Why Not?

Nicholas Baker’s latest novel ‘House of Holes’ is like nothing I’ve ever read.  Baker is known for his scrupulous (at times painful) attention to detail and the emotional detachment of his main characters.  HoH is an explicitly pornographic novel which takes that emotional detachment to an entirely new place.  The book focuses on a fictional ‘place’ called ‘House of Holes’, where all kinds of sexual fantasies and scenarios are played out.  In a series of loosely related chapters, various characters (there are no main characters here, just a large cast of supporting roles) accidently enter the HoH, where they take part in rich and varied panorama of sexual activity.

But this is not at all your typical porn book, not that we would expect that from Nicholson Baker.  This is sex completely cut off from roles (no priests, nuns, fathers, mothers, construction workers, pole dancers, no punishment, no pain ….) and society’s prejudices.  It’s just sex, pure and simple.  Nothing else.  Nothing.

First of all it’s remarkable that Baker can fill the pages of a full novel with enough variety to keep the reader interested.  The language is rich and playful.  He doesn’t hold back the humor either.  You’ll laugh at the obvious and not-so-obvious word play.  Puns abound.  It really is fun.  I confess that the last quarter of the book got a little tiresome for me, but that may have more to do with my mood at the time than the book itself.

Most open-minded men will, I think, be OK with Baker’s approach.  My guess is that most women will not.  Certainly not your typical book club selection, that’s for sure.  There’s no romance, no emotion or feeling other than purely physical sensation.  That’s pretty difficult to sustain over a few hundred pages.  And it’s an entirely new use for Baker’s typical emotional detachment.  Not at all what I expected.

As porn goes, it’s probably a lot healthier than almost all of the smut that’s out there.  It’s just plain fun.  What’s the harm?  It is an interesting exercise to consider sex devoid of all emotion and psychological significance.  Not what most of us would want in real life, but there is clearly no attempt to be realistic here.  It’s an ‘essay’ in the original sense of the word.  An attempt at something new.

What strikes me as a reader is the way each character reacts when offered an opportunity for a sexual encounter of some kind.  The proposal might be straightforward or bizarre.  There is never any emotion or attachment connected with the proposal.  Each character seems to consider very briefly, and then simply says something like “Well, OK!”

Of course this has nothing to do with reality, but I can’t help but notice how each character seems to bring no prejudice, fear, or trepidation to the decision.  The proposal is considered on its own terms.  No potential harm, some potential enjoyment … so why not?  In reality how often can any of us pull that off?  How often are we in such a neutral and calm place that we can make a decision devoid of all the crap that we carry from our past?  How often are we in that place of perfect peace and balance?

Isn’t that at least part the goal of the practice of meditation?  I might argue that in those few moments when we are truly open we make wise decisions.  Those moments don’t require courage.  It doesn’t pay to force ourselves to do anything.  But to be truly open means to listen well and without judgment, to accept generosity without fear, and to fully experience.  It’s like bringing the innocence of an infant to the adult world.

The real world requires caution, discernment, and discrimination (in the best sense of the world).  But it’s interesting to remember what it’s like to be completely open to what comes our way.  In those rare moments we may be at our best.