Overlooking the Whip

[thedarkages]

In the latest issue of the New York Review of Books, Stephen Greenblatt reviews a book called In Praise of the Whip, which argues, among other things, that flagellation was a practice at virtually all medieval monasteries. But for accidents of birth and religion, I might have become a monk -- but there would have been no way of saying, "I'm sorry. I'm only in this for the literature."