Safe Sex is No Fun

[Adam Lou Stephanides]

On Thu, 21 Mar 1996, Paul Mackin wrote:

> 
> 
> On Wed, 20 Mar 1996, RICHARD ROMEO wrote: (speaking of Infinite Jest)
> 
> > It's also  
> > missing the sex preoccupations in Pynchon's works. (for the good IMHO)   
> 
> How is one to read this difference? There are of course obviously
> different thematic requirements. A story about a sex-sniffing rocket
> needs a whole lot of sex to sniff out. Whereas too much sex in a book

But only one of the sexual encounters which are followed by the V-2
(if that is indeed the case) is actually shown; most of the sex in
the book takes place outside London or involves other people.  Nor
does this account for the "perverse" nature of much of the sex.
I could be wrong, but I don't think there's a single sex scene or
sexual relationship in the book which isn't linked in some way to
violence or SM, even if only metaphorically.

My feeling is that the prevalence of sex scenes in the book reflects
the theme that sex is one way in which They control you (e. g. Pirate
jerking off to make the message visible, Pointsman's use of Katje to
control Pudding, and of course Slothrop's conditioning), at least if
you're a guy--sex doesn't seem to play this role for women in GR.

--Adam