Tormentor
Governor
Ahh. You have put your finger on it, @KurvyKate. It is voyeurism! Having said that, I'm pretty sure that the reason this and similar forums exist is to satisfy the voyeur in us.There are even layers to the different points of view in approaching death and torture. Personally, although I ache to be degraded and humiliated I don't want to be tortured. But, being threatened with all sorts of horrors is a wild thrill because it makes me anxious to be flawlessly obedient, desperate to appease my masters and to be honest, scared witless! I always put myself in these stories and if I die, even if it takes 20 hours of relentless agony, it somehow feels too final. I want to be persecuted again.
Of course my death would be fine for a torturer. I'm sure there'll be another hapless heroine available to be slashed to pieces the next time inspiration drives him to his keypad!
Would you say, Mr Tormentor, that your appreciation of your heroine's demise is voyeurism, that is some sort of morbid (and erotic) fascination with the horror of it? What happens if you imagine yourself as the torturer, how does that feel?
Although I am, like most people here, a gentle and sensitive person IRL, my dark side is morbidly and erotically fascinated by torture. Even in my imagination I have no wish to be the victim and part of my fascination is the thrill of watching someone else, preferably a woman carrying it out. Hence my erotic interest in "torturesses". I really love evil, sadistic women. (I'm sure these comments of mine would give a good psychoanalyst lots to work with!)
I've no real wish to be the torturer, although I have written some stories where this was the case. But, I prefer the pleasure of watching the procedure. Voyeurism may be "safer" than being victim or perpetrator, even in fantasy.
Death itself doesn't fascinate me. Pain derived from terror and/or torture does. But if someone is sentenced to be executed, death is obviously inevitable. As you might see from my posts, I'm more interested in the procedure leading up to death than in killing the subject.
Hope this all means something.