Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Blank Canvas


I've been recently struck by the soft nude photography of the early 70's. Having mostly grown up in the 80's, I didn't appreciate the decade prior. It wasn't so long ago as to be retro, and with The Future right around the corner, who had time for recent history? Now, it's as if I've stumbled across a treasure trove I didn't even know to hunt for.

Mr. W texted me this photo a few days ago. I thought it appropriate to share here, keeping in mind the idea of this lovely unmarked bottom as a blank canvas, if you will.

Claudia Jennings
photographed by David Hamilton
(c. 1971)

Monday, February 5, 2018

But Where are the Birches?

For the sake of getting back to blogging, I'm going to try to start posting every day. Let's see what happens.

Should I start writing book reviews? Or perhaps I will do more of a brief feature, just a peek into part of our collection. Here's the next book on my nightstand, along with a couple volumes of philosophy and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.



Our Fair Flagellants was included in a lot of twenty vintage erotica novels Mr. W purchased, most of which turned out to have been published in 1967. This particular novel, however, was published in 1972 in the US, though it refers to having been originally published in France. I then learned via Book Tryst  that it is in fact a translation of Nos Belle Flagellantes, published in 1907.

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Melanie, the narrator, is both flagellant and flagellator. We see her explore F/f, M/f, and F/m scenarios. I have only flipped through the book so far, but it does appear to flow from scene to scene, with little nonsense in between. Ah, the good old days of erotic writing.

I opened to a random page and found this to be delightfully representative of what I have seen inside. I did use one of those philosophy titles from my nightstand to hold the book open for the photo. I couldn't resist being a little tongue in cheek.

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SPOILER ALERT: In the following pages, ALL the nuns end up stripping for whippings. Go figure.

Providing I do end up writing daily, I'll let you know my final thoughts on the book. This turned out to be an entertaining exercise and I think if nothing else, I will feature other titles from our bookshelves soon.