Roger,
As far as I am concerned you've hit the nail on the head. I read the Auden with a sort of morbid fascination, but I was flagging badly at the end.
The overall effect, the sense that I am left with, is of an instruction manual for a soulless fuck.
Skillfully written, but utterly passionless, and not even slightly erotic. In fact, if I were attempt to define "pornography", this could serve as an exemplar. What I mean is, for me "pornographic" is roughly equivalent to "sex divorced from spirit". "Erotic", on the other hand, might exist without reference to sex at all.
(music)
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