Endless Knot: A Spiritual Odyssey Through Sado-Masochism

Christine Schmidt specializes in law and sociology at Laurentian
University.

Endless Knot is an autobiography of one man’s lifelong quest to be
dominated by a woman. Seemingly benign at first and offering an
interesting and rare journey through Toronto’s fetishism scene,
Endless Knot is ultimately a sad testament to the ease with which power
games in the bedroom can be equated with an abusive relationship. The
author, a vulnerable, masochistic man with a foot fetish and a desire to
find a woman who will make him her slave, finds a woman who is more than
willing to inflict mental and emotional abuse on him, as well as deplete
his bank account. Ultimately, he comes to realize that his partner is
not interested in a true, reciprocal slave–master relationship.

Women and men alike should be horrified by the way in which Styranka
characterizes the abuse he endures as banal. And although his book is
subtitled, in part, A Spiritual Odyssey, it does a great disservice to
the quest for legitimacy among members of the sadomasochist scene by
attempting to represent proponents and facets of that lifestyle.
Tolerating abuse within an intimate relationship and characterizing your
escape as “spiritual” without qualification sets a dangerous
precedent and does not represent the sadomasochist lifestyle at all.

Endless Knot is redeemed somewhat by its likable protagonist and
accessible prose. The author’s thought processes may be of interest to
therapists, psychology students, and sexual libertarians, but I would
not recommend this book for anyone under the age of 21.