{"id":4284,"date":"2011-01-30T07:40:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-30T15:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/?p=4284"},"modified":"2023-12-02T04:58:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T12:58:01","slug":"noo-ye-kis-ma-boot-or-a-strik-ye-wi-ma-whip-e-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/?p=4284","title":{"rendered":"Noo ye kis ma boot or A strik ye wi ma whip!<\/q>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Somewhat to my surprise, I was recently able to get a copy of House of Tears<\/cite> (creditted to Harold Kane and illustrated anonymously by Joe Shuster)<\/a>.<\/p>

At some point, I'd like to scan the thing,[1]<\/span> but I don't want to damage it in the process of scanning, and the volume is bound in a way such that it does not naturally open flat. For now, I'll offer a verbal description.<\/p>

The book is 20 sheets folded into five gatherings[2]<\/span> to make a total of 80 pages. The gatherings are bound together by three staples, running from front to back but near the fold. A cover of dull-yellow paper, textured like parchment, is wrapped around these pages and glued to them at the fold. The volume is about 5 3<\/span>\/8<\/span> in<\/abbr> × 8 in<\/abbr> × 3<\/span>\/16<\/span> in<\/abbr> (13.7 cm<\/abbr> × 20.3 cm<\/abbr> × .5 cm<\/abbr>); I'd guess that it were printed on 8½-by-11 sheets before binding and trimming.<\/p>

There are 65 pages of text that were almost certainly set with an elite<\/span>[3]<\/span> typewriter. There are ten full-page, black-and-white interior illustrations, two more than the eight that I discovered on-line<\/a>. Both are plainly also by Shuster. One of these shows a fellow in a suit standing close behind a woman in a classic French maid's outfit; the other shows three women, one upon a throne-like chair, one in a dress lifting up her skirt to expose her lingerie, and the third behind her, apparently yanking or pinching her ear and dressed in a maid's outfit.<\/p>

Although I've not read the story, it is apparently about a wealthy Illinois man who hires a Scottish woman to be the governess for his 15-year-old daughter, rather hoping that the governess will turn-out to be a dominatrix, and discovering that this is, indeed, the case. I cannot help but be amused at the thought of a household of Americans trying to figure-out what the H_ll a Scottish<\/em> dominatrix is demanding of them, but a cursory investigation suggests that Miss Phyllis neither speaks Scots nor has a note-worthy accent. What I do see is a lot of space given over to sound-effects.<\/p>

    Whshshshshshs...craaaaaaaccccckkkk...
pfffffffff-f-f-f-f-...wha-a-a-a-a-a-cckkkk
thwaaaaaccccckkkkkk.......<\/blockquote>

I'm not sure what that was<\/em>, and perhaps I'm just better-off not knowing.<\/p>

[1]<\/span> No copyright registration was made, as this would have identified a person or a business entity that could be traced to owners, and those involved in production of this work could have been prosecuted under anti-pornography laws. It might be a fine thing to reverse the consequences of past censorship, and allow claims that could not have been registered to be made, but I believe that this particular work would then be orphaned<\/span>.<\/p>

[2]<\/span> A gathering<\/span> is a group of sheets stacked and folded together. The term signature<\/q> is frequently mis-applied to gatherings.<\/p>

[3]<\/span> twelve characters per inch<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Somewhat to my surprise, I was recently able to get a copy of House of Tears (creditted to Harold Kane and illustrated anonymously by Joe Shuster). At some point, I'd like to scan the thing,[1] but I don't want to damage it in the process of scanning, and the volume is bound in a way […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,4],"tags":[932,931,639,859,858,1332],"class_list":["post-4284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-public","tag-book-binding","tag-bookbinding","tag-erotica","tag-joe-shuster","tag-joseph-shuster","tag-sexology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12175,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions\/12175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}