Desire Leads to Hate
The Professor of Desire by Phillip Roth: a Personal Review
[CLICK HERE FOR SOUNDTRACK]
Way back in my first year of University, I learned that some people think the notion of romantic love didn’t actually exist until medieval times, and that the story of Lancelot and Guinevere is actually the first love story. Previous to that it was all about sexual attraction and desire.
When Wilma left, and I had a new apartment, I decided to indulge my desire. This mostly took the form of an all out porn binge. I also toyed with the idea of some one night stands, even posted a profile on the “intimate encounters” part of Lava Life, but nothing really came of it except an introduction to a woman I wasn’t attracted to in anyway.
After a while, the porn got a little, well, repetitive. There are only so many times you can watch strip tease, followed by blow job followed by cunnalingus followed by missionary followed by various positions including doggy style and anal and finally a cumshot. All done by porn stars who either overact or look incredibly bored.
But I still wasn’t ready to go out and have random sexual experiences with people, admittedly, because I was too scared (if I had been braver, I might have, and might have regretted it too…) So I looked for other methods to stimulate myself.
I was introduced to a wonderful website during a training session at the Library where I work: allreaders.com. If you do a “detailed book search”, select “style” as your search parameter, and check the box that says “Sex in book?” it presents you with the option of finding literature that includes “vague references,” “descript. of female anat. (the big B's),” “descript. of female anat. (the big V),” “descript. of nude males (the big P),” “actual description of hetero sex,” “use of artificial tools,” “male homosexuals doing their thing,” and more!
Delightful, I thought. Now I can pique my desires AND feel smart at the same time. I set about making a list of deliciously erotic literature. At the top of my list was The Professor of Desire.
It did not disappoint. Lots of graphic descriptions of swinging breasts, shoving members into mouths, threesomes, tying down women as the writhe in pleasure, and even a facial.
By that isn’t the point of the novel.
Professor David Kapesh is composing a lecture for his introduction to literature class. The focus of the literature he has selected is desire, specifically, sexual desire. So he decides he will chronicle his own experience of this desire. And while it is titillating at first, when he is in London in a torrid three-way affair with two luscious Swedish women who dream up all sorts of sexual adventures, it soon turns into a painful cycle that Kapesh endures.
He desires a woman, peruses her, becomes obsessed with her, particularly having sex with her, finally has sex with her, and starts to develop a relationship with her. And just as he thinks he is finally satisfied his desire, he begins to feel cold and dead inside. He misses the desire itself. He becomes mean, belligerent, and neglectful, eventually driving the woman away. He tells himself his desire is dead, and now he must go through his life without desire, a drudgery, he tells himself. And then, low and behold, his desire is aroused once again by another woman…
By the third time he enters this cycle, having two ex-wives already, it is almost unendurable. He tries for pages upon pages to see the positive benefits of his relationship: this latest woman adores him, but is able to converse with him; she gives herself to him completely during sex, without giving up her own pleasure; she is beautiful (especially her swinging breasts above him while they have intercourse… I think that particular line left an impression on me…) and so on. All the while, readers know what is coming. Knows he is trying in vain. Knows he will eventually drive her away.
The novel ends there. He decides he cannot continue the third long term relationship, and is just on the verge of realizing that he is caught in a cycle. What stands in his way is his indecision about what his predicament means. Is it simply his nature to desire? Is his ultimate desire is desire itself, a desire which will leave him perpetually unsatisfied? Or does he simply needs to find a way to accept a life in which desires come and go and do not need to be followed?
An appropriately unsatisfying ending.
Kapesh is not a slimy asshole who takes advantage of women, he is a drama queen who over thinks everything and makes bizarre conclusions and decisions based on his desires and restlessness. Perhaps that is just an asshole of a different sort…
So while I may have been titillated by a few scenes here and there, I still returned to the redundant, repetitive porn as the staple for my arousal.
[CLICK HERE FOR SOUNDTRACK]
Way back in my first year of University, I learned that some people think the notion of romantic love didn’t actually exist until medieval times, and that the story of Lancelot and Guinevere is actually the first love story. Previous to that it was all about sexual attraction and desire.
When Wilma left, and I had a new apartment, I decided to indulge my desire. This mostly took the form of an all out porn binge. I also toyed with the idea of some one night stands, even posted a profile on the “intimate encounters” part of Lava Life, but nothing really came of it except an introduction to a woman I wasn’t attracted to in anyway.
After a while, the porn got a little, well, repetitive. There are only so many times you can watch strip tease, followed by blow job followed by cunnalingus followed by missionary followed by various positions including doggy style and anal and finally a cumshot. All done by porn stars who either overact or look incredibly bored.
But I still wasn’t ready to go out and have random sexual experiences with people, admittedly, because I was too scared (if I had been braver, I might have, and might have regretted it too…) So I looked for other methods to stimulate myself.
I was introduced to a wonderful website during a training session at the Library where I work: allreaders.com. If you do a “detailed book search”, select “style” as your search parameter, and check the box that says “Sex in book?” it presents you with the option of finding literature that includes “vague references,” “descript. of female anat. (the big B's),” “descript. of female anat. (the big V),” “descript. of nude males (the big P),” “actual description of hetero sex,” “use of artificial tools,” “male homosexuals doing their thing,” and more!
Delightful, I thought. Now I can pique my desires AND feel smart at the same time. I set about making a list of deliciously erotic literature. At the top of my list was The Professor of Desire.
It did not disappoint. Lots of graphic descriptions of swinging breasts, shoving members into mouths, threesomes, tying down women as the writhe in pleasure, and even a facial.
By that isn’t the point of the novel.
Professor David Kapesh is composing a lecture for his introduction to literature class. The focus of the literature he has selected is desire, specifically, sexual desire. So he decides he will chronicle his own experience of this desire. And while it is titillating at first, when he is in London in a torrid three-way affair with two luscious Swedish women who dream up all sorts of sexual adventures, it soon turns into a painful cycle that Kapesh endures.
He desires a woman, peruses her, becomes obsessed with her, particularly having sex with her, finally has sex with her, and starts to develop a relationship with her. And just as he thinks he is finally satisfied his desire, he begins to feel cold and dead inside. He misses the desire itself. He becomes mean, belligerent, and neglectful, eventually driving the woman away. He tells himself his desire is dead, and now he must go through his life without desire, a drudgery, he tells himself. And then, low and behold, his desire is aroused once again by another woman…
By the third time he enters this cycle, having two ex-wives already, it is almost unendurable. He tries for pages upon pages to see the positive benefits of his relationship: this latest woman adores him, but is able to converse with him; she gives herself to him completely during sex, without giving up her own pleasure; she is beautiful (especially her swinging breasts above him while they have intercourse… I think that particular line left an impression on me…) and so on. All the while, readers know what is coming. Knows he is trying in vain. Knows he will eventually drive her away.
The novel ends there. He decides he cannot continue the third long term relationship, and is just on the verge of realizing that he is caught in a cycle. What stands in his way is his indecision about what his predicament means. Is it simply his nature to desire? Is his ultimate desire is desire itself, a desire which will leave him perpetually unsatisfied? Or does he simply needs to find a way to accept a life in which desires come and go and do not need to be followed?
An appropriately unsatisfying ending.
Kapesh is not a slimy asshole who takes advantage of women, he is a drama queen who over thinks everything and makes bizarre conclusions and decisions based on his desires and restlessness. Perhaps that is just an asshole of a different sort…
So while I may have been titillated by a few scenes here and there, I still returned to the redundant, repetitive porn as the staple for my arousal.
posted by deadwriter at 7:39 a.m.
1 Comments:
Gee, thanks. :P
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