BEAUTY & FICTION

This third installment of a philosophical treatise asserts the theory that humankind can only advance by radically altering its approach to sexual behavior.

“I wish I could provide a concise overview of the problem that we face,” writes Whickwithy in this work’s early pages. “It took me a lifetime and four books to understand and convey” the issue “clearly enough.” As in his two previous volumes, the author addresses the belief that the “horrible traits of mankind” stem from its “forced blindness regarding sex.” Whickwithy identifies a brutishness in the human species that “need not exist” and can be overcome by attaining “sentient sexual intercourse.” The author goes on to underline that “a lot of men” are “lousy at sex,” indulging in base “rutting” that leads only to violent frustration. Whickwithy places the onus on men to learn how to sexually satisfy their lovers and thus become more sentient and in turn more human. The author ruminates on how, over the ages, humans have “perverted the concept of love” and aims to redress the issue by outlining how sex should be approached. In this latest offering, Whickwithy delivers the same argument found in the author’s previous works. Peculiar sexual advice offered in Sentience (2017), such as “Don’t twerk until the lady sings,” is repeated on a number of occasions in this volume. Disappointingly, Whickwithy’s proposal has not evolved, as it continues to perceive heterosexuality as the default mode of sexual orientation. The author goes so far as to imply that gay sexuality has become “popular” because men cannot satisfy women: “Some folks want to physically satisfy their partner and enjoy that loving engagement and heterosexual sex doesn’t offer them that option.” The author’s writing style is energetically assertive: “Women don’t see any point in speculation and men are scared shitless that their ‘secret’ will be discovered. There is an answer, dammit. Get on with it!” As in the previous installments, the author does not draw on specific scientific evidence to support the book’s argument, which renders it mere conjecture. Whickwithy’s hopes of rectifying the ills of humankind are sincere and quite commendable. But the author’s approach is sometimes repetitious and shortsighted.

An admirable and vigorous but flawed philosophical argument.