I really wanted to like this book more. I’ve seen the author speak in Oxford and she seemed intelligent and thoughtful. But this short-ish collection of essays are kind of listless and - tiring? Which is weird considering the topical subject matter. Here’s the main problem. Reading Srinivasan write about desire is kind of like reading someone write about wine when they’ve never had a glass. Instead they’ve minutely researched the history and variety of wine-making methods and sat down to theorise - not knowing that craving and savour and drunkenness exist. So this book is strong on explaining how sexual desire is shaped by cultural and political forces, but weirdly doesn’t take into account how craving takes hold of the body, how it can overcome the rational person who’s been shaped. It’s basically a book about sex that doesn’t understand eros. It’s sort of coldly uninterested in the subjective experience of having a desiring, irrational body. The prose reads like it’s written by an interested app, and sometimes this hyper-rational approach draws out some good and timely insights, not surprising since the writer is an analytic philosopher. But wow what blind spots. Srinivasan assumes, fashionably, that sexual desire/preference is pretty much a question of social construction - rather than being socially constructed to a large extent (there’s a difference). It’s a sort of gloomy error that pervades the whole book and leads to weird omissions and accidental comedy. I wonder how the author wants a man, for example, to conjure his (usually involuntary) erections when faced with a body that doesn’t appeal to him, just because he’s dutifully scrutinised the social-political forces that have influenced his preferences. He can aim for diversity, but can his Johnson?
Saying that, this is good philosophy. It just isn’t great non-fiction. The writing is clear and cadenced but lacks variety and texture and an instinct for narrative. This would be better as an academic book, and maybe I’m being harder on it because of context, and because its many good points make its drawbacks more frustrating. Maybe the main problem is not the writing but the hype - the PR machine and inflated pull quotes keep trying to position this tepid book as somehow explosive and game-changing. If only it was. But, just like sex itself, you can’t rationally convince readers to be shaken up and taken over by someone’s writing, just because you tell them it’s a good idea.
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![The Right to Sex: Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2022 (English Edition) par [Amia Srinivasan]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T1/images/I/317bJ-JWXfS._SY346_.jpg)
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