I wrote in the last post about how the severe punishments meted out to Steve Delgado, Doogie and the Slaves of Oz had made me think about why we are drawn to these stories and about our 'limits'. 'The Wizard' (above) is here to impart wisdom to this discussion but his butch appearance and super erotic loin cloth suggests a very simple answer:- it's entertaining and sexy to see men in danger, particularly when they are not fully clad (it's also perfectly normal, just ask Daniel Craig fans!). However Amalaric's captors usually take the captives way beyond the threat of danger and he describes at length what is only touched upon in Bond movies, namely sustained bodily attack.
Of course, we all approach these tales from our own personal perspective, but it's probably common to see this treatment as a sort of rough sport, like Boxing, American Football or Rugby. A sport which is character-building and which the recipients should be well capable of handling and still come back for more, just as sportsmen do.
Indeed, in some of the stories the men virtually volunteer their services in exchange for escaping the law or some other imperative or, naively, just to prove their mettle (John in Jarheads, Part 5). In other cases men are just 'picked on' to suffer, but we can view the arbitrary selection process as a 'shit happens' aspect of life that we are only too familiar with ourselves, thank you very much.
Deep inside, we know their tormentors are really genuine admirers (like us) who only want the men for their male qualities and (unlike us) just happen to have the power and inclination to take whatever they want. Those taken are not expected to like what happens to them, although Ric in 'Jarheads' (Part 5) seems to hope they might – eventually. But besides the unpleasantness there's a streak of fair play and compassion in their treatment, of 'order' in fact, that respects the captive's manhood, humanity and his right to life - if not his right to freedom for the time being. As they say, what doesn't kill you leaves you stronger, although I would hesitate to suggest these men should be grateful for an opportunity to serve in an Amalaric experience.
The characters in the 'Cruel Justice' stories have all earned retribution (at least they have in the eyes of their tormentors but we can see there's an element of doubt about just how much retribution they have earned). In any case they are not given any choice in the matter, there's no sense of fair play and the outcomes are pretty extreme. Arguably Dave in '24 Hours' is in the same boat at the height of his suffering and other characters certainly suffer extreme examinations too, but they do survive them.
These are just fantasies and the people in them are not real so Amalaric doesn't usually ask us to consider the consequences for the abductee. Apart from, that is, from a striking chapter in 'Bobby', whose first victim, Jim, experiences something of a breakdown after he is released and, in a moving epilogue, is nursed through it by a compassionate, gay friend (see 'Bobby' Chapter 4 at Aquadude Bunker).
In 'Oz' and 'Steve Delgado', Amalaric shows us the captives' humanity less directly, we simply see their undeserved suffering at the hands of ruthless wielders of power who are (fortunately) not at all like us – i.e. the uncaring, exploitative inhabitants of Oz and the repellent, corrupt Sheriff (whose return in a different persona to torment Doogie is instrumental for me in dragging that story into this group too). As gay men we are only too well aware of this sort of oppression and I found myself getting off the bench of neutrality for once to sympathise with the victims.
Of all these stories, Oz presents us with a particularly challenging outcome, confronting head on the question of what happens when the owner/keeper no longer wants his captive. Usually Amalaric leaves that question hanging (so to speak). Sometimes he resolves it by selling the problem on to someone else, preferably abroad (e.g. Ric sells Rob in 'Jarheads'), sometimes he consigns them to indefinite detention (as a slave for Coach Devereaux or for Steve it's a long prison sentence). Occasionally escape happens, but more often freedom is given with a 'gagging deal' to avoid repercussions (e.g. Ryan in 'Bobby' and Todd Sanders). In Oz, however, it seems the end result for all the rebel, former slaves is very simply to be a painful death.
The possibility of death as an outcome for those who (for one reason or another) cannot be freed is occasionally hinted at in a number of the other stories (e.g. Party Animals) or it may occur to the victim himself, forming part of his torment (e.g. Devereaux in 'Academy Thugs', Dave in '24 hours'). However in general we only hear of deaths actually happening in war or at the hands of judicial forces (See 601, The Reprobate and 602, The Barbarian King in Part 6). The deaths are not usually described, the (bloodless) crucifixion in Oz is matched by only one other explicit execution to my knowledge, another tragic crucifixion scene, described but not illustrated in the early, Roman Slave story 'Army Deserter'.
Both of these are secondary characters, but in Oz we also see a large group of leading men, with whom we strongly identify, all set to suffer an unpleasant death, separately or together and it's chilling. This dramatic effect is enhanced by the fact that the erotic temperature in this piece is on a very low simmer and less distracting than usual. The only significant sexual passage results in a nasty death that is the turning point of the story, so there's little comfort there! Amalaric's audacious cannibalisation of the 'Gay' Land of Oz gives this satire a double-edged bite and the child fantasy connections in the story (like the Joker in 'Batman') infuse it all with a mocking sense of madness that is all pretty disturbing. These elements set Oz apart from the other stories. There's a seriousness about it that gets through to us, but all these stories teach us quite a lot about ourselves and our limits.
Part 7 of 'The Art of Amalaric' will follow in a few days
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