Nausea Sex Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

Once they have slept together they will have to find something else to veil the enormous absurdity of their existence. (24.134)

When he sees a young couple flirting near him, Antoine knows that they are going to have sex. But he also knows that once the sex is over, the young people won't have anything left to distract them from the absurdity of their lives. Their only options will be to keep having sex or to find a different way of distracting themselves.

Quote #8

He was so little guilty: his humble, contemplative love for young boys is hardly sensuality—rather a form of humanity. (32.1).

There's no getting around it: The Self-Taught Man is sexually attracted to young boys. Antoine doesn't seem especially judgmental about this, because he thinks that the STM's boy-love is a natural extension of his humanism. In other words, the guy claims to love all of humanity equally, and this extends to the realm of sexuality.

Quote #9

A brown hairy object approached it, hesitant. It was a thick finger, yellowed by tobacco; inside [the boy's] hand it had all the grossness of a male sex organ. (32.23)

Antoine knows that something sexual is happening when the Self-Taught Man reaches out to stroke the hand of a boy sitting next to him. He even compares the STM's finger to a gross penis while it's happening. In this description, you can tell that Antoine is more disgusted by the STM than he's letting on.