THE END OF SEX

by George Leonard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1982

Since The Man and Woman Thing (1970), Leonard has downplayed sex as just one expression of the erotic--and here he elaborates mightily on that theme. The sexual revolution, Leonard avers, overturned Victorian standards without challenging the old idea of sex as separate from other spheres of life. It's this disconnectedness that bothers Leonard: he believes, for instance, that his teenage attraction to a sexually desirable younger sister owed more to her unconditional love for him than to an acute physical drive. And his single LSD trip (in 1965) convinced him that Eros was one and indivisible: ""the fundamental creative force in the universe."" We should therefore beware of depersonalization, trivialization, ideology (however ""liberated""), and fragmentation/compartmentalization. Instead, we should approach our lovers in terms of their individuality and of keeping the erotic elements whole. One problem with Leonard's treatise is that the definition of Eros is so broad as to include practically everything (from, on the present occasion, Buber's I-Thou/I-It distinction to the physiology of arousal and orgasm), lt's much simpler to regard sex as inseparable from the emotional or spiritual realm--as many therapists have maintained all along. Pretentious and largely unrewarding.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Tarcher--dist. by Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION