Review: Sex and the zodiac?
By Adam Dunn
Special to CNN
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Story Tools
| 'Sextrology: The Astrology of Sex and the Sexes' |
• By Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox
• HarperCollins
• Astrology
• 551 pages
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(CNN) -- Forget little fold-up pamphlets on the compatibility of sun signs, forget lucky numbers on motel paper placemats, forget that weather-beaten little paperback on sexual astrology your college roommate's girlfriend left in the bathroom.
"Sextrology," by slick stargazers Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox, seeks to be the manual for star-crossed lovers -- or, at least, the latest version.
The authors split each star sign into genders, with each gender subjected to a tripartite "analysis" through psychic persona ("Sign and Mind"), image ("Body and Soul"), and "Sex and Sexuality" ('nuff said) categories. Each category contains examples of a particular sign's mythical and biblical archetypes, semiology, list of celebrities born under each sign, and (of course) turn-ons.
Not wanting to leave any stone (or star) unturned, the authors offer counsel across the full spectrum of sexual diversity (no starry-eyed babes-in-woods these, they stop just short of discussing activities which, at least here on planet Earth, also happen to be felonies). At 550 pages, the authors clearly meant to be comprehensive, and they are.
However, fair warning: The authors do sound staggeringly presumptuous much of the time.
Cocktail party chit-chat
The distinctive feature of the book is the authors' writing style, which reads like something they'd write in their numerous magazine columns. While this is a good way to make the pages turn faster, at times it sounds more like cocktail-party chitchat. Consider this offering for a Taurus woman:
"Think of all those over-the-top Taurean entertainers just screaming in their resplendence, often via Bob Mackie designs-Cher, Barbra Streisand, Carol Burnett, Joanna Lumley, Pia Zadora, Rita Coolidge, Janet Jackson, Grace Jones, Shirley MacLaine, Bea Arthur, and Ann-Margret. It might as well be a marquee of drag performers. And such a summation would be apt: Transvestism in men has its roots in shaman-priests also putting on the goddess's holy vestments as a means of being granted her power. Taurus woman, already fully femininely endowed by nature, might thus be labeled the zodiac's vestite -- a term, like vestment, which stems from Vesta herself. The point of all this garbage comes down to one thing: expression. Just as the sign rules the voice, symbolically interpreted as that which gives rise to personal idiom, the sign of Taurus woman is all wrapped up in a need to embrace and celebrate herself in so vivid a manner. Indeed, one wonders how the cosmetics industry might suffer if it weren't for the lady Bull, forever softening herself with lotions, perfuming and polishing herself to female perfection."
Ohhhh-kay.
The upside of this writing style is that it greases the skids while moving the reader through a great deal of information en route to the all-important "Couplings" charts for all signs.
The downside is the tone in which it is delivered, a slightly smarmy, hipper-than-thou list of highly opinionated observations. The book reads like "Sex and the City" plus the zodiac.
To be fair, that's in keeping with the authors' professed goals: "We set out to compose a pop exploration of astrology and sexuality, intending it to be amusing, if ever so slightly titillating, without taking itself too seriously." And if that's what you're looking for, "Sextrology" is for you.
