Julie Powell, the author of Julie and Julia is coming out with a new memoir entitled “Cleaving” that reportedly details both the ins and outs of butchering different animals and S & M extra-marital sex, which the author had when she was in what may be termed as an experimental period in her relationship. More than likely because Julie Powell is a blogger at Salon, the online magazine ran a pretty interesting article about “Cleaving”.

The most interesting question asked involves the relationship between butchering and 'S & M' and why there is a stigma associated to both of them. Without having read the book and from the author's answer, I can pretty much guess which side of the S & M side she was on.

I got power out of that because I was making these guys think they were powerful, and that was a sort of power in itself. I think that the butchering has the same kind of uncomfortable dynamic. There are knives; the men are very strong; the meat is dead.

I won’t comment on the profundity or lack thereof on the last part of her last statement. Perhaps she should just focus her comments more on the sex and less on the butchering, which is what would probably interest more of the people.

The interviewer read her book as a sort of indictment on monogamy and asked her her opinion on the topic. She was pretty wishy-washy in her response, but basically asserted that people should be flexible when it comes to assuming that monogamy is the only way a marriage can be successful.

Despite her success as a writer and her  slight audacity about writing in so much detail about her personal life, she still seems fairly modest. Julie Powell is the first to admit that she is probably not a poster child for the BDSM crowd, but that she is a “supporter of people being cool with all that stuff” whatever that means. She is also an unabashed meat-eater, but given the fact that she is from Texas, this should be no surprise.

After reading the interview, I’ve decided to wait until there is a film adaptation of her book, perhaps this time starring the author herself. I wasn’t altogether impressed with the last movie, but am curious to see what her S & M moves look like.