Customer Reviews

Paying for It

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After eight years of waiting, we are finally graced with a new comic by Chester Brown. Brown's oeuvre is rich and varied, covering such diverse topics as outrageous, scatological farce, introspective childhood memoirs, Bible adaptations, surreal fiction (complete with it's own language) and historical biography. Throughout the course of his career, Brown has challenged Bible scholars and the psychological community, to name a few. In this new book, Brown uses autobiography to challenge prostitution laws and their morality in general. Never one to back down from controversy, Brown takes a hands-on look at the profession by not only reading up on said subject, but perusing several prostitutes over the course of a decade. These encounters are depicted in a rather cold and stoic style, neither romanticizing nor sensationalizing them. Brown uses clear, concise facts to show his experiences and he succeeds rather admirably.

Brown has obviously had it with the notion of "romantic love", yet still wants to have sex. He decides to peruse the services of a prostitute, yet has no idea how to go about this task. After cruising streets he believes prostitutes would hang out, he goes online to find one. He has quite a few encounters with different ladies... some with regularity, some only once. He encounters many problems... fear he might get assaulted, concern for their working conditions, age, etc... wrestling with certain moral dilemma, even feelings of attachment that comes up for one of the ladies. Brown pulls no punches and doesn't hesitate to portray himself badly. He's particularly hung up about age, as a woman in her late 20s is deemed "too old". That Brown can be brainwashed by mass culture in this way (young=better) is one of many instances that shows Brown is not operating from some moral high ground. The same can be said for his inability to hold on to a "romantic" relationship. He reminds me of Cerebus author Dave Sim in this way... "I've failed in romance, so there must be something wrong with romantic love." Despite this faulty logic, Brown comes off as totally sympathetic.

Besides taking you on his journey with prostitutes, Brown also has an ulterior motive for writing this book. He believes prostitution should be decriminalized. This, I believe, is where Brown gets into a rather dicey area. Brown is a Libertarian (once running for some office in Canada) and has literally swallowed their party line lock, stock and barrel. His take is the government should not regulate prostitution, it should just be decriminalized. Libertarians (much like Republicans lately) have a strong distrust in government and believe the free market will solve everything. This is naive on Brown's part. He feels the black market for prostitution will still exist if a license is needed to whore, as some ladies will want to keep their privacy. I think this logic is ridiculous. That's akin to saying why make drunk driving illegal, people are going to do it anyway. Without regulation, it would still be just as easy for underage girls to become hookers, not to mention the transmission of diseases. Brown's argument is: the government does not belong in our bedroom. To which I would say: if you are treating sex as a commodity (as Brown is championing), then taxation is not only fair, it's necessary. To give hookers a bye on paying their taxes is where Brown loses me. He cites poor conditions at a Nevada whorehouse (citing only one instance he's read) as reason to not regulate. In this case, Brown has taken his self-appointed role as champion of hookers a bit too far. I expected a bit more logic from him after the other points he's made in the book.

Having said that, Brown has given us a book that makes the reader think... about the profession, about laws and about our own morality. His drawing style is clean and not intrusive. One reviewer complained about the lack of expression in Brown's faces in this book, but over exaggerated faces and expressions would only marginalize the experiences this book conveys. Brown is definitely a cartoonist who has mastered his craft and knows what he is doing. The sex scenes are unflinching yet not gratuitous, which is a rare accomplishment, particularly in comics. From subject matter to research and execution, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

First, the good news: Chester Brown's "Paying for It, A Comic-Strip Memoir about Being a John," is a funny, honest, thought-provoking book. Through his minimalist illustrations (almost sketches, really), Brown tells the entertaining story of how and why he began frequenting prostitutes after his live-in girlfriend, Sook-Yin, decided that she was "falling in love with someone else" and wanted to share her bed with the other guy instead of him.

Most men might find this sort of domestic arrangement unacceptable, but Brown seems to casually accept it with no hard feelings. As underground comics legend Robert Crumb notes in his Introduction, and Brown's friend Seth observes in Appendix 23, the author is a rather cold fish with "a very limited emotional range compared to most people." So, after enduring two years of celibacy following his break-up with Sook-Yin, Brown decides that "paying for it" is the best way to reconcile his desire to have sex with his determination to NOT have a girlfriend. It's an odd choice, but one he believes is the most appropriate for him, given his disillusionment with even the concept of romantic love.

Unfortunately for Brown, prostitution is just as illegal in his native Canada as it is in the United States. This makes him more than a bit paranoid when it comes to trying to arrange his first appointments with the female escorts he sees advertising in some of Toronto's weekly newspapers. Brown's fumbling initial experiences are amusing, and even somewhat touching in an awkward way. But he eventually figures out how it all works.

From there it's onward to a revolving menu of carnal comfort food, at least as he describes it. Brown circulates among roughly two dozen different partners, before finally settling into monogamy with one. As the encounters proceed with each escort (all given fake names that are different from their already unreal "professional" names), Brown endures a fair amount of bad sex, has some truly awesome, wonderful sex, and struggles with a recurring sense of emptiness that often follows his erotic trysts.

This is where the book is at its best. Brown has an excellent ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for humor and irony. As one reviewer points out, the pillow talk Brown captures in his word balloons is pitch perfect even if his drawings are fairly flat and barely two-dimensional. As a bonus, Brown fills in the blanks between his "dates" by recounting conversations he has with his friends, many of which involve interesting discussions about the morality of what he is doing and the nature of what makes for a healthy relationship with another person, regardless of the context involved.

Along the way, Brown builds a convincing case for why prostitution should be decriminalized. After talking with numerous women, some of whom are "agency" or brothel escorts, and others who are independent contractors, he comes to the conclusion that Canada's laws against prostitution are more harmful than the vices they are meant to stop. Brown persuasively argues that most of the social ills blamed on the sex trade are a direct result of the fact that the ladies who engage in sex for pay are marginalized as people and not treated with the same dignity and respect as other providers of personal professional services. His logic here is difficult to refute, as is his assertion that many prostitutes freely choose, and even appreciate, their jobs, particularly when they can earn more money from taking intimate appointments than by doing anything else, and also get to set their own schedule and see a roster of regular clients.

The bad news is that Brown doesn't quit when he's ahead. Having articulated a clear view of why the status quo is unacceptable, he then becomes enamored of the idea that only a totally laissez faire, free-market approach to prostitution is the correct policy for sex workers and consumers alike. According to the artist, all regulation of the business is inherently evil and wrong, even when the goals are to protect the workers and the public health and welfare. Instead, he refers to imaginary, so-called "sexual civil rights" for individuals, without ever acknowledging that all rights generate corresponding responsibilities for citizens to behave with a measure of restraint. Furthermore, given that not all forms of prostitution are benign or identical, local communities have every reason to uphold their own standards and seek some degree of control over sex workers whose actions cross the line between exercising their own rights and causing harm to others. Contrary to what Crumb says about prostitutes, in his Introduction to "Paying for It," not all efforts to regulate their business are based on "liberal do-gooders' attempts to `reform' them." Regulation is about balancing the rights of adults to do what they want in their own lives, and with their own bodies, with everybody else's rights to not be victimized by people who cannot control themselves.

It's easy to tell what's behind the breakdown in Brown's logic. For all of his obvious intelligence, as the book delves deeper into the realms of gender politics and sociology, the writer's self-awareness starts to slide into a more ideological tone. Once again, the narrator's friend, Seth, nails it in Appendix 23, saying: "Often his [Brown's] opinion is a little too dogmatic for my tastes -- a little too tied to the libertarian party-line." Readers may well feel the same when Brown resorts to cherry-picking sources to suit his own philosophy.

For example, Appendix 17 of "Paying for It" approvingly cites psychologist Jeffrey Schaler's work "Addiction Is A Choice" by agreeing with him that substance abuse is not a disease. Brown quotes Schaler denying "that there is any such thing as `addiction,' in the sense of a deliberate and conscious course of action which the person literally cannot stop doing." Really? This claim is ridiculously simplistic and absurd on its face. Aside from the many well-documented studies of how long-term alcohol and opioid abuse causes physical changes in the brains of heavy drinkers and addicts, interfering with the normal function of their neurotransmitters, has either Brown or Schaler ever been around a junkie craving a hit of heroin? Glib theory is no match for the stark reality of watching a woman get dope-sick and go through withdrawal symptoms because she cannot smoke or shoot up the narcotics her body wants.

Elsewhere, Brown tends to extrapolate from his own experiences with prostitutes, and generalize about how their relatively upscale escort business is representative of paid sex at the lower end of the pecking order. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While the commercial dynamics of the transaction may be the same, there is a world of difference between the young lady who decides to earn good money the old-fashioned way, by entertaining professional gentlemen at her safe worksite, and the old (or underage) streetwalker hustling for small change from the more dangerous customers in the red-light district. Brown gives short shrift to the tougher problems that desperate women have to overcome, just to survive, when they are soliciting strangers in public places and struggling to avoid the police, violent johns, hard drugs, and all of the other obstacles in their path.

Admittedly, Brown does appear to recognize the very real crimes of human trafficking and sexual slavery in our culture today. Even there, though, he complains about how any attempt to regulate prostitution would be more apt to result in a "black market," where girls would be powerless to defend themselves, than it would serve as a tool to identify and eliminate such abusive underground operations. At the risk of sounding patriarchal, it's just difficult to take him seriously when he speculates that an environment in which anything goes would be more beneficial for women than one in which their basic human rights are protected.

Altogether, "Paying for It" is a fine memoir that everyone with an open mind should enjoy. With all due respect to Alan Moore, whose praise on the back jacket cover is effusive, I don't know if "this book will love you long time," and reward repeated readings, but it is definitely worth perusing at least once. Brown's latest creation belongs in that rare category of graphic biographies that makes you laugh and think at the same time.

It doesn't seem like "a comic-strip memoir about being a john" would be the primary place to hold forth on the legalization of prostitution but Mr. Brown has managed to pull it off pretty successfully. It shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose. Ever since the publication of Maus, the use of the comic strip to take on serious issues has become much more common and it is a powerful medium. Mr. Brown takes full advantage of it here.

His story begins with his break-up with his girlfriend, Sook-yin. He continues to live with her and her new boyfriend and though he doesn't seem bothered by jealousy, he does decide he needs sexual companionship so he begins looking into finding a prostitute. We follow him as he has his first encounter. We learn with him about the business--incalls vs. outcalls, pimps, tipping, rating websites. We hear his discussions with his friends as he becomes more vocal about his understanding of prostitution and the reasons it should be legalized. It is an interesting journey.

Of course, I expected to find this interesting because I agree with the concept that prostitution should be legalized, though I discovered that we differ on certain aspects; for example, I feel it should be regulated and taxed. And I was left wondering if Mr. Brown is the best spokesman for the issue since he does come across as a bit odd, particularly in his relationships. I've already mentioned his contentment at living with his old girlfriend and her new boyfriend. There's also the fact that he ends his story in a long-term relationship with a prostitute who he continues to pay even though they're in an exclusive partnership. It's not that I feel these things are wrong. They are just atypical.

And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Make sure to read the appendices and notes at the end of the book. In particular, read appendix 23, "Seth's Notes". Seth is a friend of Mr. Brown's who comments on the scenes in which he appears. It spoke very closely to the feeling I had about the author as I read this book. As Seth writes: "The truth is, Chester seems to have a very limited emotional range compared to most people...That said, he is also the kindest, gentlest and most deeply thoughtful oddball I know." It's well said, as are many of the things it this book.

After a detour to fictional (the prematurely-halted Underwater comic) and historical (the acclaimed Louis Riel) subject matters, Chester Brown returns to telling an autobiographical story in illustrated form with Paying For It. So far as I know, this is his lengthiest autobiographical work to date--and it's an excellent, successful endeavor. The story was so engaging, I finished reading the book in about half a day--including the afterword and lengthy addendums. Not because it was sparse, but because I just could not put it down.

Unlike most of his past autobiographical works, this time there is a very obvious message beyond the "this is a story from my life I want to try and move other people with" theme. He's grown into a point-of-view he is very adamant about--and he wishes to not only document his experiences, but to also attempt to sway others' opinions with this work. Often, this leads to the most powerful autobiographical works...and this book is certainly in that category.

I won't go into the whole debate of whether I feel Brown is right or wrong about the subject of sex-for-money. My opinion doesn't really matter in regards to YOUR reading this book--what matters is where YOU land, after reading Mr. Brown's rationale and arguments for his beliefs. But, regardless of what your view of sex-for-money--before or after reading this book--I believe it's a worthwhile, thought-provoking read for delving into the reasons behind Brown's convictions.

Unfortunately, my only criticism of the book would have to be the art. I discovered Chester's Brown's work back in the early-to-mid 1990s, during the last few issues of his comic book, Yummy Fur. This was during the period of Yummy Fur where he was branching into autobiographical subjects after spending the first 18 issues on the very surreal, fictional Ed the Happy Clown storyline. But it wasn't the autobigraphical stories that made me buy my first issue--it was the back-up story, which was an illustrated adaptation of the New Testament. I was absolutely enthralled with the artwork. Brown took the New Testament and threw his own unique visuals into his adaption. Many of the characters were weird, creepy, often ugly...but always visually captivating. I quickly bought all the back issues of Yummy Fur (from which I then learned to appreciate both his surreal stories and his autobiographical), and even suffered through his disappointing Underwater comic for the sake of the amazing New Testament back-ups. The point of all of this is, with the start of Underwater, Chester Brown's artwork morphed slightly. While his art was still similar to his older style in most regards, he started drawing people's faces--both fictional and real people--much more simplistic and trite. Gone were the uniquely bizarre, expressive faces...in were relatively non-distinct faces.

This art style continued in Louis Riel and, unfortunately, in Paying For It. I still enjoyed the story in Paying For It and, other than the faces, the art was still enjoyably "Chester Brown" (which is why it didn't impact my 5-star rating)...but I miss the quality and uniqueness his faces used to possess.

The book cover design, however--which I assume was Mr. Brown's work, since the style is so unique to his projects--was beautifully done. The dustjacket was nice but, once I removed the dustjacket and saw the design on the dustjacketless hardcover, I was blown away. Rarely is the actual hardcover of a book more elegant that the dustjacket--but this is one of those exceptions. Brown and Drawn & Quarterly took great steps to produce a high quality design with this book's cover!

[On a note not relevant to this review of Paying For It--but in the off chance Mr. Brown or one of his friends/associates read these reviews--it's my hope Brown will one day return to his more expressive facial art style...and that he'll finally continue/complete his illustrated venture into the New Testament. His autobiographical material is always excellent, but his New Testament adaptations were simply astounding.]

Full disclosure--I am a little old lady. In reading the other reviews of this book, it has seemed to me that most are by young men, for obvious reasons. This is the first "graphic" book I have read. Certainly I would not have wanted to wade through endless descriptions of body parts and sex acts, so the drawings are quite helpful in conveying information quickly. Some reviewers have complained that the characters have no facial expressions. To be honest, I didn't look that closely, and certainly the pictures are not so big that one could easily discern any expression beyond, perhaps, a smile or a grimace.

As other reviewers have noted, although in different terms, the book includes a long essay on why prostitutes are not victims, but intelligent, fulfilled young women who are totally happy in their walk of life, as it were. The author's friends also have written sections in which they state that the author appears to be somewhat abnormal. Certainly he lacks empathy and is quite naive at some levels. While I would never call this book funny or comic, there were a few places where I almost laughed. I was not amused, but more astonished at how oblivious the author was to circumstances that seemed quite obvious to me.

I have read several sociological discussions of prostitution, written more I suppose from the prostitute's point of view. I was curious about what a john's point of view would be and how he would justify his behavior. I found this book a straightforward introduction to the author's thoughts about what he was doing and why. (I almost said "honest" but somehow that's not quite the right word.)

So, unlike the other reviewers, I am not a fan of the author or of graphic novels. If you wonder what it is like to visit a prostitute, or how someone arrives at a decision to pay for sex with a prostitute, I think this book would be of interest. While it has a certain repetitive quality, for obvious reasons, there is a slight narrative arc and because of the illustrations it takes only a few hours to read.

Paying for it review.

Prostitution has been called the "World's oldest profession." Humans (and maybe some chimps according to studies) have been paying for sex since the dawn of time. But what about it? The activity of paying for sex has been kept secret, below the surface, as if it didn't exist. Should it be legalized? Taxed? Regulated? What is the experience of "paying for it" like for an ordinary John (or Chester)?

Chester Brown answers all of these questions with his soul-baring, honest portrayal in comic strip format of his experiences with working girls over a decade. "Paying For It" is a monumental little book. The comic artists that endorse his effort are a Hall of Fame of artists: Robert Crumb, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore. The fact that sex writers Sasha and Tracy Quan (Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl) recommend it should be proof enough of its veracity.

Brown's story is all too common. He loses his girlfriend, he is frustrated with his failed romantic relationships, and he is too busy with work and awkward to engage in relationships with the opposite sex. Since his natural urge for sex remains, and he rules out one-night-stands, he opts instead for the services of prostitutes. I will not spoil his journey of discovery for you, but it is compelling and eye opening. He transforms from his early bungling to experienced aficionado, all the while questioning his own motives.

Brown draws deceptively simple, nearly perfect comic strips of his encounters. Some scenes are explicit but not pornographic. In his lengthy appendix, he shifts gears from the emotional and personal to an academic discussion of the merits of legalization of prostitution. People with strong religious beliefs or the attitude "I've made up my mind, don't confuse me with facts" will not be convinced. All rational readers will at least have their existing biases and weak logic laid bare.

The physical quality of this book argues for a return to pre-Kindle days. The book is small in dimension, about 8" by 6" and about an inch thick. It is printed on high quality paper. The printing is perfection. The dust cover is beautiful, and when removed, an even more beautiful hard cover is revealed.

Chester Brown has vaulted this book into the top ten serious graphic novels of all time. It soars to great heights and achieves the ultimate objective of the greatest of graphic works: it challenges our way of thinking, perhaps changing us forever, through the medium of comics.

Why even just from R. Crumb's forward do I feel like I've already read this in "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men"?

It also really annoys me how both Chester and R. Crumb keeping commenting on how its the *women* who especially like to shun prostitutes. Think its possible that women's relatively heightened hesitation to condone the practice might be based on something other than the stupidity, jealousy or whatever these men are trying to imply? Might it have something to do with knowing how much it sucks to be a woman even if you're not a prostitute (for example, what if I wanted to go out and buy myself some straight-boy 18 year old for sex, how easy would that be without fearing being raped? wait...)

Moreover, if one were to do a study comparing men's treatment of prostitutes to women's treatment of them, I'm pretty sure who would come out the loser. All that said, he's a pretty good comic book artist/writer and its a pleasure to read at least for those reasons. Although, his pictures were so small it was a bit of a strain on the eye - and I really would have like to see the whore's faces as well as some blonds - I know he and his friends are all obsessed with oriental looking or *exotic* women, but he did say some of them were blond so why not depict them. But, it is a memoir about sex, shame, and awkward encounters, which I'm a huge fan of. The sequence depicted on the cover, for example is just great. As is his attempt to use the term "half and half" and I also enjoyed the footnote on that point.

I did not enjoy the almost drawing-less pro-prostitution arguments at the end of the book. He just seems sort of out of his element in that regard. I for one am actually not anti-paternalistic (as horrifying as the word is linguistically). one of my favorite panels in the book is the part where Seth is wildly smoking as usual and remarks that perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if cigarettes were illegal. ha! As someone who got hooked at 12, I can't tell you how many times I've wished the damn things were never legal (the influence of stigma and availability cannot be underestimated - and if adults are doing it legally, trust me, kids will think its fair game too.) The subject of paternalism is covered really well in a contracts case I read during my first year of law school, Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. There's also a very interesting case where the supreme court actually held that the FDA didn't even have power to regulate cigarettes, let alone ban them.

My other favorite part of the book is when Chester gets a "twinge" of depression. Then it goes away. Then its back. Then he realizes it went away because he had a thought of how to be happy living on his own in a nice apartment. So, oddly, my favorite parts of this book weren't actually the sex stuff at all. Although, I did find his "falling in love" with Denise at the end interesting, especially since he said she was not and is not in love with him, but they are monogamous and he continues to pay her for sex. I'm curious as to how long Denise will stay in this one-sided loveless relationship or how long Chester will keep paying for it - what if one day he doesn't want to pay his monogamous "girlfriend" anymore and then she stops seeing him. How will that make him feel?

This one had to take courage. It's fascinating. Instead of my opinion, see Annie Sprinkle's review in the Sunday Times Book Review of 7/3/11.

This is a very intriguing book. It caught my eye in the New York Times Book Review section. Chester Brown is a professional cartoonist whose live-in girlfriend tells him she is dating someone else - but that he is welcome to continue to live there, which he does. He has no jealousy (!) when she brings other guys over - to the contrary, he discovers that the sources of tension between them have resolved and they are good friends. He decides that romantic love is always eventually a cause of emotional tensions (and decreasing sex) so he decides to not venture in that direction again. Ah, but he wants/needs sex - but without the complications of a relationship. (This is confirmed when he overhears his girlfriend argue with her new boyfriend, just like he used to do.) He is a quiet shy guy so feels he doesn't have to social skills required to pick up women for casual sex so he decides to explore the world of sex-for-pay. He has no idea how to do this and the interesting part of the book is what he finds as he ventures into this world. He lives in Canada where the laws for prostitution are different, but it is still a legal risk. (The underlying theme of the book is an argument for legalizing prostitution - you can judge if he makes a good case.)

This book is in cartoon form, which I initially found to be quite off-putting but it grows on you. It allows him to express things differently than if he were writing about it. The drawings are explicit but not offensive considering the subject matter. (If you don't want to read anything about sex, this is not your book!) I think he handles it all with good taste while at the same time being honest about what is going on (sex in one form or another - but nothing quirky). Since he plans to write about it, he becomes something of an amateur anthropologist in his questions to the women. I think this is what makes the book worth reading. He obviously has great respect for many of them. It is a seedy little world but it has its own dignity.

One footnote: he says in the intro that he tries to draw people true to character (without giving away the individual girls' identities) but the drawings of himself seems strange - balding, glasses, like a crazy scientist from horror movie. But in the last pages of the book, he has a picture of himself - and it was true to form! He does have a zombie-like appearance! (Sorry, Chester!!)

If you are interested in reading about or researching this world of paying for sex, I think you will find this book offers many insights. It also has a number of appendixes presenting views of the women and of his friends and quotes from feminists opposing prostitution, etc. - all very interesting. Anyone looking into the pros and cons on the issue of legalizing prostitution will find a great deal to consider in this book. It is not a profound study in any sense - just the rather narrow insights from one point of view, but worth considering nonetheless.

It's very hard to decide how many stars to rate this book, and I'm not surprised to see the customer comments all over the map. First of all, it's unusual in that it's a graphic memoir (or a "comic strip memoir" as the author prefers to call it) a relatively rare genre. Second, and more importantly, it's a book about a man who satisfies his sex drive with prostitutes, does it unapologetically--in fact you might say proudly, and chronicles his experiences with one hooker after another for several years. Third, he draws pictures of these encounters--not at all erotic by the way--and goes on in some detail as to why he prefers cash on the line encounters to romantic love. The graphic part of the book is compelling--a very fast and engaging read since we very rarely if ever hear from men about their experiences paying for sex (except, as I now know from reading this book, on sexually explicit websites reviewing hookers in various regions.) The last fifty pages of the book is a long afterword, somewhat repetitive and tedious rant why prostitution should be legalized (not merely decriminalized, but in fact treated as virtually any other employment for pay.)

The author has very little emotional affect--one of his closest friends, who is a character in the comic strip, writes in the afterword "The truth is, Chester seems to have a very limited emotional range compared to most people. There does seem to be something wrong with him. He's definitely an oddball. That said, he is also the kindest, gentlest and most deeply thoughtful oddball I know." He writes about these women as if they were merely useful only in terms of satisfying his sexual drive, while at the same time he remains loyal to his prostitutes, for the most part. And he actually falls for one of them toward the end, although "falls for" may be a bit too strong. He speaks about most of these women almost exclusively in terms of their relative attractiveness and he seems to prefer women half his age or less, breast size optional, weight below average. Nonetheless, you get a surprisingly human sense of the women after you get into the book, and you certainly have to admire Brown's honesty and straightforwardness. I'd recommend this for its sheer originality, as well as for Brown's healthy disdain for political correctness.