...I believe intimate consensual relationships present two distinct characteristics, the private and the public view. Every so often the two overlap, and intimate sexuality reserved for privacy, inclusive of the spectrum of sexual activity which the novel exposes becomes public property; (apparently, since your article is my first acquaintance with it).

...Is the intention of the novelist one of exposé for entertainment and titillation, or is the intention of the novelist one of edification for the purpose of education in a sociological sense? Sex and violence are as natural as war and peace.

...Somewhat strange though in answer to the second problem, the woman presented as she is as the instigator of the violence, lures her mate into lewd sexual acts inclusive of violence is not, as commonly happens in the real world, the cause of “Harrys” appearance before the Magistrate. What is the point here? No penalty apparently for violence in sex if the woman is the instigator; Violence must be contained within the realm of consensual sex, or all power to the woman?

...More questions raised than answered with this one!

I wonder whether the answer isn't far more straightforward than the article suggests.

"The argument isn’t that anyone (real or fictional) should stop these practices if they are what they wish to do (although there’s a debate there) and it’s not about censoring these representations. Rather, it’s about acknowledging that this novel and to a lesser degree the carefully-edited TV series obsessively repeat scenarios wherein women and men consent to violent sexual practices that are characteristic of a suspect gender order in which men physically and aggressively dominate women.<<

To my somewhat simplistic mind, the whole mish-mash of conflicting images strongly suggests a gay author trying to get to grips with heterosexual sex acts.

And failing.

(Having just written that, it occurs to me that the author might not be gay. In which case he needs to get out more, and meet new people.)

While rather over-stating his case, Gibbons is basically correct.Worse perhaps,the book and TV series have been promoted as top class,but they are PURE SOAP. Leslie