“Her position as submissive is active: she is the altar as well as the sacrifice. Two seemingly antagonistic images rise in my mind as Guillaume and I tighten the fetters, fasten the buckles, arrange her lovely copper hair, and acquaint myself with the grain of her pale skin: Iphigenia at Aulis… and a Maenad. Quiet surrender and commitment to martyrdom on the one hand, and a ferocious, visceral craving to be taken by a mighty force on the other. To be at one, perhaps? To be transformed beyond her humanity by experiencing the extremes of her own frailty?”

“I want him to endure for my pleasure, though not at my hands. I will not be the one feeding him the energy of dominance; I will watch, preside, and contain the scene within the hierarchy of power: Maîtresse at the pinnacle, Master as the executor, and [helot] as the supplicant and devotee.”