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| Is Sex Necessary?: Or Why You Feel the Way You Do | 
 enlarge | Authors: James Thurber, E. B. White
Creator: John Updike
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
Buy New: $3.47
You Save: $10.52 (75%)
New (21) Used (25) from $1.68
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 325700
Media: Paperback
Edition: 75 Anv
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0060733144
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.5207
EAN: 9780060733148
ASIN: 0060733144
Publication Date: November 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Also Available In:
| • | Paperback - Is Sex Necessary? : Or Why You Feel the Way You Do | | • | Paperback - Is Sex Necessary?: Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do (Harper colophon books) | | • | Hardcover - Is Sex Necessary?: Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do | | • | Hardcover - Is Sex Necessary? | | • | Unknown Binding - Is sex necessary?: Or, Why you feel the way you do, (Harper Colophon books) | | • | Unknown Binding - Is sex necessary? or, Why you feel the way you do | | • | Hardcover - Is sex necessary?: Or, Why you feel the way you do, | | • | Paperback - Is Sex Necessary? (A Delta book) | | • | Unknown Binding - Is sex necessary? (Dell book) | | • | Unknown Binding - Is sex necessary?: Or, Why you feel the way you do (Penguin books) | | • | Unknown Binding - Is sex necessary?: Or, why you feel the way you do | | • | Unknown Binding - Is sex necessary? (Armed Services edition) | | • | Unknown Binding - Is sex necessary? or, Why you feel the way you do | | • | Paperback - Is Sex Necessary? : Or Why You Feel the Way You Do |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The first book of prose published by either James Thurber or E. B. White, Is Sex Necessary? combines the humor and genius of both authors to examine those great mysteries of life -- romance, love, and marriage. A masterpiece of drollery, this 75th Anniversary Edition stands the test of time with its sidesplitting spoof of men, women, and psychologists; more than fifty funny illustrations by Thurber; and a new foreword by John Updike.
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| Customer Reviews:
Classic White & Thurber January 9, 2009
A parody in classic vaudevillian style of the (then) newly emergent do-it-yourself psychology books. Thurber's drawing on p. 52 (Queen's House edition, 1978) with its accompanying text "This peculiar posture was discovered by Dr. Titbridge in a patient who for thirty years, boy and man, had been unable to tell love from passion and who allowed it to prey on his mind. Drawing from the Titbridge collection of American male postures." is, by itself, worth the price.
 I Believe Their Answer Is Ehhhhhhh... December 28, 2008
Mr. Thurber and Mr. White wrote a very amusing and rich satire on this basic of human conditions. In John Updike's foreword, he is correct in stating that this little gem of a book is quite phallocratic in its assumptions and has misogynistic tendencies. It was created all in good fun by two men in their early thirties and should be viewed as a product of its times (1929). This is very tame stuff in relation to present-day material, but still worth your time if you enjoy witty, nonsensical compositions. There's a good reason this baby is still kicking around eight decades after its initial publication. The book is a quick, light read by two pros.
A conversation starter December 20, 2005
4 out of 14 found this review helpful
There's no need to actually read this book if you're a male.
Simply carry it around, and you will find yourself approached by a wide variety of women who are amused and perhaps a bit threatened by the title.
Many of them will be interested in showing you the positive response to the question posed by the book's title.
It's quite astonishing, really. You have to try it to believe the results. Good luck.
Ahhh... the sexual revolution--30 years early! July 6, 2004
27 out of 30 found this review helpful
You've probably heard of E.B. White--he wrote "Charlotte's Web" after all, quite possibly still required reading in many middle schools (as a lead-in to 2pac Shakur's poetry, I'm sure). James Thurber may be a bit more obscure to some of you, but he was an Ohio State alumnus (go Buckeyes! *cough*), an awesome cartoonist/artist, and an author possessed of a wonderfully ascerbic wit.The combination of the two in this book is a rather uniquely bizarre experience that I found joyously uplifting. The subject under discussion is indeed, in a rather obscure and indirect sense, sex. But we never *quite* seem to get there; non sequiturs abound, blank pages, discussions of how to avoid sex, bluebirds, flowers, a section on how children should explain sex to adults, and even a "letters from readers" chapter--but no actual sex. Lots of drawings, but nothing that anyone might find helpful for improving their sex life. (Bowling, yes. Bicycling, definitely. Obscure interpretations of unconscious artwork, absolutely. Sex, no.) This book wasn't so much a reaction to Freud per se as it was to the wacky influx of psychologists and "sexologists", and their (unfortunately for us, entirely successful) attempts to complexify and obfuscate human behavior. This particular brand of snake oil started in the 20s and hasn't stopped flowing, and we're covered in an ever-growing deluge of how-to relationship manuals, self-help books, and other ludicrous efforts at explaining "the human condition". White and Thurber's work explains, in the main, nothing. It asks more questions than it answers. The humor is dry and obscure, there are a ton of rather dated references, and if you're under 30 you'll probably need a dictionary. But... if you need a laugh without a laugh track... you're fed up with "self-help" and "Men are from Saturn, Women are from Liverpool" type books... or you happen to think sex is vastly overrated (it is), give "Is Sex Necessary?" a try. You might be surprised at the answer.
What a romp! September 26, 1999
30 out of 35 found this review helpful
Thurber's and White's text satirizing the hullabaloo that our dearest lunatic, Mr. Sigmund Freud, began takes whatever cake is being handed out for satirical writing. It's universally funny, lucid, and did I mention funny? It's hilarious. One should pull out one's thesaurus at this point to find other such words, and all will be a propos. The book should have been a trilogy.
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