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Article: Words fail me; Writing about sex.(three books about sex)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- July 20, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Wild or comic, coupling in animals is quite frighteningly varied, and makes human sex look tame. Is that why most sex writing is so dull?
SEX; what is it good for? Is it, for instance, good for being written about? No other subject has people reaching for their dictionaries in quite the same way. There is pornography, there is eroticism, but is there anything else? D.H. Lawrence did it, Jilly Cooper does it, and everyone literary from Julian Barnes to Anne Michaels to Chloe Hooper does it; but have they actually written about it, or have they written about the stuff that surrounds it, the emotions, the personal politics, the sensuality, the awkwardness? Have ...