A Different Spin on the World Around Us : Sex in ‘90s Shouldn’t Have to Be This Dull

Madonna, move over. It’s time for a little old-fashioned S-E-X. The kind described 2,000 years ago in the Kama Sutra, now marketed in a new, “improved” version with photos of real people who also appear in an “instructional home video,” coming soon.

What’s so hot about the new Kama Sutra? Even with photos of folks in what are touted as “potentially injurious” positions, it’s hard to tell.

So we phoned Indra Sinha, who translated the relic from the original Sanskrit, to ask why it has been revived.

“Because Kama Sutra is for people in monogamous relationships--and that is the relationship for the 1990s, don’t you think?”

Absolutely, we trilled. But why is this book better than, say, Dr. Ruth or Alex Comfort?

He sounded stumped. “Forget this book and the bizarre positions,” Sinha finally said. “They are irrelevant. The original was for young Indian couples in arranged marriages who’d never have another partner in their entire lives. It taught how, with tenderness and affection, they could reach ultimate pleasure of the senses. It showed how endless practice with the same person could make the act of love better each year. Sex is like ice dancing,” he went on. “Two people soaring together with effortless grace. The dancers can’t achieve that if they run off to practice with other people. In other words, monogamy pays off. Is that such a bad idea?”

We never said it was. In fact, we told him, a book on the subject might really sell. This isn’t it.