The hardcover Grove Press copy, clocking in at 143 pages, makes this book a pretty fast read, that is, if it weren't so pathetically boring. I know I know, Susan Sontag has blessed it with true literary status, as have countless others starving for a good erotic read. But I never got the point. I never believed in anybody or anything. I never had any stake in it. There was nothing of me involved with anything that mattered. Early on I figured the book was obviously written by somebody from high society, well-educated, and somewhat worldly, at least in their belief system. I have since researched enough to find out that the author was actually Catherine Robbe-Grillet, the wife of a very talented, but dead, writer in his own right, not to mention that Alain Robbe-Grillet did a bit of erotic writing himself that I have found a little more difficult and high brow than his spouse's foray in to the genre. Alain's, JEALOUSY, had more eroticism in it from what he left out than the entire book written by Catherine in all its graphic detail. It is possible I am merely a square, that I have not developed the necessary libido to enjoy this type of deviant behavior (deviant as different, not necessarily bad). Whips, ropes, and chains are definitely not of my cultural upbringing and have no place in the world I live in, unless I am missing something of my neighbors' life. Don't get me wrong, I like a bit of kinky sex as much as the next fellow, but I just wasn't feeling it with this little book, and feeling, feeling it in my body , is what I am always after. Nothing presented in the book made me feel anything strongly pro or con about even trying a little tie up at home. The hard part now is where to go from here in my personal quest for sexual awakening. Sontag, according to sources, also blessed Pierre Louys', THE SHE DEVILS, George Bataille's, STORY OF THE EYE & his MADAME EDWARDA, and THE STORY OF O by Pauline Reage. After reading a few reviews and one synopsis I have ordered MADAME EDWARDA simply because of the incest factor and the threat of pain I can't imagine on my own. THE IMAGE was too predictable. It was written so simply I felt it was not for me but instead it was written for somebody afraid of the language and what the words might possibly do to me. I want to be challenged intellectually. I want to be confused enough to want to know what's true. The main problem with THE IMAGE was, it did not make me care.
Quite good. Not particularly raunchy, but still. Quite good. As I mentioned earlier, my attention was drawn to this book after reading about an essay (not the essay itself, but an article about the essay) by Susan Sontag called "The Pornographic Imagination." In that essay, she mentions this book along with four others as examples of "pornographic literature." I would say that this is a fun read, but compared to the kind of stuff that people write today, it's scarcely pornographic. I would say the same about Story of O, another book she mentions. On the other hand, Another book, Story of the Eye, is one of my favorites, and I look forward to reading the other book by the same author (George Bataille) entitled "Madam Edwarda." I purchased that story in a volume with two other Bataille works, which I shall also probably read. Because it is his work that I should most like to emulate in the novel I am working on right now. I aim to write a book of transgressive erotic fiction, and I'm looking to theses books (and the fifth book (The She-Devils) mentioned in Sontag's essay, and the essay itself) for inspiration. If anyone reading this has any suggestions for other books I should look at, please let me know (
[email protected]). One of the things that I found most striking about this book is that it is called The Image, and it brought to mind an image that I have seen before--I think in Penthouse Magazine. It might have been the image used in Xavier Hollander's column (called "Call Me Madame") or it might have been elsewhere in the magazine. It's the image of a rose with thorn pressed against a garterred thigh. The thigh is bleeding a few droplets of blood. The image itself never struck me as awesomely hot or anything, but when the process of of pressing the rose against the thigh is described in this short novel, well, it's very hot. If you're into that submission/slave sort of thing. Which I am, sometimes.
I don't know what to tell you. If you liked Story of O, I guess you'll like this.Erotic fiction in general is pretty trite and boring. I'm just not sure where it fits in with the entire breadth of literature. I don't mean it shouldn't be written, or read, I just don't think TEXT is the best form of porn. Maybe 100 years ago it made sense. But today...not so much.I guess 50 Shades of Gray might put up an argument, but it's a cowardly form of pornography for cowardly people. It's the idea of doing something wrong but knowing you can get away with it, that's why housewives go crazy for the stuff. I don't judge, I just don't think it's worthwhile reading material. Why read 50 Shades garbage when you could be reading Handmaid's Tale or Narcissus and Goldmund? Let's keep reading at a certain elevation, can we? And let's keep erotica where it belongs: VHS tapes.
—Philip Fracassi
This book was excellent! my father gave it to me, little did he know that this book is very graphic. I still read it though obviously. There was so much detail put into this book, I was socaptivated by the detail, hence the title "The Image" you could imagine everything. I tend to enjoy books when you're able to have a "mental picture" or "mental movie" I could not put this book down, only when my mom called me for dinner...haha funny. Anyways, I reccomend this book for someone with a mature mind, they'll value the book a lot more rather than an immature 15 year old. I think that's another reason why I enjoyed this book. Overrall excellent piece of writing by Mr. Berg, just excellent.
—Dinatalia
The movie adaption was named "The Punishment of Anne", which is either misleading or somewhat subtle. The more significant punishment is of Claire. I got the sense that Anne was the surrogate ("The Image") for a younger Claire who was abused. The connection between the two was reinforced when Claire showed Jean a series of photos of Anne, with a photo of Claire, her head cropped out, as the last one. When Jean asked if they're all of Anne, Claire said they were. Which perhaps means, on another level, they were all of Claire. The punishments and comforts that Claire bestowed on Anne seemed to reflect the ambivalent feelings Claire had toward expressing and enjoying her own sexuality.Jean, whom Claire made an accomplice in her mistreatment of Anne might be the surrogate ("The Image") for the man who abused her. Perhaps his resemblance is why he was chosen. To me, a key turning point in the story is toward the end when Claire tells Anne "Go and kiss your master, who loves you." That may have been the first time the word "love" showed up in the text. And it seemed to signify that Claire now believed that Jean loved Anne, and since Jean was a surrogate for her abuser, that her abuser had really loved her. This twisted rationalization seemed to open up the barriers that Claire had built to protect herself from having been treated as an object, not only allowing her to offer herself to Jean, but to put Jean in the frame of mind to accept her, which previously he had not been.
—Bob
