Original publication of The Joy of Sex
The Age has a lengthy feature article (with no byline) about the original publication of The Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort in 1972.
The Joy of Sex set out to demystify lovemaking, but also to allow it to be regarded as something else: a recreation. It was not to be regarded any more as a duty, a guilty secret, a quick one at the end of an evening, a stab in the dark or a silent embarrassment. From now on, Comfort decided, it was going to be something more akin to a banquet. It was subtitled A Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking and divided into small chapters like a succession of dishes - ingredients, appetisers, main courses, sauces . . . The book suggested that having sex involved a great deal more than, well, having sex; that making love was not, as commonly perceived, two-and-a-half minutes of frenzied activity followed by an apology and a cigarette, but should be a sensuous excursion - part ballet, part workout - lasting several hours and reaching several levels of rapture.
Comfort was a stylish writer with a gift for the breezy one-liner. . . . It wasn't just the wit that surprised the reader, but his warm, benign tone of voice, with its occasionally crackpot enthusiasms (Comfort was terribly keen on group sex and the Californian "swinger" mentality), its muttered warnings about things he didn't like or found distasteful (he was never very keen on homosexual anal sex, which he thought best avoided), and its glancing political asides.
This piece includes lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes detail, including the identity of the models in those notorious soft-pencil drawings. (Link snagged from World Sex News.)
