Thus the flipside of Seamus’s scathing critical temperament is his desire to be dominated sexually, to be treated (not Taylor’s word) “like dogmeat.” While these aren’t necessarily opposing impulses, the tension between them is illuminating. An engine rumbles “like a drowsing animal.” A creaking floor gives “a sharp yelp, like a frightened cat.” Dancers have “an aloof, feral quality to them, like coyotes in a zoo” poets are “like pack animals.” This creates a kind of Dionysian counterpoint to the characters’ intellectual posturing. The feral is close to the surface everywhere in Taylor’s world. One encounter ends with a cigarette to the face. They give off “acidic heat,” “wet heat,” “animal heat.” Sex is visceral, odoriferous, and usually joyless. The irresistible warmth of bodies forces his characters out of themselves and acts as a shield against the blasted Iowan landscape. Most of our protagonists are links in a chain of bored or impromptu sexual encounters: Seamus to Bert to Noah to Ivan to Goran… It’s the impulse that undergirds and sometimes overwhelms the cerebralism of Taylor’s neurotic intellectuals. Sex is the novel’s other great governing theme.
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