Odds & Sods 'n Stuff & a New Blog to Explore & a 'Truth is Stranger than Fiction' Thingy

The builders are in today so as I can't get much done on volume 2 (not that it needs much doing to it now) I thought I might as well do some work on the blog. First of all; one or two folk have emailed asking about various implements. Mention has particularly been made of the Martinet and the switch. While perusing the 'Web for a good example of the former I came across this charming little Paula Meadows / Lynne Paula Russel sketch and a new blog (or at least, new to me) called Beauty and the Birch (click pic or blog name to visit). As is quite rightly stated on that blog; the Martinet is a 'whip-like instrument incorporating a number of thin leather straps' favored by French girl's schools. It is not something mentioned in INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1 (click for preview / blurb) but does make in appearance in volume 2, introduced by the secure psychiatric wing, experimental psychology unit's new 'school room' mistress - but there applied to the soles of a girl's feet and the palms of her hands (she keeps a heavy leather strap handy for the buttocks). Where I use the word 'switch' I mean of course the riding switch or crop although it can be taken to mean any thin flexible rod, typically used for corporal punishment of the birching type.

Now for another little bit of 'truth' being stranger than fiction: this being from the New york Times (Hope you can read it ok - just click on it to make it bigger). An eighteen year old chained in a seated position for two weeks? Hand cuffs and shackles biting into her, rubbing raw the flesh for two weeks? Far, far too cruel - it is what straight jackets are just made for. A nice comfy straight jacket, all safe and sound, soft padded medical restraints around the ankles, a nice warm padded floor and equally padded walls to lean against, spoon-fed at meal times, placed on a bed pan as necessary or kept in diapers and plastic knickers - with such care there would be no reason not to extend her detention to three weeks or even to a month or so.

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Perhaps even provide her with company; have her join a young lady already a couple of weeks into her treatment - a snapshot or glimpse of her own future self, so to speak, just to give her an idea of what to expect. No talking, mind - oh no, that would never do! And we don't want her muttering to herself, either, do we? I,d favour plain old fashioned good discipline at this point, but a ball gag, better, a baby pacifier, could be applied or perhaps an elctro-shock collar of the type used to train dogs not to bark.

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And the real punishment? Well that would just be that gentle, tinkling little nursery rhyme or lullaby, playing over and over and over - not loud, just there in the background, in the deathly silence and just above the gentle rhythmic hiss of her own breathing and the occasional creak of canvas and leather and rustling of plastic pants. Playing over and over and over 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Of course one could choose to stop it after a while, perhaps remove the pacifier or other such restraint - it can always be restarted if she speaks. Or on the other hand it could just be restarted anyway, at random intervals and associated with electric shock - just a mild jolt - to set up neurosis / superstitious behaviour in the subject, A useful approach, that - should one require some way to extend a young lady's residence: perhaps an inheritance is at stake or the control of the family business, perhaps she has seen something she shouldn't or perhaps it simply suits someones whim to see her kept under an exploitative regime of strict discipline for its own sake. (Now, where have you come across some of those ideas before - yes, that's right! INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1)

A Short Progress Report & Another Piece of Contributed Writing

Hi folks,
A very busy week this week but here's a short progress report and also a comment posted on 'A Well-deserved Regime' (click to read original posting). First the progress report: as of yesterday afternoon INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 stood at 230 pages and some 122,000 words, having typed up (well, dictated in anyway) some 3100 words that I had written in various pubs over the weekend. Some of you may recall I said a while back that it would be published mid-March at the latest. Well, it is getting close to that date admittedly but then again the thing is close to completion also. Most of what needs to be added is already written and just needs to be tweaked here and there so all being well by this weekend I should be proofreading in one way or another...

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And now for the contribution; another anonymously written piece, in the form of a letter addressed to Judith's aunt. Once again I have to say that this particular series has only a tenuous connection with the INSTITUTIONALISED series storyline (click on title - left in blue - to read a synopsis / book preview of volume 1 on Lulu) but does have a lot to do with the general concept of 'domestic discipline' and provides quite a nice feel for the atmosphere and the sort of possibilities that might come to exist given the right circumstances -particularly if read along with the other letters making up this thread. (In fact it is the continuation of a discussion that had been taking place on a message board sometime ago and is the result of an invitation that I extended for that discussion to be continued here - as it was being flamed somewhat on that site). Based on this contribution I couldn't resist adding on a couple of pictures that I think illustrate how Judith should be dealt with... oh, and a suitable pair of knickers for her to wear when she is (particularly galling in front of visitors, don't you think?).

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"My Dear Judith’s Aunt -
First before everything may I congratulate you on the steps that you have been taking to bring your misguided niece to a proper sense of shame and decorum.
Then may I offer some very modest suggestions as to how her punitive regime may be improved still further. I hesitate to do so, since you are obviously well versed in discipline and may even regard these suggestions as impertinent. However, as you have requested such suggestions, and have already received correspondence from two others, I will proceed.
Corporal Punishment...
Corporal discipline is a fine old tradition that should carry with it a certain dignity and even majesty. The better class of educational supplier should be able to provide you with a display rack of implements. Typically fashioned in a solid dark wood, the rack can be affixed to a wall and will bear perhaps a row of three vertical canes – thick, medium, and thin – with a brace of fine-quality leather tawses hanging to each side. This tasteful object should be placed in a public area - ideally in the hallway of your residence where it is visible to any casual visitor. What better way to proclaim that this is a house of discipline! The two leather straps should be kept highly polished, which is another regular chore for Judith to perform.
It may well be that, in practice, the trusty old cane and strap kept in the schoolroom are the most frequent visitors to Judith’s hands and bottom. Perhaps grown a little worn and shabby from years of faithful service, they still impart their lesson. But something more presentable should be kept on display. And, of course, on more formal occasions, Judith should be sent to obtain a rod from the hallway rack. This might be appropriate for the formal Sunday punishments in front of your guests. However, to be personal, I think that her Sunday spanking should be just that. A proper small-child’s bare-hand-on-bare-bottom over-the-knee spanking while your guests look on. It would differ from a small child’s spanking in that it would last much longer. Twenty minute sessions will be enough to begin on, but this can be increased later if desired.
It is possible that your guests may wish to take some of the burden of such an undertaking from you, by substituting as spanker some Sundays. If, as I assume, the Vicar is one of those who call on you, he would doubtless think it his Christian duty to relieve you of this task sometimes.
Mouth-Washing...
This little ceremony should not be stinted or carried out in any perfunctory way. A stiff bristled toothbrush should be used to work the soap well in to both the upper and lower surfaces of the tongue. Too mush rinsing afterward is an uncalled for luxury. A standard sized glass just over half full of water will provide more than sufficient for this purpose.
Castor Oil
Should you decide to proceed with this old-fashioned (and none the worse for it) remedy, I will only make one caution. Do not even consider a teaspoon. A tablespoon should be administered at the very least. In Young Ladies’ Academies of old, a full glass had to be swallowed.
Nomenclature...
It occurs to me that, so long as Judith is the only miscreant in your care, there is really little need of her given name. “Child”, as in “Come, Child”, “Say your lesson, Child”, or “Bend Over, Child!” will be quite sufficient of an address, and will constantly re-inforce her true status in her mind. "

A Saturday Tale - and a Few Words of Explanation

It Saturday morning and as I'm writing this lines of red double-deckers (buses) are disgorging those of semi-local shoppers that still have the odd pound or two in their pocket. Not that Wood Green Shopping City (the local mall) is quite the retail magnet it once was - these days its upper level more resembles a pub brawled''s is grin. Anyway, today I'm at the Tollgate, a pub in Turnpike Lane, North London. It has just gone 9 a.m. and the excuse (and I do feel a need one) is purely medicinal. Not that I ever suffer hangovers per se you understand, but I am left somewhat shaky at times after a good skinful the night before. Yesterday evening was squandered in the John Logie Baird pub in Muswell Hill (Yes the TV inventor Geezer - no not that kind of TV, that invented itself. Actually the bloke lived much of his life in Hastings on the south coast - so hands up anyone who knows his connection with this place). Perhaps the word 'squandered' is being just a little harsh - I did nearly - not quite, but very nearly - finish all the right he required to top out INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2. And in my defence I must point out that yesterday morning I typed up another 950-ish words (and close to another 2000 the day before that).

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The reason I am bothering to say any of this is to excuse the delay in adding the text portion to my last posting. As you may have guessed from the title my aim was to group together a series of images that appeal to my taste, that I have come across during my various exploratory expeditions into Web-world and that, to my mind at least, if considered sequentially tell a tale roughly analogous to the INSTITUTIONALISED storyline thus far. I hope the originators don't mind but I've left the crediting details intact so that they should benefit from the exposure in any case (Except the captioned image which someone sent me anonymously).

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From left to right and from top to bottom we have the luscious Rosalyn Young (I hope I've spelt that right) representing the epitome of the domestic face of discipline - what a wonderful little uniform for aaround the home! Then we have that intake/admission procedures scene from the Bars-and-Stripes site - what I like particularly about this one is all the tiny details they have included. There is that 1950s prom dress of course - a delicious confection in its own right, I'm sure you'd agree - but then there is that thick white line marked out on the floor and that young Lady's toes are just touching. What's so important about that, I hear you ask? In fact I'd wager that few will have even noticed it. But that simple white line is what this picture is all about; it is the story it is telling writ large. Note how that line is spaced away from the desk that the young woman facing. It is not the natural place to stand - and to my mind that is the point. It is irritating, petty, frustrating, restrictive - it is all of those things and more, but what it really represents is that young woman's life - at least for the foreseeable future.

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As for the rest you can probably guess - and that's the point really; to mentally craft your own tale. But I have to say that to my mind nothing quite conjures up so much imagery as a girl being caned across the toilet pedestal by woman in a nurse's uniform. The absolute epitome of institutionalised discipline, don't you think! Corporal punishment, petty rules, even toilet training, it's all there written out in that one image.

A Story-Board Montage Skimmed from the Web (See Next Posting - Above - for Text)

Volume 2: Blurb from Back Cover

This is the 'blurb I plan to use on the back cover and/or story-line descriptions etc. I may well have to pare it down for the book cover - we will see.

"St Mary's Hospital School - the motto: through obedience comes learning, through discipline comes obedience. Humiliating enough that it should be proudly emblazoned on the front of the gymslip, the breast pocket of the stiffly starched blouse, the little open-fronted waist-length cape - that fastened so tightly at the throat that she wore on occasion over the top - and just about every other item of clothing to boot. As a statement of intent that fine embroidery spoke volumes; the crossed crook-handled canes as a heraldic device was of particularly questionable value, practically openly stating to the world that here was a young lady subject to the kind of physical chastisement that most would have assumed had long been consigned to history. But then again, the uniform too was a thing of the past, an anachronistic throwback to long-obsolete values and the mentality of seen-but-not-heard, quite-as-a-mouse submissive femininity. Bad enough, then, that she was way past school age - worse still that the institution in question was little more than the outcome of a gleam in a psychologist's eye. Elsewhere another young woman, already resigned to the ugly green and white striped nylon dress constituting her prison uniform, was beginning to appreciate the real meaning behind the nomenclature: Victorian Workhouse. One of three such 'residential controlled environments' shut away in a secure suite within the dark recesses of an experimental psychology unit, itself embedded deeply behind the barred windows and security grilles of a privately funded hospital's secure psychiatric wing.

Both have in common that they are at loggerheads with their respective guardians, both are volunteers here having been persuaded of the advisability of having a financial buffer before starting university, but more importantly before undertaking mounting a legal challenge for their inheritances and rights... the financial return for a 90 day residential clinical trial had seemed too good to be true - perhaps it was. For both these young women it had been far easier to join then it was turning out it would be to leave - there was always some obstruction, some excuse, some extension to their stay justifiable by one clause or another. Both were now learning the hard way that freedom could be as tenuous as a spidery signature scrawled on a crumpled document."

Volume 2 Cover, The Saga Continues: Any Comments?

Just thought I'd keep you updated as to the INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 cover progress. I have now made some changes to the front cover and have started work on the back cover. I'm going to take a break now to write up / transcribe some of the stuff I wrote in the pub on Monday.

A Provisional Cover for INSTITUTIONALISED Volume 2

Looking absolutely nothing like my hand-drawn layout guide (and barely related to it - click to view) here is what I would describe as a first-draft-provisional-cover for INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2. Basically what happened was, I had had such a 'skin-full' last night that I couldn't face writing anything. So I started messing around with The Gimp (a Linux-based PhotoShop clone) and this is the result - it needs further attention but I thought I'd run it up the flagpole and see who salutes. Translation from the 'management-speak: Comments please...