801 Enjoying His Work
From the general drift of
Amalaric's stories, you might expect that those who have the
misfortune to become enslaved are inevitably destined to end up in
the hands of men with an insatiable passion for inflicting punishment. But even in fiction, such passions are likely to run their
course fairly quickly. Thus, although Bobby lusts after Ryan for many weeks before he
finally snares him and humiliates him (in 'Bobby,' reviewed in
Part
3), he lets him go again as soon as he has had his fun and
doesn't bother him again after that.
In contrast to this, Ric
in 'Hunting Jarheads' (Part
5) decides he likes Rob Corlis enough to want to 'keep' him.
But it's not so he can constantly punish him, but to enjoy having him all to himself and
to control him. Paradoxically, this means he must allow him
sufficient freedom that his masculine qualities can show. So he keeps
the young Marine occupied with manual tasks (which are designed so he
can earn himself punishments from time to time). In the meantime, of
course, he must be housed, fed and watered and other essential needs
catered for - and he must also constantly be prevented from escaping.
All this provides plenty of opportunities for Ric to assert his
control over him in a creative manner, but it's apparent, my friends,
that Personal Slaves are heavy maintenance.
Image
from 'Eighty
Sixth of 1001 Nights' at Aquadude Bunker
(image
used here for illustrative purposes only. The '86th night' is about the
interrogation of a drug runner, by 'Jay', another
memorable Amalaric character, summed up by the tag 'Jay loves his work')
802 My Boy Jeff
Amalaric comes up with an
imaginative solution to the maintenance and control problem in 'The
Cube'. The narrator of this tale (seated in the image above) makes a
remarkable discovery while out hiking in a remote forest. This chance
find enables him to select any man he desires and turn him into an
idealised, punishment 'buddy' without him even knowing.
The narrator picks out the man
he wants, an off-duty soldier relaxing on a local beach, and re-names
him 'Jeff'. His choice (seen above) is a chunky beast and manly in every
sense, ideal for his designated role. We see him in this picture
looking around, slightly lost, as though he's suddenly found himself
magically transported to this office, somewhat in the fashion of Oz
(in 'Dungeons of The Emerald City', reviewed in Part
6), but his presence here is not simply a matter of
transportation.
As soon as he arrives the
narrator orders him strip in accordance with the usual protocols (see
Part
4). His undressing is
recorded in a series of
pictures which include Image
421 and his underwear credentials are revealed to be impeccable,
as you can see.
In this picture, the
narrator bears an uncanny resemblance to Ric from 'Hunting Jarheads',
but he's not the same character. However he is cast in a similar
mould, a stern and ruthless master, but one with a conscience and,
some might say, a heart of gold.
803 Jeff Enters The
Chamber
Jeff obeys the strip
command without hesitation. Despite being freshly snatched off the beach, he
somehow knows what he's facing and is resigned to it. He does not
resist when directed into the comprehensively equipped 'chamber' that
has been created especially for him. In this
image he makes his way suspiciously past equipment of obscure (and
not so obscure) purpose towards it's ominous, shimmering glow.
Inside the chamber Jeff is
restrained and subjected to a protracted S&M orgy of punishments
and milking. Naturally he complains bitterly but despite being a
novice he responds erotically and seems to have a
limitless ability to endure everything which is done to him, which
includes torments not yet devised in the real world. In the end it's
only the narrator's own fatigue and a growing concern for his captive's
well-being that persuade him to end the trial. Jeff is freed and
disappears leaving the narrator with a warm afterglow.
Jeff's session has been a
perfect S&M initiation. He has not yet been totally conquered but
can be recalled at any time for another examination and, importantly,
he needs no looking after in the meantime. Having found the perfect
partner for his tastes, the narrator's only regret is that the thrill
of giving him his very first taste of heavy punishment can never be
repeated........
But Amalaric's invention solves this problem too, read about it in 'The
Cube' at Aquadude Bunker
Amalaric's enslavement
stories are really a form of Science Fiction. Most belong to that
genre where our world is imagined to have a slightly altered history
and the social and political consequences of that change are
visualised. 'Brave New World' and '1984' are classic examples of the
genre. He also explores the more fanciful, fantasy genre in 'The
Dungeons of The Emerald City' (reviewed in Part
6). But in 'The Cube' he has produced a traditional Sci-Fi story
with science-based innovations at the core of the plot. HG Wells'
'Time Machine' is the classic example of this type, but that's not
what has happened to Jeff....!
804 A Midnight Snack
If punishment is one side
of the fantasy enslavement coin, providing sexual pleasure is usually
the other. Amalaric is generally evasive about such matters apart
from a fondness for milking scenes - and even that is usually
presented as a device for humiliating the victim, making him
collaborate in his own punishment and setting the seal on it, rather than
providing sexual gratification for the captor.
Typically for the image
above Amalaric offers up only the title with the qualification that it's ordered by the 'unsated' client, but the sexual
context seems fairly clear. This picture neatly sums up the
unpredictable requirements of sexual service for a worker who clearly
does not choose his clients for himself, though it would be naive to
make assumptions about the matching (or otherwise) of sexual tastes here.
We don't know if the one
man's slumped demeanour and the other's somewhat forced smile is a
reflection of what has already happened or whether it shows their
individual anticipations of what is about to happen. Is 'the snack' is the captive himself? Or is it simply food the 'unsated' client craves? Or even another man? Has this captive given his all, only to find it's
not quite enough?
Illustration from 'The
47th
of 1001 Nights' at Aquadude Bunker
Abductors in Amalaric's
stories often promise themselves
the reward of enjoying sexual pleasures with their captives 'later
on' (e.g. Ric in 'Jarheads'), but they nearly always seem to get distracted by the punishment
opportunities on offer. Thus the captured Crusader
featured in Part
2 (Image
205) seems to have been nominated for a harem-style, bed
chamber role, but part and parcel of his job description is to face
the Sheikh's, dreaded 'terrors of the night'. These are not explained but
we imagine they probably won't take a fleshy form.
In 'Party Animals' a
discreet, brothel-like operation is described with the services
provided under coercion by a group of randomly abducted men (see
narrative for image
427 in Part
4, also
image 417). This house of ill-repute is furnished in
typically lavish style but the seemingly obvious sexual purpose of
the 'Lobster Tank' is clouded by dark hints about the expendability
of the captives and what they face from those who rent or purchase
them.
Men don't fit
comfortably into purely sexual, brothel and harem scenarios because
idleness
and passive beauty are not usually considered to be particularly
attractive, manly attributes. Etienne's vintage story 'Sailor
Beware',
featured here recently, is a classic sexual enslavement fantasy (with
S&M trimmings), but when not pleasing their (unsought) new
master, those two abducted sailors are not left to amuse and groom
themselves in the harem, nor called upon to beautify and flatter
their master. Instead are sent out to do hard, manual work in the
fields under the lash of the whip.
This
accords with Ric's rather enlightened view (in Jarheads) that his
captive man is best kept occupied and is extremely attractive to look at when
he's exerting himself. He puts Rob to work on his unfinished DIY
projects (we all have them!) but they soon evolve into pointless,
military style fatigues. Their only purpose is to exercise and tame
the buck, reshaping him physically and psychologically, while
simultaneously providing a pleasingly-erotic sight and an excuse for
periodic discipline that drives home to him his subordinate status
and indulges Ric's lust to punish.
805
What Money Can't Buy
The
inspiring beauty of a man engaged in physical work was a major theme
in the Art of the 1930's and the idea survives in the modern ads
showing gardeners and window cleaners stripped to the waist and
sometimes mesmerising women by pouring soft drinks over their bodies.
Amalaric embraces that theme with the nameless
gardener seen above, unwittingly seducing a frustrated, ageing,
neighbour.
Image: 'What Money
Can't Buy' from 'No
Limitation On Use' series at Gay Bondage Fiction
It's
no coincidence that the 'intake' for Amalaric's stories are often
chosen from the labouring professions and forcing men into manual
work is the whole basis of Amalaric's invention of Modern
Institutional Enslavement, which forms the backdrop to Part
7
of this series. For some reason, the arbitrary and indiscriminate
nature of mass enslavement makes it strangely erotic but it's posed
as a solution to pressing economic issues of unemployment, welfare
and to some extent a criminal justice measure. This is not so very
different from was how it was in ancient times. Enslavement
then was a handy way of intimidating conquered peoples and depriving
them of their leaders and warriors, but the underlying purpose was to
provide cheap labour for those whose wealth stemmed from the
ownership of productive land.
Thus Amalaric's 'Hairy Buck' illustrated in Part
5 (Image
502) might be dripping with sexual allure, but he was purchased
to do proper farm work. Understandably there are scantily veiled
suggestions of 'night-time harvesting' but the more profitable notion
of using the enslaved man as 'breeding stock' seems to interest the
farmer more (see also the narrative for Image
407, Part
4a). It's not clear exactly what being 'breeding stock' involves and Amalaric doesn't enlarge upon it,
leaving it (somewhat surprisingly) as a vaguely threatening,
occasional unpleasantness that fit men can expect to come their way.
Of course Ric's employment
of Rob in 'Jarheads' is purely artificial and when Dave
McGuinness is stripped and put to work in the Bankers garden in
'24 hours' (ostensibly to stave off his parent's debts) that's also
just a device really, a preliminary to his planned, sexual subjugation. However, true
working slaves surface in all their glory in the Chocolate
Factory scenes of 'Dungeons of the Emerald City' (reviewed in
Part
6)
806 Spanish Field Slave
This image is a favourite
of mine. It reflects the ancient
tradition of slaves working the land, but in doing so gets
closer to showing us the real ordeal of slavery: the toiling day
after day driven by the remorseless demands of the ever-changing
seasons and the continuously repeating, annual cycles of cultivation. It's
a life sentence which contrasts starkly with the relatively fleeting
unpleasantness of corporal punishment and sexual service.
This attractive, muscular
man (I love his neck and ears!) has been manacled and forced to work
in the fields, hoeing weeds by the look of it, another never-ending
task. The nudity and wrist shackles don't make his job any easier and
they suggest his rebellious spirit is yet to be tamed. Of course, he
might well have been well-paid accountant not so long ago or a humble
garage mechanic perhaps. But he's been taken from that life and now his wealth
and the possessions he owned have all been disposed of. His
independence is no more, but as he pauses in his toil he still has
his beauty and a semblance of dignity.
The
'Modern Slavery' scenario is hedged around with safeguards for the
slaves which echo modern labour laws, but that same law also forces
them to remain with their allocated 'Master' and serve him to the end. As in the
military, they will be subject to punishment if they don't. Unlike
the military, severe corporal punishment is not off-limits.
807 In From The Fields
'In
From The Fields' (at Telemachus), illustrated above, describes a
day in an agricultural slave's life with details you might never have
thought of - the early rising every single day, having to walk to the
distant area under cultivation, 14 hour days of manual labour having
to work entirely naked (or nearly so) and unassisted by mechanical
devices. Not least being subject to the random 'encouragements' of
the overseers.
In this misty morning
image, the men seem to be on a break, at least there's only one of
them working, but the overseer on his horse seems unconcerned,
instead thoughtfully eyeing the man in the foreground.
Amalaric's
predilection for 'adopting' fashion models for his images frequently
results in forward-facing, formal poses like this and it seems like
one of the slaves has come to greet us, like the lonely inmate of a
rescue centre, wordlessly appealing to us “Pick me, pick me and
take me home with you”. This one's stylishly groomed hair
suggests that he might be a recent arrival in the fields, not yet
fully inducted into the austere life of relentless, physical toil
where self-grooming has neither place nor purpose. It's so
different from the showmanship and easy plaudits of the catwalk! Here
the only appreciation he can expect is an occasional grunt of
approval - and respite from the whip if he keeps his head down.
Naturally, the overseer is
accustomed to the confusion and restlessness of new boys, who still
imagine that someone will realise it's a mistake and come to rescue
them. Perhaps he's considering a round of punishment to refocus him
on his work, or perhaps he's considering the other possibilities
offered by an exceptionally attractive novice, fresh and as yet
unspoiled by the grinding work regime. Probably both.
As the title
suggests, a long evening lies ahead.
More at 'In
From The Fields' (at Telemachus)
808 Tanner Arrested
Amalaric
adds more flesh to the bones of this scenario in the '1001 Nights' series
and in particular he shows us the broader sweep of a new slave's life in the story
of 'John Tanner'
whose servitude spans several years and 13 episodes (so far) of the
'1001 Nights', re-appearing from time to time like a TV soap opera.
I
posted a pre-series feature on the model chosen to play the part of
John Tanner in 'Tanner's
Credentials for Service'.
'Tanner' isn't everyone's cup of tea but I think his appearance fits
him well for the role of rowdy, local stud who (in the 86th Night)
mistakenly thinks the police Commissioner's daughter is coming on to
him and ends up taking out her regular boyfriend in a drunken scrap.
Being remanded for 'remedial therapy' in the community sounds like
one of those easy options until he learns it equates to forced
servitude for an indefinite period. The review arrangements for that
period are unclear but, given the Police Commissioner's involvement,
it's likely Tanner's punishment will be lengthy.
From
86th
of 1001 Nights at Aquadude Bunker
809 Put To Work
Tanner is sent to work on a local farm and quickly earns his first
(relatively mild) strapping from his new boss by grumbling about the
'accommodation' - a straw-filled, lockable stall in a barn. The same
surprise was sprung on the unsuspecting Marine, Rob, in 'Hunting
Jarheads', although for him it was the first inking of his impending
enslavement. Tanner, like Rob is set to work on the simplest of
labours, shifting rubble. Unlike Rob he is allowed, nay required, to
wear jeans, but no top, except on the coldest of Winter days. It's a
sign of the respectability and responsibility of his new mentor.
810 Hard At Work
Amalaric illustrates Tanner's new work life with a number of nicely
constructed, beefcake images which appear to be drawn from the same
source he used to develop Ryan's
work routine in 'Bobby' (Part
3). At this point Boss Hickson must be feeling pleased with his
new charge. In this system he is responsible for reforming Tanner. He
gets paid for it too and from the outset proves to be sensitive to
his slave's welfare, aware of his 'duty of care' in current parlance.
It's quite a long way removed from from the 'chain em and chastise
them' school of thought, although neither of these measures are
totally neglected in Tanner's re-education syllabus.
811 Relatively Light Work
Tanner accepts his fate and gradually gets used to the routine of
non-stop, hard labour. He's strong enough to enjoy the exercise and
pleased how it tones his physique. Me too! However, he never gets
used to the crude quarters where he has to sleep naked every night,
locked in with no amusements or distractions. There's no contact
allowed either with those he used to know and associate with back home.
812 Bath Time
Once Tanner has learned what is expected of him, Boss Hickson is
sparing with the whip. He also allows him the dignity and pleasure of
a daily tub wash and hose down, taking a personal interest in
supervising and viewing the routine. It seems to indicate an sort of
parental affection and responsibility for his charge that echoes
Ric's attachment to Rob in Hunting Jarheads (and compare this image
with Rob's
bath time in, Part
5). The hint of an affinity between master and slave adds a
human dimension to Tanner's enslavement.
Images
809 to 812 are all from 136th
of 1001 Nights at Aquadude Bunker
813 Ready For Milking
Tanner's burgeoning physique attracts plenty of admiration down on
the farm, but the rules of his enslavement are respected and he is
not called upon to perform sexual duties for Hickson or anyone else
(although that does not exclude 'examinations for welfare purposes' naturally).
There also is a strict prohibition on Tanner playing with himself, denial
of sexual pleasure is part of his 'therapy' (a lesson he learns the
painful way during his 'induction' period). However, this does not
mean everlasting abstinence and frustration, he is allowed relief once
a month, but he's not allowed to do it for himself (Rob in 'Jarheads'
is more fortunate). Instead the discharge is formally conducted by
the boss himself. It's not clear whether he see this as a supervisory
responsibility which it would be inappropriate to delegate or whether
it's a sign that his interest in Tanner is deeper than he lets on.
The picture shows John tied down astride a beguilingly-cushioned
stand ready to experience the humiliation of being dispassionately
'milked'. Like most men put in a position like this, his flesh is
reluctant at first, but visualising the alternative of electro-milking in one of
Amalaric's famous X-Frames eventually does the trick, leaving him
grateful no doubt that he doesn't have to do it again for another month.
From 138th
of 1001 Nights at Aquadude
Bunker
814 Trying The Testicle Toggle
As time passes, Tanner's hard
work, good behaviour and developing physique continues to please and
Hickson, at the suggestion of his nephew (worryingly named Bobby)
gives him a 'present'. It's a special testicle toggle which clips
around his ball sack. With this device he can put Tanner on a lead
and take him for walks round the farm to show him off.
This gesture adds a new suggestion
of personal ownership to their relationship, but being exhibited naked and treated like a pet in front of the other employees (who he works with) is degrading for Tanner. Their catcalls imprint on his mind in this demonstration of his
favoured but still inferior status.
from 141st
of 1001 Nights' at Aquadude
Bunker
815 Taken For A Walk
The demoralising impact of this development is compounded
when nephew Bobby also gets permission to take him for walks, leaving
him in no doubt that he's at the bottom of the pile. Worse than that,
Bobby takes him off the farm property and Tanner discovers that being away from the sheltered environment and routine he's got used
to causes him anxiety.
His nakedness and obviously captive state attract the stares and ridicule of neighbours and strangers passing
by. Naturally some of the girls are attracted to his fine physique
and he is shamelessly exploited by the repulsive and self-serving
Bobby, who basks in the interest which he can't attract himself. Already nervous, Tanner experiences depths of humiliation we can hardly
imagine as his suppressed sexuality is subjected to explicit teasing. It all serves to stir up his dormant delinquency. Back at
the farm, he gets hold of a bottle of whiskey, drinks the lot and
causes mayhem.
From the '143rd
of 1001 Nights' at Aquadude Bunker
816 Tanner's Punishment
Hickson is outraged and personally affronted by this lapse, believing
that Tanner has deliberately deceived him with his apparent reform
and made a fool of him in front of the ranch hands. He orders that he
be strung up X-fashion from the rafters of the barn with an array of
punishment implements laid out before him, which any of the farm
employees are free to use on him during the next 24 hours
It's not documented whether Bobby partakes in this torment but he turns out for the sequel, the 'proper' punishment which is to be
70 strokes with a bull-whip out in the yard (above). In a clear sign
that he has washed his hands of his protégé Hickson
leaves the punishment to his Foreman who relishes the task of taking
down the former favourite in front of the other hands (and a delicious bottom!). Tanner only lasts to 41 strokes before
passing out, a sudden dose of reality for readers.
From 156th
of 1001 Nights at Aquadude Bunker
After that fall from grace, nothing is quite same, It takes Tanner
takes a long time to physically heal (another consequence of harsh corporal
punishment which is often passed over by authors). He never does
quite recover his former character, which maybe isn't entirely a bad
thing. But as far as Hickson is concerned, the honeymoon is well and
truly over. He starts hiring Tanner out to the neighbours who often prove to be less tolerant. He had come to see the Hickson
farmstead as 'home' but from now on it will only be a temporary haven
in between punishing hires. Meanwhile his open-ended sentence still stretches
out ahead of him.
Tanner's epic downfall has an almost Shakespearean grandeur and
pathos about it, with rather bleak morals about the perils of not
sticking to the straight and narrow, of taking little kindnesses for
granted and about leopards not changing their spots. Tanner is
typically male. Wild by nature, he nevertheless yearns for home
comforts but is completely oblivious of his keepers' interest in him,
little suspecting how bad the alternatives can be. The story is
lightly erotic, almost romantic and much less focussed on pain and
punishment than many of Amalaric's tales, making the pivotal
bull-whipping scene all the more powerful even though the description of it
is brief. Amalaric does not linger on Boss Hickson's feelings at the
betrayal of his trust nor the true nature of his attraction to
Tanner, but his angry, wholesale rejection of his favourite after a
solitary error speaks for itself - and is strikingly similar to Ric's
prompt despatch of Rob after his failed escape attempt in 'Jarheads'.
817
Forced Labour
‘Break
time!’ blared over the loudspeaker at precisely the first minute of
every other hour. The weary slave, though young and in peak physical
condition, sank gratefully to the ground as waves of pure exhaustion
rolled over him. Nearly naked and smeared with mud, he buried his
face in bandaged, blistered hands. Quarry work was grueling and more
than once he wondered if breaking rock would break him…but he also
knew that ten minutes later he would hoist himself back up and return
to the sledge and wheel barrow. The promise of the whip ensured his
obedience.
Image
and narrative from Potpourri
No 26 (at Gay Bondage Fiction)
These stories give us a fascinating glimpse of
what life as a 'legal' slave might really be like:- a life-long
drudge, no bed of roses but not an endless round of harshness either,
certainly not of sexual exploitation. It's all the more convincing
for that. Amalaric regularly returns to this fantasy to embellish it
with extra detail of how men are chosen to be slaves, how and where
they are sold, what they can be used for, what limits if any apply to
their use and treatment. His slaves are expected to work for their
keep and as you might expect, they regularly experience modest
physical punishments partly to nip rebellious thoughts in the bud .
Sexual abstinence is part of their contract but sexual service
usually isn't - but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen (off camera)!
The cumulative effect is an almost believable, near-reality which
is worthy of comparison with 'respectable' literature.
But there's another side to this story with a sting in the tail …..
818
Field Work
This working slave, a
plough-puller, has been recruited in a very different way. As you might guess from
clues in the image, he isn't a civilian legally cast into the web
of Institutional Slavery, but a soldier seized by insurgents after
being separated from the rest his patrol in the Middle East. This
humiliation, being harnessed to pull a plough in the crudest way
imaginable comes only after he has endured a lengthy 'interrogation'
process laced with generous helpings of dubiously-motivated torture.
The description of this particular descent into hell is compelling (link below).
You'd think it must be a relief to him to be
out in the fresh air with not a wall in sight, but he actually looks
distinctly nervous about being in such an open, exposed place after
months spent in dark cells (a similar reaction to Tanner's when he was taken off the farm).
As we are all learning right now, a draining of the spirit is a
common consequence of extended detention and isolation.
His anxious
mood is probably fuelled by the chance remark that he is just 'earning his
keep' by doing this task, suggesting his recent extreme sufferings are only on 'pause'
and far from over yet. You'd forgive him for looking for a way to escape, though he'd probably not get far in this flat terrain.
This picture makes an interesting comparison with the other ploughing
image, no 807 above (In From The Fields). It suggests that those who we
imagine to be less civilised than ourselves may not necessarily be
so!
From Afghan
Detour at Telemachus
Finally, there is one other story by Amalaric
which also gives us an interesting glimpse of a slave at work in a rather different context - 'Lord Chatterley's
Forester' which I review in Part 8b
Read this series from Part 1
