Synopsis: Sex Without Love, Jean; But the Whips! Their Ropes and Chains

THE IMAGE by Jean de Berg, Grove Press 1966

The hardcover Grove Press copy, clocking in at 143 pages, makes this book a pretty fast read, that is, if it weren't so pathetically boring. I know I know, Susan Sontag has blessed it with true literary status , as have countless others starving for a good erotic read. But I never got the point. I never believed in anybody or anything. I never had any stake in it. There was nothing of me involved with anything that mattered. Early on I figured the book was obviously written by somebody from high society, well-educated, and somewhat worldly, at least in their belief system. I have since researched enough to find out that the author was actually Catherine Robbe-Grillet, the wife of a very talented, but dead, writer in his own right, not to mention that Alain Robbe-Grillet did a bit of erotic writing himself that I have found a little more difficult and high brow than his spouse's foray in to the genre. Alain's, JEALOUSY, had more eroticism in it from what he left out than the entire book written by Catherine in all its graphic detail. It is possible I am merely a square, that I have not developed the necessary libido to enjoy this type of deviant behavior (deviant as different, not necessarily bad). Whips, ropes, and chains are definitely not of my cultural upbringing and have no place in the world I live in, unless I am missing something of my neighbors' life. Don't get me wrong, I like a bit of kinky sex as much as the next fellow, but I just wasn't feeling it with this little book, and feeling, feeling it in my body, is what I am always after. Nothing presented in the book made me feel anything strongly pro or con about even trying a little tie up at home.

The hard part now is where to go from here in my personal quest for sexual awakening. Sontag, according to sources, also blessed Pierre Louys', THE SHE DEVILS, George Bataille's, STORY OF THE EYE & his MADAME EDWARDA, and THE STORY OF O by Pauline Reage. After reading a few reviews and one synopsis I have ordered MADAME EDWARDA simply because of the incest factor and the threat of pain I can't imagine on my own. THE IMAGE was too predictable. It was written so simply I felt it was not for me but instead it was written for somebody afraid of the language and what the words might possibly do to me. I want to be challenged intellectually. I want to be confused enough to want to know what's true. The main problem with THE IMAGE was, it did not make me care.