Sex Quotes in A Confederacy of Dunces

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"You look like a whore in that orange dress. And what's all these sounds you're making like a slut? You look like a drunk nympho passing out in an alley." (9.129)

Lana Lee is displeased with Darlene's outfit for her striptease. Lana has very definite ideas about how pornography should be packaged and presented, as we see in the care she takes with her own naked photographs. There is filth and then there is filth. Lana only wants the high class kind… despite the fact (or because of the fact) that the Night of Joy is not exactly a high class place.

Quote #8

"When we have at last overthrown all exiting governments, the world will enjoy not war but global orgies conducted with the utmost protocol and the most truly international spirit, for these people do transcend simple national differences. Their minds are on one goal; they are truly united; they think as one." (11.104)

Homosexuals are often stereotyped as being particularly focused on sex, and Ignatius presents an extreme version of this stereotype by asserting that gay people only care about one thing—that thing being sex. It's an analogue to the stereotypes that white people in the novel have about black people. Of course, the person who really only cares about sex is Myrna. She really is someone who would like to see global orgies conducted with the utmost protocol.

Quote #9

Once in high school someone had shown him a pornographic photograph, and he had collapsed against a watercooler, injuring his ear. This photograph was far superior. A nude woman was sitting on the edge of a desk next to a globe of the world. The suggested onanism with the piece of chalk intrigued Ignatius. Her face was hidden behind a large book." (11.307)

It's interesting that Ignatius saw a similar photograph in high school since Lana's photograph (with its educational props) is also intended for a high school audience. In the world of Confederacy, are high school kids the only ones interested in pornography, or for that matter, sex? Ignatius is obviously intrigued as an adult—but is this because of the high school memories and the high school setting? It does, in general, feel like adults are too busy bickering and scheming in the novel to pursue more carnal sins.