Literary note

I'm not convinced Pinter must have been a spanko (though I admit it's more likely than not).


Yes, you're absolutely right, the language Pinter uses to describe the girls (either "the girl", or "the other girls" he talks about in the next-to-the-last paragraph) is very sexual. It's pretty clear in this piece that girls who "like to be spanked" are turned on by the idea.

But Pinter isn't even sure if "the girl" is "one of those girls" (who like to be, you know, spanked). Maybe she's just doing "honourable research", he says.

And even if she is or not, none of this implies that Pinter has any special interest in spanking himself. Perhaps Pinter has known some girls (maybe some former girlfriends, wives, or mistresses, as from his biography it's clear he had multiples of all of these), who have told him (with breathtaking spasms of candor!) that they like to be spanked, and this piece merely draws on his research into these matters!

IIRC the final line of Doctor No has Honeychile Ryder telling James Bond, "You owe me slave-time," as he enters her cottage after his mission has been completed.

Of course, at the time I first read it as a teenager, I'd thought that it was merely a reference to vanilla sexual interaction--however, maybe there was a touch of domination in Honeychile, she was portrayed as quite independent and self-confident anyway.

Ursula Andress, who played that character in the motion picture, I could easily envision her being a dominant type... --C.K.