The Sex Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Sex Scene

Plus: an interview with Stevie Nicks; the Zora Neale Hurston we don’t talk about; and the country star Morgan Wallen. View in browser | Update your preferences Tuesday, February 15, 2022 In today’s newsletter: • Stevie Nicks on heartbreak, “Dreams,” and her favorite movie • Why Ukraine is on a precipice • The Zora Neale Hurston we don’t talk about The Sex Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Sex Scene Four critics discuss erotic thrillers, prosthetic penises, “Euphoria,” and the state of desire onscreen. Illustration by Jules Julien; Source photograph by Vladimir Godnik / Getty Consider the sex scene in movies. Wait, what sex scene? That’s precisely the question that four New Yorker critics are asking in a roundtable discussion published today, part of our first digital-only issue. Much of recent cinema is now Pixar- or Marvel-adjacent, featuring superheroes and villains. “It’s embarrassing to say but, like, male testosterone levels are down, and nobody does anything cool anymore,” Vinson Cunningham notes. “And everybody is afraid of everything, and therefore we are a sort of post-vitalist culture.” New blockbusters seldom portray romance as a central theme, and we’re far from the era of “kinky classics” like Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct,” from 1992, or even “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” which is nearly a decade old. So are we really moviegoers—or streaming-addled couch potatoes—living in a post-excitement, post-sex world? As Alexandra Schwartz asks, “Has eros gone out of the sex scene? And, if it has, can we find it elsewhere?” You’ll have to read the scintillating conversation between Schwartz, Cunningham, Doreen St. Félix, and Naomi Fry—complete with clips (sound on, if you please)—to find out. —Jessie Li, newsletter editor Read “The Sex Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Sex Scene.” Our first digital-only issue features interviews with people of note. We’ll publish new pieces all week. Tomorrow: Candace Bushnell, interviewed by Jia Tolentino, and Angélique Kidjo, interviewed by Julian Lucas. Editor’s Pick The New Yorker Interview Stevie Nicks Is Still Living Her Dreams The rock-and-roll icon talks about style, spirits, and writing one of her best songs ever. By Tavi Gevinson From the News Desk Daily Comment Why Ukraine Is on a Precipice A potential Russian troop withdrawal has not changed the four factors that U.S. officials assess have brought Europe to the brink of its largest conflict since the Second World War. By Robin Wright Our Columnists How the Kosovo Air War Foreshadowed the Crisis in Ukraine Twenty-three years later, Kremlin propagandists still use the NATO bombing campaign to justify their own actions. By Masha Gessen Culture Dept. Page-Turner The Zora Neale Hurston We Don’t Talk About In a new nonfiction collection, what emerges is a writer who mastered a Black idiom but seldom championed race pride. By Lauren Michele Jackson Culture Desk “The Music Man” Is a Nostalgia Machine A new staging of the classic, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, confuses America with Americana. By Alexandra Schwartz Culture Desk ​​Morgan Wallen Is Not on an Apology Tour The singer was banished from radio stations after he used the N-word, but he has now taken his show back on the road. By Kelefa Sanneh More from The New Yorker Interview The New Yorker Interview Love Is Not a Permanent State of Enthusiasm The couples therapist Esther Perel discusses infidelity, apologies, and the problem with wedding vows these days. By Alexandra Schwartz The New Yorker Interview John Swartzwelder, Sage of “The Simpsons” The first major interview with one of the most revered comedy writers of all time. By Mike Sacks Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Liz Maynes-Aminzade Daily Shouts A Smattering of Haiku for the Burnout Age Poems by Bob Odenkirk, Margaret Cho, Jerry Seinfeld, and others. By Gabe Henry Daily Cartoon Tuesday, February 15th By Asher Perlman P.S. If our critics’ roundtable discussion piqued your interest, revisit how St. Augustine invented sex—or, more specifically, how he devised the doctrine of original sin. “Augustine returned again and again to the same set of questions,” Stephen Greenblatt writes. “Whose body is this, anyway? Where does desire come from? Why am I not in command of my own penis?” As Augustine wrote in his treatise “On Marriage and Concupiscence,” “Sometimes it refuses to act when the mind wills, while often it acts against its will!” Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.