Letters From Prison, Part 1 2018
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Text by Bob Shell, Copyright 2018
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The other day one of the young men here handed me a book to read. I looked at it and was transported back in time more than fifty years. The book is Story of O. In 1966 I was nineteen years old, in my second year at Virginia Tech, working part time in a bookstore/coffee shop wrapping shipments for mailing, and trying to find a girlfriend. To make extra money, I was selling subscriptions to Playboy and Evergreen Review. I ordered a book I’d read about in Evergreen, called The Story of O, which had just been published in the US. The book had created quite a stir! There was much discussion about Pauline Reage, the credited author. Was this a pseudonym? Was the author really a man? Would the publisher end up in prison alongside the publisher of Screw?
This book was my first introduction to serious S and M erotica. To say it had a strong impact on me would be a massive understatement. Ever since I first read the book, I’ve had a dream of filming, still or movie, this story. There is a “band designee” version by the masterful French artist Guido Crepax, and a pretty awful movie and serialized TV miniseries, but they’re far too toned down. Anyway, I was surprised to find the book here where everything is so heavily censored. Apparently explicit verbal sex is OK, but even a bare breast is forbidden pictorially. I recently had an issue of Vogue magazine confiscated for containing nudity, and got an institutional charge for having it! I was given 45 days telephone restriction as punishment. Imagine that in the good old U.S.A.! Such is life here in the DOC.
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About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author and former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Center, Pocahontas, Virginia for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Marion Franklin, one of his former models. Mr. Shell is serving the 10th year of his sentence. To read more articles by Bob Shell, go here: https://tonywarderotica.com/bob-shell-letters-prison-part-5/