The Radicality of Love by Srećko Horvat

Author:Srećko Horvat
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780745691176
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published: 2015-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

To get a taste of this new “libidinal economy,” we should take a glance at the bizarre agitational drama Sexual Depravity on Trial published in 1927 by Dr E. B. Demidovich, the physician who had warned of the evil effects of masturbation. Zalkind himself endorsed it by writing a preface for it and praising the role of fictional trials as a tool for highlighting sexual questions and arousing the consciousness of the youth. Later, these “pedagogic” sexual fictional trials would, of course, become the main tool for eliminating political enemies (so-called “show trials”). The central point of the play concerns the dilemma whether a man can be charged with abandoning his wife, given the official policy of free marriage and divorce in the USSR: The bon vivant Semyon Vasiliev abandonded his wife Anna Vtorova, who was three months pregnant; his sexual behavior led to disastrous social consequences including syphilis and abortion. Anna’s brother appears in court as the principal accuser. He is a Party member for several years and the pure representative of the healthy and strong youth.

Defense Attorney (D): Witness Vtorov, you, it seems, are twenty-three years old.

Vtorov (V): Yes, twenty-three.

D: Are you married?

V: No, I’m not.

D: Well, and how do you approach women?

V: Like a comrade.

D: And how do you part with them?

V: Also like a comrade.

D: You’ve had children?

V: Me?… No, I haven’t.

D: You’ve used birth control?

V: Never.

D: So you are not healthy?

V: I am absolutely healthy … I have never had a sex life.

D: At twenty-three years of age?

V: At twenty-three years of age.

D: I have no further questions.

Expert (E): May I pose several questions to the witness?

Judge: By all means.

E: You have experienced attraction to a woman?

V: Yes.

E: What has held you back from intimacy?

V: I am a member of the Party. I need strength for the construction of a new form of life and I strive conscientiously so that my sex life does not cripple me, or a woman, or our child. I am young and won’t need a woman any time soon, and I am looking for one who will attract me not for a day and not for a month, but for many years. I am looking for a woman who would be both a woman and a comrade-in-work.

E: And so far you haven’t found one?

V: Sometimes it has seemed as if I have. But upon checking it’s been clear that it was a mistake.

E: And how do you check?

V: I simply wait, allow the attraction to strengthen, observe her and myself, asking myself do I want a child with her.

E: And is that all that restrains you?

V: No, it’s not all. I conscientiously want to begin a sex life only when a child will not frighten me.

E: Is the battle difficult?

V: It’s easier in the winter. In the summer it’s harder, especially at the beginning.

E: Do you suffer from insomnia?

V: No, I sleep splendidly.

E: What helps you in the battle?

V: Breaks for physical exercise. I try to avoid being alone when I have free time.

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