Once upon a time
Two centuries ago, Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, was known as Lemberg, the capital of Galicia and Lodomeria. It was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, which ruled most of southeastern Europe. The First World War would bring an end to Austria-Hungary. Not a few find this episode in European history fascinating, if not a fairy-tale moment. The fall of kingdoms led to the rise of new governments, which in most cases, didn't happen without bloodshed. But on the cultural front, there was something special, if not unparalleled.
The nineteenth century, and the first half of the twentieth century, saw the emergence of writers who could be categorized as stateless citizens. Gregor von Rezzori came to mind, a resident of Bukovina, another crownland of the Austrian Empire along the border of Romania and Ukraine. His memoirs revealed an individual who didn't live in Austria at all, probing the origin of antisemitism in the continent. Was this insight born out of not being a citizen of any country? Günter Grass was next, a recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He grew up in the Free City of Danzig, now GdaÅ„sk, Poland. He was a homeless refugee after World War II, his works revolved around the Danzig of his childhood, surreal yet frightening. Then there was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
Sacher-Masoch, who came from Lemberg, was a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideas. But the fellow had a thing with strong women. As a matter of fact, he met a certain Baroness Fanny Pistor, who asked for his advice on writing. The story was they signed a contract, where he would be her slave for six months. In turn, she would wear fur, which turned him on. The experience resulted to "Venus in Furs", which some called Sacher-Masoch's greatest work. But it was his only writing translated into English, which prompted many to wonder if the subject matter had anything to do with it.
"Venus in Furs" was about Severin von Kusiemski, his obsession with Wanda von Dunajew, asking her to be her slave. The young woman didn't understand him at first, but after a thorough discussion on relationship, find the suggestion interesting. So they lived out this fantasy, with Wanda treating Severin brutally as a servant. It ended when Wanda met Alexis Papadopolis, a Romantic hero, whom she wanted to submit.
The novella not only talked about love, but also how relationship could be a struggle for power. Severin had a fetish for women wearing fur, but not a few noticed misogyny between the lines. Some may be confused, but those who knew Sacher-Masoch might point out his mental health, which started to deteriorate. (Some would remember Guy de Maupassant, father of the modern short story, who was confined in an asylum when he died.) This unusual account led to the coinage of sadomasochism, but Sacher-Masoch wasn't pleased with the negative connotation. As for the real score between him and Pistor, readers can only guess.
