The Carnal Brother Body: Emotion, Interiority and the Epistolary “Talking Cure”

Viewing themselves as young moderns, just prior to Harry’s departure for Vancouver, Gwyneth and Harry became secretly engaged. Thus began a lengthy, long-distance epistolary betrothal in which their first taste of sensual pleasure was kept alive by interminable discussions of romantic love. However, the couple soon found themselves at odds over the vexed question of what role sex would play in their marriage, with Gwyneth firmly defending an equilibrium between spiritual and sexual comradeship and Harry equally determined to defend new notions of the primacy of sex. However, the difficulties that the couple of faced in evolving an explicit language of sexual desire provoked further conflicts, leading to Harry’s nervous breakdown and eventually to his complete rejection of a career as a clergyman.