SATYRICON USA

A fascinating tour of the sexual fringes of our society, an inside look at worlds into which most of us will never seek or gain entrÇe. Starting with the notion that activities at the margins of society eventually move into the mainstream, and her belief that our society is simultaneously sexually promiscuous and repressive (as in politically correct codes of sexual behavior), Eurydice plunges into various circles of sexual deviancy, only to be amazed by the ordinariness of the individuals engaging in bizarre erotic behavior. “What they did in private might quality as abnormal,” she writes, “but they did not.” What begins as a kind of highbrow voyeuristic tour of the fringes turns into a compelling portrait of contemporary anomie as we are guided through the worlds of cross-dressing, sexual addiction, sadomasochism, cybersex, and even necrophilia. What we see is disturbing—priests who can—t overcome their sexual addiction, women who choose to be sex slaves in a S/M relationship, vampires reveling orgiastically in each other’s blood—but equally disturbing is the inner deadness that drives them to seek extreme forms of sexual activity. Of women who cut themselves as part of the sexual act, the author writes, “for those who wear their scars as “badges of honor,” . . . What I do find utterly disquieting is that its scars are advertisements for the invisible scars of an increasingly violent and hollow society.” “All I really want is to feel alive,” says one sex addict who has slept with more than a thousand men. Eurydice’s ponderings about what she sees are not always convincing; in writing about sex in the military, she is irritatingly attracted to the idea that sex and violence must be linked in men who are being trained for war. But at her best, she offers insights into the pleasures and dangers offered by contemporary society. This study of our sexual mores is far from erotic. It is illuminating, provocative, unsettling, dark, and disturbing.