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Sex Terror: Erotic Misadventures in Pop Culture
This book will change the way you think about sex. It may even put you off it altogether.
In his full-frontal follow-up to his critically-acclaimed It's a Queer World, Mark Simpson dispenses with the monkey business of sexuality and gets to grips with the organ grinder itself: SEX .
Subjecting our saucy new god to his sacrilegious satire, Simpson sins against every contemporary commandment about doing the nasty: It must be hot. It must be frequent. It must wake the neighbours and it must be Who You Are.
Simpson argues that we all put far too much faith in sex these days, and that in actual fact sex is messy, confusing, frustrating, and ultimately disappointing.
Especially if you're having it with him.
Along the way he gets worked up with Alexis Arquette over Stephen Baldwin's bubble-butt, gets intimate with Dana International, Aiden Shaw and Bruce LaBruce, and - very gingerly - confronts Henry Rollins with those 'gay' rumours.
In his full-frontal follow-up to his critically-acclaimed It's a Queer World, Mark Simpson dispenses with the monkey business of sexuality and gets to grips with the organ grinder itself: SEX .
Subjecting our saucy new god to his sacrilegious satire, Simpson sins against every contemporary commandment about doing the nasty: It must be hot. It must be frequent. It must wake the neighbours and it must be Who You Are.
Simpson argues that we all put far too much faith in sex these days, and that in actual fact sex is messy, confusing, frustrating, and ultimately disappointing.
Especially if you're having it with him.
Along the way he gets worked up with Alexis Arquette over Stephen Baldwin's bubble-butt, gets intimate with Dana International, Aiden Shaw and Bruce LaBruce, and - very gingerly - confronts Henry Rollins with those 'gay' rumours.
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Mark Simpson
8 books18 followersEnglish author and journalist Mark Simpson is credited/blamed for ‘fathering’ the metrosexual in 1994, predicting with terrifying accuracy, that the future belonged to the male desire to be desired.
He is the author of several critically-acclaimed books.
“SIMPSON WRITES WITH ENOUGH PANACHE TO MAKE MOST OF HIS PEERS TOSS THEIR LAPTOPS INTO THE WASTE DISPOSAL AND WEEP”
– Independent on Sunday
“THE GAY ANTI-CHRIST” – Vogue
“I ALMOST HATE TO AGREE WITH ANYTHING HE SAYS” – LRB
“AN AMUSED, DETACHED VOLTAIRE”
– Independent on Sunday
“ERUDITE, INCISIVE, SASSY… FRESH, HILARIOUS” – Publishers Weekly
“ONE OF THE BRIGHTEST WRITERS AROUND” – Time Out
“BRILLIANTLY BUCCANEERING”
– Spectator
“SERIOUSLY FUNNY”
– Scotland On Sunday
He is the author of several critically-acclaimed books.
“SIMPSON WRITES WITH ENOUGH PANACHE TO MAKE MOST OF HIS PEERS TOSS THEIR LAPTOPS INTO THE WASTE DISPOSAL AND WEEP”
– Independent on Sunday
“THE GAY ANTI-CHRIST” – Vogue
“I ALMOST HATE TO AGREE WITH ANYTHING HE SAYS” – LRB
“AN AMUSED, DETACHED VOLTAIRE”
– Independent on Sunday
“ERUDITE, INCISIVE, SASSY… FRESH, HILARIOUS” – Publishers Weekly
“ONE OF THE BRIGHTEST WRITERS AROUND” – Time Out
“BRILLIANTLY BUCCANEERING”
– Spectator
“SERIOUSLY FUNNY”
– Scotland On Sunday
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 10, 2011
Sex Terror is the last of all Mark Simpson's oeuvre I have read.
So I can't help but feel sad as I tear through his 2002 collection of journalism and essays, maybe missing some of the spiky dark humour that I know fills the pages.
My second hand copy, with the obligatory picture of the topless, buff Simpson of yesteryear with his chainsaw on the cover, smells of stale cigarette smoke. I imagine one of the characters in the book having been a previous owner - maybe one of the tarty plumbers, leading the metrosexual revolution, or a gay porn actor, down on his luck and trying to write poetry for a living, or a transexual pop singer, waiting to go on stage.
The loss I feel at coming to the end of the road seems to be echoed in the book itself - as the barbed bard of contemporary masculinity puts a brave face on life as a lonely homo in the Big Gay 20th/21st century world.
It's all good, but the interviews stood out for me here. Mr Simpson is an expert at getting people to reveal more than they intended, whilst giving very little, or just as much as he wants, away himself. He even seems to 'conquer' his subjects at times, as an experienced top might overpower his prey. It is a disgrace that the mainstream (or even the 'alternative') media have not snapped up this talent as chief celebrity interviewer in residence.
And like all good writing (not to mention 'good' sex) does, Sex Terror leaves me wanting more.
So I can't help but feel sad as I tear through his 2002 collection of journalism and essays, maybe missing some of the spiky dark humour that I know fills the pages.
My second hand copy, with the obligatory picture of the topless, buff Simpson of yesteryear with his chainsaw on the cover, smells of stale cigarette smoke. I imagine one of the characters in the book having been a previous owner - maybe one of the tarty plumbers, leading the metrosexual revolution, or a gay porn actor, down on his luck and trying to write poetry for a living, or a transexual pop singer, waiting to go on stage.
The loss I feel at coming to the end of the road seems to be echoed in the book itself - as the barbed bard of contemporary masculinity puts a brave face on life as a lonely homo in the Big Gay 20th/21st century world.
It's all good, but the interviews stood out for me here. Mr Simpson is an expert at getting people to reveal more than they intended, whilst giving very little, or just as much as he wants, away himself. He even seems to 'conquer' his subjects at times, as an experienced top might overpower his prey. It is a disgrace that the mainstream (or even the 'alternative') media have not snapped up this talent as chief celebrity interviewer in residence.
And like all good writing (not to mention 'good' sex) does, Sex Terror leaves me wanting more.
April 25, 2022
This book has some essays, some interviews etc... He is the best in essays, there are some great analyses of pop/sex/male/male-homosex culture.
Always original. Deep unless (on rare occasions) he is deliberately shallow. Honest and emphatic but can be also moody and fierce.
Occasionally hilarious.
He-who-must-not-be-avoided if you want to understand our times.
Always original. Deep unless (on rare occasions) he is deliberately shallow. Honest and emphatic but can be also moody and fierce.
Occasionally hilarious.
He-who-must-not-be-avoided if you want to understand our times.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews