Chapter Six
“Chapter Four—Bridles, Tethers and Disciplinary Devices…”
There was something about Erik Priestly’s voice and the darkness of his Eastern European heritage that gave these readings of Barth’s book their erotic feel. Almost haughty, almost tongue and cheek, almost reverent, but none of these. The discourse rode a fine thread between sanity and insane, between serious and laughable. But regardless of how his audience perceived his mood, as he spoke, the mind began to work and pictures began to form. Perhaps this was the magic; this the spell. Perhaps it was in the spoken word where the longing began; and from where it flowered.
“Bridles, tethers and other such devices are for containment. What cannot be beaten from a slave, can be squelched with bodily restraint. In this, the
