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Title: The Harrad Experiment
ISBN: 0879756233
Author:
Robert H. Rimmer
Publicate Date: 1990-09 Publish: 1990-09
List Price: $25.00
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $19.06
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $9.66
Amazon Merchant Price: $23.40
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Dirty? nah....Tame!
Still a good laugh after 35+ years. I thought it was "dirty" when I read it as a teenager, but what the heck, I was about 14 at the time. And you know what, the attitude towards sex, while casual, was humorous and fun and respectful and serious all at once, and that made a huge impression on me at the time. And I'm not sorry that it did.
And even back then I knew it was fiction! A fun read, and as other reviewers have pointed out, a good portrait of the kind of innocent idealism so many of us shared back then.
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2: Dirty book disguised as serious sociology
In the foreward, Rimmer says he'll move the world with the right kind of lever. We should be so lucky. Read the book and wink at its descriptions of casual sex. Then sneak it into the church rummage sale in a box full of old college textbooks.
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3: Sex Education for a High School Sophmore
... the book is not without merits. It's presentation of idealistic youth in a changing culture was a refreshing reminder, for a child growing up in the age of irony and cynicism, that there was a time in America when the youth believed that change for the better was possible, an intellengcia who were educated by reading Hermann Hesse and Gibran as opposed to Hegel, Chomsky & Foucault. I have reread "Harrad" many times and am able to laugh at what I once thought possible and the ending, oh the ending, I still find satisfying. Although being a product of the early nineties I am admitidly a cynic verging on being apathetic I will say this, if change is at all possible, it is possible only if approached from the perspective of the "insix", read the book and you'll know what I mean. All in all I give "Harrad" four stars for even with it's faults it still portrays a time and place that one can look back on and say, "At Least They Believed In Something."
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4: Oh I wish...
I cannot mistake it for being anything but a fantasy, but one that appeals a lot to me...women who one gets to see naked at least once a day, a roommate that you are told has been computer-assigned to you on the basis of sexual compatablily, a nice isolated New England college. Such a life - would definitely be good! I enjoyed the heck out of this in the early seventies. While not anywhere as explicit as "Literotica" or other writings on the web, back then it was pretty hot stuff, particularly for someone who had lazy intellectual pretensions. The scene where two of our heroes/heroines have a long discussion of the history of polyamory while continuously coupled was especially pleasing. Since then, I've grown up some; I've realized the war between advocates of prohibitions on sexual conduct, usually backed by the established religions, on the one hand, and the advocates of sexual license on the other, is never going to be won by one side or the other. Although not religious myself, I am mature enough to know that neither side is entirely right or wrong, and the advocacy of complete sexual license is often just one other strategy for guys to try and cut themselves out as big a slice of the female gene pie as possible. Heck, it sure worked for Rasputin and Charles Manson. I've also noticed the participants in the experiment are a cross-section of a '60s student body - white, middle class, without physical handicaps, and secure in their futures. Except for the young Indian girl who taken out of poverty is quickly converted to the "new American way." The earlier writer who said this reflected cultural arrogance is on the mark here. Still, I still keep my copy around, reread it from time to time, and sure wish I could get dormed with someone like Sheila.
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5: Coed Dorms
I first read this book at its publication many years ago. The idea of coed dorms was not even considered then. Of course, we still do not have coed rooms, or nude coed gym classes. I like the book. It gives one things to dream about, and is sexy without being hard core pornography.
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