242 RüdigerKunow
themselves take up a new kind of 'clinical life,' using biomedical
interventions to rejuvenate bodies from the inside out... (Clarke et al.,
"TheoreticalandSubstantiveIntroduction"25-26)Whereas previously age-related sciences such as gerontology or
geriatrics principally sought to control and contain bodily malfunctions
such as those that "come with age," the new biotechnical procedures
have become, at least tendentially, a proleptic project to re-engineer
human life altogether so that "age" is no longer its necessary outcome
butmakespossiblealate-lifeconditionthatisessentially"post-age."
The shadowy realm of "post-age" is not so much a biological or
biomedical dispensation but a social and cultural one that is fast
changing the public image of senescence. Perhaps not incidentally so,
human sexuality is a key arena where this process manifests itself in
particularly dynamic fashion. Sexuality or the loss thereof in later life
haslongbeenalmostashowcaseexampleofwhatMargaretGullettehas
called the "decline narrative" (De clining to Decline 220). Within this
context,malesexualdysfunctionshaveinrecentyearsgraspedthelion's
shareofpublicattention—afactitselfsomewhatsurprisingin acountry
like the United States, where sexual matters have traditionally been
treatedwithmuchpublicreticence.
As the debate about what is now called, in a code word, "ED"
(erectiledysfunction)ratherthanimpotencehasshowncontinuedsexual
activity is an inescapable part of the discourses of "positive aging."
Accordingly, many attempts have been made by the medical
establishment, psychologists, gerontologists, and most certainly
pharmaceutical companies to uncouple male sexual dysfunction from
the "normal aging process" (Fishman 290, 292). The most obvious case
inpointhereisofcourseViagra(Sildenafil),oftenbilledasthe"wonder
drug" that enables old men to retain, even regain, their sexual potency.
Possible side-effects such as heart attacks have, after its introduction,
brought Viagra under attack but not diminished its presence in the
general public. Jennifer Fishman has in this regard spoken of a new
"sexual imperative," the demand on elderly people, men and women, to
remainsexuallyactive.
How this imperative works and what it may do to people who place
themselves under its command has been explored by Philip Roth in his
short novel Everyman (2006). This "unflinching examination of