“The New Yorker” briefly reviews an interesting sounding book: “The Headmaster Ritual” by Taylor Antrim:
Set at an exclusive Massachusetts private school, this début novel addresses the angst—both teen-age and adult—that percolates on a prep-school campus. Dyer Martin, in crisis after a disastrous foray into real estate, has taken a position in the history department; one of his pupils, James, is the timid son of the formidable headmaster, once tenured at Harvard and now determined to shake up the conservative and complacent privilege of his new domain. James and Dyer, beset by the outrages of bullies and the bewildering behavior of women, triumph, inevitably, over both.
No mention of the paddle, but hey, I’m not picky. I’ll read school novels that don’t have any corporal punishment. Witness me digging into Enid Blyton.
Great find: guess what we’ll be hunting for Waterstone’s!
This, mind, from the girl who emailed me the other day, proudly announcing that although it didn’t contain any corporal punishment per se, she had already found two spanking *references* in her Enid Blyton book.
there’s *loads* of spanking references in enid blyton – that’s the only reason i read so many of her otherwise irritating books when i was younger ;). i had several books that were like collections of shorter stories and you could barely go three pages without some poor fairy/imp/pixie getting a spanking. there’s one set in a school (possibly ‘the naughtiest girl in the school’ but i’m not sure) where the prefect threatens to spank the main character with a hairbrush…sadly she didn’t though… you know, i think i can safely hold enid blyton responsible for the way i am now, bless her
My favourite Enid Blyton reference is from “Five on a Treasure Island” When George is asked by one of her cousins if she got a spanking for some naughtiness…. she just goes all pouty and refuses to answer one way or the other… conclusive prove that she certainly DID get spanked as far as I’m concerned.
I wonder if kids still read Enid Blyton today? If not, where are they getting their spanking references from? Are we about to fail to inspire a generation of potential spankos? Do I need to change career and become a children’s author?!
abel – my little brother and sister got some more recent versions of some of the enid blyton books and all of the spanking references had been taken out
(yes, i checked!)
Yes! I was baby sitting the other day and ‘spanking’ had become ‘talking too.’ In five on treasure island. I was SO disappointed, clearly Abel needs a change of career.
Blue fairy: LOL deleting the interesting references? I knew they’d done that to Beatrix Potter, but Enid Blyton too? What is the world coming to?!
Evie – a good spanking is always prefaced by a good talking to. Oh, you mean instead? Nah.
Ah well, at least there is Harry Potter! 😀 I’ll always remember that sentence in the first book, where McGonagall asks if she can ‘borrow’ Wood for a minute, and Harry wonders if Wood is a cane to hit him with…
Oh, I was going to ask about Beatrix Potter. My mother always wanted me to read her books but I was too old at the time. Darn, if only I’d known!
As for Harry Potter, I thought in book 7 there was too much real damage done to the children still at Hogwarts by the creeps in charge. Sounded like REAL adult-style beating up. They should’ve been caned instead.
Where do children learn about spanking these days? Well, I learned from reading comics – especially Blondie. A long time ago, but the spanking is still there. Within the past month I saw Dagwood in the attic with a ping pong paddle, saying he hadn’t seen it for a long time. Then another strip with a dream sequence, and Dagwood getting whacked on the bum by Elmo (a child).
Comics used to be one of my main sources of childhood spanking references too, as well as the dictionary and Blyton of course, I thought all that had stopped now but if not perhaps I need to head to the nearest newsagent and have a browse through the children’s section
Abby (of The Little Red Schoolhouse) is doing her bit for the next generation. She is rewriting fairy tales with spanking references, and judging by the taster on her blog she is doing a very fine job….and what a relief that is….I was starting to worry that men in creepy t-shirts might be taking over the minds of our young!
Not being a Potter person, I’ve missed Ms Rowling’s attempt to kinkify (?) the younger generation.
Sarah – the Beano, right?!
Hermione: in retrospect, do you think your mother was trying to tell you something? Like, introduce you to an interesting style of writing?
And Rob, I agree: Abby is a wonderful writer.
Anyone else read Just William? And what was the other series set in a boys’ boarding school?
The Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge – I think there was always the threat of the cane lurking in the background somewhere, though I don’t recall any actual caning scenes.
There was a TV adaptation of a Victorian novel called ‘Vice Versa’ when I was young – about a boy swapping bodies with his Dad – which inspired me to read the book. TONS of caning and general kinkiness (including a running the gauntlet being flicked with wet towels scene that has stayed with me for rather a long time). I wish I could remember the name of the author.
Abel – Yes, the Beano was a spankfest every week
Sheherazade – I do recall one actual caning being mentioned in Jennings, it wasn’t gone into in great detail but was mentioned along the lines of “sadly for the boys the cane didn’t stay in the cupboard this time…” I believe both Jennings and Derbyshire were the unhappy recipients, but they probably brought it upon themselves! I loved those books, really should try and get copies, old ones though in case they have been de-spankified like poor old Blyton and Potter.
I recall Vica Versa too, with Peter Bowles? For some strange reason I can’t recall any kinkiness…not like me and a great pity!
Jennings
Wow, that was it. Thanks for the reminder, Sheherazade!
As for ‘Vice Versa’: I don’t think my parents encouraged me to have anything to do with vice in those days…
Enid Blyton was responsible for my earliest kink-related memories too (aged 3-4!). I had two compilations of her children’s stories which my dad used to read to me before bed. One story in each book remains vividly imprinted in my memory (to the complete exclusion of all the others!).
In Molly’s Motorcar, naughty Molly deliberately let her toy car roll down the hill and get pranged, and I was terribly fearful for her fate, whilst intrigued at her wilfulness! I’m fairly sure she got punished for it but slightly hazy on this, it was the deliberate act of defiance that stayed with me!
However, in The Naughtiest Girl in the World, the heroine does dreadful deeds to grown-ups all day, then gets her comeuppance when they all find out at the end. They then take it in turns to put her over their knees and spank her. I distinctly recall asking my dad to explain to me what spanking was!! Hmm, I’ve come a long way since then 😉
A few years after that, my favourite comic, “Mandy”, often had picture-stories involving cp which kept me in huge suspense from week to week! The pictures didn’t tend to be very explicit though, sadly, one had to rely on a fertile imagination to fill in the gaps!
Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree stories actually had a Land of Spankings, didn’t it? It definitely had a Dame Slap who ran a school on very stringent disciplinary lines.
Sarah, the Vice Versa book was much more cane-happy than the series – which was, after all, aimed at 10 year olds… I thought it was all very…interesting, at the time.
Guess what I just ordered from Amazon for £1.49? Those of you who, like me, missed out on “Vice Versa” will soon be enlightened! (It just had to be done!)
Thanks for a lovely entry, Martha. Obviously you’ve not been inspired by either book – either to find out for real what spanking’s like, or to demonstrate any naughty behaviour. Ever.
And I am flabbergasted to hear that the comic strips in “Mandy” had spanking references. That destroys a sweet innocent childhood image of sweet innocent girls reading sweet innocent stories.
…and I just bought 4 Jennings books from ebay, was thinking of looking for Vice Versa but if we are going to be enlightened here I’ll wait patiently