Monk's motto or: Is Against the Day in favour of the Night?

[Paul Mackin]

On Jul 29, 2007, at 3:59 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s represented a change in people's  
> openness about sexuality more than a change in the sexual practices  
> that went on behind closed doors.
>
> A well-known example:
>
> http://www.my-secret-life.com/
>
> Laura

True but there's the age old question: to what extent does openness  
in discussion lead to openness of action. and to what extent does  
causality work in the other  direction?

Back in 1948 when the Kinsey report was released not a few people  
said that discussing such things in public was bound to lead to more  
sex (immorality by their lights).

Same questions can be asked about the  relaxation of censorship in  
the U.S. starting in the 50s.

Real and significant sexual behavioral changes have been observed to  
occur over the years but I don't think they should be too closely  
tagged with the 60s label.

More sex among some populations of young people was part of the  
student rebellion, but did  the behavior of  the mostly-married adult  
population change very much? Not sure.

Technological advancement in birth control in the 70s certainly  
affected the incidence of extra-marital sex among adults. If ever  
there was a sexual revolution in America it was the 70s sexual  
revolution.

The AIDS problem changed behavior materially starting in the late  
80s--less promiscuous sex than in the 70s.









>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Daniel Harper <daniel.e.harper at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Jul 29, 2007 2:41 PM
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: Re: Monk's motto or: Is Against the Day in favour of the  
>> Night?
>>
>> Well, yeah. I think part of the anachronism of the books (well,  
>> ATD anyway)
>> is that so few of the characters behave as if they were "real"
>> late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century people. The sexual  
>> content of the
>> books grounds the characters in the "present", thus connecting  
>> them ever
>> closer to "our" present.
>>
>> I think this is a feature, not a bug.
>>
>> On 7/29/07, Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 28, 2007, at 11:39 AM, Daniel Harper wrote:
>>>
>>>> ATD and GR are clearly the most sexualized of P's works, with GR
>>>> being far and away the dirtiest. There's a lot going on there, not
>>>> sure that the "socialist ideal" is really the best way of
>>>> describing it. I think a more useful way to think of it is as
>>>> simply the stated goal and end point of the Sexual Revolution
>>>
>>>
>>> and back then the revolution had not not yet even begun
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> ...the insanely, endlessly diddling play of a chemist whose  
>> molecules are
>> words...
>> --Daniel Harper
>