There’s this book I read recently, one of the stuff I refer to as filler material…something from Talonx’s reading list, depending on the author and whatever interest I can self-instill from reading the back cover review. This one was a sci-fi novel about Time Travel, about this guy who goes back in time and falls for his great-multi-great-grandmother in ancient Byzantium…and the consequences. “Up The Line” by Robert Silverberg. Humourously written, and extremely engaging. What got my eye was this chapter….just before the protagonist manages to consummate his…ahem….desires, and basically throws hajaar fundae about love and sex and stuff. ( yeah, i just got back from IIT, i remember.) Semi-R rated content follows. Parental discretion advised.
(begin quote)
You know, sex is really a ridiculous thing. The physical act of it, I mean. What they call “making love” in twentieth century novels; what they call “sleeping together”. I mean, consider all the literary efforts that has gone into writing rhapsodies to screwing. And what does it all amount to, anyway?
You take this short rigid fleshy rod and you put it in this lubricated groove, and you rub it back and forth until enough of a charge is built up so that discharge is possible. Like making a fire by twirling a stick against a plank. Really, there is nothing to it; Stick Tenon A into Mortise B. Vibrate until finished.
….
My theory is that the real significance of sex, good sex, is a symbolic one. It is something beyond the fact that when you get a tickle of “pleasure” for a short while during the ramming and butting. That same pleasure is available without the bother of finding a partner, after all, and it isn’t exactly the same, is it?
No, what sex is about is more than a twitch in the loins; it’s a celebration of spiritual union, of mutual trust. We say to each other in bed, here, I give myself to you in the expectation that you will give me pleasure, and I will attempt to give you pleasure too. The thrill lies in the contract, not in the pleasure that is its payoff.
Also you say, here is my naked body with all its flaws, which I expose trustingly to you, knowing that you will not mock it. Also you say, I accept this intimate contact with you knowing that you might transmit to me a loathsome disease. I am willing to take this risk, because you are you. And also the woman used to say – at least up to the early nineteenth or twentieth century – I will open myself to you even though there may be all sorts of biological consequences nine months from now.
…..
There you have the heart of my philosophy. I stand revealed as a naked romantic. This is the profundity I have distilled from all my experience: sex with love is better than sex without love. Q.E.D. I can also show, if you like, that to be healthy is better than to be ill, and that having money is superior to being poor. My capacity for abstract thought is limitless.
(end quote)
My sentiments exactly. :-)
Rishi, you the man, Man! Didn’t think I would get a book that would actually make me sit up typing part of a chapter.
Another good read by Robert Silverberg – Nightwings.
Yesterday night I found something unheard-of in Odyssey – My first Heavy Metal magazine. Will buy it today. For those who have no idea what Heavy Metal magazine is….well, we gotta do something about that.