Jackson Radcliffe's Blog - Posts Tagged "sex"

When people ask me about my book The Yoga Sutras I tell them it’s a comedy. ‘Yeah, but what’s it about?’ they ask. I tell them it’s about yoga, but they’re still not satisfied.

‘It’s about belief systems, gender identity and the fundamental philosophical questions of existence,’ I say. Then their eyes start to glaze over, so I hurriedly add, ‘But it’s very funny. And it has some strange sex scenes.’

‘Kinky sex?’ they ask hopefully, but I have to tell them, ‘No. Not kinky. Just strange.’

At this point they either agree to read the book or they leave the room.

The problem, I think, is genre. Is comedy a genre? I think it’s more of an attitude, a way of seeing the world.

I don’t really read genre books. I prefer books that don’t fit into any identifiable genre; books that surf the boundaries of classification and laugh in the face of taxonomy. I don’t often read humour as a genre. Romance … mmm. Thrillers … maybe. Paranormal … perhaps. But a vampire lesbian mystery romance with a post-apocalyptic urban setting, based on elements of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and with plenty of dark humour – yeah, I’ll read that, that’s my genre.

In my novel, The Yoga Sutras, my protagonist Dave is searching for the secret of happiness. His yoga teacher, Kali, and his friends Chris and Mike are eager to offer him their recipe for happiness, but none of their advice rings true for Dave.

‘When we practise yoga,’ said Kali. ‘Our body, mind and spirit work together in perfect harmony. As we move, the body releases endorphins, which makes the mind happy and allows the spirit to soar.’

Dave wasn’t entirely convinced by that argument. It was hard for your spirit to soar when you spent half the yoga class upside down or staring at someone else’s bottom. Although admittedly, there were some very nice bottoms in the class. Pert bottoms, brazen bottoms, jaunty bottoms, spirited bottoms. Even bulging bottoms and swollen bottoms; voluptuous bottoms and wanton bottoms. Women really needed to start worrying less about their arses. They needed to wake up and smell the testosterone. It was rare to find a bum that wasn’t a complete man magnet. Men simply weren’t that discerning.

But were endorphins really the secret of happiness?

‘The secret of happiness,’ Chris had once told him, ‘is a cold beer and a big screen TV.’

‘The secret of happiness is WARM BEER and a TRIO OF NAKED GIRLS!’ was Mike’s opinion.

Dave had said nothing. He didn’t know what the secret of happiness really was. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been so unhappy, obviously. But he suspected it was something altogether different, less ephemeral.

It probably didn’t involve beer at all.

Dave’s quest for happiness takes him on a spiritual and philosophical journey and leads him to question his core beliefs and even his sexual identity. His search leads him to an answer, but will it be too late for anti-hero Dave?

And what is the secret of happiness, you’re wondering? You’ll have to read my book!