I previously presumed this French penchant is partially why Chirac got elected.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 02/05/2005 4:45:39 PM PST by MadIvan
FRANCE is taking its taste for erotic literature to new extremes with the publication of a series of novels about women who pay for sex.
From the Marquis de Sade to The Story of O, the 1954 novel by Dominique Aury, the French have long enjoyed erotic literature — as has everybody else, judging by the recent international success of The Sexual Life of Catherine M, the memoir of Catherine Millet.
This has unleashed a flood of memoirs from prostitutes and pornographers eager to cash in. Recently, however, some of the country’s most respected writers, including Pascal Bruckner, the essayist and philosopher, have put a new twist on the trend with a look at the less well explored world of the gigolo.
The appearance in recent weeks of three novels about gigolos and the promise of another next month led Paris Match magazine last week to ask in its opening article: “Does it reflect reality or fantasy?” It is a subject of particularly intense speculation at the foreign ministry — if only because Sébastien, the gigolo in Bruckner’s book, L’Amour du Prochain (The Next Love), is a diplomat.
A cultured, intelligent and well bred man who went to the best schools, he married a beautiful woman and has three children and a prestigious job at the Quai d’Orsay, as the ministry is known. Yet he is bored; and since he works only 35 hours a week in keeping with French law, he has time for adventures.
His sexual safari starts in a cafe in Paris when a matronly older woman starts flirting with him. At first he is not interested. Then she slips €200 (£137) under the table. This excites him so much that he follows her to her hotel room.
It is the start of a busy secret life as a gigolo. He rents a flat and puts an advertisement in a magazine. “I did not love the people,” he says of his clients, “only the situation in which they appeared to me. There was a moment when I realised that I could desire any woman with the same voracity . . . from that moment on I was happy.”
It all begins to unravel after one of his girlfriends tips off his wife, who divorces him, allowing Sébastien greater freedom to pursue his second profession.
The novel is not a manifesto, says Bruckner, 56, but he advocates the expansion of prostitution to allow both sexes to practise in peace without the involvement of pimps — or the attachment of blame and social stigma.
Asked if he would have worked as a prostitute, he told Paris Match: “Yes, as an annexe activity, without any problem, especially at the age of the character in my novel. Being paid to make love is the dream of an adolescent.”
By contrast Nicole Avril, author of The Last Production, a novel about a woman who hires a gigolo for evenings of conversation before agreeing to have sex with him, has denied having any personal experience of a male prostitute, as has Josiane Balasko, a former stand-up comic and author of a book called Client, also about a woman and her gigolo.
Jean-Christophe Rufin, a luminary of the French literary world, will focus further attention on the subject when his novel Salamander comes out next month.
Set in Brazil, it is about a 17- year-old gigolo called Gil who becomes the plaything of a much older French woman visiting a friend in Recife. It is enough to bring back memories of Edith Piaf’s enjoyment, towards the end of her life, of the company of much younger men — and gives new meaning to the words of her famous song, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.
I previously presumed this French penchant is partially why Chirac got elected.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
No wonder they loved John Kerry.
Now I'm howling with laughter. Outstanding! :)
Regards, Ivan
Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
Sit down, I have a...long way to go
Just watch, I'm gonna...put on a show
Off to Nam I went...is that evident?
My wife's ketchup money I will blow
I will sleep with her...if I must
I'll say what I need to grab that big tru-ust
I will sleep with her...but I swear that I will not like it
Omigosh, what's that!...her old naval ring has mold
Omigosh, I've been grossed out...her old naval ring has mold
Mold covers the gold
I'm as good as Clinton...I'll fool 'em all
Just where he left off, I'll grab the ball
Off to Nam I went...is that now evident?
My wife's ketchup money I will blow
I will sleep with her...yes, if I mu-u-ust
'Cause I have to grab that great, great big tru-ust
I will sleep with her...I will not like it
Omigosh, what's that!...MOLD! MOLD! MOLD!
Gotta love it! Two posts and 41 seconds after the thread was posted, we get a John Kerry reference!
ROTFLOLPIMP !
Do they call him, Belle du Jour?
bttt
LOL!!!!!
Send help...dying laughing...
My God...I don't think I've ever come across a better illustration of the phrase "TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!!"
Sounds like the liberal babes are getting old and can't find anyone who likes to make it with old chicks for free.
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
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