#sexyghosts

Hah. 

Sex and stiffs. And sundials, and signposts, and some simpleton called Staume... alliterative allusions are a necessary distraction from actually engaging with this horrific book.

It did remind me of another book I came across once - it was called ‘Grave Desire: A Cultural History of Necrophilia’, which, as a pun-lover, I thought was a pretty great title. But, after realising the author was going to call the first chapter 'A Necroduction'... followed by 'Necrophilia: a Deathnition', a chapter on 'NecroSuperstars', 'Necronauts', and of course, a 'Necroclusion'... I was like, mate, let it die.

Anyway, back to the tragedy in question - maybe Staume thinks he’s being funny - his previous book was ‘A Beginner's Guide for the Recently Deceased’, a lame attempt to gain kudos for the Beetlejuice reference. But Staume really is trying to write about the “potential” of “sexual energy” beyond the graaaave and for that, he deserves my derision. The imagery here is either ambiguous or, by contrast, extremely literal - arrows pointing up! To Heaven! In the SKY! That stock image of a woman’s mouth caught in an ecstatic moan (BECAUSE OF SEX) just makes me wonder why we don’t see more male ‘o faces’ on book covers -