I was reading the New York Times Sunday Book Review last night and came across a familiar name — Annie Sprinkle.
She’s reviewing a book called “Paying For It.” It is the second review that the Times has devoted to this important comic book. Meanwhile, very few conservative books get reviewed in the Times.
Devoting full-page review to a comic book about paying for sex is just business as usual for the Book Review. What caught my eye was editor’s choice of reviewer. It’s Annie Sprinkle, the former prostitute, turned sex performance artist — “an artist, activist and ecosex educator,”in the words of her byline). How proud the Times was to snag her as a reviewer! In addition to giving her a full page to review this silly bit of pornographic ephemera, they devote their “UpFront” feature to introducing readers to sad creature. “Sprinkle has cultivated one of the more audacious careers of anyone who has ever reviewed a book in our pages: porn star, prostitute, artist, academic, AIDS educator, author, filmmaker, political activist.” Savor the word “cultivated” here: it’s like “experimenting” as in “experimenting with drugs.” One draws up the delicate are of horticulture, the other physical science, for decidedly more demotic activities.
