One Stroke Bloak

In Cock and Bull, there is particular attention paid to both individuals who prematurely ejaculate and to the character which informs these individuals in ability to perform. Self explains that “Alan was a one-thrust man” and more importantly:

While each thrust had, therefore gone in, it had turned back on Alan, at some deep level penetrating him with the morbid realization that his sexual being was a dull thing, a lifeless thing, a mass produced marionette with chipped paint and fraying springs (232)

This is not unlike Dan in Cock, who also lacks any sexual fervor or stamina for that matter. Indeed, Dan and Alan, also regard sex in a weird sort of disconnected manner. Dan refers to it as “climbing aboard”, suggesting the inanimate nature of the vagina upon which he “climbs”. Not to mention it seems entirely void of a person who is being mounted. Alan’s sexuality on the other hand is referred to as “mass produced” and indeed, this title is fitting for a man who can rationalize his adultery in the midst of adulterous actions. The notion of mass production I think is really critical in our discussion of why these books are transgressive. That is, they seem to be responding to our postmodern sexuality by thrusting, no pun intended, into center stage conflated, but not entirely unbelievable, characters who espouse a sexuality reflective of values concomitant with mass consumption and production. I think this is hugely relevant to Martin Amis’s Money, but is also present in the seemingly more magical, but nonetheless relevant instances provided in Cock and Bull. Not only is Alan’s sexuality mass produced, but it is “lifeless” and marionette like. I think this characterization is offering readers a really raw look at the values, or lack thereof, which have been a result of our hugely commoditized age and has penetrated our most primal urges. Are we past the point of no return? Self seems to be suggesting that even educated persons like Doctors are even susceptible to this corrupted sexual nature. I mean to highlight this because Amis, in my opinion seemed to be suggesting that it was really the lower class which suffered from the culture of mass production and consumption. Although I agree to a certain extent that sexuality has in a sense become corrupted by mass productive values, I don’t really know if it is fair to assert that human sexuality wasn’t always something which jumped on any and every opportunity to express itself; and therefore is merely finding more modes of expression in our postmodern condition.