Althouse: "He would have sex with as many as 10 or 15 men in the course of a normal day, while still logging a full day's work at the typewriter."

July 31, 2009

"He would have sex with as many as 10 or 15 men in the course of a normal day, while still logging a full day's work at the typewriter."

"He puts his lifetime total at something on the order of 50,000 partners. 'I don't know whether it resolves any particular conflicts,' he says. 'You learn a lot about different people, different groups — and it's a lot of fun.' Although he does not practice safe sex, he has remained HIV-negative, in part because he engages only in nonpenetrative sex."

65 comments:

Rialby said...: I'm so confused as to how you have sex with 10-15 men a day and only have nonpenetrative sex. I don't even know what means.; 7/31/09, 10:53 AM
tim maguire said...: How many hours are there in his day?

Or, since it's "nonpenetrative sex", is it enough that he is in a room with 10 or 15 people and somebody's kissing or something. Does that count?; 7/31/09, 10:54 AM
Methadras said...: Is this Bill Clinton sex we are talking about here?; 7/31/09, 10:57 AM
Scott M said...: I've said it before and I'll say it again...gay men give homosexuality a very bad rap.; 7/31/09, 10:58 AM
Salamandyr said...: Interesting. It's important to note that gay sex is broad enough to encompass any activity where one person gets off another person. They might also include oral when there is no swallowing.

He sounds like an interesting person, but it seems a bit that his importance as a writer is being magnified because "he's gay, that makes him cooler!".; 7/31/09, 11:00 AM
Paddy O said...: Reminds me of a Cheers quote:

Carla's daughter: "I mean, if it were not for the ten times a day we make love he would be no fun at all."

Norm: "Ten? I can't think of anything that I do ten times a day."; 7/31/09, 11:08 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Doesn't "On the order of 50,000" means more that 5,000 but less than 500,000? I don't remember from math class.; 7/31/09, 11:10 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Today’s theme is unfamiliar to me.

I seem to have a vague memory of a hot air balloon... other than that is all a haze ;); 7/31/09, 11:23 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: WTF: Non penatrative sex?

Do they just sit around and wag weenies at each other? Slap dicks until one of them comes?

Sorry to be so crude. I don't get it.; 7/31/09, 11:33 AM
Rich B said...: I saw that Race Exhibit at the Franklin Institute - it was a bunch of politically correct, inflammatory crap. The Galileo exhibit was excellent, on the other hand.; 7/31/09, 11:36 AM
Anonymous said...: I call bullshit. No one could ejaculate 10-15 times in a "normal day."; 7/31/09, 11:37 AM
Jim said...: The headline talks about how many guys this person has "slept with," but then goes on to clarify that he's having non-penetrative sex with 10-15 men a day - which, by the way, according to Bill Clinton doesn't even count as "sex" at all.

It also seems to me that he wasn't "sleeping with" any of them, so the headline is double misleading.

Also. Just because someone claims something is true doesn't make it true. The guy would literally have to position himself in the men's room at a gay bar to even encounter that many people day in and day out to come close to that number.

I call bullshit on the whole article.; 7/31/09, 11:39 AM
KCFleming said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/31/09, 11:40 AM
KCFleming said...: If sexually active from age ten, that means about 2.5 encounters every day for 56 years.

I have had only a few more meals than that.; 7/31/09, 11:40 AM
Unknown said...: Certainly anyone who ejaculates 10 (let alone 15) times in a normal day is extraodinary. However I see no reason why such people shouldn't exist - there are extremes for everything.

OTOH if he doesn't mean 'ejaculating' then he really needs to get a dictionary and look up 'sex'.

And where's Titus?; 7/31/09, 11:42 AM
TheCrankyProfessor said...: I'm kind of bewildered by the commentators who haven't heard of a "hand job." Dhalgren doesn't say he ejaculated 10 to 15 times a day - just that he had sex with that many.

Unlike former president Clinton, Dhalgren clearly understands that any contact leading to SOMEONE's ejaculation is best described as 'sex.'; 7/31/09, 11:42 AM
The Drill SGT said...: John Lynch said...
Doesn't "On the order of 50,000" means more that 5,000 but less than 500,000? I don't remember from math class.

Yes,

The common term usage is "an order of magnitude"; 7/31/09, 11:45 AM
KCFleming said...: ...while still logging a full day's work at the typewriter."

While typing?

Is it a laptop?

How does he press the shift key?

So many questions.; 7/31/09, 11:53 AM
PatHMV said...: Patrick... based on the article, I would assume that Titus is currently racing towards Philadelphia to meet Prof. Delaney.; 7/31/09, 11:57 AM
Will said...: I found this interesting: "Avery Brooks, the only black captain on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
Seeing as how Avery Brooks played the only regular captain on the show, period, that statement makes no sense. It's like saying the Kate Mulgrew played the only female captain on Star Trek: Voyager. There were other black (and female) captains shown in the Star Trek films and series. Neither Brooks nor Mulgrew was the first.; 7/31/09, 12:06 PM
Moose said...: Sorry, is this a commentary on multi-tasking or OCD?; 7/31/09, 12:11 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm pulling out an APB on Titus... hopefully he can lend a hand to settle this "how many times a day" controversy ;); 7/31/09, 12:15 PM
Rialby said...: "He would have sex" is extremely misleading... "He would have anonymous sexual encounters" is more appropriate. Did the writer specifically leave this vague so that it's more sensationalistic? It's far more likely that this guy trolls the fitness club, movie theater and bookstores circuit looking for dudes to exchange favors with which isn't as romantic as the image of a man who takes dozens of lovers in a week.; 7/31/09, 12:30 PM
KCFleming said...: On meeting Mr. Delany, I will politely refrain from shaking his hand.; 7/31/09, 12:35 PM
Leather Daddy said...: Memory lane! How easy to enjoy the company of so many men in an evening at a bathhouse. Was there ever anything better than a relaxing Thursday night at the New Barracks with a bottle of poppers in one hand and a young man's prostate in the other?; 7/31/09, 12:39 PM
Jim said...: Lem -

"hopefully he can lend a hand"

Even if he can't, then Delany certainly can...; 7/31/09, 12:45 PM
pdug said...: "Delany plans to speak about how biology and genetics concern race, or what he prefers to call "the race effect," so named because race is difficult, if not impossible, to define scientifically. "A Norwegian man and a Nigerian man could be fourth cousins," says Delany. "But two Norwegians could be 26th cousins." While the Norwegian and Nigerian men would appear completely unrelated — and would be considered different races — they're actually more genetically linked, explains Delany. "

Is delany saying that its actually quite likely that most norwegians and nigerians are 4th cousins genetially?

Or is his just saying that hey, there could be a case of 1 or 2 norway/nigerian crossbreeds and that throws the whole race thing out of whack, because, though we'll look at the Nigeran and say "black" he's really [just a very rare example] of a "mixed-race" Nigerian (while 99% of Nigerans are not, and are NOT closely related to Norwegians at all); 7/31/09, 12:52 PM
Robert Cook said...: I've read only one Delaney...The Einstein Intersection, an early and relatively slight work, although entertaining. I read it back in the 70s for a college lit course on science fiction.

I can believe Delaney's claim to so many partners; a gay friend of mine has told me of people he knows who claim similar numbers of encounters.

One could only find the time for so many partner/encounters if most of them were brief and more or less anonymous. What Delaney does not address here, though whether he acknowledges it or denies it in his own mind one must wonder, is the obviously neurotic and compulsive nature of such sexual behavior. It would seem that he sought sexual encounters any time a fleeting sexual thought passed through his mind. Most of us think of sex a lot more than we have it, and there are reasons for that. It's much easier and quicker to have a sexual thought than it is to act on it with another person: one must seek out the other person, one must signal one's desire and availability, and then find a taker, and so on. All of this takes a good deal of effort and time and most of us don't have either in such excess that we could (or would want to) pursue such activity so relentlessly.

Well, each to his own. Mr. Delaney's fecundity as a writer, co-existing with his hyperactive sexual life, indicates his abundant energy and industry. Whether there is a neurotic component to his behavior--or not--seems beside the point.

As to Delaney's views in re: race, I agree with him. I have always thought our categorization of "the races" of humankind to be bunk. We are one race of creatures. That we display variations in our coloring, our body types, the shapes of our features, etc., seems no more a basis to consider us separate "races" than does our variety of hair colorings. Are blondes a different "race" than redheads or brunettes? Are persons with longer noses or squarer jaws of a different "race" than persons with shorter noses and weaker jaws?

No.; 7/31/09, 1:04 PM
Methadras said...: Dust Bunny Queen said...

WTF: Non penatrative sex?
Do they just sit around and wag weenies at each other? Slap dicks until one of them comes?
Sorry to be so crude. I don't get it.

It could have been a really big circle jerk.; 7/31/09, 1:12 PM
Joe said...: How about the guy is just a pathological liar?; 7/31/09, 1:30 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Buy this man a train set. He needs a better hobby.; 7/31/09, 1:36 PM
Roger J. said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/31/09, 1:44 PM
Roger J. said...: Freeman Hunt: what the hell is he going to do with 50,000 trains?; 7/31/09, 1:44 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Heh.

Dig out a BIG basement.; 7/31/09, 1:55 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: How good a writer can the guy be if the most creative hobby he can come up with is ejaculation?; 7/31/09, 1:58 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Seriously, if you're doing that 10-15 times a day, it's probably well past time to broaden your horizons. Read a book, take a walk, knit a sweater, do SOMETHING other than strangers you met on the Internet.; 7/31/09, 2:00 PM
Alex said...: Why no "Titus" tag Althouse?; 7/31/09, 2:11 PM
knox said...: No matter how accomplished, some guys still need to brag about sex.; 7/31/09, 2:13 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Just realized that if he really had that many partners, that would be like having sex with every man who lives in my town. Twice. Yow! Every guy in the town? There would be some real weirdos in there. Gross.; 7/31/09, 2:20 PM
srfwotb said...: Non penetrative sex doesn't count, sorry.; 7/31/09, 3:00 PM
Jim said...: Or it could just be the same 10-15 men every day for years on end...; 7/31/09, 3:00 PM
Methadras said...: Freeman Hunt said...

How good a writer can the guy be if the most creative hobby he can come up with is ejaculation?

People have made great fortunes with less.; 7/31/09, 3:27 PM
Drop Out Coward said...: So technically he had sex with the entire male population of the Lower East Side?; 7/31/09, 3:56 PM
AlgonquinS said...: Sounds like somebody needs those space age underpants.; 7/31/09, 4:22 PM
Ralph L said...: Did you see his photo?
No way Dr. ZZ Top is getting that much action.

He may be counting webcam porn dudes as individual encounters.; 7/31/09, 5:13 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: Maybe we should consult Wikipedia? Go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock and scroll down to the "Other" section. Then, click the (NSFW) link.

(I don't really want WP to be banned, but if anyone PTA groups want to ban them because of things like that it's not like I'm going to stop them or anything.); 7/31/09, 5:18 PM
MadisonMan said...: I'm picturing the Monty Python with all the businessmen in suits lined up in the street. Now I know what they were waiting for.; 7/31/09, 5:18 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Did he ejaculate 10 or 15 times a day? I find that hard to believe on any regular basis. You might end up like this guy.; 7/31/09, 5:40 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Freeman Hunt : Seriously, if you're doing that 10-15 times a day, it's probably well past time to broaden your horizons. Read a book, take a walk, knit a sweater, do SOMETHING other than strangers you met on the Internet.

When you live in New York City you can do all those things and meet people in between for anonymous sex (no internet needed).

If you consider he'd probably write a little and then go have sex, and repeat, it's no surprise he was so prolific.; 7/31/09, 5:48 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Salamandyr : Interesting. It's important to note that gay sex is broad enough to encompass any activity where one person gets off another person. They might also include oral when there is no swallowing.

It's not just gay sex, all sex is that way.

There are Christian women out there having anal sex who consider themselves virgins. Now that is strange.; 7/31/09, 5:51 PM
Michael Haz said...: Imagine the size of his bicep.; 7/31/09, 6:21 PM
Diamondhead said...: I don't believe anyone could arrange 10-15 encounters per day with new partners. I assume most of them were repeat visitors, and I assume most of them were just about as repugnant in terms of appearance as he is. I'm sorry - I don't want to imagine what anyone desperate enough to jerk off with him would look like. Same goes for Allen Ginsberg, who also claimed to get a lot of ass (indeed, a lot of straight ass - and late in life!). Bullshit.; 7/31/09, 6:46 PM
RLB_IV said...: LeatherDaddy nailed it down. The answer has to be adventures at the bathhouse.; 7/31/09, 7:40 PM
Robert Cook said...: Those remarking on Delaney's "repugnant" appearance are obviously unfamiliar with him; he has been a public figure for decades and he was, when young, as many old "ogres" once were, a typically attractive man. I have no doubt that as an attractive young gay man in 60s and 70s New York, Delaney had no trouble filling up his datebook, as it were. Also, he admits that his prospects for sexual assignations are considerably lighter now than when he was younger; apparently those who think he's claiming to these numbers now didn't read the article carefully, if at all.

I may be wrong, but I think he sat across from me on the uptown 7th Avenue subway once. The man I saw looked very similar to Delaney as he looks in this photograph, (and as he has looked for at least several years).; 7/31/09, 8:08 PM
The Dude said...: Cookie shows up just in time to display his profound ignorance. Hey, Cookie - are you going to get sickle cell anemia? You're in the human race, right?

You continue to prove that only stupid motherfuckers voted for Nader. Learn something for a goddamned change before shooting off your mouth on subjects about which you know absolutely nothing.; 7/31/09, 8:09 PM
TitusGreetingsFromPtown said...: OK, let me give some input.

1) When he say 10-15 guys a day, he is not cumming that much. He could sit in any gym or bathroom or rest area that has a cruising area and whack off 10-15 guys in an hour. That isn't my thing though. It is all about me. I am selfish and am not a giver. Also, I don't like hog that much. Yea, it is nice to touch and look at for like a second but then I am over it and no one is getting near my ass.

2) The way he looks today he is certainly not getting that type of action. Maybe in his youth but not now.

3) Even I find it boring if he actually did that. That is obviously an addiction. I don't go out looking for sex....it finds me. My friends tell me I smell of sex, that is the nicest thing they have ever said to me.

4) Sex can be anything, even just wagging hogs at each other and jerking off. 99% of my sexual experiences are not any anal and I rarely blow someone.

5) If you ask I have sex with 1-2 guys a month. Nothing more than your average big city slutty girl. On a good month it may be 3-4 and on a bad month no sex.

And finally, my Indian boyfriend with the British accent called me and he is coming down to stay with me in Ptown tomorrow night at my timeshare. So for those of you that said he was over me you can suck it...kidding.

I am a little nervous though. After speaking with him on the phone I realized he is a little nerdy. Yes, the combo Indian and British accent is hot but he is into Dudgeons and Dragons and Japanese Horror Flicks. I don't know anything about either of those things. He is also a big loner and not into the club scene which I really like. We are going to dindin at Cafe Ewige which is absolutley fabulous and very expensive. My treat, natch.

Did I mention he has huge arms and tits and a small waist. Totally delish.; 7/31/09, 8:38 PM
John Burgess said...: Good to know that the NKVD is still in the oppression business!

Mr Cook has his facts right, on race and Delaney.; 7/31/09, 9:11 PM
Diamondhead said...: Delany was fairly attractive forty years ago. Steeply downhill after that point. Anyway, anyone buying into this ridiculous claim discounts the considerable logistical challenges of arranging 10-15 new partners every day while putting in a "full day of work at the typewriter." Get real. Even if he devoted every other minute to lining up prospects, it is simply not feasible over a long period of time.; 7/31/09, 9:27 PM
prairie wind said...: Leather Daddy, what are "poppers"? Apologies if that is a stupid question. I ran into the term when I read the Tales of the City books and never figured out what the word meant. I think Michael kept them in his freezer...or maybe I have a couple of mysteries confused in my memory.; 7/31/09, 11:11 PM
Ralph L said...: Since Leather Daddy is otherwise engaged on a Friday night:
Technically, poppers are amyl nitrate, but it can be other chemicals, like VCR head cleaner, snorted during sex to "enhance" sensation.; 8/1/09, 1:42 AM
knox said...: Imagine the size of his bicep.

LOL. No thanks, I don't want any visuals associated with this story!; 8/1/09, 9:06 AM
prairie wind said...: Thanks Ralph. My education continues...; 8/1/09, 10:56 AM
The Dude said...: Right, and all the Africans I know also have acne rosacia. Let the oppression continue.

Even a cursory understanding of medicine will indicate that different races of people react differently to the same medicine. Look at how pegolated interferon cures hepatitis C in whites and not blacks, then get back to me.

Nitwits...; 8/1/09, 2:46 PM
Gabriel Hanna said...: Mr Cook has his facts right, on race and Delaney.

I don't know about Delaney, but he's not right about race.

Just because there aren't hard-and-fast distinctions between races doesn't mean they don't exist.

"Race" is a correlation of variables. The variables are continuous over the whole human species, but the correlations break down pretty well into three or four "races", as forensic anthropologist Bill Bass points out in "Death's Acre".

My wife and I both share Genghis Khan for an ancestor. But the vast majority of my wife's ancestors hailed from China, and the vast majority of mine from Western Europe, despite having at least one ancestor in common.

Do you find Chinese with wavy hair and Europeans with straight hair? Definitely. You find some Chinese who are lighter than some Europeans, and you find some with rounder eyes than some Europeans have.

But the traits which make a person "look Chinese" and the traits which make someone "look European" are highly correlated. It is exceedingly rare to find a Chinese with very light skin, wavy hair, and round eyes, and very common to find a European with those traits.

To say that "race" has no meaning is to say that "tall" or "bald" or "fat" have no meaning.; 8/2/09, 12:56 AM
pst314 said...: "It's far more likely that this guy trolls the fitness club, movie theater and bookstores circuit looking for dudes"

That's exactly what he has said he did.; 8/28/09, 9:19 AM