That Whip Returns

[Burns, Erik]

Foax:

"--It does seem awfully cruel. I don't see why you had to hit him so hard.
--If I didn't, my child, I would be restraining the whip from performing its
natural and necessary function. I am not cruel or merciless. I am the mere
servant of the whip, not its master. The wielder has no more will than has
her tool; she simply releases it to do what it must, to be what it is. I
like to think of the whip as, in effect, the ablative absolute of the
backside."
--Thus, in your view, the backside moves to the whip, not the other way
around?
--Yes. You have it.
--An interesting concept, dear Cora, which, however, does not account for
the sweat on your tits or the gleam in your eye."

--Robert Coover, *The Adventures of Lucky Pierre*, page 274.

etb