The following is an account of a riddle that puzzled me. Who was in charge? The jailor, or the jailee? I have stuck to the facts and, if it seems as if I am trying to tell you stories, I assure you that my sole purpose is to document reality.
the jailor > 03/03/08
The jailor had kind of square-looking legs that were accentuated by the short legs of the trousers she wore flapping around her ankles. Some might consider the jailor an industrious woman as she went to work in her busybody way, though it made me think of Pop-Eye the sailor man as she wobbled by in her own comic strip, yet always on the alert to kick a kneejerk curveball out of her flaps to keep her surroundings in place.
She had been brought up the hard way. At an early age, she and her father who wore a tiny, black moustache had made a pact. She agreed to being to a good girl in return for a huge helping of crème brûlée, which they used to share for want of a tender heart. Even when obeisance turned to obesity, she continued eating ‘cause nothing pleased her more than her father’s approving eye. Eventually, she became her father’s eye, the I of his doing. Time had proved him right. He was proud! and the jailor shone in the light of his eye.
The story of the girl who became her father’s I could have resolved into a happyeverafter, but every story has an ending as reality knocks on the door by circumstance without ever letting us forget the shadow of our past. Oops! I believe I fell into the speculative phallacy here. I promise I will stick to the facts.
The jailee were many but held their definition by the jailor in common. This the jailor knew. And being an excellent strategist from childhood training, she made clever use of it. At times like these, she put on a tiny, black moustache above her upper lip. “OK,” she would say to the jailee in need of advice, “now I’ve not only listened to your marital problems but I have also told you what to do about it. I have given you half an hour of my time. Now I will have to work overtime tonight.” It always worked. The jailee returned to their cell, guilt-ridden for having caused such an overload on the jailor’s time, and slightly ashamed, while the jailor firmed up her apron strings.
The jailor though realized that she could not push things too far. Occasionally, she would give some leeway and allow for the jailee’s own eccentricities. As when the jailee wanted to throw a party in one of the hot spots of the town. It went against the jailor’s sense of direction but “what harm will it to do me,” she thought, “if the jailee throws a party that nobody wants. I’ll allow him his pleasure and he will think that he acts on his own.” The jailee felt seen and appreciated, and the apron strings tightened. The jailor smiled smugly as the jailee now would follow her lead with glee and affection, at least for the time being.
But there were times when she despite her childhood training lost sight of how far the jailee could be pushed, or maybe it was a calculated risk she took to reaffirm her position when the ground she was standing on started crackling. Once in her busy schedule, she asked the jailee to get her her lunch because she had an important meeting at one o’clock that could not wait. He agreed, but as she had no cash, she went to pick up some at the ATM down the street and returned only to send the jailee off to get her her lunch down the very same street. He returned carrying a doggy bag in his moulded hands and body drenched in humiliation. At times like these, the jailee would turn rebellious even though he knew the role he was to play in the program director’s script. Had she made a miscalculation she lost him, but most often he swallowed his humiliation and the ropes tightened around his wrists, the leash around his neck. Yes, I believe he even enjoyed in the sweet bondage of the jailor’s power play.
[net]textualities is our common name for all the different kinds of digital writing that exist today. Letters are no longer carved in stone, the Word died with post-structuralism. Instead we have texts that flow between expressions, media, software and platforms, 'the play of the signifier' in action.
