BROWDERBOOKS
I have just finished reading the page proofs for my forthcoming novel Forbidden Brownstones, which will be released early next year. It will soon be available for preorders. Set in nineteenth-century New York, it tells the story of a young black man who is fascinated by brownstones, where the white gentry live, and dreams of living in one himself and even possessing it. This becomes an obsession, with hints of arson, theft, and murder.
#cliffbrowderbooks
What’s Sexy and What Isn’t
Long ago a social worker working with the homeless told me, “Homelessness isn’t sexy.” Discouraged, she soon retired. By “sexy” she meant new, vital, interesting. Homelessness had become too vast, too familiar, and too hopeless to attract volunteers and donors.
Though we may not do it consciously, we often use “sexy” to indicate something new, exciting, and appealing. So here is a list of things that I think sexy, and their unsexy opposites. Feel free to disagree.
- Spike heels are sexy; flip-flops are not. Spike heels suggest someone decisive and to the point, someone with energy and determiination. Flip-flops are casual, passive, lazy.
- Shorts are sexy; sweat pants are not. No comment necessary.
- Tomatoes are sexy; potatoes are not. Being red when ripe, tomatoes were once considered aphrodisiacs; they can entice, excite. Potatoes, especially when mashed, just lie there, a big, characterless blob.
- Steaks are sexy; tofu is not. Steaks were once alive and charged with energy; we like to think they fuel us, feed our gut. And if labeled unhealthy, they smack of risk and danger. Tofu is shapeless, tasteless; lacks character. It’s healthy, but too often healthy is boring.
- Sharks are sexy; goldfish are not. Sharks are streamlined machines for killing, sensual in their movements, efficient, dagger-toothed, and dangerous. Goldfish are nice little things, decorative, harmless; they don’t excite or frighten.
- War is sexy; peace is not. War is exciting, dramatic, full of effort and achievement. Peace, though desirable, is dull; it lacks the excitement of war.
- Folly is sexy; wisdom is not. Except in high places, where it can do harm, folly can be absurd and make us laugh. And it lets us feel superior. Wisdom reeks of smugness, makes us feel inferior, even stupid (which maybe we are).
- God is sexy; his worshipers are not. God is epic, powerful, profound; a blend of strength and mystery. His worshipers — with exceptions — make a show of certainty, of smugness; they glory in having a truth that others do not. They’ve got it all figured out.
- Death is sexy; dying is not. Death is the greatest adventure we will ever have. It is cosmic, overwhelming, transformational. Dying is painful, costly, either boring or laced with anguish, degrading, and humiliating.
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