'That' Thorn Sketch – A Case for Analysis, a Thousand Tales Woven Within

This must be about the only blog that has not wished its readership a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, as is traditional this time of the year! My apologies; I had intended to do so from the hotel in which I spent the Christmas holidays (of which, more next time), down there in Rye – a medieval town situated in east Sussex – but was unable to get convenient access to the Internet, and in any case came under not unsubstantial pressure from the 'little lady' to pay more attention to her needs and pay less to my 'ridiculous hobbies'...Well, I never! So, retrospectively, may I wish you all, where ever you might be and whatever your faith, a very happy Christmas and Good luck for the New Year. Talking of which; due to the upcoming New Year celebrations and various family commitments, my next update will probably not be until January 4^th 2010, after which I expect there to be a couple of days when I shall be silent, during which I shall be undertaking repairs to my main desk computer, before embarking on a whole series of projects that I have planed for the upcoming year and which include more frequent and regular updates to the blog and its eventual expansion into a full-blown web site.

Now to a bit of news and a little inspiration that came to me in the pub having earlier been perusing an old back-up DVD of my scans and web download collection on a friends computer. The artworks presented above left and right – both scanned some time ago from an old magazine, I forget which - could so easily fit with certain aspects of the story arc depicted in the upcoming 'in-between' volume or indeed the planed story line of INSTITUTIONALISED volume 3. Both perfectly encapsulate that essential spirit I am striving for, but not necessarily overtly spotlighted; just as the real 'meat' of a tale is often best written 'between the lines' so the inspiration here lies in all the little details that at first go unnoticed, yet between them voice the narrative without further need for elaboration.

Taking into account what I have just said above, it is the illustration presented here - below and to the right - that caught my attention and that I would urge you to focus your attention on. Drawn by one of my favorite artists, Thorn, it is also one of my favorite images (or rather it has been – I somehow lost track of it in recent years; I think I downloaded it some ten years ago!) and one of the most inspirational illustrations, in terms of developing the ideas behind my writing, that I have ever come across.

As I said above in connection with the other two images;
The real interest is not so much the rather attractive young lady, her pert breasts, nor the cane-lines running across that ripe, full backside of hers. Rather the tale resides in what has been left unsaid, hinted at by all those little details residing in the background. If it has a title, I don't know it, nor do I know exactly what the artist's intentions are in terms of what he is striving to depict here, the scenario he has in mind – nor would I want to know (so if you definitively know, don't tell me – though I'd love to know your interpretation). The full interpretation is left open to the mind of the viewer – and therein lies the excitement and its enduring interest for me.

All I know about this guy is that he is an absolute master of depicting the infliction of cruel and imaginative humiliation. In particular he is a virtuoso of capturing the emotional effect of that humiliation in the unhappy faces of his succulent young subjects. What I would give to have him collaborate on one of my books! Each of his illustrations is a story in itself and if a picture might paint a thousand words – as someone once said – than surely this particular illustration outweighs that estimation tenfold; he has surpassed himself here! This image I think I downloaded around ten years ago or more and it has never been far from the roots of my imagination since. Why? Well, the magic so far as I am concerned is all in the unanswered questions it poses – there is just so much here to ponder that is left open to interpretation.

For a start; there is nothing about the background that necessarily sets the scene in any restrictive manner – it is not a schoolroom, reformatory, convent or any other obviously institutional setting, nor would it seem to be a domestic environment. The scene seems set in some sort of shop - yet even this is not necessarily set in stone. The male could be a shop assistant or - if an exclusive bespoke establishment, as one might imagine – perhaps the owner. But what type of emporium might this be? In the background one can see a pair of half-torso manikins – one proudly displaying what would appear to be a revealing corset of fetishistic restrictiveness and the other demonstrating what looks to be a locking chastity belt.

The girl - surely too young and sheltered in upbringing to be so worldly-wise as to yet know of such things – is being laced into a cruelly-constricting waist-cincher and one is left wondering whether which, if any, of those background items is to follow. And she is plump enough to give creative scope to the corsetier's art; which is an important point here. She has obviously recently felt the kiss of a supple cane across her plump buttocks; indeed, a suspect implement lies discarded in the foreground, along with what one assumes to be her discarded and, notably very ordinary, 'girl next door' underwear. Did she initially object to being fitted with that cincher, or perhaps to disrobing in front of the elderly chap - and if so, was he the author of those throbbing swollen wheals (I for one would like to think so). If I was to be critical at this point, it would be to say that I would have liked to have seen some evidence of previous sessions with the cane; perhaps some faint, fading marks or even something suggestive of permanent marking – something that the girl is only too well aware she will carry through life - that might go beyond her undoubtedly chaste natural shyness in explaining her extreme reluctance to disrobe.

Another question arises as to exactly what the girl's relationship is to the seated older woman smugly looking on. Once again uncertainty abounds and the imagination is left to run wild. Is she the girl's legal guardian, stepmother, privately employed schoolteacher under who's thrall the girl has somehow fallen or a governess charged with curbing a perceived over-exuberant and rebellious spirit and given cart blanch.

And what are we to make of the proprietorial manner in which that woman is apparently regarding her charge's intimate triangle? Is she considering the purchase of a chastity belt – is that what is coming next? Perhaps similar to that on show, yet the spring-steel waist-band locking in the center of the small of the back and to be worn over the top of that waist cinches thus negating tampering on more than one level at once. Then those breast, though youthfully-pert already, might yet benefit from even greater uplift – perhaps some sort of under-wired support lifting the girl's bust clear of her chest and thrusting those attributes generously forward as if offered up for display yet leaving the front uncovered, 'for hygienic reasons'. Is that woman considering one of the very many restrictive corsets or corseletes on offer for the girl to wear over the cincher? if so, might it not incorporate, for the sake of good deportment you understand, a suitably stiffened back-board to keep her back good and straight. Perhaps such a garment might incorporate an adjustable strap running across the shoulder blades and linking the broad shoulder-straps that might be tensioned to further perfect the girl's deportment. Of course the side effects of this - forcing a posture be adopted with shoulders pulled well back, chest thrust forward and buttocks invitingly rounded and thrust out to the rear – are unlikely to exactly detract from her charges attractiveness. Deportment might be paramount and thus exemplified by these measures, yet to the unenlightened , uninitiated, observer the conclusion is hard to avoid that the effect is to present a wanton offering up of everything that goes to represent the girl's femininity in a manner that it is only right that she should find most shameful.

But what else might that woman have in mind for her charge – for example, what of that pile of the girl's discarded clothing that lies crumpled in the foreground, surely she is not going to be allowed to redress and leave with such disheveled vestments over her new and undoubtedly expensive foundation wear?...

More ideas next time, but in the meantime – what do you think?