Kim Cattrall or the Jessica Rabbit vibrator -- you choose
Anakana Schofield www.canada.com/
Saturday, November 26, 2005
* * * * SEXUAL INTELLIGENCE BY KIM CATTRALL
Greystone Books/Douglas & McIntyre
SEXUALITY I In the sexually barren landscape of my 20s, one of my most vivid and mortifying moments involved the ordering and purchase of three copies of a book entitled How to Have an Orgasm as Often as You Want from a ridiculously small literary bookshop. The interest in the eyes of the bespectacled clerk and his subsequent glee at announcing the title so loudly everybody in the tiny shop could hear taught me that the road to sexual emancipation would likely be filled with potholes.
In her latest work, in an almost admirable refusal to distance herself from Samantha Jones, the sexually voracious character she played for seven years on the hit television series Sex and the City, Nanaimo-raised Kim Cattrall promises to explore the sources and inspirations of sexual desire. Sexual Intelligence, which ties in with a recent Discovery Channel documentary, consists largely of a hodgepodge of references to sex and depictions thereof in visual art, mythology, history, psychology and literature. The main hypothesis is that the most important aspect of sexual satisfaction is the mind (though it would seem equally important to have a warm person beside you in bed, a quest whose difficulty the book fails to take into account).
In her introduction, Cattrall describes how, after her first book, Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm, a huge number of people picked up their pens and wrote, wanting to know more.
I find this flabbergasting. Were those people living on a planet without daylight or electricity or wireless Internet? The topic of sex, while fascinating, is also ubiquitous. The world is so saturated in knowledge about where the clitoris lies that if you can't find it, you might be better advised to visit the doctor.
Cattrall, who was born in Liverpool, England, is a respected theatre actress and film star. She is rumoured to have shared an embrace or two with Pierre Trudeau. Her current beau is a 26-year-old Canadian chef, so Kim (age 49) knows something about Canadian sex and rather likes it.
There's much to admire about Cattrall, beyond the shapely left thigh and rump that adorn the full front cover of her book. She's passionate about her subject.
But this publishing venture doesn't deliver the same robust persuasion on the page as I imagine she does sitting in the boardroom of her publisher's office or striding across the screen, pontificating on the sexual relevance of Pompeii.
From the get-go, Cattrall establishes she's no sexual therapist. So what exactly is she? She's more of a tour guide through the material, and herein lies the problem with the book.
Readers are offered snippets of reference to mythology and visual art or history, which no one would contest are interesting. However, the snippets are easy-read versions of complex and intriguing material that won't fulfil readers who are truly interested in these topics.
There's a tendency to refer to and quote from other "wonderful, fascinating" books or scientific studies that eventually causes one to pause and admit to the glaringly obvious fact that there is nothing new or revealing in the book. There's even something slightly disjointed about it esthetically: The reproductions of visual art are the most effective, while the more contemporary photographs reproduce harshly.
Quotes from participants in the TV documentary are sprinkled among the sumptuous paintings and they are not always intelligent. Consider one man on the vagina: "Looks awful, feels great." Or a woman on pubic grooming: "I think if you stay groomed, it shows a bit of respect for your partner."
The main attraction is obviously Kim. Images of her punctuate the book. On the cover she's refreshingly nude, but then she covers up in a pink mac and dangly earrings for subsequent pictures. At one point she's up in the clouds with her legs around a swan.
For readers who enjoy her and her antics, this will supply all the pleasure required to part with $34.95. The pink mac, suggestive eyes and cheeky commentary may send the rest of us down to Commercial Drive to pick up a Jessica Rabbit vibrator for about the same price.
Cattrall is willing to be a campaigner for the multiple orgasm, and kudos to her for that. Ultimately, Sexual Intelligence is the concert program to remind you of the concert.
The new film version of Pride and Prejudice would do just as much to rattle the organs into top gear.
Anakana Schofield last contributed an article about Irish writers John Banville and Sebastian Barry.
The Vancouver Sun 2005
|
