Chapter 0: An Introduction

Why do you care about this?

We (the member of the Surfeit System) have not engaged with the community or works of the Human Domestication Guide fandom in any significant way, despite many of us landing squarely in the target audience of the works. This would likely have continued to be the case for a while longer, but recently some authors that we hold in high regard have been discussing the setting and the fandom. A particularly interesting-to-us point that came up is the idea that much of the setting’s guidelines were put in place in order to make the setting less or un- “problematic” – the idea that as long as stories are written within the rules of the existing universe, there are no true victims and your enjoyment can be guilt-free.

While that is an interesting idea to dissect by itself, I also learned that the original work of the fandom, Human Domestication Guide by GlitchyRobo, exists in two forms – an original, posted to Read-Only Mind, and a revised version that was posted to Archive of our Own. The existence of these two copies of the same work combine to form a sort of fandom-morality Rosetta stone – what transformations must a work of erotic horror need to undergo to become less problematic? How must the story be changed to ensure that the victim of kidnapping, dehumanization, and mind-breaking is no longer a victim, and instead better off for the experience? What does it take for an author to revise an evil empire into benevolent saviors while keeping the story interesting?

Hold on to your florets, because we're going to find out.