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The Casanova Sexicon: A Manual for Liberated Men
Getting Eric Nicol, 79, to critique Casanova is like getting Queen Victoria to review a Madonna concert. Or so you would think. After more than 40 books, Eric Nicol appreciates Casanova as a role model in The Casanova Sexicon: A Manual for Liberated Men (Ronsdale $18.95). Nicol claims Casanova was not cavalier; he was a genuine lover who ravished women. And they (apparently) liked it. Nicol feels sorry for the post-Greer, pre-nuptial agreement generation who are struggling for simultaneous orgasms, equality and gender blendered romance. Nicol's Ato-Z directory is a treatise on sex written in the guise of a manual for would-be Casanovas. Here's an excerpt.
Unless you plan to die young-and it is an option worth offering to the gods-you really need to have some occupation besides bedding women and betting on cards. We all die alone, but it is the wretched years while we teeter ere hopping the twig that may make the Casanovan question the wisdom of his never having learned a trade.. .married a nice girl.. or at least invested in sound real estate.
He who sows wild oats only, reaps a thin crop. With his swashbuckling lifestyle-fighting duels, making love to married women, eating out to excess-Casanova was lucky to live as long as he did. Or was he? He had no way of knowing that his massive memoirs would qualify as one of the classics of eighteenth century literature. Grown old, he might have been happier had he had a good-natured missus to bring him a cup of tea, and rub the back that he compromised with too much indoor sport...
This is particularly true if-unlike the Casanova-his disciple has missed the point: women are to be loved. He who has intercourse merely to relieve sexual tension is like him whose only interest in food is to satisfy hunger. Both are a bit gross. Women are fascinating creatures, usually seeking more than sex. They are the gourmets of copulation, whereas--most men are into fast food.
The wolf misses all the nuances of romance that made every love affair memorable for Casanova, because he wasn't trying to squeeze it in between soccer practices. Lord Byron-no mean libertine himself~wrote: "Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, /'Tis woman's whole existence." Today's woman has narrowed the gap of need for a man's love, thanks to the resurrection of Sappho, plus the technological breakthrough of the vibrator, and golf links for ladies.
Another new reality to make the Casanovan's sex life more complicated than that of the average fruit fly: a new generation of women-to the consternation of the vintage feminists-is reported to be making waves in the Sea of Discord: The neo-feminist.
This brash young thing has taken a long look at her older sisters in emancipation from the patriarchal family, and noticed that the even playing field has proved to be crabgrass. Having it all-career. ..kids. ..a male helpmate eager and happy to forego the hockey game in favour of vacuuming the dog has been found to be a flawed concept.
Total gender equality has been no guarantee of happiness for either sex. Especially if the hired nanny fashions a kid who views his or her parents as home furnishing, readily replaced by a computer play station.
As bonding, it's been Crazy Glue. So, now the younger woman is seeking to restore her role as a homemaker, perhaps postponing another career in order to enjoy the satisfaction of being a full-time Mom. What is the Casanovan to make of this? Every hour that this woman spends with her children means less time that she will be sitting in a bar, or schussing down the slope, or taking her rightful place at a pool table, where the Casanovan has the opportunity to catch her eye and take a cue. Instead, she is ensconced in her home office, flirting with the Internet, a rival more formidable than Casanova
ever had to deal with.
Thus the would-be Casanovan faces different criteria for seducing a 19 year-old university freshette, her 40-year-old unwed mother, and her under standably alcoholic grannie.
This frightening development has occurred in the time it has taken to write this book. Which makes it difficult to assess the Casanovan's chances of finding sexual fulfillment by helping Moms push swings in playgrounds. Or by becoming a PC repairman, in order to get noticed by cyberwoman.
However, this rapidly-evolving confusion of gender roles does not necessarily invalidate the preceding pages' gospel according to Casanova. A woman is ever a woman. And still susceptible to the advances of the man who truly loves women preferably one at a time-but with a mind open to exceptional occasions. Good hunting! 0-921870-88-4
[BCBW Spring 2002]
Unless you plan to die young-and it is an option worth offering to the gods-you really need to have some occupation besides bedding women and betting on cards. We all die alone, but it is the wretched years while we teeter ere hopping the twig that may make the Casanovan question the wisdom of his never having learned a trade.. .married a nice girl.. or at least invested in sound real estate.
He who sows wild oats only, reaps a thin crop. With his swashbuckling lifestyle-fighting duels, making love to married women, eating out to excess-Casanova was lucky to live as long as he did. Or was he? He had no way of knowing that his massive memoirs would qualify as one of the classics of eighteenth century literature. Grown old, he might have been happier had he had a good-natured missus to bring him a cup of tea, and rub the back that he compromised with too much indoor sport...
This is particularly true if-unlike the Casanova-his disciple has missed the point: women are to be loved. He who has intercourse merely to relieve sexual tension is like him whose only interest in food is to satisfy hunger. Both are a bit gross. Women are fascinating creatures, usually seeking more than sex. They are the gourmets of copulation, whereas--most men are into fast food.
The wolf misses all the nuances of romance that made every love affair memorable for Casanova, because he wasn't trying to squeeze it in between soccer practices. Lord Byron-no mean libertine himself~wrote: "Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, /'Tis woman's whole existence." Today's woman has narrowed the gap of need for a man's love, thanks to the resurrection of Sappho, plus the technological breakthrough of the vibrator, and golf links for ladies.
Another new reality to make the Casanovan's sex life more complicated than that of the average fruit fly: a new generation of women-to the consternation of the vintage feminists-is reported to be making waves in the Sea of Discord: The neo-feminist.
This brash young thing has taken a long look at her older sisters in emancipation from the patriarchal family, and noticed that the even playing field has proved to be crabgrass. Having it all-career. ..kids. ..a male helpmate eager and happy to forego the hockey game in favour of vacuuming the dog has been found to be a flawed concept.
Total gender equality has been no guarantee of happiness for either sex. Especially if the hired nanny fashions a kid who views his or her parents as home furnishing, readily replaced by a computer play station.
As bonding, it's been Crazy Glue. So, now the younger woman is seeking to restore her role as a homemaker, perhaps postponing another career in order to enjoy the satisfaction of being a full-time Mom. What is the Casanovan to make of this? Every hour that this woman spends with her children means less time that she will be sitting in a bar, or schussing down the slope, or taking her rightful place at a pool table, where the Casanovan has the opportunity to catch her eye and take a cue. Instead, she is ensconced in her home office, flirting with the Internet, a rival more formidable than Casanova
ever had to deal with.
Thus the would-be Casanovan faces different criteria for seducing a 19 year-old university freshette, her 40-year-old unwed mother, and her under standably alcoholic grannie.
This frightening development has occurred in the time it has taken to write this book. Which makes it difficult to assess the Casanovan's chances of finding sexual fulfillment by helping Moms push swings in playgrounds. Or by becoming a PC repairman, in order to get noticed by cyberwoman.
However, this rapidly-evolving confusion of gender roles does not necessarily invalidate the preceding pages' gospel according to Casanova. A woman is ever a woman. And still susceptible to the advances of the man who truly loves women preferably one at a time-but with a mind open to exceptional occasions. Good hunting! 0-921870-88-4
[BCBW Spring 2002]
Submitted on June 15, 2004 in By David.
