HOT & COOL SEX: Cultures in Conflict

by Anna K. & Robert T. Francoeur ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1974

A poor attempt to find sociological and historical underpinnings for ""Open Marriage"" -- as mediated via McLuhan and Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land). Thus the authors dredge up all the old cliches re Tahitian promiscuity and Old Testament ""knowing"" -- from the Christian elevation of chastity in the Middle Ages to the later middle-class transposition of the aristocratic concept of courtly love to marriage itself, the habits of monkeys and rats and Indian kundalini. Words like ""self-actualization,"" ""mutuality,"" and ""commitment"" abound, replacing ""fidelity"" and ""forever"" as the keystones of a new Eden. This apparently existed briefly in California, and was named Sandstone by John Williamson, who founded it (a commune in which sharing of souls was more important -- though perhaps not as prevalent -- as the sharing of bodies) -- an unhappy attempt to destroy the ""hot sex"" culture as generated by religion, Freud, and Hugh Hefner. The authors do make a good distinction between the supposedly liberated sexual behavior of the young and the old-fashioned monogamy which generally surfaces when they marry -- but what else is new?

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION