What do you think?
Rate this book


277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
For some people, of course, and at some levels with everyone, there is no illusion of autonomy, and the person is quite aware that his behavior is determined by what his parents told him at an early age. This is the case, for example, with many virgins and frigid women who state quite openly that they are so because that is how their parents told them to be.
QUESTION: But that's why we have a population explosion - because some people don't know that sex leads to impregnation. So isn't it necessary to discuss it with them?
ANSWER: I don't believe anybody is that stupid, really. (emphasis mine) ... It's not ignorance that keeps people from using contraceptives, and I don't believe it's poverty, either, because even if you give contraceptives away, people won't use them if they're not inclined to. (welcome to the Philippines!) So it's neither ignorance nor poverty, it's something else, something more deep-seated. Maybe poor benighted people want to be immortal, too.
Sexual mores in my experience have very little direct bearing on mental illness. Sexual conscience can get people upset, but that's an individual matter. As a matter of fact, the word 'mores' I think applies to very small societies such as villages, and is often misused, or at least, used to avoid finding out what's really going on, which is individual parental programming.
The best age for a bachelor is thirty-ninee. He is neither too old for the interesting young ones, nor too young for the interesting old ones. It may come as a surprise - an unwelcome or even distasteful one - to people under thirty to learn that some of the sexiest women are fifty. As anyone who reads a novel by an under-thirty can see, sex between people over forty is considered improper and in bad taste. But the over-forties know that the young are too cocky and forget that a mile run covers more ground than four 220-yard sprints. (p. 259)