Enforced or encourage addiction of any sort can be of
interest for its potential to be put to use to further impose and
enforce a régime of strict discipline and restriction.
But I'm not
too sure about this one , though! Other than the kidnapping theme,
this has little to do with the new book I'm writing you may be
relieved to know (or maybe not – let me know if it floats your
boat; the sentiment behind it does it for me, if not the subject
matter; I actually HATE smoking).
I just happened upon the picture,
and this is what popped into my addled little head. What more can I say?:
.......................................................................
“That's it! Keep watching the film – take a drag on
the cigarette, take it deeep down, deeeeep, deeeep down, keep
watching the film, listening to my voice... Yes, that's the way –
good girl! The taste is so, so delicious, so very, VERY addictive.
Tobacco! Hmmm! Yes! You want more and more and more – twenty a
day, thirty a day, FORTY a day... Yes, why not FORTY a day? Imagine
yourself lighting one after another after another, no guilt, sheer,
SHEER pleasure, not able to stop, not WANTING to stop, lighting each
from the previous before it goes out – no more worrying about your
silly, silly athletics career, all that exhausting ruining and
running and running... You're only going to be interested in where
the next cigarette is coming from... That's it, finish it up – and
then the nice kind nurse is going to put you back in your pyjamas and
straitjacket and take you back to your room where you'll hear music
playing over and over, the same music as in the film, that you're
hearing now, and when you hear the music you'll remember the film,
and needing a cigarette, being desperate, so desperate for a
cigarette, craving just one more cigarette, craving, craving,
craving...
OK – got that all down on tape?”
“Yep!”
“Good! AND the pictures, plenty of nice shots?”
“Yep! Those too!”
“Excellent! Perhaps now, when they see what we're
doing to their little darling 'golden Girl', they're cave in to our
demands a little more readily. OK, get her off to her room, safely
under lock and key, and I'll have her back in here later this
afternoon for another session... And make sure she stays awake!
We'll keep it going as we have done these last few weeks - she can
have two hours sleep after her session around mid-afternoon and two
hours around midnight; and that's it! Any sign of dissent or
disobedience or she tries to sleep, take a cane to her backside. I
want her nice and sleepy – she's easier to handle that way.”
Addiction is a powerful hold to have on someone, but the fact is that people quit smoking all the time. (I did) So as an ultimately powerful hold to have over someone it's not that much, really. I did like the suppositories and pills from the earlier books. In an former Soviet psychiatric hospital, they might just give her the drugs with a hypodermic.
ReplyDeleteThe Non Victorian Chick
Or maybe an IV drip, which has a nicely medical fetish feel.
ReplyDeleteThe Non Victorian CHick
Well the drug that she desperately needs could be administered in unconventional ways.
ReplyDeleteHow about lipsticks? They keep her lips bloated and bright red but she needs them so often.
Or lollipops?
Pacifiers? Continuosly sucking an oversized pacifier it's embarassing but the drug is relased only if she sucks very hard
How about drug laced with some irritating substance? She have to rub her crotch or nipples because of that nasty cream, but she needs the drug.
Hi there, The Non Victorian Chick and Paulopost (and the other five folk who came back via email and must remain anon). Well this one seems to have captured the imagination!
ReplyDeleteFirst I have to make clear I'd never use it in a book in this form, but that being said, there is something deleciously cruel about it.
A hypodermic syringe, Non-Vicky-Chick? Have you been hacking my hard drive for those pics Angela Fox and I created for the long-delayed INSTITUTIONALISED adult comic book / graphic novel / illustrated version? Or did I put that one out on Deviant Art, Flikr, Pinterest and / or my Tumblr account?
Talking of Tublr - perhaps now is as good a time as any to announce I HAVE JUST RECRUITED MY 250th FOLLOWER!!!
Sorry about any spellling error - spell check not working, I'm away from home using my notebook and I'm dyslexice... VERY!
...more in a minute...
...continued...
ReplyDeleteI'm not too keen on the hypodermic thing actually. But it does make for a great and sinister visual, thus its inclusion as a theme within the comic book project.
The IV drip is interesting for the same reason. And of course the 'patient' can move around while connected to it if it is mounted on a wheeled IV stand - which makes for an interesting mind's eye image, don't ya think? FYI On the same subject, if you get the chance, check out a tale called (I think) 'COMMITTED' (it crops up on many websites - and I THINK is even hosted on THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTE site. It's not one of mine but it has been highly influential in developing some of my ideas / interests / themes.
...more in a moment... worried about word count, losing the WiFi connection AND I need a wee... Oh sorry; too much information!
....continued....
ReplyDelete(my CV does a lot of that - continuing - perhaps that's why I can't get a job! Too many qualifications apparently! Fancy that! Your scribe has too many qualifications to work! All I can do is go get more - except that costs you money in the UK now. I used to take on anything that came with a tasty stipend or grant, a sort of profesional student... oops! I've digressed somewhat.)
Stil talking of IV drips and stuff, actually I have the same problem with ECT - it's far too easy! I'm not talking about ECT applied as a punishment, as used to actually happen in mental hospitals (and maybe still does, though hotly denied), but rather as applied with all due dilligence (almost!)in conjunction with sedation etc in the more 'enlightened' modern manner.
I think just about anybody who visits this site regularly will be aware of the disruption to short-term (and occaionaly longer term) memory that comes with ECT, the disorientation immediatly following a session and the resultant suggestability pertaining to that sensation of disorientation, which of course the unscrupeless, disrepitable and / or corruptable therapist can take full advantage of.
But that is all far too easy, in my oppinion. I mean - why not just go for the all-out pre-frontal lobotomy? That'll do the trick... hmmm... interesting... what if instead...? Nah!
Oh what a tease I am! (OMG! That doesn't sound camp, does it?)
(sorry - I really MUST apologise again for the spelling; I'm dead in the water without a spellng checker)
More in a tick....
.....continued...
ReplyDeleteThe thing about ECT, though - as with the hypodermic and IV stand - is its visual impact.
Graphicaly the paraphenalia of ECT makes for a great atmosphere-builder, even if not nessesarily pressed into service at any point. The latter consideration is the main reason a depiction of the machine (not yet revealed anywhere) made its way into the aforementioned comic / graphic novel and I believe also takes centre stage in one of Angela Fox's self-penned works (Google her by name or explore her offerings on Amazon).
The good thing about ECT as far as I am concerned - and one of its more attractive aspects visa vie this kind of writing / story telling - is actualy to be found in its antiquity. ECT has been around in one form or another for almost as long as we have had access to an electricity supply, it can plausabily be fitted into nearly any era from the modern to the wonderously Gothic days of the lae 19th century right through the haydays of experimental psychiatric research in the 1930s to the CIA's messing around with people's heads in the 50s and 60s... Nice!
The problem I have with that sort of thing - as with surgery -is that taken to its ultimate conclusion it doesn't seem THAT far reoved from the near-term (coz lets face it - it aint THAT far way) sci fi applications of nano tech and remote control by brain-chip micro-electronics implantation etc, a la robocop et al. NOT my scene at all, which is why of late I have been chosing to site my stuff in the relatively-recent past (along with a hankering for the nostalgic - you'll not know this, but many of the time-frame-setting descriptions within my more recent outpourings pertain to childhood memories). I am somewhat disilusioned about the present and near future - not that I couldn't write about micro electronics and so on; I was an electronic engineer in the sound recording industry before getting involved in biochemistry... so there! Nah nah di nah nah... err... Anyone want to be bored about the workings of analogue electronic music synthesisers? No? Ham radio anyone? Wot! No takers? I know (rapidly switching hats), how about transmissible spongiform encephalopathies?
Yeah... you guessed it... more in a mo!...
The aspect I really DO like - and its common to ECT, IV drips, hypodermics, even, I suspect, surgical procedures - is the way the procedure itslf might augment and ignight the power of sugesstion. Now THAT can be a clever, subtle thing - and THAT makes it interesting, at least to MY mind. Call it the placeo effect - call it what you will - its VERY real and VERY efficatious!
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, there MAY be a place in my writing for such things, but where the REAL barrier arises is any situation where what we are exploring is not the institutional environment, but rather is the more every-day, the domestic arena. The thing about supositories, pills, capsules et al is the ease with which they can be introduced in the domestic setting - and in a plausable manner. And in the wake of the sort of trauma invoked in the original volume one of INSTITUTIONALISED the scope for psychological addiction to almost any form of support or crutch is great. But when that notion is constantly and consistantly being backed up and reinforced by her forever being told she is becoming dependent on such-and-such by a healthcare proffesional - AND when a genuingly PHYSICALY addictive substance is introduced or substitututed...
The enema is a sort of cross-over approach, in that all manner of substances can be administered in that way, addictive and otherwise and including the demon drink which I have personaly battled with all my adult life - AND it is easily compatable with aa domestic scenario.
...continued...
ReplyDeleteBut of course you are right, Non-Vicky-Chic, to point out that many, many folks DO bounce back from tobacco addiction (well done by the way!) But an awful lot never do, or they find it like going through hell itself! And remember, these are folks possesed of strong wills and often benefiting from the support of others. Imagine, if you will, an individual forever suffering being belittled and undermined. Not so easy to cope now, I'd imagine...
But don't lets make the mistake of believing her detractors and tormentors to be satisfied with leaving her with that one single burden to hump about with her - there is more than one green monkey sat upon our teen girl's shoulder! And this - I think - is a good time to bring in some of Paulopost's points.
As I understand it (and would you believe I possess a master's degree in human nutrition, with an interest in eating disorders? Yep! I kid you not!) a big chunk of the psychological component of tobacco smoking (easier than trying to spell ciggi, ciggy err gigere... oh YOU KNOW) addiction is to do with 'mouth-feel', litterally of having something in the mouth... No, stop it, chaps 'somethng' but not 'that' thing... Thus the advice to chew gum (and part of the rationale behind the efficacy of nicactine gum, I'd wager) and the anicdotal reports of weight-gain one reads about. It is all too easy to substitute sweets and chocolate for a fag (what we call a 'ciggy' in the UK - nothing to do with ANYTHINNG else... but... hmm... now THERE'S an idea!).
Now, sweets and chocolate are easily available just about anywhere. And chocolate in particular is open to having its receipe manipulated - its a fairly simple matter to surrepticiously ramp-up the fat content and thus the calorific value of each mouthful. In addition chocolate - but also food generaly - can become seriuosly psychologicaly adictive; witness the concept of so-called 'comfort food' and of 'compulsive' (for which we could easily substitute the words 'addictive' or 'dependent') eating. Dependency on the latter can be induced simply through sheer never-ending tedium and bordom - as can obsesive masturbation and other pleasure-seeking behaviours. And this is especialy the case when a tempting variation is made available (rats - which by nature do not over-feed - can be tempted to over-endulge through a highly varied, so-called 'cafeteria' diet in addition to laboratory 'chow'). So lets saddle her with an eating dissorder of this sort in addition to - for exampple - such every-day available substnces as fags and booze and see how she gets on....
Yeah, yeah... continued...
...continued...
ReplyDeleteBut of course you are right, Non-Vicky-Chic, to point out that many, many folks DO bounce back from tobacco addiction (well done by the way!) But an awful lot never do, or they find it like going through hell itself! And remember, these are folks possesed of strong wills and often benefiting from the support of others. Imagine, if you will, an individual forever suffering being belittled and undermined. Not so easy to cope now, I'd imagine...
But don't lets make the mistake of believing her detractors and tormentors to be satisfied with leaving her with that one single burden to hump about with her - there is more than one green monkey sat upon our teen girl's shoulder! And this - I think - is a good time to bring in some of Paulopost's points.
As I understand it (and would you believe I possess a master's degree in human nutrition, with an interest in eating disorders? Yep! I kid you not!) a big chunk of the psychological component of tobacco smoking (easier than trying to spell ciggi, ciggy err gigere... oh YOU KNOW) addiction is to do with 'mouth-feel', litterally of having something in the mouth... No, stop it, chaps 'somethng' but not 'that' thing... Thus the advice to chew gum (and part of the rationale behind the efficacy of nicactine gum, I'd wager) and the anicdotal reports of weight-gain one reads about. It is all too easy to substitute sweets and chocolate for a fag (what we call a 'ciggy' in the UK - nothing to do with ANYTHINNG else... but... hmm... now THERE'S an idea!).
Now, sweets and chocolate are easily available just about anywhere. And chocolate in particular is open to having its receipe manipulated - its a fairly simple matter to surrepticiously ramp-up the fat content and thus the calorific value of each mouthful. In addition chocolate - but also food generaly - can become seriuosly psychologicaly adictive; witness the concept of so-called 'comfort food' and of 'compulsive' (for which we could easily substitute the words 'addictive' or 'dependent') eating. Dependency on the latter can be induced simply through sheer never-ending tedium and bordom - as can obsesive masturbation and other pleasure-seeking behaviours. And this is especialy the case when a tempting variation is made available (rats - which by nature do not over-feed - can be tempted to over-endulge through a highly varied, so-called 'cafeteria' diet in addition to laboratory 'chow'). So lets saddle her with an eating dissorder of this sort in addition to - for exampple - such every-day available substnces as fags and booze and see how she gets on....
Yeah, yeah... continued...
.............continued....
ReplyDeleteI think what I like about all that - and what is lacking... no, what CAN be lacking... in the institutional environment - is that insidious nature of the thing, the manner in which everyday occurances, events and habbits can creep up and be put to use by the clever, well-versed, disciplinarian in order to develop either respect for authority, depndentcy on a relationship or both. This, in turn, we must hope will provide the disciplinarian with sufficient leverage to engage the control nessesary to bring the modern miss to heel, to the point of accepting physical chastisement in the guise of the strap or the cane.
I wasn't able to continue yesterday, never did get round t adresssing what Paulopost wrote. As I feared I would, I lost the WiFi connection I was using.
ReplyDeleteBut nobody wants to think they are talking to themselves, so when I saw a notification of a comment posted arriving in my email this morning I was cheered. Well. the fact that it pertained to a posting I made back in 2009 should have been a clue - few folk will post a comment to something of that antiquity, simply because it will have so few reads.
So a robot, then? Yep! A spam posting about tarot card readings and fortune telling featuring a link to a comercial site - imagine how dissapointing THAT was!
A while back someone (Orage) was complaining about the tedious process of having to type a few letters or numbers into a box to prove they are human - this sort of thing is why.
Now I hate these 'prove you're not a robot' things - I'm dyslexic, and they can really mess me up - but on this occassion the robot spam filter thingy really came up trumps and the posting didn't make it through.
But if it continues and some of this crap starts getting through I'll have to go back to manualy vetting comments - and I really don't want to have to do that! I want to keep reader's comments and contributions as spontanious as possible; I've always wanted to encourage a kind of bullitine board / disscusion site kind of vibe... Oh well, we'll see...
At last, time to get back to paulopost's stimulating ideas...
ReplyDeleteYeah! I totaly LOVE the idea of the lollypop / pacifier dosed in something highly addictive. As with chewing gum, which many find difficult to give up, the lollypop or pacifier (dummy for us UK types) forever in the mouth can be very habit forming all on its own. But get her dependent on something only ever administered by that route and the fun could REALLY start.