercurial mother to her sexual liaisons with a drug-dealing law student she meets overseas, than it did on illuminating or interpreting Shakespearean plays. In the book’s defense, the title does imply that Shakespeare will have second billing behind sex, but at the very least, I hoped for some thoughtful readings of his works. Unfortunately, the moments of analysis are few and far between, and the connections Keenan makes between a particular play and her situation seem contrived. This is not to say that the book is poorly written. Keenan crafts descriptive prose as she recounts her various affairs, and she does seem to admire Shakespeare. If you are interested in reading about the author’s relationships and sexual fixations, then you might enjoy this book. Indeed, many of the reviews I have read for “Sex with Shakespeare” have been surprisingly positive. However, if you are hoping to learn more about Shakespeare or even how one person reconciles her sexual proclivities with Shakespeare’s plays, “Sex with Shakespeare” will seem more like a book premise created to garner a book deal rather than a work where the subjects of personal sexuality and Shakespeare organically and meaningfully connect and illuminate each other.
    • 1/5
      Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers The title is titillating, the premise is attention-grabbing, if deceptive. The subtitle reads, “Here’s much to do with pain, but more with love.” No, there’s much to do with pain, to be sure; but nothing to do with love, just sex, and that of the most marginal kind. The writing style is immature and surprisingly so, given the education and experience of the author described on the book jacket. Generally speaking, this reader is convinced that SEX WITH SHAKESPEARE was geared from the beginning toward being published, not toward adding anything to our knowledge and insight into Shakespeare. By focusing on the provocative, Keenan completely misses out on the nuanced and the subtle. In short, she blinds herself to what is truly enriching about Shakespeare’s work.Part memoir and part personalized critique on some of Shakespeare’s characters and plays, SEX WITH SHAKESPEARE is Keenan’s attempt to explore and justify her own crippled approach to sexual exploration. I tried very hard to give her some room to edify my knowledge of Shakespeare’s work, but the book is so self-centered, it proved worthless. Anyone who has worked on a production of any of the plays covered here, or just seen one, in the last 20 years or so will have covered the ground she presents. And that’s just trying to find something worthwhile about Shakespeare in her book. As for her personal journey, there is no “there” there. I kept waiting for content but there was none. Her personal revelations are so self-serving as to offer nothing. Reading this book was like picking up a younger sibling’s diary; only in that case, at least one would have increased insight into someone one was close to. By the end, we are no closer to Keenan. She is off on her own thing and cares not at all whether we are with her or not.It is all too common to find those who usurp Shakespeare for their own ends and needs, skipping over the foundational groundwork of context and historical exegesis. What there is here about the plays, she admits to be her own opinion and without any studied point of departure. If her only defense of her opinion of Shakespeare’s work is her own opinion then she has lost all connection with the great cohesive, universal and worldwide appeal of it.The writing style of SEX is very casual. So much so that it is difficult to take it seriously; and I felt, from page to page, that I was wasting my time. Keenan writes to off-load the pain of her personal disconnected formation. This is also what seems to motivate her analysis of Shakespeare. That would be fine except that she does this in a way that excludes the reality of the reader. There is little of a universal, embracing perspective at work. Rather, hers is very specific and self-serving. Having worked in professional and educational theatre for nearly 40 years, I cannot think of anyone to whom I would recommend this book. In example after example, from A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM to AS YOU LIKE IT, Keenan steers the interpretation to her own, very specific, very personal vision. None of which relates to the ubiquitous, global appeal of the Bard across cultures and generations. Sorry, but I’m guessing there aren’t that many people out there who need to be spanked to be sexually aroused; but maybe that’s just me. Shakespeare aside, which is easy to accomplish with this book, her revelations regarding sex are all crippled by her own fragmented, broken background. Her uprooted and fear-laden formative years blind her to the natural and holistic place of sex. To her, sexual interaction is about power, not intimacy; restriction, not expansive growth. All I could do was feel sorry for her, except that that was difficult as well since she doesn't seem to care what the reader thinks.As Keenan confesses in her “Content Note” at the beginning, there is “literal and figurative navel-gazing” to be found in her book. I would say that there is little else BUT cover-to-cover navel-gazing here and of the most tortured kind. My challenge now is to figure out what to do with a brand new, newly-published jacketed hardcover book. This one is worthless to anyone already knowledgeable about Shakespeare’s work, and I would hate to think of it falling into the hands of someone newly arriving to the wonder and magic of his writing. I don’t want it on my shelf but wouldn’t want to expose anyone else to it either. Ugh!