Chapter 20 - No Ordinary Love

Summary

It has been noted by numerous scholars that Wallace’s writing of sexual activity and identity was, to say the least, unsatisfying. Often violent and/or coercive, almost always alienating, and generally involving repulsion either within or beyond the text, sex is a site of conflict for Wallace. While juvenile sexual jokes animate the early work in particular (Frequent and Vigorous being the prime example), meaningful sexual experiences are few. Sex is problematic; phantom pregnancies and the choice of masturbation over sexual intimacy recur as images of the wasteful productivity of contemporary society and culture, while rape and sexual manipulation are common behaviors of the solipsistic (usually male) characters peopling this space. This chapter outlines some of the primary motifs of sex and sexuality in Wallace’s work, examining the ways in which he used the sexual subject to dramatize forms of social intercourse and self-expression and exploring the connections between sex, power and communication in his writing.