Leë eiers vs groen dildo’s

Die wenner van hierdie jaar se “Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Awards 2009” is Maandagaand om 21h30, Suid-Afrikaanse tyd, aangewys.

Ek weet wie die wenner is, maar eers die volgende ...

Talle literêre skrywers het, verkeerdelik, verwag dat Philip Roth se roman The Humbling dit sou kry. In die toneel wat glo vir Roth hierdie vreemde eer sou verdien, tel die hoofkarakter, Simon, en sy lesbiese vriendin, Pegeen, ’n meisie in ’n kroeg op en neem haar huis toe vir ’n threesome.

Pegeen haal dan ’n groen dildo te verskyn en, aldus Roth:

This was not soft porn. This was no longer two unclothed women caressing and kissing on a bed. There was something primitive about it now, this woman-on-woman violence, as though in the room filled with shadows, Pegeen was a magical composite of shaman, acrobat and animal. It was as if she were wearing a mask on her genitals, a weird totem mask, that made her into what she was not and was not supposed to be. There was something dangerous about it. His heart thumped with excitement – the god Pan looking on from a distance with his spying, lascivious gaze.

Nou ja. Dit was toe nie die dildo nie.

Nee, dit was Jonathan Littell se roman, The Kindly Ones, wat met hierdie “eer” weggestap het. En watter passasie is tydens die bekendmaking van die prys voorgelees? Hier is dit:

I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg.

Helaas.

Die kortlys was:

Paul Theroux: A Dead Hand (Ek kon nie help om te dink die hand is dood van te hard werk nie!) Nick Cave: The Death of Bunny Munro Philip Roth: The Humbling Jonathan Littell: The Kindly Ones Amos Oz: Rhyming Life and Death John Banville: The Infinities Anthony Quinn: The Rescue Man Simon van Booy: Love Begins in Winter Sanjida O’Connell: The Naked Name of Love Richard Milward: Ten Storey Love Song

Julle kan ook ernstiger artikels lees in Literary Review, kliek hier: