Reading Report: Bonk

The quest for knowledge is, in many ways, just as interesting as the knowledge itself. Sometimes it is a situation where nobody in the world could possibly be as interested in a subject as one exceedingly quirky scientist. Other times, the hoops that researchers have to go through to obtain funding for their dubious-sounding project are quite preposterous. Then, there are the times when the theories are so outrageous in hindsight, we wonder why anyone ever believed them in the first place. While most sciences have all of these types of stories, their astounding nature is magnified when the subject is sex. In her book Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Mary Roach covers it all with hilarity. Though I do not often read humorous books, I figure that I would hard pressed to find another science tome that can make me squirm and cackle quite like this one did.

The main takeaway from this book is that we know very little about our bodies in the context of sexuality in comparison to other sciences. The reason for this is simply that society is and has always been completely backwards in its views about it. Still today in some countries, scientists risk their lives by engaging in studies that focus on female sexuality. For centuries, puritan thinking handed the responsibility of sexual discovery to bored gynecologists and physicians with overactive imaginations. Though you may imagine today's world to be far more open to sexual studies, the wordplay that must be done to the names of the studies and the machinery and props involved will tell you otherwise. Though the picture is bleak, Roach tackles it with an amused tone that never lets you frown.

I consider myself a hard sell when it comes to humor, but Roach manufactures the cleverest, sharpest jokes out of such strange material. It isn't easy to make me laugh, but I was overcome many many times. By contrast if you chuckle at Marmaduke you might want to keep an oxygen tank handy. Let me share with you one excerpt that I think sums it all up nicely: "Kinsey wanted Dellenback to film his staff. There are three ways to read that sentence, all of them true." Like I said, sharp. That's the kind of line you follow with a tug of your lapel. The book is full of them. If you are curious about the study of sex and like to laugh, this should be enough of a sales pitch.

Roach also encounters many interesting people during her research. One of the most memorable characters in the book is the Taiwanese Dr. Hsu, who is the world's leading expert on penile reconstruction. His enthusiasm for his craft and his frequent euphemisms spoken in broken English are simultaneously adorable and riotous. "So this guy. Now ready to make a home run. Like a baseball bat!" Roach herself is quite the sport. Sometimes, her research can't get her anywhere near the studies that are taking place, so she volunteers to be a subject herself. Sometimes she even gets her husband involved, the poor thing. It all makes for an amusing journey.

This book is not so much a learning experience as it is a story about the history and current state of sex research. I think its main purpose is to be interesting without being loaded with too many lessons. While there are a few tidbits that you can take away and use in your own sex life, most of the research points to inconclusive findings. This tells me not that science fails, but that sexuality has so many facets that normal standard scientific methods of isolating variables for study are simply not enough. It is a message that highlights the necessity for bold sexuality research, unhindered by conservative social stigmas. We'll never get to the bottom of our pool of mysteries if academia insists we stay at wading depth. Though some countries have allowed research to get quite gritty, I have a feeling that most of us will continue to find sexuality a taboo subject. Which is a shame, 'cause I'm a freak in bed.