RONALD CHRIST
61
searching for sexual pleasure . That was the big trap , the big lie .
Christ:
How is this awareness reflected in
The Buenos Aires Affa ir?
Puig:
When I wrote
Rita Hayworth ,
I still believed in Clark Gable as a force
of Nature . I thought it was a cruel Nature that had made this strong man
and these weak Harlows but that it was , in fact, Nature's law . Now I am
convinced that Clark Gable is an historical-cultural product, not Na–
ture's creature . In
The Buenos Aires Affair,
I tried to explore the final
consequences of the "frail" attitude in women , which is masochism.
Christ:
So that novel is an earlier step in the development because woman
does not realize the sado-masochistic basis of the relationship?
Puig:
Yes . But in the fourth book , she realizes it!
Christ:
What does that mean for you?
Puig:
For me it means a lot .
It
means almost everything because I myself
have always rejected the role of the authoritarian male. There was
something that I hated about it even though I thought that it was
natural . I hated it in spite of its apparently being Nature's decision. Now
I consider the rejection of authority , which has cost me so much trouble
throughout my life, an unconscious rebellion, but a healthy one.
Christ:
The next phase?
Puig:
The next phase is the book I am writing now . Look, even if there were
a perfect Marxist society , where everything was shared in the best human
spirit, there would still be one capital- physical beauty, sexual beauty .
That wouldn't be shared . And that's one point that I want to develop in
my new book. There are many ways to hunger in life and we're conscious
of the need for food, for a roof, but repression has stopped the need for sex
from being clarified. At least fifty per cent of the world 's population is
sexually starved . I think of the old, the ugly . It's a very cruel thing that
no one wants to acknowledge. Men dictate the rules, men with power
who have their sexual problems solved through their power and they
don 't want to devote any attention
to
this need because it is not one of
their
needs .
It
is as cruel as not caring about children starving . There are
many hungers and this is one that should be attended to .
