Philip Roth’s "The Professor of Desire" is my favorite of his novels.<\/p>\n
It’s the most tender.<\/p>\n
"Animal" is the sequel.<\/p>\n
I read it in August 2001, after selling lukeford.com and embarking on a new life.<\/p>\n
I was looking for a way to tell my memoir.<\/p>\n
After finishing this short novel in Santa Barbara, I seized on its voice as my inspiration.<\/p>\n
I’m not sure how well I pulled it off in "XXX-Communicated: A Rebel Without a Shul<\/a>."<\/p>\n No publisher wanted it.<\/p>\n David Kepesh is a professor of English. He’s in his sixties. He was married once in his youth but regarded it as time spent in prison. He went on to have a life of temporary relationships (sleeping with more than 50 women).<\/p>\n In this movie, he falls in love with a Cuban student around 30 played by Penelope Cruz.<\/p>\n The pursuit of learning is the most erotic thing in the world to me. There’s nothing more intriguing to me than the relationship between teacher and pupil.<\/p>\n I love the themes of this novel and film.<\/p>\n I love Philip Roth because he’s so honest about the natural man.<\/p>\n I had to control myself watching this film because as I started laughing out loud, I got a lot of dirty stares.<\/p>\n About a third of the way in, after we’ve feasted our eyes on Penelope Cruz, we’re presented with 50-something Patricia Clarkson trying to do an erotic strip tease.<\/p>\n It’s horrifying watching her take off her clothes. Yuck!<\/p>\n I was the only person in the audience laughing.<\/p>\n What a politically correct crowd!<\/p>\n After watching Cruz, who wants to see Clarkson disrobe. Yuck!<\/p>\n Imagine you’ve been tapping Penelope and suddenly Patricia shows up wanting something.<\/p>\n Yuck!<\/p>\n Women over forty shouldn’t strip-tease.<\/p>\n My favorite line in the movie? "When you make love to a woman, you get revenge on all the times life has defeated you."<\/p>\n Works of art about the emptiness of lots of great sex always hit a chord with me.<\/p>\n I guess I believe in that quote above and it hurts me that it is not enough. Worse, I know that pursuing such revenge is empty. Sex must be pursued within the context of a lasting monogamous marriage blessed by God and state or it’s a cheat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Philip Roth’s "The Professor of Desire" is my favorite of his novels. It’s the most tender. "Animal" is the sequel. I read it in August 2001, after selling lukeford.com and embarking on a new life. I was looking for a … Continue reading