“Six strokes of the cane.” “Twelve strokes of the tawse”. “Twenty strokes of the birch.”
I’ve fallen into the trap lately of thinking of punishments in terms of multiple strokes. Mentally, as I’m beating a girl, my mind’s on the six, the twelve, the twenty – the total number of whacks she’s to receive.
And I think I’m missing a trick… One batch of (say) a dozen? Or twelve individual punishments, each of one stroke? Each in its own right given prominence, emphasis, time, weight, space. Each and every stroke dreaded, shaming, correcting, hurting.
Does the difference make sense? I’m rather looking forward to testing my new approach sometime…!