A Slave's Pain

After reading one of my stories, somebody wrote and asked me what enjoyment is gained from causing so much pain to a slave? The obvious and immediate answer is that it excites me - but then I got thinking a bit more seriously about it. It's a very good question.

If I focus on the pleasure some Masters get from inflicting pain on a slave (and some of my fictional masters are pretty cruel and unsavoury) it is to highlight the plight of the slave himself - his painful journey - the incredible discipline and endurance which will in the long term be his path to salvation.

But not all my 'Master' characters are quite so brutal. One or two of them I am trying to develop so that they too go on a journey, building empathy and understanding so that at some stage there will be some sort of spiritual union between slave and Master.

A lot of this I am exploring and discovering as I go along, which is part of my enjoyment in writing these stories. Occasionally I go over the top! The Wooden Stake (one of the four Short Fantasies) has been criticised in the past as being too violent and sadistic. A fair comment. Actually it's really just an erotic horror story (sort of a 'queer' Edgar Alan Poe).

In fact a lot of my ideas spring from adventure stories. I once tried to write my own traditional adventure story - but it kept ending up with my young hero tied up, humiliated or being tortured and it pretty soon came clear to me that that's where my real inspiration lies!