Do you believe it is different with every couple?

Well, of course it is, is the short answer to that question. And if, dear Anonymous, that appears insufficient reward for your protracted wait for my reply, then I can only agree with you. I’ve been mulling over a reply to your question for all this time, quite clueless as to how to answer. I am no relationships guru and I’m not keen to pontificate on subjects where my inexpertise would be apparent from the first sentence, so this evasive reponse will have to do for both us. The Summer stories were suggested by a friend and I leapt at the chance to get inside the mood of the moment to explore the emotions that the participants could feel where their carefully ritualised encounter of pain and pleasure was the perfect way for them to express their love for each other. So much of us is shared already, language and culture, for example and there are again many pressures on us to conform and be predictable. What fascinated me about the encounter was precisely its strangeness: that two lovers could find the intimacy they sought only by means of a language of affection that the outside world could never grasp. A wonderfully admirable celebration both of themselves as individuals and their relationship. What could I want to do but write into the rich sensual detail of that encounter?

An article about Michelangelo Antonioni talks of his interest in the gaps between people. Of course, what a fascinating way to put it. The gaps. The gaps between us and how we manage to fill them. Nipple clamps and ice cream is just one way, what others might there be?