polymorphously perverse - adjective - generalized sexual desire that can be excited and gratified in many ways, typical in young children, but unusual in adults (Google).
Ordinarily, I wouldn't touch on topics like the three (or four) P's as they aren't G or PG-rated. I like to remain free and clear from controversial subjects whenever possible. (The title is definitely an eye-catcher, though. Right?) However, this month's book club selection chosen by my friend, a working public school English teacher, is The Waiting Years by Japanese author Fumiko Enchi (Fumi Ueda). Written in 1957 and set in Japan in the late 19th century, the novel focuses on the wife of a political higher-up, an autocrat who forces her to scan the countryside for a nearly prepubescent concubine to appease his polymorphously perverse desires. After painstaking efforts to find just the right girl, the wife packs her up and returns to her home, gifting the perfect child to the husband, who delights in the finding, but merely tentatively. The new sex toy's youth and beauty are just not enough to satiate him; ergo, he continues to "buy" his way to sexual ecstasy, enlisting many more young, not quite nubile candidates openly via their parents' consent, only to frustrate his dutiful wife who refuses to divorce him. Apparently, this sort of thing went on in Japan during the time period, which, when you think about it, is intolerable, shocking. In order to save face superficially and hide what the community at large already knows and accepts, the despicable husband "adopts" the adolescents, referring to them as his "daughters," which, when push comes to shove, makes him not a polygamist, but an incestuous pedophile. Yikes. I can't spoil things and give you an idea of the outcome of all this because I am only half-way through the book. Sorry, but you are going to have to read it yourself.
The Japanese culture is not alone in its salacious history. The ancient Greeks celebrated pedophilia, especially between young boys and men as proven by the remains of statues that graced public places. Fundamentalist Mormons in this country ostensibly practiced and still practice polygamy in the far corners of Utah although the modernists today frown upon it. You have to wonder what these and many other peoples could have been thinking when they decided this sort of thing was a-okay as opposed to morally reprehensible. Of course, the Seven Deadly Sins, particularly, greed for wealth and power definitely come into play, and men (not women) tended to be the guilty parties. If the shoe fits, wear it, guys.
The good news, I suppose, is that Generation Z is apparently so caught up in technology that they aren't having sex–the good kind or the bad kind–at all. This, too, could prove problematic if you are a Millennial hoping to collect social security some day. The fewer gainfully employed humans, the fewer dollars there are in the communal pot.
But let's get back to The Waiting Years for a moment. It is surely a book that a large percentage of the population in this country would love to ban and/or cancel for obvious reasons. Which is ironic because in the 1950s, a moral decade for the most part, the author won Japan's highest literary award, the Noma Prize. What I find to be fascinating is what comes down to cultural differences. Despite the fact that the world has shrunk due to technology, people still are divided culturally. We are the same, only different.
Life goes on.
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