THE BURNING FONT: SEVERELY-BOUND BOYS

Thursday, January 5, 2017

SEVERELY-BOUND BOYS

SEVERELY-BOUND

BOYS

Carcel - Nailman Busy on mitchmen - the blog: May 2010

Severamente-amarrado homens jovens
Сурово-привязанные мальчиков

Captured by Goblins by Catweazle01 on DeviantArt

So what are your darkest fantasies?

[Warning: this piece ranges far afield from the sort of thing I usually write. It’s a response to this comment. Don’t worry. I am not arguing for the suspension of conscience, just trying to describe one effect the video has on me that I can’t intellectualize. I’ll be back to normal tomorrow.]

***

Just for today: nothing is real.

Throw the backstory you know out the window and write your own. Untie the images of the video from the series and from your own moral or political or aesthetic reservations. Concentrate the power of your imagination instead on the man tied up, his legs splayed, his gaze averted, before your eyes.

Who are you, when you watch this video? Who might you be, if you found yourself with a bound prisoner in a dark room? If no one else had to know?

Are you the person watching the CCTV camera, detached as you see the figure straining against his bonds, testing the limits of his captivity?

How do you respond when his upper chest heaves, when his Adam’s apple bobs?

How do you feel when you’re the implied other in Mr. Armitage’s one-man show?

Are you the captor?

Do you provoke him till he spins like a tornado? Till the only thing you can see clearly are his flashing teeth?

What will you do when you can’t control him anymore?

Are you the torturer? Do you breathe a little faster when you watch his agony, knowing you’re the only one who can possibly relieve it?

Do you like to goad him, knowing he can’t run away?

Are you the would-be liberator?

Be honest: if you are the person who untied those wrists — are you also the person who tied them together in the first place?

If you rushed in to liberate the bound man, would you untie him right away? Or would you take a moment to move your hand along his jaw, to stroke his brow, to lift his chin and raise his glance to yours?