Tickling in literature

[michal1]

My all-time favorite horror author H.P.Lovecraft, had faceless demons in his short novel Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath that existed almost only for tickle torture.

Those creatures also appear in the "Call of Cthulhu" Role-Playing Game. Thanks to them CoC is probably the only RPG that has rules on tickling. Anyone willing to play? ^_-

Adam Mickiewicz in his novel "Dziady-part 3" mentions that tickling has been used by Russians as a method of torture. The book was written during the 19th century (during that time Poland was under russian, german and austrian occupation) and it is based on facts.

 

[Triple T1]

Those creatures also appear in the "Call of Cthulhu" Role-Playing Game. Thanks to them CoC is probably the only RPG that has rules on tickling. Anyone willing to play? ^_-

Adam Mickiewicz in his novel "Dziady-part 3" mentions that tickling has been used by Russians as a method of torture. The book was written during the 19th century (during that time Poland was under russian, german and austrian occupation) and it is based on facts.[/QUOTEThats true,I have the WOTC version.In it the tickling only immobilizes you though.I felt that it should cause insanity and damage after a long period of time.

Back in the 80's I had a DM who had the Drow elves use tickle torture because he felt they should be masters of exotic tortures like the Chinese who considered torture an art form.It was strange knowing someone who was not a tickle fetishist know about tickle torture.He said he found out about it in a museum overseas(his family was in the military)]

 

[chickles_:)]

Hiya 😎
Loved the GB Shaw play! I'm wiht you Mistress V. He's a wonderful playwrite and who knew he, in some measure at least, shared our predilections. 😀

Many blessings,

 

[Fencer03]

I’d forgotten about that scene (yuck… that witch gave me the creeps). another King Novel scene is in The Shining. Jack gets his wife (I can never remember her name) on the stairs of the Inn. before he starts losing it.

Her name was Wendy

 

[Redhering]

Has anyone heard of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony? Fantasy series that has a lot of puns and other humor. There were a couple small references to tickling but I'll just mention the two main ones for now. (I can mention the others if anyone is interested).
The first one occurs in the book Centaur Isle and mentions ticklishness more than tickling per se. The main character Dor was working on an essay and his foil, Princess Irene came in and took it from him, he tried to get it back and I'll quote from the book...


She took a deep breath, inflating herself against him. "I'll scream," she
breathed in his ear, taunting him.
But Dor knew how to handle her. "I'll tickle," he breathed back.
"That's not fair!" For she could not scream realistically while giggling, and
she was hyperticklish, perhaps because she thought it was fashionable for young ladies to be so. She had heard somewhere that ticklishness made girls more appealing.


And that's it. The second one is from the book Demons Don't Dream. I think that's the book it was in, I seem to have misplaced my copy so I can't find out for sure, nor can I quote the book. All people born in the land of Xanth have a magic power of some kind. In this book was a small mention of a girl with the power to 'tickle from a distance' which she used momentarily on the demoness who is the main character of the novel. T'was a small scene, sorry I can't recall specifics at the moment.
I can, however, predict that a lot of the people who read this post will be thinking . o O ( Oooh, I wish I had that power ) On the other hand, I am certainly sure there are people out there who are extremely glad that it's a work of fiction.

 

[TheFactor]

I don't know if this was mentioned, but RL Stine wrote an entire short story called "Don't Make Me Laugh" that was based around tickling. I got the story out of a bag of Doritoes! I got good chips and a good read all in the same day.

 

[beccasmile88]

Oh! I totally remember that short story out of the Doritos bag. I wish I could read it again. Would anyone here remember what it was about?

And, another reference:
In Sideway Stories from Wayside School (a children's book) there are these two girls who glue a boy to his desk. When the teacher steps out of the classroom they tickle him for a very long time. I have this book, and I will have to look it up and type up the paragraphs.

 

[George Hull]

In Heinlein's book "The Puppet Masters" there's a brief tickle scene with unfortunate result. One of the books in the Poldark series has a scene where a creepy minister tickles his new wife before asssaulting her. There's a nice mention of tickling the the novelization of "ET". Some M/F-F/M tickling in a book called "How I Got into College" (or something like that) and a rather long scene in a book I read a few years ago (I cannot, for the life of me, remember the title) about clashes between rich land-owning family out west --- a sort of period "Dallas". In that book a man takes offense when a shop employee laughs at him and decides to give the boy something to really laugh about, tickling him to tears.

Also, non-fiction, in Lenny Bruce's autobiography he goes on at some length about how ticklish his wife was and how much fun he had tickling her.

 

[Ayla ny]

Jean Auel, used foot tickling as foreplay in the third novel of her Clan of the Cave Bear series. The main character (female) is a cave-woman. It's been a long time since I read the books but if memory serves, a lover "scratches" at the sole of her foot, which she finds pleasant.

her name is Ayla 🙂

 

[TheFactor]

Oh! I totally remember that short story out of the Doritos bag. I wish I could read it again. Would anyone here remember what it was about?

And, another reference:
In Sideway Stories from Wayside School (a children's book) there are these two girls who glue a boy to his desk. When the teacher steps out of the classroom they tickle him for a very long time. I have this book, and I will have to look it up and type up the paragraphs.

Well the beginning is about these kids tickling this one kid, and than it's about these aliens who abduct the two ticklers. The aliens supposedly hadn't laughed in years so the kids set out to tickle them, well they weren't ticklish so the aliens were going to vaporize them (tee-hee!) so the kids start to cry and the aliens laugh.

 

[ticklemad]

In James Herberts the Magic Cottage there is a scene shortly after they have moved in where the female is sleepy and has a nightshirt on, she sits on her husbands lap and he puts his hand up inside her nightshirt and tickles her ribs making her fall through his legs to the floor. The scene is briefly continued up in the bedroom a few pages later.

There is also a book called the Joy of touch (author escapes me) and there is a whole chapter in there on erotic tickling with specific details on how to dupe your partner into being tickled and how you can get her/him into a position where they cant escape and you can drive them wild.

 

[gallodiablo]

There is a short story that we were required to read in an American Literature class in college called "The Babysitter", by Robert Coover. There was a movie made, based on the story, with Alicia Silverstone playing the babysitter. The story goes into some nice detail about how the young boy, that she is babysitting, plots and schemes to tickle her. How her feet and ribs "are the best places". It tells how her boyfriend and his buddy were peering in the window from outside the house, how he was jealous of the little boy as he was getting after it tickling the hell out of her.

I remember reading it over several times, and remembering how I used to try to think of ways to put my babysitter's, and a couple of housekeepers, in "ticklish" situations.

Gallodiablo

 

[George Hull]

In James Herberts the Magic Cottage there is a scene shortly after they have moved in where the female is sleepy and has a nightshirt on, she sits on her husbands lap and he puts his hand up inside her nightshirt and tickles her ribs making her fall through his legs to the floor. The scene is briefly continued up in the bedroom a few pages later.

There is also a book called the Joy of touch (author escapes me) and there is a whole chapter in there on erotic tickling with specific details on how to dupe your partner into being tickled and how you can get her/him into a position where they cant escape and you can drive them wild.

The article in Joy of Touch was actually taken from an article called "The Art of Erotic Tickling" from an old Penthouse type men's magazine, although I believe the book used different photographs to illustrate how to get your partner in an unbreakable "tickle hold". I've tried that hold several times --- works great!

 

[MistressValerie1]

The Joy of Touch article sounds familiar ... I think we used to have a copy of the book at one time, but I believe that it disappeared during one of our many transpacific migrations.

 

[ticklemad]

The article in Joy of Touch was actually taken from an article called "The Art of Erotic Tickling" from an old Penthouse type men's magazine, although I believe the book used different photographs to illustrate how to get your partner in an unbreakable "tickle hold". I've tried that hold several times --- works great!

Thanks for that Biggeorge I didn't know it had been sourced from elsewhere. As for that hold, I've been on the receiving end of it a fair few times, it's a killer cos there's no escape but damn good fun too 😀

 

[George Hull]

I remember now, the name of the magazine in which Art of Erotic Tickling appeared was Gallery. I don't even know if it's still published. I bought my copy in a flea market several years after the original publication.

Interesting to learn from ticklemad that the infamous Tickle Grip has made it all the way to the UK.

 

[gallodiablo]

Hey! You can't just casually mention some sort of un-breakable "tickle grip" and not give us some details as to how to implement it. Come on. Give it up!

Thanks,
Gallodiablo

 

[nessonite1]

here's one...(warning, m/m)

 

[Wade1]

Another

Was reminded of this old thread because of a book I just finished reading. Title's "High-Impact Infidelity Diet." I don't want to get too convoluted about describing the plot, but it's basically about some women who promise their husbands they can sleep with a prostitute if they lose weight. There's a part where the women are planning on interviewing prostitutes for the job and one of the women tells the prostitutes about how very ticklish her husband is, and asks whether that's going to be a problem.

Not a big part of the book, but thought I'd mention it. It's actually a pretty funny book regardless. I forget the author's name... a friend lent it to me and made me give it back to her so she could lend it to someone else.

 

[indivision]

There was a brief tickling scence in "The DaVinci Code." It is in a chapter about Sophie when she was a kid spending time with her grandpa. There is a very short scene at the end of the chapter where he tickled her briefly when they were rolling around on the ground together or something like that.

 

[kut2k2]

Great thread!

I remember a novel or short story by the late science fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer where 20th century astronauts return to Earth after centuries of suspended animation and relativistic slow aging. They find an America that has evolved or devolved into something like the Elois of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine", without the Morlocks. The lead astronaut is chosen to be the sacrifice to their goddess, which means he is treated like a demigod for the year or however long it takes to prepare for the next sacrifice. He gets to live like a king and to impregnate as many fine young women as he wants until the sacrifice. As part of his preparation, he is fitted with a pair of artificial antlers that continously feed testosterone and energy concentrates into his bloodstream, basically turning him into a real-life satyr. The first morning after his operation, he is strutting around and hassling different celebrants. At one point, he grabs a girl lying with her boyfriend by her ankle, pulls her bare foot to him and gives her the most amazing foot tickling I ever saw described in mainstream literature, complete with tears and pleas for mercy and an angry boyfriend.

Another science fiction writer, Larry Niven, has had a few tickling scenes. The one that stands out the most in my mind is the short story "The Lion in His Attic", set in Niven's fantasy universe where magic once existed on Earth but it was like a fossil fuel, a nonrenewable energy source, so it ran out centuries ago. TLiHA is one of the last stories before the magic is completely used up. A witch discovers an idol eye that still has a lot of stored mana (magic energy) and she plans to steal it from the were-sealion who uses it to hold up an ancient ruin that would fall apart without it. He defeats her by tickling her ribs before she can finish the incantation that would give her the magic.

 

[yatsabel1]

This is from a Danielle Steele novel "Heartbeat". Playful tickling and there are a couple mentions of tickling although this below is the best. I caught it years back just flipping through the book....


THE FOUR OF THEM WOKE UP IN THE TENT together the next day, and Tommy immediately took advantage of the situation to pounce on his father.

He tickled him mercilessly, and then Adam and Bill turned the tables on Tommy. Adrian had to come to his rescue then, so Bill tickled her, while Adam assisted, and within moments they were a wild tangle of arms and legs and feet and squeals and hands that were tickling anything, anywhere on anyone, until Adrian finally begged them to stop, laughing so hard, she split the zipper on her blue jeans. Fortunately, she knew
she had another pair, so she didn't panic. But she was laughing so hard, she could hardly walk, and so were the others as they all stumbled out into the sunshine. It was a nice way to wake up, and it was certainly a lot better than waking up in the empty silence of her now unfurnished apartment.

 

[Joker Jack]

There's a bit of tickling in the Ian Fleming novel "Dr No". James Bond is in bed and awakes to find a poisonous centipede crawling up his naked body.
It reaches his groin where "Bond could feel it questing amongst the first hairs. It tickled. The skin on Bond's belly fluttered. There was nothing he could do to control it." The insect quickly reaches the corner of Bond's mouth where it's "tickling madly".
The tickling didn't seem to make it into the film though (where the centipede got replaced by a tarantula spider!)

Also, in the same book, Honey (remember Ursula Andress!) gets staked down on a beach as bait for black crabs. She survives (of course) and later describes the experience to Bond. "They walked round me and over me. I might have been a rock for all they cared. They tickled a bit. One annoyed me by trying to pull out a bit of my hair".

There is also a scene in the book "Hannibal" where Clarice Starling is standing at the steps of the now deserted asylum.
"Grass growing in the cracks of the steps tickled Starling's ankles as the caretaker fumbled with his keys".
Would have loved seeing Juliet Moore as Clarice (or Jodie!) getting tickling in that movie!

 

[GreyArea]

I know that I'm resuscitating rather an old thread here, but I find the topic extremely interesting, and maybe there are a few constant readers out there in the community who have found even more examples.

Anyway, here's my list (that's the ones I can remember right now):

1. H.J.Chr. Grimmelshausen, Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus (1683/84)

Now that's a real classic, a masterpiece of German baroque literature, and it includes real tickle torture. The main character, Simplicissimus, watches his father's farm being sacked by marauding troops during the thirty year's war. There is a lot of destruction, rape and torture going on, but Simplicissimus' father, being the head of the household, gets a very special treatment. The soldiers bind him, rub the soles of his feet with salt and let the goat lick it off. Grimmelshauses gives quite a detailed (well, it's baroque, isn't it) description, and this is the only (quasi-) historical account of tickle torture I've ever come across.

2. Mika Waltari, The Sultan's Renegade (UK) or The Wanderer (USA) (1949)

I guess it's not the authors most popular historical novel, but it introduces a funny character: an elderly dignitary of the Osman empire, who's reputedly friendly and wise, but rumoured to have a peculiar vice: he collects beautiful slave girls whose job is to tickle their master's feet. And indeed, as the protagonist pays a visit, he can witness the procedure. - Now, before anyone becomes too envious, I should probably mention the fact that as highly placed Osman official of the time the old man had to be an eunuch.

3. Marcel Proust, À la recherche du temps perdu, Vol. 6 La Fugitive (In search of lost time, The Fugitive) (1925)

The Marcel-narrator (not to be confused with the author) is jealous (well, he's been so most of the time through five volumes already). He thinks that his girl-friend Albertine has left him because she prefers "the pleasures that women can give". And one of Mlle. Albertine's girl-friends talks quite freely about what was going on: she claims to have a quick and skillful tongue to delightfully tickle sensitive parts of Albertine's body, the neck, the arms, and -last not least- the soles of her feet.

4. Stanislaw Lem, Solaris (1961)

It's as good as science fiction gets. - The protagonist is sent out to investigate strange incidents on an alien planet. As it turns out, the planet's ocean is a living entity that creates human-like beings from the mind patterns of it's visitors. These creatures differ from real humans insofar that they're newly made, so there's no wear and tear, and particularly the skin on the soles of the feet is as tender as a newborn infant's. So, to make sure his re-appeared girl-friend is one of the planet's creatures, the protagonist tickles her foot. - There is a Russian movie that features this tickling scene (alas, for the briefest of moments). Hollywood did a remake, but I haven't seen that one, and I don't know whether there's tickling or not.

5. Eduard Mörike, Die Historie von der schönen Lau (1856)

You've probably never heard of him. He's a typical poet of the German romantic period (by the way, his poems are beautiful, and he's one of my favourites, but that's not the point here). Being a typical German romantic poet, he did satirical pieces and fairy tales as well. One of these fairy tales is about the "Beautiful Lau", a kind of water-nymph that lives on the bottom of a small but very deep lake. Unlike her distant relations, the little mermaid, Undine or Rusalka, Beatiful Lau has human feet to start off with, which is quite important for the story. - Poor Beautiful Lau is cursed, and she can't give birth to children unless she has laughed heartily five times. This is unlikely to happen, since she is unhappy with her fate and sad and depressive most of the time. Well, guess what? - Beautiful Lau leaves her lake to visit the local inn from time to time. The maid comes to dry off her feet, and doing so she touches Beautiful Lau's soles (the maid knows about the curse, so maybe she does it on purpose, the author is not quite explicit about that). This leads to hearty laughter, and thus the first step towards redemption is made. (I'd have tickled her five times, or any number of times, to complete the removal of the curse, but Mörike choose a different course of action...)