Fwd: Re: Safe Sex is No Fun

[RICHARD ROMEO]

Mr. Burgess writes: "Guess it's just my reading, but each instance of sex 
in GR -- though I 

might exclude the Pudding sequence, but I might not -- seems to be a 

direct confrontation or refutation of the violence that pervades the 

background.



Clearly, love-making under the barrage balloons serves this purpose. Sex 

on the rack flies in the face of the dark imagery that dominates the 

pre-war German films cited, even sex with Bianca aboard the Anubis is a 

move away from the decadence that informs the milieu.



Slothrop's sexual activity is never brutal in itself (he doesn't seem, to 


my eyes, to be getting much of a kick from Greta's fantasies). 



I'm still pondering Pudding's S/M, though... it took a few readings to 

supress the gag-reflex, and as his particular proclivities are so alien 

to mine, I'm having a hard time getting my mind into his.  As he says 

it's what he needs, though, I'd suggest that coprophagia is, for him, 

also life-affirming."

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Two questions:  How is Slothrop's sexual activity with Bianca not 
brutal-I mean how old is she?

2nd question:  Doesn't Pudding die from his "life-affirming" appetites? e 
coli poisoning?



Rich

NYC