“The Total Codex” is a blog-style book promotion, originally inspired by those done with Harmony Corrupted and Romantic Rose for Volume Two; re: “Brace for Impact,”  “Searching for Secrets” and “Deal with the Devil” (2024). Those promotions sought to promote and provide Volume Two, part one and two’s individual pieces (two halves, but three modules) for easy public viewing in single-post form; re: for the Poetry Module, Undead Module and Demon Module. “The Total Codex” shall do the same, but with Volume Zero/the thesis volume (versus “Make It Real” promoting Volume One/the manifesto, which I will release after “The Total Context” completes). As usual, this promotion was written, illustrated and invigilated by me as part of my larger Sex Positivity (2023) book series. This specific promo post includes Volume Zero’s table of contents (and hyperlinks to each post), followed by the book disclaimer.

Further Reading: As of 3/13/2025, I’ve given every book volume/(sub)module its own promotion series. Access all of them, here.

Note: As with my other older promotions, this series will release one post at a time; unlike those promotions, these books have already been written/are already available online. This means I can release the book samples on a daily basis. The whole process should several weeks. —Perse

Volume Zero is already written/was released on October 2023! Go to my book’s 1-page promo to download the latest version of the PDF (which will contain additions/corrections the original blog posts will not have)!

Permissions: Any publicly available images are exhibited for purposes of education, transformation and critique, thus fall under Fair Use; private nude material and collabs with models are specifically shared with permission from the original model(s). For more details about artist permissions, refer to the book disclaimer found either at the bottom of this page or on its own webpage.

Concerning Buggy Images: Sometimes the images on my site don’t always load and you get a little white-and-green placeholder symbol, instead. Sometimes I use a plugin for loading multiple images in one spot, called Envira Gallery, and not all of the images will load (resulting in blank white squares you can still right-click on). I‘ve optimized most of the images on my site, so I think it’s a server issue? Not sure. You should still be able to access the unloaded image by clicking on the placeholder/right-clicking on the white square (sometimes you have to delete the “?ssl=1” bit at the end of the url). Barring that, completed volumes will always contain all of the images, whose PDFs you can always download on my 1-page promo.

(artist: Bay)

Contents (for Volume Zero) 

Volume Zero, unlike Volume Two, lacks separate modules or sub-volumes. Instead, it is entirely self-contained. Even so, its material still divides into different sections, whose main three I’ve outlined ahead of time:

• The thesis statement: Contains my manifesto tree, Four Gs (four main Gothic theories), another small essay about where power is performed during the Gothic mode/inside the Gothic imagination (“Doubles, Dark Forces, and Paradox”), and my thesis paragraph, which the thesis body expands on using most of this book’s keywords and manifesto terms.
• The “camp map”: Assembles the manifesto pieces and explains (using the Four Gs) how to camp the canon of war as heteronormative by “making it gay”; i.e., normally canonized through the quest for power in a Faustian bargain (told in the warlike language we’re all accustomed to), which we then camp during our own Promethean Quests (“Oh, no! I’m totally being conquered right now!”). Told in four parts. Part one, explores camp as a counterterrorist activity in relation to state terrorism, and outlines various monster types featured in the exercises (e.g., femboys, catgirls, himbos, Amazons, etc); parts two explores the interrogation of power in relation to Gothic space (castles) but especially in videogames (shooters, high fantasy and Metroidvania); part three considers the making of monsters and goes over more monster types; part four puts all of these ideas to the test, executed by my friend Blxxd Bunny and I.
• The conclusion: Wraps everything up and segues into the symposium, which is a conversational follow-up/aftercare “sesh” dedicated to points I wanted to expand on but couldn’t in the thesis proper due to word count/flow.

These sections essentially function as a module would for Volume Two, save that they operate deliberately inside one book volume rather than dividing it up into separate modules (a tenable goal, given my thesis volume is quite a bit shorter than Volume Twos various modules); i.e., Volume Zero comprises Sex Positivity‘s entire thesis argument, ones whose body divides up into the three larger sections previously described. Individually they make up the primary sections/chapters of each larger element for Volume Zero. A given element usually contains multiple chapters, subchapters, and so on (though nowhere near as many as Volume Two’s various sub-volumes do).

Cover model: Bay

Volume Summary

The thesis volume contains my author’s foreword, a small essay on the performance and paradox of power (“Notes on Power”), as well as my book’s manifesto tree (scaffold of oppositional praxis), thesis argument[1] on Gothic (gay-anarcho) Communism, “camp map” and symposium; it uses them to encompass, then articulate, the entirety of my book’s theoretical content, using a variety of cited material and keywords (e.g., the Gothic, monstrous-feminine, and Amazonomachia) to delve into its broadest/most common arguments as deeply as possible. Written based on years of independent research—as well as older blogposts, essays, and my master’s thesis—Volume Zero essentially operates as my PhD but also my total curriculum, which can be simplified as needed when being taught to others in more anecdotal, everyday forms.

[1] (a summary of the thesis paragraph from the thesis volume): “Capitalism dimorphically sexualizes everything under a heteronormative, settler-colonial scheme, one whose Cartesian myopia of Capitalist Realism must be escaped from; i.e., via a deliberate iconoclasm that liberates sex workers (or sexualized workers) under Capitalism through sex-positive art.”

approximate volume length (minus the paratextual documents): ~200,000 words/603 pages and ~282 unique images

Note: I released Volume Zero before I started using text wrapping formatting around images; i.e., the page counts (from the original PDF file) are a bit higher than they would be otherwise/are a bit misleading. —Perse

On the Cusp (opening)

Opening Summary

The opening to Volume Zero is the material before the thesis proper.

Posts

• -1. “Thesis Volume (Volume Zero)” (volume opening): A short little blurb before the foreword—one outlined the entire volume. Opening Length: ~2 pages.
• 0. “Author’s Foreword: “On Giving Birth,” the Wisdom of the Ancients, and Afterbirth” (included with volume opening): A foreword dedicated to my conceptualizing of Gothic Communism; i.e., by playing with the Wisdom of the Ancients much like Mary Shelley did: as a cultural understanding of the imaginary past to understand in duality (specifically dialectical materialism, in our case, but with a strong social-sexual component). To it, I describe my own pregnancy with such dark materials—as a trans woman giving birth as such, producing my own monstrous progeny in relative short order (a brevity and productivity the afterword remarks upon; i.e., as I was writing it, and anticipating future book volumes that had either not been written or fully fleshed out yet). Length: ~51 pages.
• 1. “Volume Outline/Summary of the Thesis Volume, “Camp Map” and Symposium Divisions/Subdivisions”: Outlines the remainder of the volume’s largest portions. Length: ~3 pages.
• 2. “Notes on Power (paradox) and Liminal Expression (doubles)” (included with “Volume Outline”): Paradox and liminal expression come up constantly in Sex Positivity. Said essay discusses how power is theatrical, and plays off paradox and liminal expression (doubles) to develop Gothic Communism. Specifically it examines Gothic Communism’s campy ancestor/palimpsest, Paradise Lost (1667) and its complex relationship to future works that likewise have adopted theatrical Amazonomachia, paradox, and artistic/pornographic liminal (monstrous) expressions that speak truth to power—i.e., through “darkness visible” (the Gothic imagination) but also “darkness deliberate” as performatively mired in the self-same classical allusions: actively utilizing the Gothic convention of fetishes and clichés as class-conscious, thus of the devil’s party and knowing it (unlike Milton; our revolution cannot be accidental if we are to survive). Length: ~30 pages.

The Thesis Proper (pretext, statement, body and segue)

Thesis Summary

My thesis proper as a statement to introduce, then argue against canon with. Said introduction includes various foundational elements, upon which my core thesis argument rests, and whose body extends into two segues before the “camp map” (which focuses on camping canon): the roots of camp and praxial inertia (obstacles to heed, mid-praxis).

Posts

• 3. “Thesis Proper: Concerning Canon (section opening): Part one of the thesis volume, which outlines canon; i.e., what we’ll be camping in part two of the volume. Opening Length: ~1 pages.
  • 3a. “On Twin Trees; or, “Taking the Trees Back during Oppositional Praxis”: the Superstructure and Base; Tolkien vs Milton; and Our Manifesto Tree” (included with section opening): A small section dedicated to determining the difference, mid-synthesis, between canon and camp; i.e., using Tolkien and Milton’s Biblical devices in fantasy forms (twin trees) that have extended dialectically materially into the present vis-à-vis Marx’ Base and Superstructure argument. Apart from isolating such iconic structural dualities for us to abstract or reify and play with ourselves, “Twin Trees” highlights the Manifesto Tree of Oppositional Praxis originates; re: as seen in “Paratextual Documents.” Because of the section on Tolkien and Milton (and its overall brevity-yet-importance), I will be posting the entire section in this promotion. Length: ~18 pages.
  • 3a. “The Four Gs: Our Main Gothic Theories” (included with section opening): Our four main Gothic theories, which present identically in “Paratextual Documents” save for a small introduction and conclusion. Length: ~7 pages.
  • 3b. “Doubles, Dark Forces, and Paradox; or into the Shadow Zone: Where We Currently Are and Where We’re Going Deeper Into” (included with section opening): A short essay that considers the performative, liminal paradoxical nature of power and trauma; i.e., as something to perform, generally within the Gothic mode having power and trauma sharing the same half-real venue; re: of exploitation and liberation achieved during ludo-Gothic BDSM. The essay considers this proposition with The Flight of Dragons (1982), but likewise invites the reader to extend such argumentation to any form of media one could dream of. Length: ~19 pages.
  • 3c. “Thesis Statement: the Gothic Mode and Its Reclamation” (sub-section opening): A one-page synopsis that organizes the thesis proper into a spool of elements to unfurl; i.e., unpacking and applying its paragraph and body to the Manifesto Tree (which we also unpack), followed by the roots of camp itself as reclaimed from older Gothic devices and challenges; re: Radcliffe’s Demon BDSM (a precursor to my ludo-Gothic variety) and various other tools (e.g., the Black Veil and exquisite torture) seeking to overcome praxial inertia when developing Gothic Communism ourselves. Opening Length: ~1 page.
    • 3c1. “Thesis Paragraph: Capitalism Sexualizes Everything” (included with sub-section opening): Contains my entire book’s central argument, distilled into one paragraph (and provides the full definition of heteronormativity). Length: ~6 pages.
    • 3c2. “Thesis Body: Gothic (gay-anarcho) Communism vs the State; or, Galatea inside the Shadow of Pygmalion” (included with sub-section opening): Summarizes Gothic Communism’s primary foil, the state—specifically its monopoly of violence, state of exception and Protestant work ethic in relation to the historical materialism of the state’s propaganda (canon); i.e., canon’s monomyth, Cycle of Kings, infernal concentric pattern and narrative of the crypt amounting to the Shadow of Pygmalion. Length: ~53 pages.
    • 3c3. “Pieces of the Camp Map (from the Manifesto Tree)”: Unpacks the main sections from the manifesto tree in relation to oppositional praxis; i.e., canon vs iconoclasm (camp). Length: ~63 pages.
    • 3c4. “The Roots of Camp: Reclaiming Demon BDSM and Radcliffe’s Tricky Tools”: Examines canonical demon BDSM and Radcliffe’s fiction/tricky tools as popular literary devices that desperately need to be camped (with ludo-Gothic BDSM—a concept we’ll introduce during the “camp map” and explore much, much more in Volumes One, Two and Three). Length: ~28 pages.
    • 3c5. “Overcoming Praxial Inertia: Straw Dogs and Canon’s Teeth in the Night”: Explores some popular examples of canonical, monomyth Beowulf-style heroes and the threat they represent as also needing to be camped (re [from Volume One, onwards]: to have nature’s monstrous-feminine revenge—specifically the whore’s [from Volume Two’s Demon Module]—against profit and the state pimping them). Length: ~36 pages.

The “Camp Map”

“Camp Map” Summary

The argumentation of my thesis argument; i.e., when camping the canon, as borrowed from Colin Broadmoor’s “Camping the Canon: Matthew Lewis, Milton, & The Monk” (2021) and retooled specifically for our purposes—when developing Gothic Communism, ourselves!

Posts

• 4. “The ‘Camp Map’: Camping the Canon” (section opening): The original summary of the “camp map” and its various argumentative elements workers use; i.e., when camping canon themselves. Opening Length: ~3 pages.
  • 4a. “‘Camp Map’; or ‘Make it gay,’ part one: Scouting the Field” (included with section opening): Explores camp as a counterterrorist activity in relation to state terrorism, and outlines various monster types featured in its exhibits (e.g., femboys, catgirls, himbos, Amazons, etc). It also outlines the Gothic argumentation of oppositional rhetoric for or against the state when making its own monsters to kill, or kill with, normally in defense of capital but for us through a means of performative resistance; i.e., a variety of reclaimed scapegoats within the process of abjection’s canonical reactions, which reify along the Cartesian Revolution’s criminogenesis of said monsters, but especially within the cartographic ludologizing of Tolkien’s refrain: the treasure map. Length: ~42 pages.
  • 4b. “Concerning Rape Play: a 2025 Note on My Development of Ludo-Gothic BDSM“: A short new addendum. Briefly considers the development (and application) of Ludo-Gothic BDSM since formally introducing the concept, in October 2023. Length: ~11 pages.
  • 4c. ” part two: “Camping Tolkien’s Refrain using Metroidvania, or the Map is a Lie: the Quest for Power inside Cameron’s Closed Space (and other shooters)” (sub-section opening): Explores the interrogation of power in relation to Gothic space (castles) but especially in videogames (shooters, High Fantasy and Metroidvania). It also interrogates Tolkien’s refrain through the conceptualization of Cameron’s refrain (the shooter); i.e., not through the FPS, but the Metroidvania—a particular kind of third-person shooter (TPS)/castle space that (along with the monsters inside) can be camped, but also achieves immense catharsis through honest and profound theatrical evocations of psychosexual trauma: a palliative Numinous and fairly negotiated (thus sex-positive) ludo-Gothic BDSM achieved by remaking Gothic castles, thus negotiating the unequal power lurking inside an iconoclastic castle or castle-like space. Opening Length: ~7 pages.
    • 4c1. “‘The Map Is a Lie’: the Quest for Power inside Cameron’s Closed Space—Origins and Lineage” (included with sub-section opening): Camping the quest for power where power is centralized—which Tolkien largely tried to sidestep on his own questing formulas and maps and which Cameron jumped headlong into—takes two parts to accomplish; i.e., insofar as I conceptualized the method, then applied it myself, in Volume Zero. Part one unpacks my own real-life quest to understand power as something to map, reassemble and interrogate (so you can understand my thought process and what guided it towards where we are now). Length: ~30 pages.
    • 4c2. “The Map Is a Lie: the Quest for Power inside Cameron’s Closed Space—Interrogating Power through Your Own Camp”: Part two of camping the quest for power (re: the palliative numinous), this section explores playing with power to our poetic camping of the quest in our own lives; i.e., through our own creations/performances that interrogate power on maps/castles that resemble Tolkien’s or Cameron’s (on paper) but play out very differently in practice. Length: ~74 pages.
  • 4c. ” part three: “Shining a Light on Things, or How to Make Monsters: Reclaiming Our Lost Power by Putting the Pussy on the Chainwax”: Considers the making of monsters and goes over more monster types (nurses, xenomorphs and other phallic women) as a creative foil to Ann Radcliffe’s usual unironic rape fantasies. It also explores how to personify labor action through the making of monsters as a reversal of abjection; i.e., through a Satanic poetics whose infernal polity challenges the authority of a heavenly or otherwise sacred establishment, but often in incredibly funny ways; e.g., Key and Peele’s immortal phrase: “Put the pussy on the chainwax!” (Key & Peele’s “Pussy on the Chainwax,” 2013). Length: ~33 pages.
  • 4d. ” part four: “The Finale; or ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll!'”: Puts all of these ideas to the test, executed by my friend Blxxd Bunny and I; i.e., using our bodies, labor and Satanic apostacy to camp the canon, effectively making it gay and Gothic (while keeping the first three sections of the “camp map” in mind). Length: ~26 pages.

Volume Conclusion

Conclusion Summary

The third and final portion to Volume Zero, which largely ties up loose ends (and introduces new ones) before transitioning into the manifesto.

Posts

• 5. “Follow the Sign: Thesis Conclusion, or ‘Death by Snu-Snu'” (included with “The Finale,” above): A short conclusion to the “camp map” that explores the paradox of activism disguised as play before segueing into the symposium proper. Length: ~11 pages.
• 6. “Symposium: Aftercare; What Is the Gothic?”: A series of in-text seminars that tries to unpack various ideas a bit more fully than my thesis argument was able to, during the thesis proper and “camp map” portions. Length: ~51 pages.
• 7. “In Closing: A Gay New World” (included with “Symposium: Aftercare,” above): A short conclusion for the volume/segue into Volume One. Length: ~7 pages.

(artist: Bay)

Disclaimer

(disclaimer exhibit: Artist: Harmony Corrupted, who provided me with various materials from her Fansly account to use [with her permission] in my book, including cum photos. For those of legal age who enjoy Harmony’s work and want to see more than this website provides, consider subscribing to her Fansly account and then ordering a custom/tipping through her Ko-Fi. You won’t be disappointed!)

“If it was not good, it was true; if it was not artistic, it was sincere; if it was in bad taste, it was on the side of life.”

—Henry Miller, on criticism and the Supreme-Court-level lawsuit he received for writing The Tropic of Cancer (1934)

Regarding This Book’s Artistic/Pornographic Nudity and Sexual Content: Sex Positivity thoroughly discusses sexuality in popular media, including fetishes, kinks, BDSM, Gothic material, and general sex work; the illustrations it contains have been carefully curated and designed to demonstrate my arguments. It also considers pornography to be art, examining the ways that sex-positive art makes iconoclastic statements against the state. As such, Sex Positivity contains visual examples of sex-positive/sex-coercive artistic nudity borrowed from publicly available sources to make its educational/critical arguments. Said nudity has been left entirely uncensored for those purposes. While explicitly criminal sexual acts, taboos and obscenities are discussed herein, no explicit illustrations thereof are shown, nor anything criminal; i.e., no snuff porn, child porn or revenge porn. It does examine things generally thought of as porn that are unironically violent. Examples of uncensored, erotic artwork and sex work are present, albeit inside exhibits that critique the obscene potential (from a legal standpoint) of their sexual content: “ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, masturbation, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals, or sado-masochistic sexual abuse” (source: Justice.gov). For instance, there is an illustrated example of uncensored semen—a “breeding kink” exhibit with zombie unicorns and werewolves (exhibit 87a)—that I’ve included to illustrate a particular point, but its purposes are ultimately educational in nature.

The point of this book isn’t to be obscene for its own sake, but to educate the broader public (including teenagers*) about sex-positive artwork and labor historically treated as obscene by the state. For the material herein to be legally considered obscene it would have to simultaneously qualify in three distinct ways (aka the “Miller” test):

• appeal to prurient interests (i.e., an erotic, lascivious, abnormal, unhealthy, degrading, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion)
• attempt to depict or describe sexual conduct in a patently offensive way (i.e., ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, masturbation, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals, or sado-masochistic sexual abuse)
• lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

Taken as a whole, this book discusses debatably prurient material in an academic manner, depicting and describing sexual conduct in a non-offensive way for the express purpose of education vis-à-vis literary-artistic-political enrichment.

*While this book was written for adults—provided to them through my age-gated website—I don’t think it should be denied from curious teenagers through a supervising adult. The primary reason I say this (apart from the trauma-writing sections, which are suitably intense and grave) is that the academic material can only be simplified so far and teenagers probably won’t understand it entirely (which is fine; plenty of books are like that—take years to understand more completely). As for sexually-developing readers younger than 16 (ages 10-15), I honestly think there are far more accessible books that tackle the same basic subject matter more quickly at their reading level. All in all, this book examines erotic art and sex positivity as an alternative to the sex education currently taught (or deliberately not taught) in curricular/extracurricular spheres. It does so in the hopes of improving upon canonical tutelage through artistic, dialectical-material analysis. 

Fair Use: This book is non-profit, and its artwork is meant for education, transformation and critique. For those reasons, the borrowed materials contained herein fall under Fair Use. All sources come from popular media: movies, fantasy artist portfolios, cosplayer shoots, candid photographs, and sex worker catalogs intended for public viewing. Private material has only been used with a collaborating artist’s permission (for this book—e.g., Blxxd Bunny‘s OF material or custom shoots; or as featured in a review of their sex work on my website with their consent already given from having done past work together—e.g., Miss Misery).

Concerning the Exhibit Numbers and Parenthetical Dates: I originally wrote this book as one text, not four volumes. Normally I provide a publication year per primary text once per text—e.g., “Alien (1979)”—but this would mean having to redate various texts in Volumes One, Two and Three after Volume Zero. I have opted out of doing this. Likewise, the exhibit numbers are sequential for the entire book, not per volume; references to a given exhibit code [exhibit 11b2 or 87a] will often refer to exhibits not present in the current volume. I have not addressed this in the first edition of my book, but might assemble a future annotated list in a second edition down the road.

Concerning Hyperlinks: Those that make the source obvious or are preceded by the source author/title will simply be supplied “as is.” This includes artist or book names being links to themselves, but also mere statements of fact, basic events, or word definitions where the hyperlink is the word being defined. Links to sources where the title is not supplied in advance or whose content is otherwise not spelled out will be supplied next to the link in parentheses (excluding Wikipedia, save when directly quoting from the site). One, this will be especially common with YouTube essayists I cite to credit them for their work (though sometimes I will supply just the author’s name; or their name, the title of the essay and its creation year). Two, concerning YouTube links and the odds of videos being taken down, these are ultimately provided for supplementary purposes and do not actually need to be viewed to understand my basic arguments; I generally summarize their own content into a single sentence, but recommend you give any of the videos themselves a watch if you’re curious about the creators’ unique styles and perspectives about a given topic.

Concerning (the PDF) Exhibit Image Quality: This book contains over 1,000 different images, which—combined with the fact that Microsoft Word appears to compress images twice (first, in-document images and second, when converting to PDFs) along with the additional hassle that is WordPress’ limitations on accepting uploaded PDFs (which requires me to compress the PDF again—has resulted in sub-par image quality for the exhibit images themselves. To compensate, all of the hyperlinks link to the original sources where the source images can be found. Sometimes, it links to the individual images, other times to the entire collage, and I try to offer current working links; however, the ephemeral, aliased nature of sex work means that branded images do not always stay online, so some links (especially those to Twitter/X accounts) won’t always lead to a source if the original post is removed.

Concerning Aliases: Sex workers survive through the use of online aliases and the discussion of their trauma requires a degree of anonymity to protect victims from their actual/potential abusers. This book also contains trauma/sexual anecdotes from my own life; it discusses my friends, including sex workers and the alter egos/secret identities they adopt to survive “in the wild.” Keeping with that, all of the names in this book are code names (except for mine, my late Uncle Dave’s and his ex-wife Erica’s—who are only mentioned briefly by their first names). Models/artists desiring a further degree of anonymity (having since quit the business, for example) have been given a codename other than their former branded identity sans hyperlinks (e.g., Jericho).

Extended, Book-Wide Trigger Warning: This entire book thoroughly discusses xenophobia, harmful xenophilia (necrophilia, pedophilia, zoophilia, etc), homophobia, transphobia, enbyphobia, sexism, racism, race-/LGBTQ-related hate crimes/murder and domestic abuse; child abuse, spousal abuse, animal abuse, misogyny and sexual abuse towards all of these groups; power abuse, rape (date, marital, prison, etc), discrimination, war crimes, genocide, religious/secular indoctrination and persecution, conversion therapy, manmade ecological disasters, and fascism.