Staining The Sheets

The NYT has a review of the biopic of Story of O author Dominique Aury. The following excerpt is wild:

"Story of O" is not a book for the timid. The sex is shocking and cruel, usually both, perhaps because it was written by a woman on a mission. Aury may have had a taste for kink, but her reasons for writing the book were purely instrumental. At 47 she worried that she was too old and not pretty enough to keep Paulhan from straying. And so, while living with her parents, she wrote her masterpiece in bed, using pencil so as not to stain the sheets. Her plan worked: Paulhan helped have the novel published, wrote the introduction (titled "Happiness in Slavery") and the couple stayed together until his death in the late 1960's.

1- I find it insulting that the writer believes the only reason Aury wrote the book was to keep a lover;
2- I find it unconvincing that Aury wrote the novel for purely instrumental reasons. She must have wanted to write it, for personal and intellectual reasons as well;
3- I like the pencil-in-bed-so-as-not-to-stain-the-sheets detail, and find it oddly erotic;
4- It makes me feel good that Aury lived with her parents when she was 20 years older than me.